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.
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]
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]
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.
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]
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather was George du Maurier, a writer and cartoonist.
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a Franco-British cartoonist and writer known for work in Punch and a Gothic novel Trilby, featuring the character Svengali. His son was the actor Sir Gerald du Maurier. The writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier and the artist Jeanne du Maurier were all granddaughters of George. He was also father of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and grandfather of the five boys who inspired J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.
Rebecca is a 1938 Gothic novel written by English author Daphne du Maurier. The novel depicts an unnamed young woman who impetuously marries a wealthy widower, before discovering that both he and his household are haunted by the memory of his late first wife, the title character.
Bunny Lake Is Missing is a 1965 British-American psychological mystery thriller film, directed and produced by Otto Preminger. Filmed in black-and-white widescreen format in London, it was based on the 1957 novel Bunny Lake Is Missing by Merriam Modell. It stars Carol Lynley as a mother searching for her missing daughter, Keir Dullea as her brother, and Laurence Olivier as the police officer investigating the case. The score is by Paul Glass and the opening theme is often heard as a refrain. The rock band the Zombies also appear in the film, in a television broadcast.
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of author George du Maurier and his wife, Emma Wightwick, and the brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1903, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont, with whom he had three daughters: writers Angela du Maurier (1904–2002) and Dame Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989), and painter Jeanne du Maurier (1911–1997). His popularity was due to his subtle and naturalistic acting: a "delicately realistic style of acting that sought to suggest rather than to state the deeper emotions". His Times obituary said of his career: "His parentage assured him of engagements in the best of company to begin with; but it was his own talent that took advantage of them."
Cumberland Terrace is a neoclassical terrace on the eastern side of Regent's Park in the London Borough of Camden, completed in 1826. It is a Grade I listed building.
William Comyns Beaumont, also known as Comyns Beaumont and Appian Way, was a British author, journalist, lecturer, and editor. Beaumont was a staff writer for the Daily Mail and eventually became editor of the Bystander in 1903 and then The Graphic in 1932.
Muriel Beaumont, Lady du Maurier was an English stage actress from 1898 until retiring in 1910. She was the wife of the actor and manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and mother of the writers Angela du Maurier and Daphne du Maurier and artist Jeanne du Maurier.
St John-at-Hampstead is a Church of England parish church dedicated to St John the Evangelist in Church Row, Hampstead, London.
Angela Busson du Maurier was an English actress and novelist who also wrote two volumes of autobiography, It's Only the Sister (1951) and Old Maids Remember (1965). Her sister was the novelist Daphne du Maurier, and her grandfather was George du Maurier, a writer and cartoonist.
Milton Hall near Peterborough, is the largest private house in Cambridgeshire, England. As part of the Soke of Peterborough, it was formerly part of Northamptonshire. It dates from 1594, being the historical home of the Fitzwilliam family, and is situated in an extensive park in which some original oak trees from an earlier Tudor deer park survive. The house is a Grade I listed building; the garden is Grade II*.
Rule Britannia is Daphne du Maurier's last novel, published in 1972 by Victor Gollancz. The novel is set in a fictional near future in which the UK's recent withdrawal from the EEC has brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy.
Sir James Cosmo Melvill was a British administrator who served as the last secretary of the East India Company.
Sir Noah Thomas FRS FRCP was a Welsh physician who was physician-in-ordinary to King George III. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians, and a Gulstonian lecturer.
James Cosmo Melvill was a British botanist and malacologist who collected plants in Europe and North America.
Jeanne du Maurier was an English artist. She was the third daughter of Sir Gerald du Maurier and Muriel Beaumont, and sister of writers Daphne and Angela du Maurier.
Gang Moor is a house on Whitestone Lane in Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It is listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England.
Well Road is a street in Hampstead, England located in the London Borough of Camden. It runs westwards from Hampstead Heath to New End Square. Well Walk runs parallel to its south and the two are linked by Wells Passage. When the Hampstead Wells were in existence, a large pump room and assembly room were located on Well Walk, with the water supplied from the headspring on Well Road.