Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Orleans House Gallery
Riverside • April-Sept Tues-Sat 1-5.30pm, Sun 2-5.30pm; Oct-March closes 4.30pm • Free • T 020 8831 6000 • St Margarets train
station from Waterloo
Set in a small wood to the west of Marble Hill Park is the Orleans House Gallery , in
what began life as a retirement villa built in 1710 for James Johnston, who had been
Secretary of State for Scotland under William III. It was most famously occupied in
1815-17 by Louis-Philippe, the exiled Duke of Orléans (and future King of the
French), who referred to it as “dear quiet Twick”. In 1926, it was all but entirely
demolished - all, that is, except for the Octagon , designed for Johnston by James Gibbs
in 1720 in honour of a visit by Queen Caroline. The café and the exhibitions staged in
the old stables and the modern extension are appealing enough, but it's the Octagon
that steals the limelight, an unusually exuberant Baroque confection celebrated for its
masterly Italian stucco decoration.
22
York House
Sion Rd • Mon-Sat 7.30am to dusk, Sun 9am to dusk • Free • St Margarets train station from Waterloo
The early seventeenth-century, Twickenham riverside residence York House has had a
series of illustrious residents including Prince Philippe, Count of Paris and grandson
of Louis-Philippe. The house itself is now owned by the local council and is used for
weddings, but the gardens , laid out by the last private owner, the Indian businessman
Ratan Tata, are open to the public. The bit to head for is the riverside section - a great
picnic spot - that lies beyond the sunken garden, on the other side of the delicate arched
bridge spanning the road. Here, in among the yew hedges, you'll find the gardens'
celebrated “ naked ladies ”, seven larger-than-life marble nymphs frolicking in the water
lilies of an Italian fountain, above which Venus rises up at the head of two winged horses.
World Rugby Museum
200 Whitton Rd • Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-5pm • £7; Stadium tours £15 • T 020 8892 8877, W rfu.com • Twickenham train
station from Waterloo
The English Rugby Union fan's number-one pilgrimage site is the national stadium
at Twickenham, and the pompously entitled World Rugby Museum in the East Stand.
The exhibition is full of video footage and lots of memorabilia from the sport, which
was famously invented in 1823, when W.W. Ellis picked up and ran with the ball
during a game of football at Rugby School. There's not much here for the nonspecialist,
however, save for the Calcutta Cup, an object of supreme beauty, having been made
from 270 silver rupees, with great cobra handles and an elephant lid. You can also sign
up for a stadium tour , which allows you to see the dressing rooms and walk onto the
pitch itself, and includes a visit to the museum. Note that on match days the museum
is only open to match ticket-holders.
ISLANDS IN THE THAMES
If you take the boat upriver (see p.329), or walk along the towpath, you'll pass a number of
islands in the middle of the Thames. Several were used in the past to grow grass and willows
for basketry, but most now act as formal or informal nature reserves, like Brentford Ait - “ait”
or “eyot” is the word used on the Thames to denote an island - which supports a large heronry.
There's even a makeshift raft floating mid-river, near Marble Hill House, where a local eccentric
has lived for over 25 years. The only inhabited island on the tidal Thames is Eel Pie Island ,
connected to the bank near York House by a pedestrian bridge. Tea dances began at the
island's Eel Pie Hotel back in the 1920s; bawdy jazz nights were the staple diet in the 1950s;
Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and the Who all played there in the 1960s. The hotel burned
down in 1971 ( W eelpie.org), and the island is now better known for its eccentric community
of independent-spirited artists and artisans ( W eelpieislandartists.co.uk), among them Trevor
Baylis, inventor of the clockwork radio.
 
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