services and property development company AA Homes & Housing Limited. There are also old farmhouses and lodges along Oaks Lane. Towards Croydon Between Lloyd Park and central Croydon, considerable amounts of 20th-century housing was built, particularly in Park Hill. There were estates here too, with two houses surviving a mile from Coombe itself. Coombe Cliff on Coombe Road was the home of the Horniman family of tea merchants. John Horniman (1803–1893) and Frederick John Horniman (1835–1906) are known as public benefactors and politicians. Frederick is remembered as the founder of the Horniman Museum. In 1850 John Horniman bought a piece of land known as The Warren and in 1853 he employed the Brown building firm to build a house on the site for him. Coombe Cliff had an important example of a Victorian conservatory with fine ironwork, used for Horniman's plant collection. Its glasswork created a shimmering effect in sunlight. Originally erected in 1894 as a 'lean-to' conservatory, and derelict by 1982, it was dismantled, refurbished and reconstructed as a free-standing conservatory adjacent to the Horniman Museum (in Forest Hill, London) in 1987, where it is in use for recitals, receptions etc. In 1930 Croydon Corporation purchased the house and gardens for a convalescent home for children, and it had several other uses before finally being used as an adult education centre in 1960. Coombe Cliff's gardens were merged into neighbouring Park Hill and opened to the public. Coombe Hill House is a red-brick townhouse on Coombe Road, now considered central Croydon but until the 20th century in a rural setting. It was built around 1713 and is attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, although this is likely to be estate agent hype. It was expanded by Robert Amadeus Heath, 2nd Baron Heath, Italian Consul General, in the 19th century before becoming a boys' preparatory school. In 1966 it was bought by Croydon's labour, trade union and co-operative movement and developed into their headquarters, Ruskin House. It retains its sash windows, brick wall and large cedar tree. Towards Addington The Ballards estate was a major landholding to the east of Coombe. Until the Reformation it was Prior Ballards, and then passed to the Leigh family of Addington. In 1872, Charles Hermann Goschen, Lord Lieutenant of the City of London and brother of the prominent politician George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen, bought the estate and built a new mansion, demolishing the