Who owns osterley park

Not everyone was enamoured of the result. Horace Walpole famously called the drawing room 'worthy of Eve before the Fall'. Walpole was more effusive about the house as a whole, calling it 'the palace of palaces'. The most impressive rooms are the entrance hall, and the Etruscan dressing room, inspired by Etruscan vases from the collections of Sir William Hamilton.

Adam not only designed the interior decoration, he also designed much of the furniture, notable the domed state bed. The story goes that when the Earl got the bill for the state bed he tore it up so that no one would ever discover how much he had paid for it! Osterley passed by marriage into the Jersey family. Since the Jersey's made their family seat at Middleton House they only rarely used Osterley and often leased it to tenants.

They still owned the estate when Osterley was used as a training ground for members of the Local Defence Volunteers later to become the Home Guard during World War Two. Or, as our tour guide more colourfully put it, Osterley was the birthplace of Dad's Army. Most of the interiors were preserved with their original Adam furnishings.

One exception is the Long Gallery. When the Jersey family gave the estate to the National Trust they took all their paintings in the Long Gallery and shipped them to Jersey, where they were stored in a warehouse. The warehouse promptly burned down, and the superb art collection was lost. The Long Gallery as we see it today is filled with paintings of a similar date and style to the originals, but apart from that, the interiors of the house are as Adam designed them.

Today Osterley and the surrounding gardens and parkland represent one of the very last country estates in the Greater London area. The 6 acres of gardens have been restored to their 18th-century state and feature roses, herbaceous borders and ornamental vegetables. This was where the Child family would eat their dinner and entertain their friends and guests. Almost every aspect of the room was designed by Adam, highly ornate with stucco wall decorations and gilt mahogany sideboards.

The room looks unfurnished, as the tables and chairs were either placed against the walls of the room or stored in an adjoining corridor when not in use. Spanning the entire length of the house, the Long Gallery is 40 metres long and on a sunny afternoon glows green and gold. It can take up to three days to wax and polish the entire floor! The first of a series of rooms that make up the State Apartment, designed to impress and entertain important guests such as royalty.

Described as a mixture of a classic temple and theatrical stage setting, the magnificent eight-poster State Bed was designed by Adam to impress — and rumour has it Robert Child ripped up the bill after paying it, so no one would know just how much he had spent.

Rarely slept in, if at all, Robert and Sarah Child had much more modest rooms upstairs. Other features were the Wedgewood Hall and the Boucher tapestry room. The Drawing Room had many fine pictures on its walls. The National Trust continues to maintain Osterley Park. The house and gardens are open to the public and receive around 30, of the , visitors to the surrounding park. Like this: Like Loading Country houses with a story to tell.

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