Bhaktivedanta Manor Temple

The estate of Bhaktivedanta Manor is situated in the Parish of Aldenham in Hertfordshire, just over a mile from Radlett and four miles from Watford.

The presence of the estate was first recorded in 1261 as belonging to Geoffrey Picot. In the 16th Century a Tudor house was built on the site. In 1884 it was purchased by George Villies who demolished the house and constructed the mock-Tudor building we see today. Still named after Mr Picot, the building was renamed as “Piggots Manor” until 1973 when, as St Bartholomew’s Nursing College, it was sold to George Harrison of the Beatles. It was not for his private use but as a gift to ISKCON; the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The property, which at that time included 17 acres of land, it was renamed “Bhaktivedanta Manor” after the Society’s founder.

Although ISKCON itself is quite recent, it is part of an important and distinctive tradition of devotional faith which began in the sixteenth century with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It participates in a much older culture dating back thousands of years, and embraces the timeless, non-sectarian values of sanatana-dharma (or the eternal religion) as found in the Vedic scriptures.