Petersham Lodge – on River Lane, near Petersham Nurseries – was home to a remarkable couple
Lodowick Carlell, whose name was sometimes spelt Carlile, was born in 1602 and was a minor courtier, who had also made his name as a poet and playwright and wrote a number of plays including one, The Deserving Favourite, which was performed before Charles I. Very few of his plays were performed after his death in 1675.
Carlell became one of the Deputy Keepers of Richmond Park in 1637 then known as New Park and was given a lease of the house called Old Petersham Lodge, though it was originally known as Petersham Manor House. This house had been acquired by King Charles I when he created the park.
In about 1626, Carlell married Joan Palmer (1606-1679). They had six children, but only two survived to adulthood. She is believed to be the first English woman to paint professionally. The King became her patron after she had copied some of his Italian Old Masters, which Sir William Sanderson, in his book Graphics, written 20 years later, described as done ‘so admirably well’. She also painted a number of portraits of members of the Court. In 2016, The Tate acquired a painting by her, known as The Lady in the White Dress, which is the earliest work by a woman artist in the Tate collection. There are also three portraits attributed to her in the National Portrait Gallery.
The Civil War brought life at Court to an end. Though Ludowick Carlell did not serve in the King’s army, he gave £1,500 to the Royal cause (about £175,000 in today’s money). The couple went on living in Old Petersham Lodge right through the Civil War and the Interregnum, apart from two years in London. Unlike many of their fellow Royalists, several of whom had their estates confiscated, the Carlells appear to have come through this period unscathed. They often gave hospitality to fellow Royalists including Bishop Duppa, who lived nearby and had been tutor to the future Charles II.
In 1663 Carlell sold his position as Deputy Keeper and moved to St. Martins-in-the-Fields. Old Petersham House was burnt down in 1721 and a new house was built called Petersham Lodge. This house was renovated by John Soane, as one of his earliest commissions in the 1780s. Soane later became one of the country’s leading architects. The house passed through many hands and in 1987 Prince Rupert Lowenstein, the financial manager of the Rolling Stones, bought the house. He lived there until his death in 2014.