Sunnyside House Old Road Linslade

Sunnyside House in the 1960s [WB/Flow4/5/Lin/R2]

Sunnyside House stood on the corner of Station Road and Old Road opposite the Elephant & Castle Hotel. For a while it was run as a private school by its tenant, Henry Poynter. The 1881 census records the following at the house:

• Henry Poynter, 49, master of a private school, Kingston-upon-Thames [Surrey]
• William Herbert Bowes, 21, assistant master, Kennington;
• Nancy Howard, 23, domestic servant, Kennington;
• Thomas Palmer, 14, scholar, Kilburn [Middlesex]
• George Bowes, 13, scholar, Wakefield [Yorkshire]
• Louis Haymaies, 12, scholar, Poplar [Middlesex]
• Herbert Roberts, 11, scholar, Puttenham [Hertfordshire]
• Cecil Harston, 11, scholar, Woburn
• Henry Freeman, 11, scholar, Poplar
• Henry Haymaies, 10, scholar, Poplar
• John Gates, 10, scholar, Aston Abbotts [Buckinghamshire]
• Herbert Harston, 10, scholar, Woburn
• Harry W.Johnson, 10, scholar, Limehouse [Middlesex]

Kelly's Directory for 1883 records Henry Poynter's commercial school for boarders and day pupils at Sunnyside House. The 1891 census records Henry Poynter, 59, schoolmaster, born in Kingston-on-Thames [Surrey] in Station Road but no pupils, suggesting that he had either given up his school, he was now running a day school or that the children were at home in holiday.

In 1900 Sunnyside House was sold by the executors of its owner, Edward Lawford [BML10/42/357]. The house was described as: "forming an exceptionally desirable Scholastic Academy, or it is suitable for any other Business requiring arge and roomy premises". The house was a constructed of brick and slate, with a cement rendered front and was described as "formerly used as a School". The house comprised:

Basement

• A large kitchen with a range and sink;
• Two beer cellars;
• A wine cellar with brick bins.

Ground Floor

• The principal hall;
• Drawing room;
• Dining room;
• Breakfast room;
• Secondary entrance hall;
• Passage;
• Scullery with copper;
• Washhouse with sink and pump;
• Outside washhouse with sink and pump;
• Coachhouse in front.

First Floor

• Sitting room;
• Library;
• Three bedrooms;
• W.C.;
• Principal and back stairs;
• Large school room with lavatory attached.

Second Floor

• Five bedrooms.

Third Floor

• Two attics.

"There is a side Private Entrance, enclosed with iron palisading, and also a Gateway Entrance to the LARGE GARDEN at the rear. This Lot is bounded by the London and North Western railway, by the property of Mr.C.Mead, and by Lot 4 [hunting stables and paddock], and is of the estimated value of £60 per annum".

After the sale directory evidence shows that the house was divided into apartments. By the 1960s, as the photograph above shows, the premises were quite dilapidated and partly used as The Station Garage. Today [2008] the site of Sunnyside House is occupued by modern flats.

Flats on the site of Sunnyside House November 2008