It was designed by John Buonarotti Papworth in 1829 for the East Indies merchant Thomas Wyatt to replace an existing house on a piece of land that was once part of the ancient Pricklers (later Greenhill) estate.

[4] Wyatt owned the house until his death in London's Hanover Square on 6 April 1834 at the age of 51.

[3] Thomas Wyatt is buried in the family vault at St Mary the Virgin church, East Barnet.

In 1862, the house was sold to a Mr Simpson, and a few years later to Sir John Peter Grant, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal and Governor of Jamaica.

He sold the house after succeeding to the Grant family estate on the death of his older brother, and the house came into the ownership of T. G. Waterhouse, who later sold it to the tea merchant William Alpheus Higgs, who served as sheriff of London and Middlesex.