2. Myddelton House

Myddelton House was built in the early 19th century. By Victorian standards it is not large, although it does have some 25 rooms above ground level. The basement was big enough to fit a servants’ hall, a warren of domestic offices, the kitchen - with a huge double range, the butler’s pantry, scullery, day larder, poultry larder, boot room and wine cellar.

Just imagine what it must have been like…

SFX: Audio Montage of a busy household

Each day, at dusk, it took two housemaids an hour to close the folding shutters. There was no gas or electricity – only oil lamps that had to be trimmed, polished and filled. Candlesticks were put out ready on the hall table. There were silver candlesticks for visitors, brass for family, and in the basement the servants’ used huge tin ones, called “dripping pans”.

By the 1920’s, visitors to Myddelton House found themselves in a world where time seemed to have stood still for half a century.  In fact, Bowles never had electricity put in here.  And gas was only installed in the house after the Second World War, when the Austrian cook said she would not work here without it.

After Bowles died in 1954, the contents of the house were sold at auction. The sale went on for three days!  Although some paintings stayed within the family, many of Bowles’s finest water-colours are now housed at the Natural History Museum in Kensington and at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Library. The house and grounds were sold to The Royal Free Hospital and the London School of Pharmacy.

Even though he is now long dead, visitors to Myddelton often note the warm atmosphere and say that it feels as if Bowles is still here.