Osterley Park is a mansion set in a large
parkA park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment. It may consist of, rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas....
of the same name. It is in the
London Borough of HounslowThe London Borough of Hounslow is a London borough in West London, England.-Political composition:The council was controlled by Labour from 1971 until 2006...
, part of the western suburbs of
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. When the house was built it was surrounded by rural countryside. It was one of a group of large houses close to London which served as country retreats for wealthy families, but were not true country houses on large agricultural estates. Other surviving country retreats of this type near London include
Syon HouseSyon House, with its 200-acre park, is situated in West London, England. It belongs to the Duke of Northumberland and is now his family's London residence...
and
Chiswick HouseChiswick House is a neo-Palladian villa in Burlington Lane, Chiswick, in the London Borough of Hounslow, England.-History:Chiswick House was inherited by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, known as "the Apollo of the Arts." The mansion was a medium sized jacobean mansion...
. The park is one of the largest open spaces in
West London, though it is marred by the presence of the
M4 motorwayThe M4 motorway is a motorway in Great Britain linking London with West Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea....
, which cuts across the middle of it.
Elizabethan
The original building on this site was a
manor houseA manor house or fortified manor-house is a country house, which has historically formed the administrative centre of a manor , the lowest unit of territorial organization in the feudal system...
built for banker Sir
Thomas GreshamSir Thomas Gresham was an English merchant and financier who worked for King Edward VI of England and for Edward's half-sister Queen Elizabeth I of England.-Family and Childhood:...
in the 1570's. It is known that Queen
ElizabethElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
visited twice, on one occasion suggesting that a hedge would be a good idea in a certain location, that was then built overnight! The stable block from this period remains at Osterley Park.
Child and Adam
Two hundred years later the manor house was falling into disrepair, when, as the result of a mortgage default, it came into the ownership of Sir Francis Child, the head of
Child's BankChild & Co. is a small private banking house in the United Kingdom, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. It is based in Fleet Street, London....
. In 1761 he employed
Robert AdamRobert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
, who was just emerging as one of the most fashionable architects in England, to remodel the house. When Sir Francis died in 1763, the project was taken up by his brother and heir Robert Child, for whom the interiors were created.
The house is of red brick with white stone details and is approximately square, with turrets in the four corners. Adam's design, which incorporates some of the earlier structure, is highly unusual, and differs greatly in style from the original construction. One side is left almost open and is spanned by an
IonicThe Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
pedimented screen which is approached by a broad flight of steps and leads to a central courtyard, which is at
piano nobileThe piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...
level.
Adam's neoclassical interiors are among his most notable sequences of rooms. Horace Walpole sarcastically described the drawing room as "worthy of
EveEve is the first woman created by God in the Book of Genesis.Eve may also refer to:-Days:The day before, or the evening before, a holiday, such as:*New Year's Eve*Christmas Eve*St. John's Eve, also called Midsummer's Eve or Bonfire Night...
before the fall." The rooms are characterised by elaborate but restrained plasterwork, rich, highly varied colour schemes, and a degree of coordination between decor and furnishings unusual in English neoclassical interiors. Notable rooms include the entrance hall, which has large semi-circular alcoves at each end, and the Etruscan dressing room, which Adam said was inspired by the Etruscan vases in Sir
William HamiltonSir William Hamilton, KB was a Scottish diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist.Hamilton was the fourth son of Lord Archibald Hamilton, governor of Jamaica. He was commissioned into the 3rd Foot Guards in 1747 and was promoted Lieutenant in 1753...
's collection, illustrations of which had recently been published. Adam also designed some of the furniture, including the opulent domed state bed, still in the house.
After Child
Robert Child's only daughter,
Sarah Anne ChildSarah Fane, Countess of Westmorland was the only child of Robert Child, the principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co...
, married
John Fane, 10th Earl of WestmorlandJohn Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland KG, PC , styled Lord Burghersh between 1771 and 1774, was a British Tory politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, who served in most of the cabinets of the period, primarily as Lord Privy Seal.-Background:Westmorland was the son of John Fane, 9th...
in 1782. When Child died two months later, his will placed his vast holdings, including Osterley, in trust for his eldest granddaughter,
Lady Sarah Sophia FaneSarah Sophia Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey , was an English noblewoman, the daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland and Sarah Anne Child, only child of Robert Child, the principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co...
, who was born in 1785. She married
George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of JerseyGeorge Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey, GCH, PC was a British and Irish peer and a Conservative politician....
, and thus Osterley passed into the Jersey family.
Home Guard Training Establishment
The grounds of Osterley Park were used for the training of the first members of the Local Defence Volunteers (forerunners of the Home Guard) when the 9th Earl, a friend of publisher Lord Hulton, allowed writer and military journalist Captain
Tom WintringhamThomas Henry Wintringham was a British soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxist, politician and author. He was an important figure in the formation of the Home Guard during the World War II, and was one of the founders of the Common Wealth Party.-Life:Tom Wintringham was born 1898...
to establish the first Home Guard training school (which Hulton sponsored) at the park in May/June 1940, teaching the theory and practice of modern mechanical warfare, guerilla warfare techniques and using the estate workers' homes, then scheduled for demolition, to teach street fighting techniques. The painter
Roland PenroseRoland Algernon Penrose , CBE, Kt, was an English artist, historian and poet. He was a major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom.- Biography :...
taught camouflage techniques here, attempting to disguise the obvious charms of a naked
Lee MillerElizabeth 'Lee' Miller, Lady Penrose was an American photographer. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, she was a successful fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris where she became an established fashion and fine art photographer...
. Maj. Wilfred Vernon taught the art of mixing home made explosives, and his explosives store can still be seen at the rear of the house, while Canadian Bert "Yank" Levy, who had served under Wintringham in the
Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
taught knife fighting and hand to hand combat. Despite winning world fame in newsreels and newspaper articles around the world (particularly in the US), the school was disapproved of by the
War OfficeThe War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1963, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
and
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
, and was taken over in September 1940 and closed in 1941, the staff and courses reallocated to other newly opened WO approved Home Guard schools.
Postwar history
In 1947 a Ministry of Works team, including architect E.T. Spashett, converted the building for use as a convalescence home for injured airmen.
George Child-Villiers, 9th Earl of JerseyGeorge Francis Child Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey , was an English peer, the son of George Child Villiers, 8th Earl of Jersey. He gave one of the family seats, Osterley Park, to the British nation in the late 1940s....
gave the house and much of the estate to the
National TrustThe National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
in 1949. It is now open to the public, and contains most of the original furniture in excellent condition.
In popular culture
Television
- Osterley Park was originally proposed as the setting (and location) for the 1973 Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
serial Day of the DaleksDay of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from January 1 to January 22, 1972.-Synopsis:...
. The name was changed to "Auderley" in the finished programme, and was renamed "Austerley" in the novel of the serial. The location eventually used was Dropmore ParkDropmore Park together with Dropmore House are located along Dropmore Road, north of Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England, and is about in size. The park with its buildings have Grade I listed building status. It is one of the most important buildings in south Bucks.-Location:It is located in the...
in Buckinghamshire.
- The entrance hall of the house also appeared as a room in an upmarket central London hotel in the denouement of the 2007 ITV adaptation of At Bertram's Hotel.
- Osterley Park was used as the home of billionaire Sir Peter Maxwell, for the 2006 TV pilot, 'Maxwell: Inside the Empire'.
Music
- A wall in the park was used as the background to the cover picture of the 1973 Wings
Wings was a rock group formed in 1971 by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife Linda McCartney. The group was the only "permanent" group that any of the former members of the Beatles were ever involved with after their break-up...
album Band on the RunBand on the Run is an album by Paul McCartney & Wings, released in 1973. It was McCartney's fifth album since the breakup of The Beatles, and Wings' third album. It became Wings' most successful album and remains the most celebrated of McCartney's post-Beatles albums...
.
Film
- The 1960 film The Grass Is Greener
The Grass Is Greener is a 1960 comedy film featuring an ensemble cast consisting of screen veterans Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Jean Simmons,directed by Stanley Donen...
, starring Cary GrantArchibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was a British-American actor...
, Deborah KerrDeborah Kerr, born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer, CBE was a British stage, television and film actress...
and Robert MitchumRobert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer. Mitchum is largely remembered for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s.-Early life and...
, was set and partly shot at Osterley Park House.
Literature
- Osterley Park features in John Banville
John Banville is an Irish novelist and journalist. His novel, The Book of Evidence , was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Guinness Peat Aviation award. His eighteenth novel, The Sea, won the Man Booker Prize in 2005...
's novel The UntouchableThe Untouchable is a 1997 novel by the Irish author John Banville. The book is written as a roman à clef, presented from the point of view of the art historian, double agent and homosexual Victor Maskell—a character based on an amalgamation of the life of Cambridge spy Anthony Blunt, as well as on...
.
External links