Chiswick House

Things To Do

Hattie Lloyd 22/01/25


Chiswick House

Over its venerable 300 year history, Chiswick House has been used as an aristocratic country pile, an asylum, a fire station, a menagerie (with its own elephant) and a rumoured Freemasons’ lodge, home to all manner of mysterious and recondite rites and rituals.

They also do a lovely farmer’s market.

The third Earl of Burlington designed the place as a rural retreat from his city pied-a-terre (a cramped central London apartment known as Burlington House, now home to the Royal Academy). Completed in 1729, it’s now considered to be one of the earliest and most important examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in the country.

chiswick house

Susie Mullen/Unsplash

The House sits right between West London’s leafy micro-village of Turnham Green and the Thames, meaning you can spend an idyllic day out in Chiswick browsing the flower market and picking up a gelato at Foubert’s before taking a stroll round Chiswick House’s extensive – and free to visit – 18th century gardens. Among its 65 rolling acres you’ll discover a meandering lake, fake temples, glasshouses, statues and a Classic Bridge, which takes you from one side of the lake to the other.

Classic bridge.

Inside, however, is where things really get splashy. When the House reopens in Spring 2025, you’ll be able to roam its gilded halls and admire the earl’s art collection, the bespoke silk velvet wall coverings, the lofty ceilings and painted frescoes decorating the ground floor. The pièce de résistance is probably the bombastically decorated Blue Room, with its impressive ceiling painted to look like a mosaic.

chiswick house

Aside from just sitting there looking beautiful, Chiswick House and Gardens play host to events year-round, from the monthly Duck Pond Market (which brings together stalls of handmade goods and street food outside the House on the first Sunday of the month) to the arrival of Gifford’s Circus, which pitches up in the grounds every summer.

No elephants, though.

 

NOTE: Chiswick House is currently closed, but the grounds are open daily and free to visit. You can see what’s on, and check for the full reopening date, on the Chiswick House website.

Chiswick House | Burlington Lane, London W4 2RP


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Chiswick House


Burlington Lane, Chiswick, W4 2RP