Bushey Hall [II]

Location   Bushey  
Gallery
County   Hertfordshire    
Year demolished   1955    
Reason   Probable damage from requisitioning    

Though Bushey Hall looked to be hundreds of years old it was, in fact, merely neo-Jacobean - but it came a price.

Bushey Hall was built in 1865 for Edward Marjoribanks who had owned land in the area since 1839. However the huge cost of building such an extravagant house - reputedly £150,000 (approx. £9.75m) - bankrupted Majoribanks and the hall was sold in 1877. Majoribanks died soon afterwards in 1879.

The Hall then became a Victorian health farm and later the Bushey Hall Hotel. The house was requisitioned during World War II and used by the American 8th and 9th Air Force between 1942 and 1945. Little is known about the house in the aftermath of the war though the expense of putting right the wartime damage meant that the house was probably abandoned. It was finally demolished in 1955.