HISTORY

Beltwood House is a beautiful neoclassical Victorian mansion situated in a private parkland setting extending to just over three acres. This important architectural jewel is Grade II listed and has been sensitively restored to its former glory by a heritage-focused team of skilled craftspeople and artisans. The house sits within protected woodland, part of the Dulwich Wood Conservation Area, with many of the trees protected by preservation orders.

Architecturally, Beltwood House has a rich heritage and is believed to have been designed by Robert Richardson Banks and Charles Barry Jr, who between them designed the main building of Dulwich College, Bylaugh Hall in Norfolk, the forecourt of Burlington House and 12 Kensington Palace Gardens, currently the Russian Embassy. Moreover, Barry’s father designed the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster), perhaps the most influential Gothic Revival building in the world. A formal Italianate parterre garden was added to the grounds of Beltwood House at a later date.

One of the main goals in renovating Beltwood House and its grounds was to preserve this historic home and facilitate its removal from the English Heritage ‘At Risk’ register, restoring it to its original glory. Forming part of the Dulwich Estate (a charity established in 1619 to endow Dulwich College, and the guardian of the heritage of much of the Dulwich area) and, originally, the Great North Wood (an ancient wood which extended from Deptford in the north to Croydon in the south, remnants of which survive on the site itself and in Sydenham Hill Wood and Dulwich Wood), it is a unique property in a distinctive, sylvan setting.