Place Name
Takes its name from the former mansion that stood here in extensive grounds from around the mid-18thCentury. The property was built for Nathaniel Sprigg who had made a fortune in the Jamaica slave trade. The name of the house may have been inspired by St Anns Bay on Jamaica’s northern coast, which itself took its name from Lady Anne Hyde the first wife of King James II. Sprigg retired to Barnes around 1765, he died in 1778 and left the property to Nathan Sprigg Jeffer[e]y, on condition that his widow, Arabella, could remain at the house. When Nathan died four years later the property was Arabella’s. By 1800 the house was described as a villa noted for its fine greenhouses. It was, after Barn Elms, the second most important home in the area. When Arabella died aged 94, in 1824, she left it to Margaret Hibbert, niece of Thomas Hibbert senior. In the 1830s Lady Hope, widow of a former governor of Chelsea Hospital, was living at the house and caring for her orphaned teenaged nephew and niece. When they died she left Barnes and the entire estate was bought by Lord Lonsdale. When he died the house passed to his nephew who leased the property as the country retreat of the Lyric Club. The house was knocked down sometime around 1900 and the road was built in 1903. It is believed that Disraeli may have been inspired by the house when describing Mr Vigo’s house at Barnes in his novel Endymion.
