About Kingswood Manor
The History Behind the House
The Story of Kingswood Manor
Its story traces back to the 19th-century United States, where German immigrant Claus Spreckels made a fortune in sugar—founding the California Sugar Refinery before expanding to Hawaii in 1876 and later creating the Spreckels Sugar Company. Greatly wealthy, he gifted substantial sums to his five children, including his daughter Emma Claudine, who received an endowment of nearly $2 million and a city block in Honolulu.
In 1893, Emma married Thomas Palmer Watson, a Yorkshire grain broker. Family tensions followed, and the couple moved to England, settling in Lower Kingswood, Surrey. In 1895, they commissioned architect Edward Penfold to design and build Kingswood Manor. Thomas died in 1904; Emma later married John Wakefiled Ferris, a civil engineer and contractor from Gloucestershire. Their daughter, Jean Ferris, went on to become the Marquise d'Espinay-Durtal, Princesse de Brons.
The manor changed hands in 1922, sold to Alfred Norman Rickett and The Hon. Jessie Hair Nivison (daughter of Robert Nivison, 1st Baron Glendyne), who remained until the 1940s. Some sources suggest the Sultan of Brunei acquired the property thereafter, though this has not been verified.
Much of the house's character remains: open fireplaces, oak floors, wood panelling, lavish Georgian-style architraves, and a grand oak staircase. Today, Kingswood Manor is appreciated for its historic fabric and calm residential setting.