SYON PARK HOUSE

When I was coaching paddle boarding on the tidal Thames we would often pass Syon Park, with it's ancient flood meadows going up to the house and I would tell my paddlers the gruesome story of Henry VIII's funeral procession stopover there.

His coffin was laid out in the cellars, the only part of what was left of the Medieval Syon Abbey, the richest nunnery in the country, and which was dissolved during the Reformation. As Henry's body started to decompose it started to move and it was thought that the king had come back to life, then it got attacked by a pack of dogs. I actually can't remember if this is a true story or if I made it up just to impress my groups. One of the other coaches used to tell his paddlers that a small pale pink, white stuccoed summer house, on the edge of the estate by the river belonged to Elton John, so I wasn't the only one with a fertile imagination. Whatever the reality, It was always a magnificent view gliding past on my board.

Syon House's real story is actually just as impressive. During it's history its inhabitants and visitors have included Katherine Howard, imprisoned there before being taken to the Tower, Lady Jane Grey, Princess Anne [later Queen Anne] was banished there over the scandal caused by her friendship with Sarah Churchill, Countess of Marlborough, and a young Queen Victoria lived there for a while before she assented the throne, It was also here that the first ever telescope was trailed by Thomas Harriet in 1609.

The house we see today is now most famous and celebrated for it's Robert Adam's interiors and Capability Brown's garden landscaping, commissioned by Hugh Percy, the 1st Duke of Northumberland, in the 18th century.

The interiors are neo-classical with nods to the Romantic, Baroque, and Mannerist styles. There are pillars galore, marble and painted ceilings. The colour scheme can err a little on the sugary with pale pinks and sky blues and if you are not a fan of decoration this is not the house for you.

There were later renovations in the 19th century but a conscious effort was made to keep to the original style of the interiors.

Highlights include tiny ante-rooms off the long gallery hidden behind secret doors. One is decorated in the Chinoiserie style and a tiny tea room that looks like it was iced in pale pink and blue frosting. This room also features an extraordinary clock in the automated bird cage that hangs from the ceiling in the middle of the room with it's face on the bottom so all the ladies had to do was glance up to tell the time. Lastly but not least, and one of my favourite obsessions, is the old passementerie festooned on chairs and benches.

The grounds are no less impressive, especially the glass hot house with it's rooms of cacti, water lillies and wamth. The design of this structure is beautiful and delicate.

https://syonpark.co.uk