Editing Hammerwood Park (section)

==Entrances and approaches==
As part of the landscaping undertaken by Sperling and Latrobe in the 1790s, a long, winding drive extending from [[Ashurst Wood]] which approached the house from the south was laid. In his study of Hammerwood, Trinder suggests that from the perspective created by this approach the pilasters on the central block create an [[optical illusion]] which leads the house to look larger than it is due to the inclusion of temple fronts on the wings. He describes the joint endeavours of Sperling and Latrobe as "a collective ego trip on a small budget ... the house, although of modest size for the time, is designed to look huge."<ref name=trinder1993 /> From the mid-19th century (probably coincidental with John Dorrien-Magens' development of [[Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line|the railway from East Grinstead]]), the southerly approach became less oft-used as the route from the railway town became more practical via the East Grinstead–[[Tunbridge Wells]] road (which was to become the B2110, and then the [[A264 road|A264]]) and the lane thence through the village of Hammerwood.<ref name=GardenListing />

The southerly approach fell almost entirely out of use as the house became derelict, and some of it was given over to farmland in the 20th century; more recently the drive has been obstructed by hedges along its length. The former entrance lodge, known as Dog Gate Lodge (coordinates: {{coord|51.1234|0.049428|display=inline|format=dms}}), survives, together with the bridge (at the site of the earlier iron forge) which carried the drive over the feeder channel for the ornamental lake at the foot of the valley.<ref name=HPparkland/> The road leading east out of Ashurst Wood (now a [[cul-de-sac|dead end]]) is still called Hammerwood Road. There were also two secondary entrance drives to the house, from the north-west and north-east, now disused but shown on the [[tithe map]] of 1841.<ref name=GardenListing />