Key Details

Overview

Lincoln House is an elegant Victorian house situated on Orchard Road in Chessington within the prestigious Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames KT9.

The detached, two-storey, four-bedroom house dates back to the 1860s and boasts a double-fronted, bay-windowed façade, with a horseshoe-shaped driveway that can accommodate several cars.

Lincoln House offers over 2,000 sq ft of living space, including a bay-fronted reception room, an open-plan kitchen/dining room, a study, a utility room, and a guest w/c on the ground floor, while the upper floor has four double bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The property also comes with a spacious rear garden, featuring a summerhouse and an outhouse, making it an ideal family home.

History

The property's builder, James Tapp, a London draper, purchased the land through The National Freehold Land Society in the mid-1850s. The society's aim was to widen the franchise through land ownership, which was a requirement for voting at the time. Tapp not only wanted his voice heard in parliamentary elections but also sought a more salubrious life for his family. In the mid-1850s, London was suffering from its third devastating cholera outbreak, largely due to the unsanitary, overcrowded living conditions and undrained cesspits beneath the city's foundations. Tapp and his family were known to draw water from the Broad Street Pump in Soho, close to a leaking sewer responsible for spreading the disease in the area. Hence, buying the land was the Tapp family's means of escape to the countryside.

The house was likely completed by the mid-1860s and was named Lincoln House, after the serving of US president Abraham Lincoln, known as "the great emancipator." Despite having no connection to the city of Lincoln, Tapp named the house in honour of Lincoln. Tapp died in 1902 at the age of 79 and is buried alongside his wife, Sarah, and son, James, in the graveyard of St Paul's Church, Hook, a five-minute walk from the house.