ENFIELD PALACE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 172, 21 April 1928, Page 26

ENFIELD PALACE

EDWARD VI’S HOME AND QUEEN ELIZABETH'S HAUNT

Sic transit gloria uiundi! Those who know Middlesex or have handled an Enfield rifle will have .noticed in the last English mad with a pang of regret that the historic Tudor Palace of Enfield is to be demolished io provide a site for a draper’s shop (writes Leo Newman in the "Age"). Thus is the march of commercial progress in one of the most beautiful of the outer suburbs of Greater London ruthlessly crushing those survivals of a distinguished past, which give to places like Enfield a niche in the facade of history and an aroma which nothing can replace. Enfield Palace was erected by Edward VI as a Royal hunting lodge and home for his sister, Queen Elizabeth. It stands a stone’s throw from the ancient church of St. Andrew (1444), the venerable Grammar School (1550), and the town market place (circa 1200), all of which have adapted themselves to a changing world, and, like the Cecils and the Churchills of 1928, have kepi their feet in modern England. Close to “the Chase” where wild deer were hunted ever stretches of country, through which the electric tram and train now move like brilliant shuttles in the loom of life, Enfield Palace was the scene of many revels. In its garden was planted about the year 1547 by Dr. Uvedale a cedar of Lebanus, which—unless recently destroyed—is to-day a landmark for

miles round. Within its walls there remain, almost unimpaired, wonderful panelled rooms, in one of which is a carved stone chimneypiece, bearing the arms of England and France, quartered with the Tudor rose and portcullis. It is gratifying to know that the last owners of the property have protected some of these things from the clutching hand of the American nouveaux riches. When these owners (the mothers Leggatt) sold the palace to a drapery firm they retained an option on the contents of the chief oak room, whiph embraces the chimneypiece described, much wood panelling, and a carved ceiling—all of which are to be re-erected elsewhere in Enfield.

Since the days of the Tudors and the Stuarts the palace has had many ’.icissitudes. When the present writer played ag a boy in its vicinity it was a private boys’ school. Eater the building became a post office, and once, according to the London "Daily Chronicle," a Constitutional Club. Charles Lamb and Captain Marryat admired it in their walks abroad in the Enfield of the nineteenth century, for the palace is close to the main road to Barnet. And, now, after nearly 4-00 years of varied and sometimes romantic life, this ancient link with a colourful past. thi s symbol of the continuity of the English race, passes info the hands of "the wrecker." A year hence the alleyway along which Princess Elizabeth dallied with some handsome gallant will be the aisle of a huge draper’s emporium, and a sprightly shonwalker v. ill direct the attention of eager buyers to "a cheap line in brassieres.” Sic transit gloria mundi!