Chiswick House, Hounslow, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest:   

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Chiswick House and its surrounding grounds were formed in the mid-17th century by Sir Edward Seymore, and bought by the 1st Earl of Burlington in 1682. Richard Boyle succeeded to the title of 3rd Earl of Burlington at the age of ten and came of age in 1715. The garden which he inherited was illustrated by Knyff and Kip (published 1707). Surrounding the old house, the pleasure grounds were laid out in three parts and included a knot garden to the north of the old house, and grass lawns divided into eight plats to the west. To the north of both these parts was a large walled enclosure divided by a tree-lined walk running from north to south. Around the pleasure grounds were orchards, a vegetable garden, and a paddock. A stream, the Bollo Brook, ran to the west of the vegetable garden.

Burlington made two Grand Tours, the first in 1714, the second in the summer of 1719 when he met the painter William Kent. Burlington began redesigning the garden at Chiswick from at least 1717. After 1727, having purchased Sutton Court, the estate on the west bank of the Bollo Brook, the 3rd Earl made further improvements which are recorded in views of Chiswick by the artists Andreas Rysbrack (1728) and Jacques Rigaud (1733). The western extent of Sutton Court was not incorporated into the pleasure grounds but was laid out as a deer park. At around the same time Burlington built his new villa.

William Kent worked on some of these improvements and at Chiswick introduced the natural taste in gardening (guidebook 1989). The area that most surely reflects Kent's hand is to the west of the villa where the view to Chiswick House from the river was opened up. From 1736 onwards Burlington and Kent were preparing designs for a cascade at the southern end of the river, work on this project contining until 1753 when a cascade in its final form is shown on a view of that date by John Donowell.

Lord Burlington died in 1753. After the death of Burlington's widow and his only surviving child, the estate was inherited by his grandson, the 5th Duke of Devonshire, in 1764. Thereafter Chiswick belonged to successive dukes of Devonshire. The 5th Duke made a number of alterations in the grounds. In 1784 he commissioned Samuel Lapidge, Lancelot Brown's former assistant, to bring the gardens up to date.

In 1812 the 6th Duke, who had inherited the estate the year before, bought Moreton Hall, the neighbouring property to the east; after pulling down the Hall, he built a conservatory designed by Samuel Ware. This building was fronted by an Italian Garden laid out by Lewis Kennedy in 1814. In addition to Moreton Hall the Duke bought a further thin strip of land on the east side of the property. This he made into Duke's Avenue which extended for 1 kilometre north from the southern boundary to Turnham Green. In 1822 the Duke, who had a keen interest in horticulture, leased land to the Horticultural Society (later the Royal Horticultural Society) for their plant collection.

In 1884 the 7th Duke sold a large area of the western parkland for housing, reducing the estate to less than half its previous size. The grounds continued to decline and in 1929, in order to prevent it from being further developed, the 9th Duke sold the estate to Middlesex County Council. The grounds were leased to the Urban District of Brentford and Chiswick whose successor body, the London Borough of Hounslow, now (2000) own them.

After the Second World War, the need for repairs to the House and the emerging recognition of its architectural importance resulted in its gift to the Ministry of Works. Chiswisk House was transferred to the care of English Heritage on the formation of that body in 1984, in whose guardianship it remains. During the 1950s a programme of restoration was carried out. A second phase of works was implemented in the 1980s when a full Historical Survey and Management Plan was commissioned (Travers Morgan 1983). The implementation of its recommendations are ongoing.