Swakeleys House

Swakeleys House
View of the west side of Swakeleys House
Location within Greater London
General information
Architectural style	Jacobean
Location	Ickenham
Town or city	Greater London
Country	England
Coordinates	51°33′36″N 0°27′06″W / 51.56°N 0.451667°W / 51.56; -0.451667
Construction started	1629
Completed	1638
Client	Sir Edmund Wright

Swakeleys House is a Grade I-listed 17th-century mansion in Ickenham, London Borough of Hillingdon, built in 1638 for the future Lord Mayor of London, Sir Edmund Wright. Originally the home of the lords of the manor of Swakeleys, writer Samuel Pepys visited the house twice. The property changed hands many times over the years and at one time was home to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Sports Association. Large sections of the grounds were sold off in 1922 and developed as suburban housing.

Following a long period of decline, the house was purchased in the 1980s by a group of local residents and restored as part of its conversion to offices. It became a focal point for Ickenham during the biennial Ickenham Festival when the grounds were used to host the main gala day, until the house's new owners restricted access in 2014. Swakeleys is open in part once a year to the public as part of Open House London. Planning permission was granted in 2014 for the conversion of the house to form one large residential property.

The manor of Swakeleys was named after Robert Swalcliffe, 14th century owner of the manor, who is also recorded as "Swalcleve". John Charlton later took ownership of Swakeleys but a relative of his was subsequently killed during the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, while fighting on the side of Richard III. The victor of the battle, Henry VII, subsequently granted Charlton's widow a life interest in the manor, although he gave possession to Sir Thomas Bourchier. The Bourchiers later passed Swakeleys to Sir John Pecche, from whom it then passed to the Earl of Devon, Henry Courteney, then Ralph Pexall.

The house was built for Sir Edmund Wright, who became Lord Mayor of London in 1640. The brick structure dates from between 1629 and 1638. In 1629, Wright purchased the grounds from John Bingley, who had undertaken extensive remedial work on an existing 13th century structure in the grounds—probably timber-framed and wattle filled. Bingley's alterations were said to have been detrimental to the condition of the house and grounds. He was accused of driving away almost all the birds in the dovehouse, and of pulling up many healthy fruit-bearing trees from the orchard. The house had a moat, which Bingley filled in, believing the water to be unhealthy, at which point he also had a defensive brick wall built around the house.