An Actor portraying John Cator, gives a biographical history talk about his role in creating Beckenham Place Park, during its re-launch on
John Cator (21 March 1728 – 26 February 1806) was an English timber merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1772 and 1793. He became a landowner and property developer owning properties in Blackheath and Beckenham – now in London but in the county of Kent during the late 18th century - and also property at Leigh and Hever in Kent, Addington and Croydon in Surrey and Waltham Forest in 's first land purchase in Beckenham/Lewisham was at Stump's Hill in 1757, where he built a house between 1760 and 1762 on part of what was Foxgrove Manor lands.[4] His father-in-law visited in September 1762, commenting: "... went, for the first time, to visit my son-in-law John Cater [sic] (who married my daughter), at his new-built house, now finished, at Stump's Hill, half-way (on the south side of the road) between Southend and Beckenham, in Kent, began in the spring 1760, on a pretty wooded estate that he had purchased. The plantations about it, all of his own doing, I found in a thriving condition, and when grown up will adorn so stately a house, in so delectable a situation, and make it a Paradise."[5] In 1773, he became Lord of the Manor of Beckenham, having purchased the land from Lord Bolingbroke.[4] Bolingbroke had previously exchanged the old manor house for Woolseys Farm with the Burrells. Cator was established at Stumps Hill and whether the house of 1760 was altered is unknown but it was eventually altered to a more Palladian-style mansion with the epithet 'Beckenham Place', Beckenham Place[6] (attribution unknown, but may be architect Sir Robert Taylor), much admired by Dr Samuel Johnson. The purchase from Bolingbroke was fraught with problems as Bolingbroke had previously leased the manor lands to a Mrs. Hare and court cases went on until 1780. After Cator acquired full control of the Beckenham Manor lands he exchanged property with the Burrells of Kelsey and Langley so that he had a contiguous estate north of Beckenham village.
Size: 3744px × 5616px
Location: Beckenham Place Park, Lewisham, London, UK
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -creation, actor, beckenham, cator, english, estate, foxgrove, hill, historic, history, john, landowner, lands, lord, manor, merchant, mp, politician, quaker, stumps, timber
