Stone House, Loampit Hill, Deptford

1821

The first mention of Stone House in the Lucas family is 1821, in the entry for James Lucas in the Lucas Book.  About 1821 James Lucas (1780-1839) returned to London from Stotfold, Bedfordshire, shortly after the death of his uncle Joseph Lucas (1769-1821). This is the Joseph Lucas, Jr. who was named as  the successor to Joseph Lucas, Sr. (1739-1807) when he dissolved his partnership with Christopher Spencer in 1804. [Review the will of Joseph Lucas d.1821 for mention of Deptford or Lewisham.]

The entry  for James Lucas in the Lucas Book, compiled about 1900, refers to Stone House and reads as follows:

JAMES LUCAS, of Stotfold, Beds., until 1821; afterwards of Stone House, Loampit Hill, Lewisham; b. 21-ii-1780, d.  -vii-1839, bur. at Chapman’s Independent Chapel, Greenwich Road, 24-viii-1839; Captain in Merchant Service.  Will dated 23-iv-1838, proved 9-x-1839.  Married 28-ix-09 at St. Margaret’s Westminster, Mary Ann Green, of Hackney.  She died 1825, and had:–  etc.

The entry would probably have been written by Frederic Lucas and Seymour Whidborne.  Interestingly, it indicates the name of the residence as Stone House, however almost every other document concerning James Lucas uses James Lucas, of Loampit Hill, Lewisham without naming the house directly.  It is odd that he did not actually use the name of the house more often.   His granddaughter Anna Eliza (Whidborne) Elverson refers to it as the Conical (i.e. Comical) House and describes the grounds in her reminiscences.

Family legend has it that James Lucas lived at Stone House, Loampit Hill, Lewisham, until he died in 1839, however this might not exactly be the case.  The more I research it the less I’m convinced he actually lived there, or if he did it was for a very short time.   He certainly did live somewhere though and the next most likely candidate is Lucas Villa, also on Loampit Hill.   Stone House is still standing and is a Grade II listed building.  Lucas Villa is also still standing and is now a daycare nursery called Zoom Nursery.

Lucas Villa

Here is a Google Streetview image of Lucas Villa, 238 Lewisham Way.  You can click around and see St. John’s church, and a little to the left down the hill behind the wall is the gated entrance to Stone House.

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I’ve just discovered a description of a lease held at the Lewisham Local History and Archives Centre dating from 1865.   So now it looks like it is possibly the nephew of James Lucas, James John Seymour Spencer Lucas who was associated with Stone House.  To be truthful, I’m not sure who is the lessor and who is the lessee, but I’m sure someone will sort me out.   The main thing is that it does show an association with a member of the Lucas family to Stone House.

This painting of Stone House is from the IDEAL HOMES: SUBURBIA IN FOCUS Lewisham website.   The information on the Lucas family on the Ideal Homes site varies quite a bit from information we’ve found up to now.   Their information may come from this publication, which refers on page 14 to an article by Len Reilly in the Greenwich & Lewisham Antiquarian Society titled “The nineteenth century development of New Town, Deptford”, Vol. X, No. 6, 1990 Transactions pp. 289-304.

http://boroughphotos.org/lewisham/stone-house-16/

They then returned to London, to Deptford, where they lived on Loampit Hill.  Family tradition has it that they lived in a house known as the Comical House, or Stone House until his death in 1839, however it may be that it was only the final few years of his life that the family lived there, and before that they lived in another house, possibly Lucas Villa.  Stone House is still standing, and there is more information about the house and its current owner available.  Lucas Villa is also still standing and is now a Welsh Presbyterian Church.   Some information on both is available at the Lewisham Archives.

Around the same time that James Lucas returned to London, Lucas Villa was built [add citation].  It is also on Loampit Hill in Deptford next to St. John’s church.   This building is also still standing and is in use as the Welsh Presbyterian Church [add citation].  It is really strange that if this house was built by a member of our Lucas family that there isn’t a single reference to it, however that may yet to be uncovered.

The question of the ownership of Stone House during this time is not completely clear. None of the wills that we have examined so far specifically mention any property by name in Deptford/Lewisham, although it is clear that they did own a certain amount of property there that ultimately led to the formation of GFW Estates Ltd.

There is an advertisement for the lease of Stone House in The Times, Friday, Jul 22, 1836; pg. 4; Issue 16162; col F.  This is likely the time that James Lucas enters the picture.

This sale was triggered by the death of the former owner Moline.  [Consult others about the timeline of all the known owners at this time.]   In August of 1839 James Lucas died,  although not at Stone House or in Lewisham, but at Bristol Hot Wells, Gloucestershire.  He was buried at Greenwich Road Chapel in a vault.

[I’m having a heck of a time learning how to work with images and get captions, and generally to make them behave and stay where I’d like them to be.  I now give up for tonight.]

On the 30th August, 1839 there is an advertisement in Positions Wanted:

There is a certain amount written about the history of Stone House and that is a topic of its own. The current owner has undertaken a major restoration and it would be interesting to visit it someday.