Tags
Gothic, Horace Walpole, River Thames, Strawberry Hill, Strawberry Hill Gothic, Twickenham, Waterloo
Tuesday 17th October – 35 meeting of 2017
We made a return visit to Strawberry Hill, Twickenham today after first visiting in October 2011. An easy journey from Waterloo to Strawberry Hill of about 30 minutes on main line trains. Waterloo is a very busy station but with all the recent work completed it is spacious and bright.
From Strawberry Hill station we walked to the house. A short walk through some lovely roads of well kept houses and we stopped for a coffee in a very nice little cafe. A bright morning which made the walk very pleasant.
Strawberry Hill is a house built by Horace Walpole, a politician, writer, collector and son of Britain’s first Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole and was built between 1748 and 1790 as his summer villa. It is one of the earliest and finest examples of the Gothic revival and established the style now known as Strawberry Hill Gothic. Now owned by Strawberry Hill Trust a charity run by Friends of Strawberry it recently was awarded Lottery funding of £9 million and many of the rooms have been fully restored to the original state. When it was built there was a view of the river Thames but today it is obscured by buildings and trees.
On ground floor was Museum, Yellow Bedchamber/Restoration Room, Great Parlour, Hall and cafe, shop etc. Upstairs were the lovely rooms used for entertaining, the Gallery, Holbein Chamber, Library, Blue Bedchamber, Breakfast Room, Round Drawing Room and Great North Bedchamber. The design was amazing. Everywhere showed opulence, intricate decoration and detail throughout. The amount of stained glass windows was amazing. Every room had some. The Gallery was spectacular with an amazing ceiling decorated completely in gold. There was a Holbein Chamber where many works of Holbein were on show. In each room volunteers were on duty who were very interesting and full of knowledge of the house. There were three rooms that are now open which were being renovated on our early trip. On the second floor was Mr Walpole’s bedchamber and The Plaid Bedchamber. Each of the rooms were very different in design and many of the designs of the furnishings and wallcoverings could be used today in our homes. One of the volunteers told us that in all of the restoration materials and techniques used were exactly the same as when the house was built and that leaded paint was especially manufactured when the Blue Bedchamber was restored and cost an amazing £300 per litre! Also the bedspread was hand quilted by a team of seamstresses that meet and work in the house on a regular basis to create the wonderful embroidery pieces displayed throughout the house. After the tour of the house we walked around the garden and viewed the shell seat.
The House is part of a large complex which houses a chapel and St Mary’s University.
After our visit with the weather still good we made our way back to Strawberry Hill station and our trains home after a very pleasant day looking at some amazing architecture and enjoying a part of London that is very pleasant.