Gunnersbury Park

About a month ago, I mentioned Gunnersbury on this blog, only going so far as to say it's a dull place with a park nearby. Going there made me want to visit the park, because in the images it genuinely looked lovely, and even if that meant getting up early, I was more than willing to go. Having been there, I'd call it west London's version of Morden Hall Park (blogpost linked for the unaware).

 

Gunnersbury Park's history is quite different, though. If you want to learn more about it, as well as Gunnersbury as a whole, you could visit the museum in the park's grounds. I couldn't - it was closed when I visited for refurbishment works, dammit. But the basic story is this: Gunnersbury was originally a manor owned by the Bishop of London, but eventually passed into the hands of politician John Maynard, who built a mansion here in 1663. Eventually it passed into the hands of royalty, with Princess Amelia, who sold the land in 1800. The original mansion was demolished that same year, and it's here where Gunnersbury Park's history truly begins. 

The mansions

In 1802, two new mansions were built on the land. One, Gunnersbury Park House, was built for builder Alexander Copeland, who owned most of the area. The other, confusingly called Gunnersbury House, was built for Stephen Cosser, a local timber merchant, who owned one small plot of land on the estate. Truth be told, though, they both look like white blocks against the sky. It's easy to believe they weren't built for completely different people.

 

Gunnersbury Park House, however, lives on today as the museum, which as I've already said I couldn't visit. But I'm sure both are available for major events and weddings, as every single building with an ounce of historical value eventually becomes.

 

It's worth noting that Gunnersbury Park's history doesn't end there, though. In 1835, banker Nathan Rothschild bought Copeland's part of the estate - later getting Cosser's lot in 1889 - and the Rothschild family owned the estate until 1925, when they sold it to the local councils. Under the Rothschilds, the park expanded significantly, with several of the places I'll describe coming under them.

The Orangery

This rather nice glass building was constructed to house the Rothschild's collection of fruits and plants during the winter. You don't typically see orangeries anymore, they were built as a status symbol, much like follies (which come up later in this post) - I'm sure they could have settled with a regular greenhouse, but orangeries are much prettier. You'll likely find one in most royal palaces.

 

It's probably prettiest if you stand far from the Orangery, though, and admire its reflection in the Horseshoe Pond right next to it. In fact, the Orangery was deliberately built to emphasise its reflection in the water, and that leads to some pretty photos. It's probably even nicer in the autumn, when all the trees are a burning orange, but even with bare branches, I'm proud of the outcome.

 

The rest of the park

Most of the park is dominated by the Rothschild family's legacy. You can walk through what used to be their private tennis court but is now just rough woodland - yes, there are traces of that here. There are also the Italian Gardens, which I didn't visit, near the park's main entrance.

 

But it would be unfair to dismiss the park as just "the former Rothschild estate", even if they helped shape it into the park it is today. Take the Round Pond, one of three ponds in the park. Aside from being a wonderful space to swan-watch, and fail to photograph the pigeons (I admit, blushing), you can also find the Temple, which predates the Rothschilds. It was built for Princess Amelia in the 18th century. From here, she had wonderful views across London, more specifically up to Kew, and whilst I can't confirm if that's true nowadays, it still looks cool. I'm a big fan of Greek-style architecture, if you can't tell.

 

Another structure from the Princess Amelia days can be found near the mansions. This was her bathhouse, located by a small walled garden. The actual history of the bathhouse is curious, as whilst we're sure it's dated to Amelia, that's mainly due to a series of maps produced in her lifetime suddenly cropping up with ornamental buildings, presumably like this one. Amelia probably spent her time in the garden with her friends, according to the article I linked in this paragraph, but otherwise no one's quite sure what went down - even where the bathhouse's water supply came from.

 

Wandering further into the park, you can find the Gunnersbury Park Sports Hub - a leisure centre for all your leisurely needs, as well as an outlandishly expensive cafe. If you want hot drinks in the park, I'd recommend the local stall operating not far from the park's entrance, their hot chocolate's lovely - big ups the Coffee Shot!

 

The rest of the park isn't all that thrilling, though. There are the remnants of the old Gunnersbury Park Farm, which was built back in the early 19th century. They used to have sheep, cattle, apparently even llamas and alpacas housed here, all to provide milk for the estate owners, but it's long been gone. Otherwise, you're left with an ordinary, though still pretty, park, which is likely all the nicer come springtime.

 

There is one exception though...

The folly

Follies are structures built for no reason other than to show off your wealth, and the Rothschilds constructed one by the Potomac. which is the third pond.

The Potomac itself is fenced off, and getting a photo is extremely difficult - the surrounding plants are very overgrown, and seeing the pond unobstructed is a challenge. But the folly, being a tower, has no such problems. This is the Boathouse, built in a Gothic style, and by now it's in disrepair - again, you can't even get in. 

 

To be fair, it was actually intended to be a boathouse - the pond was constructed in 1874 with the intent of being a boating lake, and the folly may have actually been used as a boathouse. This article reveals there's a boating cave in the folly, which was exposed in a drought back in 2006. Nowadays, though, it's definitely just another curiosity.

Epilogue

Overall, it's hard to debate that Gunnersbury Park is wonderful. I'm sure the museum's alright, too. It's definitely worth a visit if you're in the area, just to see something slightly different from most other London parks. And as you'll find out in my next blogpost, it's also proof Gunnersbury (and parts of Brentford and Kew) have lots more to offer than you might just think!