Built / Designed For: William Draper

House & Family History: Officially, Addiscombe's architect is unknown; Hawksmoor is often credited with the design because William Draper was the treasurer to the Commissioners for Greenwich Hospital at the same time that Hawksmoor was clerk of the works at the hospital. Draper's father-in-law was the diarist John Evelyn, who, after a visit to Addiscombe in 1703, pronounced the house "in all points of good and solid architecture to be one of the very best gentleman's houses in Surrey, when finish'd." The interior was noted for its many murals of mythological subjects supposedly painted by Sir James Thornhill. During the time that Addiscombe was the seat of the 1st Lord Liverpool, George III and William Pitt were regular visitors. After the death of Lord Liverpool in December 1808, Addiscombe Place was sold to the Court of Directors of the East India Company for use as a military academy: Addiscombe Military Seminary. Formally called The East India Company Military Seminary, it was established to train officers for the company's Indian army. The Indian Rebellion (First War of Independence) of 1857 changed everything. The British Parliament dissolved the East India Company in 1858 and took over direct rule of India itself. The seminary came into the ownership of the government and was renamed the Royal Indian Military College, Addiscombe. Ultimately, however, with the merger of the Royal and Indian services in 1861, the Royal Indian Military College was deemed redundant and it was closed in June of 1861 (after making an evaluation of its needs, the War Office decided that the military schools at Woolwich and Sandhurst were sufficient for their requirements for Indian officers.) The site was sold in August 1861 for £33,600 to the British Land Company, who demolished the house and redeveloped the site with villas.

House Listed: Demolished

Park Listed: Destroyed

Past Seat / Home of: William Draper, early 18th century. Charles James Clarke, late 18th century. Charles Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury, later 1st Earl of Liverpool, until 1808.

Current Ownership Type: Demolished

Primary Current Ownership Use: Demolished

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No