Whitton Park was a

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

in the village of Whitton in

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

. It was demolished in the 1840s and gradually replaced with housing.

Early history

In 1625 two parcels of land were enclosed from

Hounslow Heath Hounslow Heath is a local nature reserve in the London Borough of Hounslow and at a point borders London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames. The public open space, which covers , is all that remains of the historic Hounslow He ...

and by 1635 the land included a substantial house.

Georgian estate

In 1722 the estate passed to Archibald Campbell, Lord Ilay, later the 3rd Duke of Argyll. He went on to expand and develop it. He died in 1761, and a large part of the estate was bought around 1766 by George Gostling, a lawyer. Whitton Park then remained in the Gostling family to 1892. In 1735, architect and builder Roger Morris designed and built a

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

villa there; and it was later leased by

Sir William Chambers __NOTOC__ Sir William Chambers (23 February 1723 – 10 March 1796) was a Swedish-British architect. Among his best-known works are Somerset House, the Gold State Coach and the pagoda at Kew. Chambers was a founder member of the Royal Academy. ...

. Chambers had also bought into the Duke's estate, and developed land from it.

Benjamin Hobhouse Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, 1st Baronet (1757–1831) was an English politician. He served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament from 1797 to 1818. Life The son of John Hobhouse, a Atlantic slave trade, slave trader and mer ...

leased the house from 1809 to 1821. Whitton Park came to mean the house, and Whitton Place the villa, which was demolished in 1847. Whitton Park was known for its gardens, with winding paths and groves leading past allegorical urns and temples. The Duke was an enthusiastic gardener and he imported large numbers of exotic species of plants and trees for his estate. He was nicknamed the 'Treemonger' by

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...

. On his death, many of these, including mature trees, were moved by his nephew,

John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British Tory statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He became the ...

, to the Princess of Wales' new garden at

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...

. This later became

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

and one of these trees planted in 1762 still survives to this day; the

black locust ''Robinia pseudoacacia'', commonly known as black locust, is a medium-sized hardwood deciduous tree, belonging to the tribe Robinieae of the legume family Fabaceae. It is native to a few small areas of the United States, but it has been widely pl ...

. Designed by architect

James Gibbs James Gibbs (23 December 1682 – 5 August 1754) was a Scottish architect. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transition between English Ba ...

, the Whitton Park

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

was built in 1725. It functioned also as an

aviary An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where Bird flight, they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flig ...

. Later converted to a mansion, it was demolished 1912. Gibbs's 1728 ''Book of Architecture'' included designs for three further buildings proposed for Whitton Park, but never executed. The greenhouse stood at the northern end of an artificial canal which was situated near the centre of the main enclosure. At the southern end of this canal was a triangular gothick tower with angle turrets, for which Gibbs may also have been the architect.

Later development

Most of the Whitton Park site was developed for housing around 1935.

Notes

External links

Local History Notes Whitton Park

Local History Time Line Whitton Park
{{Coord, 51, 27, 23.55, N, 0, 21, 52.9, W, scale:25000_region:GB, display=title Houses completed in 1800 Country houses in London Gardens in London Neoclassical architecture in England British country houses destroyed in the 20th century Buildings and structures demolished in 1912 Twickenham Whitton, London Buildings and structures demolished in 1847