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Amersham ---- News, Views & Information

Pictorial Tour of Amersham
Old Amersham High Street - Page 3

Elmodesham House - Dignified Georgian, now luxury flats. Originally built in the early 18th century, the present frontage dates from the early 20th century after it was modified (something it has been subject to many times in its history). Originally built as a house for a wealthy London trader, but over the years has seen many uses. From 1829 to 1861 it was a school for "Sons of Liberal Gentlemen" known as Amersham Hall (the school flourished as the area was full of non conformists), the school moved to Berkshire because it was thought the lack of a railway in Amersham at the time was harming its prospects. In the 1930s the building became the home of the local council and continued in this use until 1986 when the Council moved to new offices in Amersham on the Hill. Over the 300 years of the building's life, it has seen much alteration and additions. Now it is luxury flats and as many of the original features as could be retained have survived, including the original fine painted ceiling by Sir James Thornhill depicting "The Meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne on Naxos" together with wood panel paintings depicting Greek Mythological scenes.

King's Arms - Partly Brewers Tudor with reuse of old timbers; but retaining good deal of original interior 16th & 17th century work. The exterior was used as the "Jolly Boatman" in the film "Four Weddings & a Funeral". The sign outside the pub is supposed to depict the arms of Henry VIII and the supporter on the right is supposed to be a red dragon. However, if you look closely, the dragon only has two legs, thus making it a wyvern and so the sign is incorrect.

Looking along the south side of the High Street, with the Kings Arms and Elmodesham House dominating the view. Another view of the Kings Arms. Although the Kings Arms can be traced back to the 1400s, it was extensively renovated in the 1930s when the whole of the front was given the white and timber look. Currently it is closed and being converted into a hotel.

High Street, the road narrowing by the Market Hall was a traffic bottle neck before the by pass opened.

Apsley House - Characteristic early 18th century town residence. Unlike the north side of High Street where the Church had interests in the properties, much of the property on the South Side was owned by the Drake Family. The occupiers of these properties were favorable towards the Drakes and Amersham was a Rotten Borough returning two members of Parliament. The type of building above is typical of the grander type of building on the south side of the street compared to the north side.

Please note, that the following pages contain large numbers of photographs. The photographs have been compressed, but it may still take a few minutes to download each page.

Please choose a link for the part of the tour you wish to view

For pictures of Chesham Bois, Little Chalfont and Amersham's schools, churches and pubs, see the links from the main Amersham homes page, link at the bottom of this page.

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