Kingswood House in Seeley Drive, West Dulwich, will open its doors to the public on September 17 as part of the London Open House weekend. The day includes a guided tour of the former mansion house including the eerie basement, and the top floor with its view of the London skyline.

Kings Wood, formerly known as Kings coppice, may have taken its name from a certain Edward King who was a tenant of Dulwich manor as far back as 1535. Until divided in the 1790s, it was one parcel of about forty acres, with what are now respectively Dulwich Wood Avenue and College Road.

It was in a clearing of the northern tip of the old Kings Wood that between 1811 and 1814 William Vizard built Kingswood Lodge, later re-named Kingswood House.

William Vizard was, as a solicitor, involved in one of the most sensational legal cases of his time, namely the divorce proceedings brought in the House of Lords by George IV against Queen Caroline in 1820.

In 1811 he was granted a 63-year lease on the house, roadway, lodge, four fields to the west of the house and the middle one of the three fields to the east. In 1814 he was granted another lease of the remaining two fields of the old forty Acres Wood.

The house was rebuilt towards the end of the century by John Lawson Johnston. Johnston's great truimph was in the invention and marketing of the beef extract which he called 'Bovril', from which he amassed his considerable fortune.

Kingswood became widely known locally as 'Bovril Castle', and its owner acquired the nickname 'Mr Bovril'.

Altogether Johnston spent about £10,000 on the estate - a lot of money in those days. He added the entrance, battlements, and the north wing, and the 'Castle Ruin' which stood near the modern shops was probably his inspiration. He is believed to have built the servants' wing on the east side of the building.

Johnston was a fervent supporter of the Jacobite cause, hence the Culloden Room and its portrait over the fireplace, supposedly of the Young Pretender.

By 1916 the house had been sub-let to Massey-Harris, the Canadian firm of tractor manufacturers, for use as a hospital for Canadian troops. The hospital, paid for by the company, remained in use until the end of the War, after which Kingswood became a Nurses' Home for a few months.

This week's heritage column is taken from, Kingswood - A History of the House and its Estate, by Patrick Darby, published for the Dulwich Society and priced £4.95.