Cannon Hall, Hampstead

Cannon Hall at 14 Cannon Place, Hampstead, London is a grade II* listed building that dates from around 1720. The house is the former home of the actor Gerald du Maurier, his wife Muriel Beaumont, and their three children, the writers Angela du Maurier and Daphne du Maurier and the painter Jeanne du Maurier.

Not to be confused with Cannon Hall, Cawthorne.
Cannon Hall in October 2016

The house

Cannon Hall is located at 14 Cannon Place, Hampstead, London. It was built around 1720[1] and extended and altered in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The house is detached, of three storeys of brown and red brick, with six bedrooms and grounds of slightly less than half an acre (0.18ha).[2][3] The total plot size is 0.45 acres (1,807 sq m).[4] In addition to the bedrooms and living rooms, the house includes a billiards room, library, study, conservatory and indoor swimming pool.[4] The house has been a grade II* listed building with Historic England since 1950.[5]

Cannon Hall, drawn by A. R. Quinton, 1911

History
The blue plaque to Sir Gerald Du Maurier

The land was originally known as Rous's Buildings, probably in reference to Joseph Rous who followed John Duffield as lessee of the Wells Estate, and was originally a much larger area that went as far as Well Road and Christchurch Hill and included three other houses.[1]

One of the Hampstead lock-ups was located in the garden wall adjoining Cannon Lane until it was closed following the formation of the Metropolitan Police Force by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. A magistrates' court also sat in the stable block and the house was occupied by a number of magistrates at different times,[6] one of whom was James Marshall, who lived at Cannon Hall in the 1870s.[7]

Sarah Holford, a widow, leased the house from at least 1752, and probably from as early as 1745, as a print was published of the Long Room "from Mrs. Holford's garden" in that year.[5]

In 1780, the house was occupied by Sir Noah Thomas (1720–92),[8] physician-in-ordinary to King George III.[9]

Sir James Cosmo Melvill (1792–1861), of the East India Company, bought Cannon Hall around 1838, the year in which he became chief secretary of the company. The cannons which he placed around the site gave it the name Cannon Hall from then on.[5]

Actor-manager Gerald du Maurier purchased the house in 1916 and lived there with his wife Muriel Beaumont and three daughters until his death in 1934.[10] The house has a blue plaque in his memory, erected by the Greater London Council.[11] The author Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989) was aged about 9 when her father bought the house, and she grew up there with her sisters Angela (1904–2002) and Jeanne (1911–1996).[10]

  • Sir Noah Thomas by George Romney, 1781
  • James Cosmo Melvill by Eton Upton Ellis, c. 1853
  • Gerald du Maurier

In film

Cannon Hall featured in the film Bunny Lake is Missing (1965), starring Laurence Olivier and directed and produced by Otto Preminger; the house was given the fictional address 30 Frogmore End.[12]

It was also featured in the film Tenet (2020), starring John David Washington and directed and produced by Christopher Nolan.

Sale

In 2014 the property was placed on sale with an asking price of £32 million.[13] In 2015 it sold for £28 million, one of the highest prices realised for a private home in London that year.[14]

References
  1. Hampstead: Hampstead Town. British History Online. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  2. Cannon Hall, Cannon Place, NW3. Glentree. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  3. Cannon Place. Savills. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  4. Cannon Hall. Archived 2015-06-23 at the Wayback Machine Glentree, 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2015. Archived here.
  5. Historic England. "Cannon Hall (1244093)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  6. Borer, Mary Cathcart. (1976) Hampstead and Highgate: The story of two hilltop villages. London: W.H. Allen, p. 96. ISBN 0491018274
  7. Wade, Christopher. (1998) For the Poor of Hampstead for Ever: 300 years of the Hampstead Wells Trust. Camden History Society, p. 56. ISBN 0904491420
  8. Lamont-Brown, Raymond. (2009). Royal Poxes and Potions: Royal Doctors and Their Secrets. Stroud: History Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-7524-7390-1.
  9. The Medical Register for the Year 1783. London: Joseph Johnson. 1783. p. 42.
  10. Daphne du Maurier's childhood home in Hampstead for sale. Julia Flynn, The Telegraph, 1 October 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  11. Sir Gerald du Maurier. Open Plaques. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  12. James, Simon R.H. (2007). London Film Location Guide. London: Batsford. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-7134-9062-6.
  13. For sale: Daphne du Maurier's childhood home in heart of Hampstead. Prudence Ivey, Ham & High Property, 29 September 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  14. Daphne du Maurier’s childhood home in Hampstead is sold for £28 million. Adrian Hearn, London Evening Standard, 22 June 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.

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