There has been a house on this site since about 1551 and it was occupied by, amongst others, John Popham. Guests at the house included Queen Elizabeth I and, in the early 1700s, Queen Anne. 1800 the house and estate were bought by John Bacon. c.1871 the house was demolished and the present house was built by Edmund William Richardson. When Richardson died in 1908 Sydney Simmons funded the purchase of the house and gardens by the Council for public use. The house was extensively renovated in 2010 by Barnet Council for the use of local organisations.
We failed to find an image of the house that was demolished in 1871 but this is a lovely, touched up, photo of the current house, in 1912.
