Osterley Park Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Osterley House

Type	Country house
Location	Jersey Road, Isleworth, UK
Built	1570s
Built for	Sir Thomas Gresham
Rebuilt	1761–1765
Current use	Historic house museum
Architect	Robert Adam (1760s)
Owner	National Trust

Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: Osterley House
Designated	21 May 1973
Reference no.	1080308

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Osterley Park is a huge country estate in west London. It's home to a beautiful Georgian house and a large park. The estate is so big it stretches across two London areas: Ealing and Hounslow.

The main house, called Osterley House, was first built in the 1570s. It was later completely redesigned by a famous architect named Robert Adam between 1761 and 1765. Today, Osterley Park is looked after by the National Trust. Both the house and the park are open for everyone to visit and enjoy.

Discovering Osterley Park's Past
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Discovering Osterley Park's Past

How Osterley Park Began

The very first building on this spot was a large manor house. It was built in the 1570s for a wealthy banker named Sir Thomas Gresham. He bought the land in 1562. The "fair and stately brick house" was finished in 1576. We know that Queen Elizabeth I herself visited this grand house. You can still see the stable block from that time at Osterley Park.

The Child Family Buys the Estate

In the late 1600s, a developer named Nicholas Barbon owned the estate. He borrowed money from Child's Bank. When he died in debt around 1698, the bank ended up owning the estate.

By the early 1710s, Sir Francis Child, who started Child's Bank, became the owner. In 1761, his grandsons, Francis and Robert Child, hired a Scottish architect named Robert Adam. Adam was becoming very famous in Britain. They wanted him to redesign the house.

When Francis Child died in 1763, his brother Robert Child took over the project. Robert Adam then created the amazing rooms and interiors you see today.

Robert Adam's Unique Design

The house is made of red brick with white stone details. It's shaped like a square with towers at each corner. Adam's design is very unusual. It looks very different from the original house. One side of the house is almost open. It has a grand screen with columns and a wide set of steps. These steps lead to a central courtyard on the main living floor.

Robert Adam's design for one of the walls of the Etruscan dressing room

Adam's interior designs are some of his most famous works. They are called "neoclassical." One writer, Horace Walpole, said the drawing room was "worthy of Eve before the fall." This means it was incredibly beautiful and perfect.

The rooms have fancy but not over-the-top plasterwork. They use rich, bright colors. The decorations and furniture in each room match perfectly. This was quite unusual for English houses back then.

Some famous rooms include the entrance hall, which has big curved areas at each end. There's also the Etruscan dressing room. Adam said he got the idea for this room from "Etruscan" vases. These vases were thought to be Etruscan but are now known to be Greek. Adam also designed some of the furniture. This includes the amazing domed state bed, which is still in the house.

What Happened After Robert Child?

Robert Child had only one daughter, Sarah. She married John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, in 1782. Robert Child died two months later. In his will, he made sure his huge estate, including Osterley, would go to any grandchild born later. This turned out to be Lady Sarah Fane, born in 1785.

Robert Child's will was set up to keep his property away from his son-in-law, John Fane. This was because Fane had run away with Child's daughter to get married without Child's permission. Child had wanted his daughter to marry someone who would take on the Child family name.

Lady Sarah Fane, the eventual heiress, married George Villiers in 1804. They had children, and so the estate passed to the Villiers family. In 1819, George Villiers changed his last name to Child Villiers.

Osterley Park in Modern Times

Osterley Park from the air

Garden House

George Child Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey, decided to open Osterley to the public in 1939. Many people wanted to see its historic rooms. He said he opened it because he didn't live there, and many others wanted to see it. About 12,000 people visited in the first month! He also showed art by living artists in the top-floor rooms. This created a cool contrast with the old 18th-century rooms downstairs.

Training for the Home Guard

During World War II, the grounds of Osterley Park were used for training. The first members of the Local Defence Volunteers (who later became the Home Guard) trained here. The 9th Earl allowed Captain Tom Wintringham to set up a training school in May–June 1940.

At the school, soldiers learned about modern warfare and how to fight in cities. They even used some old estate workers' houses that were going to be torn down. Painter Roland Penrose taught camouflage. Wilfred Vernon taught how to make homemade explosives. You can still see his explosives storage area behind the house. Canadian Bert "Yank" Levy taught knife fighting and hand-to-hand combat.

Even though the school became famous worldwide, the War Office and Winston Churchill didn't fully approve of it. It was taken over in September 1940 and closed in 1941. Its teachers and courses were moved to other Home Guard schools.

Becoming a National Trust Site

After World War II, Lord Jersey offered to sell the estate to Middlesex County Council. But in the end, he decided to give the house and park to the National Trust. The furniture was sold to the Victoria & Albert Museum. In 1947, Lord Jersey moved to the island of Jersey. He took many paintings from Osterley with him. Sadly, some were destroyed in a warehouse fire on the island soon after. Lord Jersey helped the Ministry of Works and the V&A restore the house to how it looked in the late 1700s.

The National Trust officially took over Osterley in 1991. Lord Jersey has also lent and given many items to the house. These include silver, porcelain, furniture, and tiny paintings. In 2014, William Villiers, 10th Earl of Jersey, the current Earl, lent portraits of the Child family to Osterley for ten years. These include paintings by Allan Ramsay and George Romney.

Today, the house and its small formal gardens are open to visitors. Many thousands of people also enjoy walking the paths and exploring the woodlands in the park for free. A weekly 5k Parkrun even takes place there.

The house had its most recent restoration from 2018 to 2021. This fixed problems with the building's structure and the color of its brickwork.