Sir Sydney Waterlow, 1st Baronet

He was the son of James Waterlow and was born in Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London, and was brought up in Mile End.

Educated at St Saviour's Grammar School, he was apprenticed to a stationer and printer and worked in the family firm of Waterlow and Sons, a large printing company employing over 2000 people.

[2] He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Dumfriesshire from 1868 to 1869, when he was unseated on the grounds that he was a government contractor,[3] his firm having taken a contract without his knowledge.

The parts of the estate were linked by a small bridge bearing the family crest over Trottiscliffe Road (which is still in evidence today.

[4] In 1887, he built Trosley Towers on the crest of the escarpment on the North Downs, to the east of Trottiscliffe Road.

One story suggests that the Lodge and stables were built to accommodate the racehorses of Rezā Shāh, the ruler of Persia.