Boyle Tower and garden entrance, Home of Compassion
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1420712
- Date first listed:
- 04-Jul-2014
- List Entry Name:
- Boyle Tower and garden entrance, Home of Compassion
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1420712
- Date first listed:
- 04-Jul-2014
- List Entry Name:
- Boyle Tower and garden entrance, Home of Compassion
- Location Description:
- Home of Compassion, Thames Ditton, Surrey, Elmsbridge TQ1615567157
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Surrey
- District:
- Elmbridge (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ1617867271
Summary
Garden entrance, of the late C18, and tower, probably of early C19 date.
Reasons for Designation
Boyle Tower, an early C19 stock brick tower thought to have been a ferryman's watch house, and the attached C18 brick garden entrance are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date and intactness: both structures pre-date 1840 and are substantially intact;
* Rarity and architectural interest: the tower has circular openings overlooking the River Thames at a point where historically there was a ferry. It is possible that this functioned as a ferryman's watch house, an extremely rare building type. Also garden entrances do not usually have tunnels as here;
* Group value: part of a group with the listed Home of Compassion and the former stable block with which they were functionally related.
History
Boyle Tower appears to date from the early C19 but is set in a section of C18 brick walling which includes a garden entrance leading between the house and River Thames. The circular openings facing the river at two levels suggest that it may have been used as a ferryman's watch tower but it may also have been used as a gardener's hut.
A ferryman's watch house is an extremely rare building type providing historical witness to a former means of transport across a river. Here a ferry was known to have been in this position since at least the reign of Henry VIII but access to Boyle Island is now provided by an iron bridge.
Details
Garden entrance, of the late C18, and tower, probably of early C19 date.
MATERIALS: the tower is constructed of stock brick in Flemish bond with C20 pantiles to the gables. The garden entrance and section of wall is mainly constructed in red brick.
PLAN: three storey tower, square on plan, containing one room at each level, accessed by ladder, and an adjoining garden entrance to the north.
EXTERIOR: tower of two storeys with gable ends with kneelers to the north and south sides and an oculus in the north side facing the river. This side also has a low external chimneystack. The east or entrance elevation has a brick stringcourse and a flat-arched entrance. The garden entrance consists of a west-facing wooden architrave beneath an elliptical arch, and with a plank door. It is set in a section of brick wall adjoining the tower to the north. This entrance leads into a round-headed brick tunnel with a gabled roof, terminating in a round-headed arch supported on brick corbels at the eastern end.
INTERIOR: the tower has the remains of a brick fireplace and wooden shelving on the ground floor and ladder access only above.
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 06-Jul-2026 at 10:38:56.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.