Picture a dramatic eighteenth-century gothic tower built by a heartbroken widow in a clearing, high on a hill, in an ancient bluebell wood within seven miles of Charing Cross, London. This is Severndroog Castle on Shooters Hill, a 60-foot high triangular, brick-built tower designed in the gothic style by architect Richard Jupp. Severndroog is a nationally-listed Grade II* building presently on English Heritage’s Buildings at Risk register.

It was built in 1784 as a memorial to Sir William James by his wife, Lady James to celebrate his most famous exploit in 1755 when he destroyed the fleet and stronghold of pirates on an island fortress off the west coast of India.

Read more about the history of the building in the Past section.

The Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust (SCBPT) formed in 2003 to save the Castle from being sold off to private developers. We became a charity in 2008. The objectives of the Charity are "to promote the education of the public by preserving for the benefit of the people of the London borough of Greenwich and of the nation the historical, architectural and constructional heritage that may exist in the building known as Severndroog castle and its environs, it being of particular historical, architectural or constructional interest".

Severndroog Castle has been awarded £595,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund Grant

Read more about the project and restoration in the Present and Future sections.

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