Kneller Hall
Coordinates: 51°27′18″N 0°21′3″W / 51.45500°N 0.35083°W
Kneller Hall is a mansion in Whitton, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It houses the Royal Military School of Music, training musicians for the British Army, which acquired the building in the mid-19th century. It is also home to the school's Museum of Army Music. The Army is scheduled to vacate the site in 2020.
The first house on the site was built by Edmund Cooke between 1635 and 1646 and in 1664 was the fourth largest house in Twickenham.
In 1709 the property was purchased by Sir Godfrey Kneller, court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I. He had the original house demolished and replaced by a new building, reputedly designed by Sir Christopher Wren. This second house was known as Whitton Hall, after the village, but was renamed by Kneller's widow, in memory of her husband. In 1757, the house was sold to Sir Samuel Prime, a prominent London lawyer, who, with his son of the same name, extended it significantly and landscaped the grounds. After Samuel Prime junior died in 1813, the hall was sold to Charles Calvert, Whig MP for Southwark from 1812–1832. He further expanded the house (to designs by Philip Hardwick), adding drawing rooms at the east and west ends of the building. Calvert died of cholera in 1832 and his widow inhabited until death about 1845. The house was then acquired by the government as a teacher training college but it needed substantial reconstruction.
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