CHISWICK HOUSE & GARDENS CELEBRATE 300 years YEARS OF DESIGN

Chiswick House & Gardens are one of W4’s finest assets. Definitely something to shout about. But when? That is the question. They are 300 years oldish. The formation of the gardens was well under way before the Palladian house was built in the late 1720s and the whole process took over a decade.

Chiswick House Trust has decided to make 300 years of design “a loose theme” in 2023 rather than a definitive all-singing, all-dancing anniversary, and have just appointed a curator whose job it will be to explore that theme over the coming year.

The eighteenth-century travel writer John Macky wrote in his journal A Journey Through England in familiar Letters from a Gentleman here to his Friend abroad about “What is Curious” in the counties he visited, which included Middlesex.

He wrote in 1714 that Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, was “a very hopeful nobleman” who “hath a good Taste in Painting and Gardening.”

Ten years later he noted the nobleman had fulfilled his potential. Writing about the earl’s gardens at Chiswick he says:

“The whole Contrivance of ’em is the Effect of his Lordship’s own Genius, and singular fine Taste.

The building of the current Chiswick House was not started until 1727 but by 1723 the gardens were well under way and beginning to take shape in the way we might recognise them today.

The ha-ha and deer paddock were created in 1719, the deer house added in 1720 and three of the earl’s antique marbles brought to Chiswick in 1722.

The stone lions were added in 1738; the Classic Bridge not until 1774.

Chiswick, created by Richard Boyle and William Kent, is acknowledged as the birthplace of the English Landscape Movement, and influenced gardens from Blenheim Palace to New York’s Central Park.

A carpet of spring flowers

There should be a spectacular display of spring bulbs this year, as November saw the planting of one of the Garden’s biggest planting initiatives in recent years, with over 35,000 bulbs planted.

Head Gardener Rosie Fyles, who joined Chiswick House & Gardens from Ham House in February 2022, is taking inspiration from the heritage site’s 300 years of garden design. She is endeavouring to reestablish the historic central axis, a walkway running through the centre of the estate, a fashionable concept that originated in France in the 17th Century.

Rosie hopes to achieve this by planting over 15,000 bulbs in the borders either side of the Kitchen Garden entrance path. This particular route will be visible from the impressive linked central path which runs through the formal Italian Garden and Conservatory and which, in the 17th century, would have stretched right to the River Thames.

At time of writing the conservatory is currently closed, but the Trust says it will have the central dome open again in March, in time for the public to catch the collection of heritage Camellias in blossom.

Conserving the Camellias

Rosie and her team of volunteers have been planting up the Garden’s shrubbery with historic varieties of Camellia propagated from specimens originally housed in the conservatory. Planting them outside is an attempt to future-proof plants for generations to come, as Camellias do better outside, especially as climate change is making the temperature under glass too hot for them.

Talking about planning her first spring season at Chiswick, Rosie said:

“Planning for my first full spring is all about bringing new colour, different textures and long flowering for pollinators and people.

“With the unique historic context of mature trees and historic walls, this bulb planting on scale will be part of a vivid celebration of the Gardens. I am also taking the opportunity to plant as many varieties as possible of our conservatory camellias outside, where long-term, they will thrive in predicted climate changes”.