Osterley Park is a Georgian country estate in west London, which straddles the London boroughs of Ealing and Hounslow. Originally dating from the 1570s, the estate contains a number of Grade I and II listed buildings, with the park listed as Grade II*. The main building (Osterley House) was remodelled by Robert Adam between 1761 and 1765. The "faire and stately brick house" was completed in 1576. It is known that Elizabeth I visited. The stable block from that period remains at Osterley Park. Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange, also bought the neighbouring Manor of Boston in 1572.

Acquisition by the Child family

During the late 17th century, the estate was owned by Nicholas Barbon, a developer who mortgaged it to Child's Bank and then died in debt around 1698. As a result of a mortgage default, by the early 1710s, the estate came into the ownership of Sir Francis Child, the founder of Child's Bank. In 1761, Sir Francis's grandsons, Francis and Robert, employed Scottish architect Robert Adam (who was just emerging as one of the most fashionable architects in Britain) to remodel the house. When Francis Child 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 it differs greatly in style from the original construction. One side is left almost open and is spanned by an Ionic pedimented screen, which is approached by a broad flight of steps and leads to a central courtyard, which is at piano nobile level.

thumb|[[Robert Adam's design for one of the walls of the Estruscan dressing room]]

Adam's neoclassical interiors are among his most notable sequences of rooms. Horace Walpole described the drawing room as "worthy of Eve before the fall".

Child's eventual heiress, Lady Sarah Fane, married George Villiers in 1804 and, having children, the estate passed into the Villiers family. In 1819, George Villiers changed his surname to Child Villiers.

Later history

thumb|Osterley Park from the air

thumb|Garden House

George Child Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey, opened Osterley to the public in 1939 after having received many requests from people wishing to see its historic interior. He justified his decision by saying that it was "sufficient answer that he did not live in it and that many others wished to see it". Some 12,000 people visited the house during its first month of opening.

Painter Roland Penrose taught camouflaging here, an extension of work he had developed with the paintbrush in avant-garde paintings to protect the modesty of his lover, Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller (married to Aziz E. Bey). 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 War, 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 Office and Winston Churchill, and it was taken over in September 1940. Closed in 1941, its staff and courses were reallocated to other newly opened War Office-approved Home Guard schools. The pictures that are part of the loan include Allan Ramsay's portrait of Francis Child (1758), and George Romney's portrait of Francis's brother, Robert. A weekly 5k Parkrun takes place in the park.

The house saw its latest restoration from 2018 to 2021. This repaired structural deterioration and discolouring of the external brickwork.

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File:Main mansion at Osterley Park.jpg|The house

File:Side of Osterley Park Mansion.jpg|A side view

File:Courtyard of Osterley Park.jpg|The courtyard

File:Ceiling detail at Osterley Park.jpg|Portico ceiling

File:Columns of Osterley Park.jpg|Columns at the front of the house

File:View from Osterley Park.jpg|View from the house over the estate

File:Stables at Osterley .jpg|Former stables, now a cafe

File:Turret at Osterley Park Stable.jpg|Turret at the stable

File:Farmland at Osterley Park.jpg|Farmland in Osterley Park

File:Ranken, William Bruce Ellis; Osterley Park, London, Interior.jpg|Interior of the house in 1931

File:Ranken, William Bruce Ellis; State Bed at Osterley Park.jpg|State Bed at Osterley House

File:At Osterley House 2024 067.jpg|The Etruscan Room

</gallery>

References

  • Osterley Park information at the National Trust
  • Flickr images tagged Osterley Park
  • A Brief History of Osterly Park by the Dowager Countess of Jersey, 1920
  • List of paintings on view