Dollis Hill House

Dollis Hill House was an early 19th-century mansion, also known as Dollis Hill Villa in today's north London suburb of Dollis Hill.

The house was originally built by the Finch family, an important local family, who owned dairy farms and land in the area. It was later taken over by Lord Tweedmouth, a senior Liberal Party member. His daughter married Lord Aberdeen, and the couple took over the residence in 1881. They entertained the great and the good of their time there including Prime Minister William Gladstone, Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Randolph Churchill.

The house's next owner was newspaper proprietor Hugh Gilzean-Reid, who in 1900 invited the famous American novelist, Mark Twain, to stay for the summer.

In 1901, Willesden Borough Council bought 96 acres of surrounding hillside and opened it to the public as Gladstone Park, named after the recently deceased Prime Minister.

The house became a tearoom, a wartime hospital and later a catering college. After this closed down in 1989, the property was left to decay. Two bouts of arson attacks in the mid 1990s and a third fire in 2011 reduced Dollis Hill House to a shell.

Despite attempts to save the building from demolition, it was eventually pulled down in 2012. The only remnant today is the ground floor footprint of the building.