Hall Place and Gardens

Construction began in 1537 for Sir John Champneys, a former Lord Mayor of London, and Sir Robert Austen extended the house in red brick in 1649. The sixteenth-century half is built in a chequerboard pattern of flint and rubble, using stone taken from Lesnes Abbey, 3.1 miles (5.0 km) to the north west. The Queen's Beasts topiary was planted in 1953 for the coronation of Elizabeth II, and the gardens were first opened to the public in 1952 by the Duchess of Kent. In January 1944 the U.S. Army Signal Corps ran an intercept station here code-named Santa Fe, feeding the Ultra decryption effort. The Grade I listing was made on 1 October 1953 as list entry 1188277, the scheduling on 1 May 1948 as list entry 1001985 and the garden registration on 1 October 1987 as list entry 1000247; a scheduled monument carries no grade. The garden wall, gatepiers and gates to the north and west carry their own Grade I listing, NHLE 1064250; the barn, NHLE 1359381, and the granary about 25 m south south east, NHLE 1064233, are Grade II. Bexley station is 1.2 km away and Crayford station 1.4 km, both served by Southeastern.