At Chiswick House
Click here to book tickets for my tour through spring and summer
READ OUR ASTONISHINGLY GOOD REVIEWS
I decided to take advantage of the sunshine by enjoying an excursion to Chiswick House. I have to confess that it is thirty years since I visited, in the footsteps of the writer Denton Welch who came here in the thirties with a picnic including a hardboiled egg and a piece of fruitcake. Yet it was a great consolation to encounter these gardens again, like a old friend that has not been changed by the years.
William Kent’s garden was inspired by the paintings of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, and seeing it illuminated by the perfectly crystalline sunlight this week, I could not resist the feeling I was exploring an eternal landscape that was outside time. I half expected to turn a corner of a box hedge and discover Denton with his blanket spread out upon the grass, waiting for me with a picnic for two of hardboiled eggs and fruitcake.
I can think of no better place to lose an afternoon in London than these gardens, why did I take thirty years to go back?
The Doric Column with Venus on the top at the centre of the Rosary
Sculpture of a lioness by Pieter Scheemakers, 1733
The Ionic Temple and Obelisk, 1722
In the Excedra
Herm in the Excedra
A Sphinx beneath the Lebanon Cedar
Classical villa designed by Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington
Designed by Inigo Jones for Beaufort House in Chelsea in 1621, this gateway was acquired by Lord Burlington in 1738 from his friend Hans Sloan
Bust of Caesar Augustus
The Corinthian capitals on the portico were carved by John Boson
Andreas Palladio by by John Michael Rysbrack
Inigo Jones by John Michael Rysbrack
In the Italian Garden
The Conservatory was designed by Samuel Ware and completed in 1813
Geraniums overwintering
The Classic Bridge, attributed to James Wyatt, was built for the 5th Duke of Devonshire in 1774
The Ionic Temple
Bust of Napoleon in the Rustic House designed by Lord Burlington about 1719
The Eye Catcher installed in 1970
The Cascade by William Kent
You may also like to take a look at
Either way, one of my favourite places to visit a long long time ago in my twenties into my thirties when we lived in Hounslow West.
Amazing photos that capture this aged place in the best of light.
Thank-you dear gentle author on this rather brusque Spring morning.
At the risk of sounding melancholy you took 30 years to get back because it really does speed by, doesn’t it? Must have been lovely though…
Beautiful. Love the Inigo Jones designed gateway and I hope you get to go back soon
The conservatory and grounds were the site of early videos by the Beatles, for Paperback Writer and Rain (1966). https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yYvkICbTZIQ
The photograph of ‘The Ionic Temple’ from the side with the water and plants particularly good I thought, very painterly. Lovely.
I lived in London until aged about 20 and spent many hours walking around town, usually with my camera, but I never even heard od Chiswick House, alas!
It’s my old friend, but at 1:1 scale this time, vs the museum’s one.
A fine thing about my job, is getting to these ol’ chaps intimately.
I’ll be giving a talk about this in early April, near the RIBA, coincidental and serendipitous.