The History of 4 Lewes Crescent

​Architectural features

Throughout the Victorian period this house was a furnished home for a succession of undistinguished but wealthy families and their servant households. The census returns tell the story: in 1851, “general merchant”; ten years later, no occupation recorded but wealthy enough to employ seven live-in servants; in 1871 “dividend holder” and “annuitant”; in 1881 “stock holder”; then “chemical manufacturer” and finally in 1901 “own means”.

In 1918 the house became one of many in the area used as a convalescent home for officers wounded in the Great War, in this case for officers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.