Severndroog Castle is a folly designed by architect Richard Jupp, with the first stone laid on 2 April 1784. While commonly referred to as a castle due to its turrets, it was built as a folly, as can be discerned by its small size and because it has never functioned as a castle. It is situated in Castle Wood, on Shooter's Hill in south-east London in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It was built to commemorate Commodore Sir William James who, in April 1755, attacked and destroyed the island fortress of Suvarnadurg (then rendered in English: ''Severndroog'') of the Maratha Empire on the western coast of India, between Mumbai and Goa. James died in 1783 and the folly was built as a memorial to him by his widow, Lady James of Eltham. Designated a Grade II* listed building in 1954, the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

-style castle is 63 feet (19 m) high and triangular in section, with a hexagonal turret at each corner. From its elevated position, it offers views across London, with features in seven different counties visible on a clear day.

History

The tower was used by General William Roy in his trigonometric survey linking the nearby

Royal Greenwich Observatory The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in G ...

with the

Paris Observatory The Paris Observatory (french: Observatoire de Paris ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Its histor ...

; a 36 inch (0.91 m) theodolite (now in London's Science Museum) was temporarily installed on its roof. This Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) led to the formation of the Ordnance Survey. In 1848, the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

used the castle for their survey of London. Sir William James captured the Suvarnadurg fort ( Golden fort) on western coast of India on 12 April 1755, this victory and later other triumphs led to change his Rank to Director in the East India company . Following Lady James' death in 1798, the building passed through the hands of various landowners, including John Blades, a former Sheriff of London, a Mr Barlow (ship owner) who built nearby Castle Wood House, and Thomas Jackson (a railway and docks contractor of Eltham Park). On 18 August 1845, the tower was visited by diarist William Copeland Astbury, who recorded the tower, layout, ownership and condition. In 1922, the tower was purchased by London County Council and it became a local visitor attraction with a ground-floor tearoom serving refreshments. In 1986, when the GLC was abolished, responsibility for Severndroog passed to Greenwich Council.

Restoration

In 1988, the local council could no longer afford the building's upkeep and it was boarded up. In 2002, a community group, the Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust, was established. In 2004, it featured in the BBC TV series '' Restoration'' (presented by Griff Rhys Jones, Ptolemy Dean and Marianne Suhr) to gain publicity and support to restore the building and open it to the public. In July 2013 work began on renovating the castle, funded by a £595,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant, and it was officially reopened to the public on 20 July 2014. The castle is open to public visitors and can be hired, wholly or parts thereof, for private functions. The

Green Chain Walk The South East London Green Chain, also known as the Green Chain Walk, is a linked system of open spaces between the River Thames and Crystal Palace Park in London, England. In 1977 four London boroughs and the Greater London Council created ...

and Capital Ring long-distance paths go through ''Eltham Common'' and ''Castle Wood'' and past the castle between Shooter's Hill and Eltham. File:2016 London-Shooters Hill, Severndroogh Castle, exterior - 4.jpg, Viewing platform File:2016 London-Shooters Hill, view from Severndroogh Castle - 1.jpg, View towards the northwest File:2016 Severndroog Castle, interior 04.jpg, First floor File:2016 Severndroog Castle, interior 09.jpg, Second floor

References

External links

*
Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust
{{coord, 51.4666, N, 0.0599, E, display=title Houses completed in 1784 Monuments and memorials in London Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Grade II* listed castles Buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Folly castles in England Tourist attractions in the Royal Borough of Greenwich