Erection date: 1927
In grateful recognition of the work of Stenton Covington for the preservation of Norwood Grove AD MCMXXVII
Site: Norwood Grove (5 memorials)
SW16, Norwood Grove, garden
In our photo the Nettlefold plaque can be seen to the left of the house, sometimes called The White House.
The bird bath is the largest we have ever seen. Aren't they normally raised off the ground to foil the predatory ambitions of cats? Odd that it was felt necessary to create a plaque repeating the words already so nicely carved on the rim.
The two successive tree plaques are mounted one above the other at the foot of the tree that can be seen in our photo in front of the house. We were there in September and, we're no experts, but that tree doesn't look to us a) like a conifer, b) like it's alive. Which rather suggests a third tree has been planted (with no third plaque) and it has died like the previous two. Fourth time lucky?
This house, then called Streatham Grove, was once occupied by the shipping magnate Arthur Anderson, who made his fortune with P&O. The next residents were the Nettlefolds who moved in in 1878. When the widower Nettlefold died in 1913 the mansion was sold to Croydon Corporation. The estate was then also saved from redevelopment and in 1926 the newly named Norwood Grove, the house, ornamental gardens and grounds, was opened to the public - celebrated by the planting of the first tree by the Prince of Wales.
Information from London Gardens Trust.
