goldfish147
Member
Greetings! I'm surprised nobody had ever posted about this location here before so I thought I might as well make my first contribution.
Severndroog Castle is a beautiful castle-like folly built in 1784 at the top of Castle Wood (so called because of the building!) in Shooters Hill, South East London, by the widow of a famous seaman called Sir William James, as a tribute to her dead husband. It is called Severndroog in memory of his most famous achievement, his 1755 naval victory over pirates attacking the island of Severn Droog, west of Malabar, India. Up to 1986 or thereabouts, when public access to the building was withdrawn, the structure had a pretty colourful history of ownership, usage plans and actual usage of which I do not really know very much, but for the most part throughout this history the building remained unused and locked up. It has been featured in the second series of BBC2's programme 'Restoration', and a lively campaign to keep the castle for the public has been going on for some time. If anyone knows this place and finds some of the details in this brief account incorrect, I do apologise and feel free to correct me/add to this if you wish.
The folly is a triangular structure with a spiral staircase to the top terrace and turrets, with various rooms disposed off the staircase over 3 floors. My pictures were taken over 5 years ago when the property was still abandoned (I recently found out it is now finally under restoration for public use--I felt kind of sad that it was no longer a lonely, derelict folly in the centre of an atmospheric woods for me to visit whenever I felt like it but I have to say, I am glad it is now being given the love I think it deserves and, best of all, that it's being done for the benefit of the people of London, which is the way I always thought it ought to be!). I stumbled upon the building purely by accident once during a walk in the woods when I was living very close by, and the effect of suddenly seeing an abandoned castle appear among the trees at the end of a wooded path was absolutely magical!
Now...on to the pics. Please forgive the inadequacy of some as these were taken with an analogue camera and scanned to my hard disk. Also, the inside views which are perhaps not great were taken on a day on which the building was open for viewing, so no special effort was necessary to have a look inside but by the same token, access to some areas were restricted and heavily guarded so it was hard to get a full view of the rooms inside, but some details of the beautiful stucco on the ceilings and walls and a general idea of the state of disrepair of the rooms was captured. I posted the last photograph to give an idea of the kinds of views of London to be enjoyed from the top of this little gem. They are worth seeing.
Thanks for viewing!
IMG_0001 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0002 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0003 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0007 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0009 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0012 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0013 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0014 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0015 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0016 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0017 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0018 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0019 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0020 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0021 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0022 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0026 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0024 by goldfish147, on Flickr
Severndroog Castle is a beautiful castle-like folly built in 1784 at the top of Castle Wood (so called because of the building!) in Shooters Hill, South East London, by the widow of a famous seaman called Sir William James, as a tribute to her dead husband. It is called Severndroog in memory of his most famous achievement, his 1755 naval victory over pirates attacking the island of Severn Droog, west of Malabar, India. Up to 1986 or thereabouts, when public access to the building was withdrawn, the structure had a pretty colourful history of ownership, usage plans and actual usage of which I do not really know very much, but for the most part throughout this history the building remained unused and locked up. It has been featured in the second series of BBC2's programme 'Restoration', and a lively campaign to keep the castle for the public has been going on for some time. If anyone knows this place and finds some of the details in this brief account incorrect, I do apologise and feel free to correct me/add to this if you wish.
The folly is a triangular structure with a spiral staircase to the top terrace and turrets, with various rooms disposed off the staircase over 3 floors. My pictures were taken over 5 years ago when the property was still abandoned (I recently found out it is now finally under restoration for public use--I felt kind of sad that it was no longer a lonely, derelict folly in the centre of an atmospheric woods for me to visit whenever I felt like it but I have to say, I am glad it is now being given the love I think it deserves and, best of all, that it's being done for the benefit of the people of London, which is the way I always thought it ought to be!). I stumbled upon the building purely by accident once during a walk in the woods when I was living very close by, and the effect of suddenly seeing an abandoned castle appear among the trees at the end of a wooded path was absolutely magical!
Now...on to the pics. Please forgive the inadequacy of some as these were taken with an analogue camera and scanned to my hard disk. Also, the inside views which are perhaps not great were taken on a day on which the building was open for viewing, so no special effort was necessary to have a look inside but by the same token, access to some areas were restricted and heavily guarded so it was hard to get a full view of the rooms inside, but some details of the beautiful stucco on the ceilings and walls and a general idea of the state of disrepair of the rooms was captured. I posted the last photograph to give an idea of the kinds of views of London to be enjoyed from the top of this little gem. They are worth seeing.
Thanks for viewing!
IMG_0001 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0002 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0003 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0007 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0009 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0012 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0013 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0014 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0015 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0016 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0017 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0018 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0019 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0020 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0021 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0022 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0026 by goldfish147, on Flickr
IMG_0024 by goldfish147, on Flickr
good write up too. And I agree, shame it's not 'your' little place to visit any more but lovely to see these places become used again 
