Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Exploring the Park
For a longer stroll through the park, head east from Pembroke Lodge into
Sidmouth
Wood
, whose sweet chestnuts, oaks and beeches were planted during the nineteenth
century. Originally established as pheasant cover, the wood is now a bird sanctuary,
and walkers must keep to the central path, known as the Driftway. A little further
east lie the
Pen Ponds
, the largest stretches of water in the park and a good spot for
birdwatching. To the south is the park's extremely popular
Isabella Plantation
, a
carefully landscaped woodland park, with a little rivulet running through it, two small
artificial ponds, and spectacular rhododendrons and azaleas in the spring. The round
trip from Richmond Gate is about four miles.
The two most important historic buildings in the park are both closed to the public.
Of the two, the
White Lodge
, to the east of the Pen Ponds, is the more attractive, a
Palladian villa commissioned by George II, and frequented by his wife, Queen
Caroline, and their daughter, Princess Amelia. Much altered over the years, it was also
the birthplace of the ill-fated Edward VIII, and it was home to the Duke and Duchess
of York (later George VI and the Queen Mother); it currently houses the Royal Ballet
School. The
Thatched House Lodge
, in the southernmost corner of the park, was built
in the 1670s for the park's rangers, and gets its name from the thatched gazebo that can
be found in the garden. General Eisenhower hung out in the lodge during World War
II, and it's now home to Princess Alexandra.
22
Twickenham
Twickenham
, on the opposite side of the river from Richmond, is best known as the
home of English rugby - there's a museum if you're really keen (see opposite) - but it
also conceals a cluster of lesser-known sights close to the river, all of which repay a brief
visit. Most sights are by the river, and, if you want to learn a bit more about the local
area, pop into the
Twickenham Museum
(Tues & Sat 11am-3pm, Sun 2-4pm; free;
T
020 8408 0070,
W
twickenham-museum.org.uk), 25 The Embankment, which puts
on changing historical exhibitions.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
By ferry
The most picturesque approach to Twickenham is to
walk along the towpath from Richmond Riverside to
Hammerton's Ferry, which takes people (and bicycles) over to
the Twickenham side (March-Oct Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat
& Sun 10am-6.30pm; Oct-Feb Sat & Sun 10am-6.30pm;
£1;
T
020 8892 9620,
W
hammertonsferry.com).
Marble Hill House
Richmond Rd • Guided tours April-Oct Sat 10.30am & noon, Sun 10.30am, noon, 2.15 & 3.30pm • EH • £5.70 •
T
020 8892 5115,
W
english-heritage.org.uk • St Margarets train station from Waterloo
A stuccoed Palladian villa set in rolling green parkland,
Marble Hill House
was
completed in 1729 for Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, mistress of
George II for some twenty years and, conveniently, also a lady-in-waiting to his
wife, Queen Caroline (apparently “they hated one another very civilly”). She was
renowned not just for her “long chestnut tresses”, but also for her wit and
intelligence and she entertained the Twickenham Club of Alexander Pope,
John Gay and Horace Walpole.
The few original furnishings in the house are enhanced with reproductions giving the
place something of the feel of a fashionable Georgian villa. The Great Room, on the
piano nobile
, is a perfect cube whose coved ceiling carries on up into the top-floor
apartments. Copies of Van Dycks decorate the walls as they did in Lady Suffolk's day,
but the highlight is Lady Suffolk's Bedchamber, with its Ionic columned recess - a
classic Palladian device - where she died in 1767 at the age of 79. There's a
café
in the
coach house open daily and open-air concerts in the surrounding park on occasional
summer evenings.
