In the eighteenth century Carshalton Manor was owned by the Scawen family, but after they ran out of money they have very little trace of their existence except Carshalton Park. This vast green area has a grotto within it, once designated as a mansion below ground it was never finished and its remains are still to be seen behind a grill on one side of the park. The area has woodland, sports facilities and all that you might expect from a large green area on the borders of London. There is a sense of great loss in the area that dates back to the Scawen’s, as if something was never quite finished and the overgrown open-air swimming pool is testimony to this.