We’re delighted to be offering a day trip with tours around Strawberry Hill House & Garden, Twickenham and nearby Turner’s House on Wednesday October 22nd, following this trip’s clear win in the recent visits survey.  £73 including coach and lunch. Book soon - numbers are limited.

BOOKINGS - Contact Adrian at taseeventsec@gmail.com or on 07596 761109.

Strawberry Hill House & Garden, created by Horace Walpole in the 18th century, has been open to visitors for over 250 years. This extraordinary building is internationally famous as Britain’s finest example of Georgian Gothic revival architecture and home to an increasingly important collection of paintings and objects.  

Strawberry Hill’s garden was inspired by William Kent and the ideas behind the English Landscape Movement; Horace Walpole created a romantic garden here to complement his Gothic castle. Formal borders were mixed with groves of trees and shrubs crossed by winding paths, and flowers and fragrance were all important. The Grade II listed five-acre garden has been, as far as possible, restored to its original appearance using Eighteenth Century maps and paintings as well as Walpole’s own writing.

Turner’s House. At Sandycombe Lodge the aim has been to create the quiet, domestic space that JMW Turner used as his retreat from the London art world. The architecture of this little building is quirky, reflecting Turner’s own designs but also the influence of his good friend, John Soane, and is worth close attention. Turner made many sketches before arriving at his final design, and these are now brought together in a facsimile sketchbook.
Many rich stories have emerged during research into the years Turner spent at Sandycombe, such as those relating to the Napoleonic wars.  Some of the beautiful etchings from his Liber Studiorum are on display here, several of them responding to those troubled years when England was under threat of invasion, along with beautifully crafted models of ships, variations on those which Turner had here.