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Severndroog Castle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Severndroog Castle is a folly (designed by architect Richard Jupp in 1784) situated in Oxleas Wood, on Shooter's Hill in south-east London in the London Borough of Greenwich.
It was built to commemorate Commodore Sir William James who, in April 1755, attacked and destroyed a pirate fortress at Suvarnadurg (rendered in English: Severndroog) along the Bombay and Goa coast of India. He died in 1783 and the castle was built as a memorial to him by his wife, Lady James of Eltham.
A Grade II listed building, the Gothic-style castle is 63 feet (19 m) high and triangular in section, with a hexagonal turret at each corner. From its elevated position, it offers views across London, with features in seven different counties visible on a clear day.
In 1988, the local council could no longer afford the building's upkeep and it was boarded up. In 2002, a community group, the Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust, was established. In 2004, it featured in the BBC series Restoration - with the aim of gaining support for a programme of work to restore the building and open it to the public.