History
The present building was constructed in 1760 on the site of a Tudor house known as Wallets and was known as Wollet Hall. Between 1811 and 1822 it was the country residence of British Foreign Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh. Castlereagh, now Viscount of Londonderry, committed suicide there by cutting his own throat with a penknife.
Its status from his death until 1939 is unclear but in that year the building and grounds were purchased by Goldsmiths College and Wollet Hall was renamed Loring Hall after the first warden of Goldsmiths College, Captain William Loring who was killed at Gallipoli during WW1. The main part of the hall was used as a hall of residence for male students and the stable block and associated house were used as an accommodation for a Head of Hall. The grounds became football, hockey and cricket fields for use by the students of Goldsmiths.
Goldsmiths College sold the hall and grounds to BUPA sometime in the 1980s, who converted it into a care home. In 1999 it was bought by the charity Sargent Cancer Care for Children and was renamed Malcolm Sargent House.
In 2003 it was sold again to a company called Oakfield Care and since March 2004 it has been a care facility for those with learning disabilities.
Read more about this topic: Loring Hall
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)