Egerton House, Berkhamsted

Egerton House
Egerton House, c. 1936
General information
Type	English country house
Architectural style	Elizabethan
Address	High Street
Town or city	Berkhamsted
Country	England, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°45′30″N 0°33′38″W / 51.75846°N 0.5606°W / 51.75846; -0.5606Coordinates: 51°45′30″N 0°33′38″W / 51.75846°N 0.5606°W / 51.75846; -0.5606
Completed	mid-16th Century
Demolished	1937

Egerton House was a small Elizabethan mansion which stood on the High Street in the town of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire in England. Built during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it was demolished in 1937 and the site is now occupied by the Art Deco Rex Cinema. As well as its architectural merit, Egerton House was noted for its occupancy by the Llewelyn Davies family and its literary association with J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan.

Egerton House was a two-storey mansion with attics. The front of the house had three gables with two smaller gabled dormer windows in between the gables in the steep tiled roof. When the house was sold at an auction held in the King's Arms Hotel in 1895, it recorded that the property afforded three sitting rooms, a dining room, a billiards room, a conservatory, four bedrooms, four box rooms and stables. The sale also mentioned a coach house on Rectory Lane and Egerton Cottage, a gardener's cottage.

The garden was extensive, containing an orchard and stretched as far as the Ashlyns estate. Part of this land was later acquired for the Three Close Lane Cemetery.

Egerton House was one of two Elizabethan mansions in Berkhamsted, the other being Berkhamsted Place, located approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) north near to Berkhamsted Castle; both mansions were demolished during the 20th Century.

The site of Egerton House is thought to have previously been the site of St Clement's Hospital, a medieval hospital. Cobb records that a seal inscribed with the name of the Fraternity of St Clement (later the Worshipful Company of Founders) was discovered in the garden behind Egerton House.