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Kingston House, the original site
of Wesley House, was mainly a Queen Anne structure and was the
home of the Rev. Belson. Perhaps the most memorable event in
Leatherhead in the late 18thcentury was the visit of John Wesley
on 23 February 1791. He was 87 years old at the time of the
visit and died only a week later. During the visit, he delivered
what was to be his last homily in an upstairs room in Kingston
house. This was the last of 42,400 sermons he delivered in his
ministry and he chose his text Isaiah I v.6. He stayed the night
with Leatherhead’s curate, Mr Durnford, and travelled to London
the following day. A legend grew up that Wesley had given his
last sermon beneath a cedar tree outside the house. There is no
evidence for this, although he may have given a blessing to the
assembled crowd there, when the cedar can have been little more
than a sapling. Dendrochronology (tree ring-dating) proved this
when it was felled in 1966.
It was once the home of Emily
Moore, proprietor of the Swan Hotel in the latter part of the
19thcentury. She died there in 1930. In 1933 the house was
demolished. During the demolition many tokens, coins, and an oak
cross were found. The cross may have been a medieval gibbet as
it has been suggested that the site was once known as Gallows
Hill.
A new building was erected on the
site, and in 1935 became the offices of the Leatherhead Urban
District Council. L.U.D.C became part of the Mole Valley
District Council in 1983. Later, rather than be called the
‘Council Offices’, it was agreed, most fittingly, that the
building be given the name ‘Wesley House’.
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