Sevrndroog Castle

[kniteracy]

I've told you about Oxleas Wood yes? If you know me in person, you know that it's among my favourite places on earth and that there have been times when I've visited it three days a week, because I love to take a laptop to the cafe on the top of the hill, look out over the meadow, and write. Well, this is London Open House Weekend, and Saturday I spent all day (and I do mean all day) giving tours of Cecil Sharp House to a hundred people in Camden Town. Saturday night, we had a lovely dinner with pola_bear, mokatiki, their mum and her boyfriend, filceolaire, G and me, to celebrate pola_bear's impending departure for university. Sunday, we had plans for a visit with hrrunka, but when I found out Severndroog Castle would be open and accessible as part of the weekend, we got up early, had a completely bad-for-us breakfast at McDonalds (yes, really) in Charlton, and headed out to Oxleas Wood. There was a really long queue: it's fortunate that London Open House volunteers get badges that allow them and their families priority entry to whatever buildings they visit this weekend!

For the first time we stepped into the castle in the forest, and we climbed up to the very top. The story's better told in pictures, I think.


Photographs of Severndroog Castle

	Exterior of Severndroog Castle, 1 The castle against the sky.
	Severndroog Castle, Ground Floor This is the ground floor of Severndroog Castle, in Oxleas Wood. The building has fallen into disrepair, but according to feasibility studies, is still sound.
	Another view of the ground floor In the 1980s, the building was used as a tea shop.
	Spiral Stairs in Severndroog Castle A single staircase leads to higher floors in the folly. Note the condition of paint on the walls. The stairs are stone and smooth, evenly spaced, and in very good repair.
	First Floor Ceiling in Severndroog Castle Beautiful detail. There is a hole where a chandelier would have gone. This room was used for entertaining, and like others, has two small alcoves (the third alcove is the staircase, of course).
	Window view from the first floor of Severndroog Castle All the windows are shaped like this. The moire pattern you can see is the metal cover that's been attached to stop people getting into the windows.
	Blocked second floor room in Severndroog Castle Here is a view of the blocked-off second floor in Severndroog Castle. The doorway on the right leads to one of the two alcoves, which will be identical to the ones on lower floors. Hm, and I think my lens could use a wipe....
	Almost to the top of Severndroog Castle Here is one of the smaller towers, seen from the stairwell exit at the top of Severndroog Castle. A wooden staircase leads up to the highest turret. As one of the highest places in London, this folly on top of Shooters Hill was used as an observation point during the war.
	View from the top of Severndroog Castle Probably the only thing you can make out is the Millennium Dome, but you can see Blackheath and various other seeable things from here. ;)
	Exterior of Severndroog Castle, 2 Here's a beautiful photo of the castle's exterior from the preservation trust's website.
	Severndroog Castle Exterior, 3 This photograph is from 1965.

There's a lot of effort going into securing funds to turn the building into a showpiece by the 2012 Olympics, since it's the sort of place people would love to put on their 'off-the-beaten-track' tourism lists. They're looking for board members and volunteers. And, hm-- they just happen to note that they're looking for people with marketing experience. We shall see. :)

Comments

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

These pictures are beautiful! Thank you for posting them, G.

[telynor.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. When you come and visit, if you like, I will take you to the wood and give you the "harper's imagination" tour. ;-)

[cai.livejournal.com]

Every time you post about some place new, I end up spending like 40 minutes looking it up, reading about it, searching through google images and so forth. I love your posts about the historical stuff you find/discover/visit. And I really love when you include pictures. Thank you.

[telynor.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. Oxleas Wood and its features are among my favourite places in the world.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Any sign of foxes? :)

[telynor.livejournal.com]

Lots of foxes in Oxleas Wood, but the castle itself appears foxless. Of course, you never know what sort of magic you could stir up if you were there at the right time. :)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Lovely, thank you for the pictures!

[telynor.livejournal.com]

I thought of you as I was walking round, since you're one of the few people who has gotten the Harper's Imagination tour of Oxleas Wood.

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

Cool! Now my imagination has pictures to go with it! Looks like the sort of place I could wander round saying, "...and I'd put my bed here, and my sewing room there..." :-)

[telynor.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely. For a folly, it's intelligently designed, and there's plenty of room for a luxurious study, a kitchen and dining area downstairs, and at least one comfy bath. :)

[ebren.livejournal.com]

I lived in and around Woolwich for 3 years, and never once went to Oxleas wood. I can't understand for the life of me how I managed to miss it . . . ? *shrug*

Thanks for the piccies. :)

[telynor.livejournal.com]

When filceolaire first took me to Oxleas Wood, in the summer of 2004, I became just fascinated with the place. Having grown up in the US, I was unaccustomed to seeing forests with paths big enough to drive a car through, and to me it looked like a movie set, because that's the only place I'd ever seen a forest like it.

When I got home that evening, I spent a long time online looking up Oxleas Wood. And do you know, there were only a few things about it online at the time. The Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxleas_Wood) for Oxleas Wood did not exist yet. We decided that the only way something like Oxleas could be kept a secret for so long were if there were some powerful magic operating in the wood itself. One of the few sites we did find was the Dragon Network (http://www.dragonnetwork.org/campaigns/oxleas.htm) article about saving the wood from road development in 2002, which fed into my fancies nicely. :-) More poetic waxing about Oxleas Wood can be found in the EOTW and EOTW2 filters.

[nimoloth.livejournal.com]

That would make a great house to live in! Or failing that, a multi-purpose space for things like wedding receptions and events.

[telynor.livejournal.com]

The feasibility study has identified lots of things, and there was an old brochure about weddings at Severndroog Castle on display at the site yesterday.

[telynor.livejournal.com]

As an aside, can you believe Greenwich Council tried to sell it to developers to be redone as offices?

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I was looking through those pictures wondering about using it for a Far Isles revel. Clearly the autocrat instincts are not yet fully switched off.

[aunty_marion]

That ceiling on the first floor room looks in remarkably good condition, considering! Lovely to see the inside at last.

[telynor.livejournal.com]

According to the feasibility study, the whole space is structurally sound. filceolaire bets the ceiling is original, given the cost of refurbishment for a ceiling like that. I loved the juxtaposition of that fine ceiling against the peeling paint everywhere else in the building.