Parkstead House located on Whitelands Campus

This week was incredibly interesting and thought provoking, due to being able to understand some of the history and see the impact of the large houses we have on campus. I think it was important to have a look at the history which literally surrounds us, and delve deeper into the impact that has on not only the history of Roehampton, university included but also looking at London as a whole especially when it comes to wars and the aftermath. In preparation for this lecture last week we were all asked to research one historical person who was linked to Roehampton and prepare a short segment to inform the class who they were and why they were important. I looked into the life and history of Sir William Chambers, who had links to Westminster Abbey which I found particularly interesting due to the secondary school I attended and their links with Westminster Abbey and the Grey Coat Hospital Foundation. For this research I found ‘google’ to be of most use the Moodle portal to our university library made it that little bit easier to be able to locate any printed text about Chambers as I embarked on this task. As I researched more into the links between Chambers and Roehampton I found that he in actual fact was the architect behind Parkstead House which can be found on the relatively newly acquired Whitelands Campus. I found it incredibly useful to be able to see Parkstead and really see all the details of the design that Susannah spoke about in the classroom. From the rusticated lower for, the ionic columns, to the Piano Nobile and cube like shape this really helped to reinforce what I had learnt in the classroom. This made me have a look into potentially doing something like this for my project at the end of the semester.