Osterley Park, Greater London, England

Site is open to the public. Opening may be limited, please check Visitor Information for any restrictions.

Brief description of site

Osterley is an 18th-century landscape park laid out on the site of an earlier formal garden. The site is dominated by three pieces of water: the Garden Lake (about 2 hectares), the Middle Lake (about 5.5 hectares), and the North Lake (about 3 hectares). The M4 motorway cuts across the northern part of the site.

Brief history of site

The site originated in the medieval period, and was a productive farm in the 16th and 17th centuries. Sir Thomas Gresham bought the site in 1562, replacing the old farmhouse with a large manor house which is said to have stood in the middle of a pleasant park, well wooded and containing several fishponds and a heronry. The estate was landscaped in the 1760s. At its largest it occupied about 560 hectares, including a landscaped park, lakes, woodland and agricultural land, with a central area of about 56 hectares forming pleasure grounds and gardens. The house and the core of the grounds were given to the National Trust in 1949.

Location information:

OS Landranger Map Sheet Number:	176	Grid Ref:	TQ145780
Latitude:	51.48936	Longitude:	-0.35222

Key information:

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