The Archbishop's Summer Palace
Just off Shirley Church Road in South London, lies a sleeping giant of the Golden Age of Golf Design. Here John Frederick Abercromby, assisted by HS Colt, routed the ultimate hill-top golf course.
"The ideal, which all great golf architects set before them in laying out a course, is to reproduce as closely, as far as possible, the best features of links and to adapt them to inland conditions. Mr. Abercromby has achieved this here" Bernard Darwin on The Addington in 1922
An initial foray into the Pandora’s Box of golf in the English home counties was undertaken during late summer 2023.
The delights of New Zealand, Woking, Bleakdown/West Byfleet and a few laps of Sunningdale New and St. Georges Hill partially sated an initial hunger. The final leg of this journey transported me from the leafy lanes of the Surrey heathlands, along a (thankfully!) free-flowing M25, to the outskirts of Croydon….
It is here that a golden age style, benevolent dictator of sorts, has been quietly facilitating an evolving restoration of daring proportion.
Before golf came to Shirley Church Road, the wider Addington estate was home to the summer residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.. you can quite easily imagine successive ‘most Reverendnesses’ surveying the 19th century London skyline from the lofty heights of this gravelly upland heath. This rarefied air now affords golfers panoramic views of the 21st century London landmarks such as The Shard, The Gerkhin, Wembley Stadium and Grenwich and the O2 Arena…. Masters of all surveyed….. they were then and indeed we can be now!
But back to the golf! You may well be asking…who is this modern day Stuart Paton?
His name is Ryan Noades, youngest son of Ron and Novello. A Chartered Surveyor by education but a golf nerd by osmosis, vocation and serendipity. Ryan’s father purchased the Addington in 2006, most assuredly the cherry on top of a preexisting golf business.
During school and university summer holidays, young Ryan would busy himself throughout the various departments within the Altonwood course portfolio - lingering perhaps a little longer with the respective green keeping teams. An abiding memory was a realisation of what happens to grass growth, sward density and associated plant health post tree removal - two foes often competing for the same light, water and nutrients.
These summer dalliances were subsequently augmented by semi regular annual visits to some of the grander London golf locations. The 3 W’s and West Sussex, as examples, were on the annual rota of The Chartered Surveyors Golfing Society, of which Ryan is and was a member.
The penny dropped regarding the contributory roles that golf architecture, sympathetic routing and great land played in presenting the puzzles that we golfers seek to solve. It also became apparent to him that the course at The Addington possessed many of the attributes that are associated with world class golf.
Further historical exposition allowed Ryan to uncover a fascinating back story of peerage, patronage, partnership and privilege. For more information on this, check out the club’s website which provides a very succinct synopsis of its’ story.
The Addington is a masterful piece of design and at that time (before 2020 in truth) represented a time capsule of sorts, obscured by almost 80 years of vegetation growth. Natural entropy had choked playing corridors of inherent strategy, extinguished much evidence of heathland character, while also obscuring the long views already referred to.
The fortunate part of this story is that the fundamentals of Abercromby and Colt’s 1913 golf course were hiding in plain site… beneath the intruding canopies, deciduous root zones and organic detritus, lay forgotten original features. A poster child for the benevolent neglect that the Fabes family had lovingly exhibited over the preceding decades until selling the property in 2006.
‘All’ that was needed was some significant vegetation management, installation of a new irrigation system, green pad restoration, re-bunkering, heath re-development (which is much more difficult and time consuming than it sounds!) and, subject to planning consent, the promise of a new clubhouse, in an alternative location.
The project started in earnest when Ryan appointed the firm of Clayton, DeVries & Pont’s as consulting course architects in 2020. CDP were tasked with the development of a restoration masterplan for the golf course. The implementation of this plan is iterative and painstaking, continuing to this very day.
As already referenced my first visit to The Addington came in August 2023, when an early morning rendezvous with Ryan and Arlo (his canine friend) was requested and generously acceded to. Approximately four hours were spent circumnavigating the golf course with my two new friends, both were quite animated throughout, although one was significantly more talkative.
Ryan’s passion for the site is infectious, busily drawing attention, in turn, from green pad reinstatement/extensions to old quarries and P.G. Wodehouse’s bunker, onwards then to soon to be heathery clad slopes and bunker revisions, not to mention a newly created ‘lost’ par 3 green. His trusty iPhone working overtime, as he leaned on its computing power to pull up pictures from various sources of transformative inspiration.
My host has the ability to make you feel like this is the first time he’s done one of these tours. I knew it wasn’t, however, there is a freshness to the presentation and the stories, counterpointed, in no small degree, by a singular vision that is generously shared with a fellow golf tragic.
As with his father before him, he luxuriates (and why wouldn’t he!) in showing off this little patch of London, while also excitedly indicating how the Noades family, and their committed and knowledgeable team, are going to graft and grind to find all of the 0.1%’s, that will accumulate over time, to present the very best version of The Addington that can be mustered.
After lunch on the terrace, where we put the world to right, I forgo the option of another spin around the hill, opting instead to gorge on Saturday afternoon coverage of the Women’s Open from the Firm & Fast heathland at Walton Heath. Over the course of the afternoon’s golf viewing, I resolve to return to play at the Addington at the earliest opportunity.
An opportunity was duly presented and seized upon in July 2024.
An old mate from Australia was due in Europe with his wife on a ‘work trip’. He would be in London for a few days and wondered if we might convene for some golf in Kent & Wales…. I disabused him of this particular notion as clearly more time would be spent in a car getting to and from London than out on a golf course…. Wales would have to wait on this occasion.
Once sensible geographic parameters were established, I was tasked with drawing up an itinerary for consideration, proffering The Addington as our first port of call, before further stops in East Sussex and the Kent Coast (more of that in future dispatches).
My antipodean mate was initially somewhat non-plussed with our proposed first port of call….
I’ve never heard of The Addington…. I think we should play The Berkshire instead…… I’m a reciprocal member….
A.T. … March 2024
Perhaps was a case of ‘better the divil you know… than the divil you don’t?’
You will not be surprised to hear that he got over any initial disappointment, acceding to ‘local’ knowledge.
It would be remiss of me to publish this piece without providing readers with some semblance of commentary on what you can expect from a visit to the course.
In the 12 months since my previous visit, the course appeared to have become much firmer, recommending regular judicious use of the ground game to make good use of undulatingly sloped fairways and contoured green surrounds.
An even greater sense of scale had seemingly been facilitated by new bunkering, not in evidence in 2023. Shared fairways abound particularly on the first few holes as you traverse your way across the hillside.
A switchback style routing facilitates the circumnavigation of the hill - when you get to the top you see just how high you are, however, the climb never taxes you too much.
Five rustic wooden bridges assist greatly in spanning some of the more topographically challenging landforms that are sporadically encountered. These engineered structures provide a nod to times gone by, while also augmenting the theatricality of the experience to an almost fairytale level.
Subject to planning approval, a new clubhouse site will allow the current fifth hole to become the opener. This amended starting position will present a crescendoing conclusion as golfers make their way back across the hill to play 17 and 18 (the current 3rd & 4th). It should also address a very slight imbalance in the existing hole order from a relative difficulty level.
Particular mention must be made of a very special set of par threes, which also now includes Mike DeVries’ reinstated long lost green located above the current 12th greensite. This additional short hole alternates in and out of use, depending on the day in question and has been christened Perdu, meaning lost in French, which seems particularly appropriate.
In conclusion, The Addington is equal parts muscular and manageable, expansive and intimate, all the while thoroughly heroic and strategic. However you seek to define it, it surely adds up to darn good golf!
Often, when course renovations are ongoing, a common refrain from some of the cognoscenti is ‘hold off visiting until the transformation is complete’.
I tend to row in the opposite direction, when one visits somewhere as special as The Addington, it is a real thrill to keep going back to experience its evolution as consecutive years pass by, as you therefore get a measure of the efforts that have been expended in successive presentations and can more easily compare and contrast.
Frank Pont, of Clayton DeVries & Pont, described the 2020 version of the Addington as a Rembrandt painting which had been uncovered in a dusty attic. Much of the dust has been removed at this stage, the canvas has been prepared and primed - a few more flourishes are assiduously planned and scheduled over the coming years…..I must pencil in my visit for summer 2025 soon.
The Addington is the perfect location for high quality golf in and around London, in fact it may well be one of the more extraordinary sites for golf that I have encountered… it’s within easy reach of Gatwick and its myriad connections and almost as importantly, it’s also adjacent to the golfing delights of the south east coast of England.
A Firm & Fast podcast with Ryan Noades is in the works over the coming weeks. In the mean time you could check out some of the pod back catalogue, which includes all 3 of the CDP partners, discussing amongst many other things, the restoration project at The Addington.
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My dad used to play Society golf there in the late 1980s (he was a quantity surveyor, too), and I'd caddie for him. I always thought it was great.
Then I visited two years ago, and saw just how great it could be. I barely recognized the place and was so impressed. It's a magnificent course, and that was a great article, Shane. Nicely done.
Thanks Shane, a lovely reminder of my visit last July, my first trip back in over 30 years and a real treat to explore the glorioulsy reawakened heathland and breathtaking contours.