Box Hill, Hotel And Garden 1931

Photo ref: 83901

More about this scene

This hotel nestles at the foot of Box Hill, alongside the rushing traffic of the main London to Dorking road. Part of it dates back to the 16th century, when it was known as The Fox & Hounds, and incorporates wooden beams taken from the ships of the Spanish Armada. But the bulk of the building was constructed in 1800. Lord Nelson, along with Lady Hamilton, spent his last night ashore here before travelling on to Portsmouth and embarking on HMS Victory for the Battle of Trafalgar. In the second floor bay-windowed room (framed between the two garden umbrellas), Keats completed his epic poem Endymion. Queen Victoria stayed here as a girl, and the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson was also a frequent visitor. Although the Scots pine on the right has now been removed, the one on the left still towers over the spacious gardens at the rear of the hotel.