Monckton House was built in 1850 for James Biden, a Gosport Brewer. (Biden & Co. Ltd. was formed many years after his death.)
The Biden family acquired The Sea Horse Brewery, Seahorse Street, Gosport in 1823. Biden also owned The Victoria in High Street.
According to a typescript in Gosport Museum (presumably compiled from the title deeds to the house) James Biden bought the land in 1849 and resided there until his death in 1876. From then it was owned by the Grant family (William Grant living there in 1877) until 1901 when it was sold to another local brewer Jack Blake. In 1941 it was requisitioned and used as a hostel for WRNSs from HMS Dolphin. In 1943 it was bought by George Northcott of Bury Hall, a local entrepreneur and property speculator but after the war the Admiralty purchased the freehold.
In 1951 the Admiralty proposed using it as a Royal Naval Medical School & Physiological Laboratory, including 12 acres or grounds, a use that it still retains. It is a Grade II listed building.
According to Hampshire County Council’s Archivist it contains the Royal Naval Medical Service Historic Library, Archives and Artefacts. comprising hundreds of photographs and other papers: a mix of bequests, gifts and official material. Among the photographs, which appear to form the majority of the archive, are those from RNH Haslar’s photographic department, as well, for example, as pictures of medical officers in charge of Haslar and other personnel. In addition are official papers such as captain’s requests for training division, and other documents including plans and engravings of Haslar Hospital, medical officers’ scrapbooks, and odd items such as an 1804 letter from on board ship, referring to Nelson. One very unusual item is said to be a medieval manuscript of the Koran.
(Thanks to Philip Eley for corrections and additions to this text)
Original page created by David Moore.