Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from July, 2017

Camden Crescent and Hedgemead Park

Camden Crescent at the centre of the image, just above Hedgemead Park viewed from Prior Park Landscape Gardens Here are my thoughts: Did you know that Camden Crescent, originally Camden Place and Upper Camden Place (which is now round the corner) was named after the Earl of Camden, Charles Pratt, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer so sponsored the scheme with his symbol on every door and crest of the exchequer on the decoration at the centre of the crescent? Charles Pratt was actually lord of Camden Place in Chislehurst in Kent. He was mates with William Pitt the Elder from Eton and Cambridge days. It was built 1788-1792 by John Eveleigh the architect.  One third of the 22 house crescent collapsed during a landslip which claimed 136 houses on the slopes of Lansdown Hill leading to the creation of Hedgemead Park below Camden Crescent. John Eveleigh was notoriously bankrupted in Bath, being called to the coffee shop in the Bath Chronicle by his creditors. Earl Camden was famous