The Kitchen Garden at Chiswick House and Gardens has been a productive space for almost 350 years. It has recently been restored from decades of neglect by an innovative, local team, committed to re-invigorating this atmospheric and story-rich space for the future.
In 1807 J.M.W. Turner acquired two plots of land in Sand Pit Close on the Twickenham side of the Thames, a short walk from Richmond Bridge. He would build his little villa, to his own designs, on the larger plot, overlooking a steeply sloping garden with a very large pond, and some evidence for the way it was laid out can be found in his sketchbooks. The house and once-large garden stood alone then, on the fringes of two grand estates, and provided a peaceful retreat from the busy hum of the London art world.
How excruciatingly dull David Garrick’s private life must have seemed to the scandal mongers of eighteenth-century England, not a jot of salaciousness to be found to ‘mock his own grinning’.
Learn about Syon’s role in the shaping of North America – the extraordinary contribution of Syon House and its inhabitants in the development of the United States and Canada
For Sir John Soane, Pitzhanger’s gardens were as important as the Manor, which he designed as a space for hospitality and entertainment centred around food. In his kitchen gardens, he grew a variety of herbs and vegetables, and he kept the lake stocked with fish not only to provide dinner but also an opportunity for social interaction.