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Witley Park
Suicide, ponzi schemes and an underwater billiards room in SurreyEven a century before social networks and 24 hour news-cycles would have carried the story to every person in the world, the ridiculous tale of Whitaker Wright and his estate Witley Park still spread around England like wildfire.
Whitaker Wright was born in 1846, and seemed dedicated to accruing a fortune at any cost. When he was just 21 years old, he made his way to the United States and became involved in mine speculation in the Southwest. Amazingly, he became rich almost overnight, smoothly convincing investors to hand over their dollars, while ignoring basic principles of good business.
Following the business cycle, Wright boomed and busted over and over again in the United States in mining and the New York Stock Exchange. Each time he lost his money, he'd scheme to get it back as quick as possible, until his luck eventually ran out and he returned to England in 1889. Following a pattern, he charmed investors out of £21.5 million for a mining operation in the early 1890s. Their money went straight into his pockets.
When he had reestablished himself as a multi-millionaire, he began work on an estate for his family in Surrey that would fit his larger-than-life persona. Complete with a 32-room mansion, stables and a velodrome, he carved the landscape of his estate Witley Park and made nature bow to his demands. He even notoriously employed 600 men to level hills and create a massive artificial lake, that drew the ire of those wanting to preserve the pristine landscape of Surrey.
Besides his sprawling estate, the most luxurious element of Witley Park was Wright's underwater ballroom, connected to the surface by a hidden stairwell below an inauspicious structure. Below the lake, and a giant sculpture of neptune, was a domed aquarium, where Wright installed a pool table so he and visitors could play billiards while fish swam around them on all sides.
Wright's charmed life came to a tragic end in 1903, when investors finally realized he had taken them for all their worth. Although he tried to escape to America, he was extradited and committed suicide in the midst of the trial process in 1904.
Although his mansion burned down in 1952, the remnants of the aquarium pool room still lie beneath the surface of Whitaker Wright's manmade lake in Witley Park.
Read more about Witley Park on Atlas Obscura...
Category: Subterranean Sites
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Edited by: lsokolow, atimian
