Finding Gandhi and EM Forster

On his historical walk around Tonbridge, entitled 'Finding Gandhi', James Pavlou stops at Simla House, next door to Hilden Oaks in Dry Hill Park Road, where Gandhi once visited in October 1931. During his brief visit, Gandhi is reported to have wandered around the garden there. The Victorian pond at the end of the Simla House garden now forms part of the Hilden Oaks grounds, and was refurbished by Friends of Hilden Oaks School (FoHOS) in 2019. It is wonderful to think that Gandhi perhaps visited our pond all those years ago. It certainly is a very peaceful area.

James Pavlou also mentions the fact that some years prior to Gandhi’s visit, E M Forster lived in the house which is now occupied by Hilden Oaks.

Number 38 Dry Hill Park Road had originally been known as ‘Dryhurst’ and was the home from 1893 – 1897 of the author E M Forster and his mother, whilst he attended Tonbridge School as a day boy.  In 1981 an E M Forster expert from Kings College Cambridge; Dr Elizabeth Heine, visited the school with a colleague, as they were researching the setting of an early unfinished novel by Forster (possibly his first).  They had named this unfinished work, ‘Nottingham Lace’, from the opening line in the book, for the publication of a collection of unfinished novels by Forster called ‘Arctic Summer and Other Fiction’, for which Dr Heine was the Editor.  It is thought that Forster had started writing this novel as a Cambridge undergraduate in about 1901/2, but never gave it a title and for some reason abandoned it.   Dr Heine was able to discover how closely the house and garden of No 38 resembled the property, which Forster had described, particularly the view! For anyone who knows the view over the Greensand Ridge and the Weald from the back of 38 Dry Hill Park Road, the resemblance is indeed remarkable.

Interestingly, shortly after Forster abandoned this book he travelled with his mother to Italy and started writing another book, which he did finish and published a few years later: ‘A Room with a View’.  Could the idea for calling a future novel ‘A Room with a View’ have been sparked from his teenage memory and this early work?  We’d like to think so!

Please click here to find more about James Pavlou’s historical walk around Tonbridge: Walk 18 - Finding Gandhi (James Pavlou)