Gates, Gate Piers And Walls To The Walled Gardens, Chiswick House Grounds

The Walled Garden Gates, Gate Piers and Walls at Chiswick House Grounds

These gate piers date from 1682 to 1684 and originally stood in the garden of a house built for Sir Stephen Fox by the architect Hugh May. That house was demolished, and the gates now form part of Chiswick House grounds. The gates themselves were restored during the 1950s.

Materials and Construction

The piers are constructed of finely-jointed red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings. The surrounding garden walls are built of soft orange-red brick, red-brown and plum-coloured brick, and stock brick.

The Gate Piers and Gates

The gate piers are square on plan with moulded arrises. They have moulded stone plinths and capitals, topped by ball finials set on moulded stone bases. Some of the stonework has been restored or replaced. The gates hang from repaired brick pilaster strips with stone dressings. The outer faces of the piers feature carved console brackets.

The gates are of wrought iron. Each has an inner panel of scrolled foliate design flanked by plain bars above arrow-head dog bars. While they resemble photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and from 1951, robust foliate bosses are now missing and minor details have changed, suggesting the panels are either replaced or restored. Above the gates is an overthrow of similar scrolled design terminating in delicate floral finials. Notably, the gate piers are not aligned with the central axis of the walled garden.

The Walled Garden Enclosures

The gate piers lead to a series of three connected walled gardens aligned north-west to south-east, of which two are included in the listing.

The first, south-western enclosure is a large rectangular walled garden measuring approximately 98 metres by 53 metres. It follows the late 17th-century configuration shown in Kip and Knyff's perspective view and is laid out in four quadrants as a nursery and kitchen garden.

This enclosure connects to a second, probably later, walled enclosure to the north-west measuring 80 metres by 55 metres and aligned on the same axis, though extending further east. This northern enclosure forms part of the 18th-century sequence of walled gardens, with the vista terminating in the gateway in the northern wall. However, it is excluded from the listing because of the degree of alteration and limited survival of early fabric.

To the east lies a second rectangular enclosure measuring 99 metres by 45 metres, dating from at least the early 18th century and possibly contemporary with the south-west enclosure. It forms the eastern boundary of the site and is divided by later diagonal cross walls. It now serves as a service yard for the gardens. The position of the enclosure walls, cross walls and gate piers in all three enclosures conforms with Samuel Ware's survey of the estate from 1812.

The Garden Walls

The walls are constructed of orange-red, red-brown and plum-coloured brick, partly in English bond and partly in Flemish bond, with later stock brick repairs and heightening. Most walls have a brick coping or soldier course.

In the south-west enclosure, walls are of orange-red and red-brown brick patched with later stock brick. The south-west angle of this main enclosure was formerly of Wren stock brick but is now partly rebuilt. This corner defines the south-west angle of the site visible in Kip and Knyff's view of 1707. The southern wall, laid in Flemish bond and designed to be visible, stands approximately 3 metres in height. The north-east wall is of similar brick, 2.5 to 3 metres high where it survives. The transverse wall, of similar height, is of mixed brickwork from the later 17th and early to mid-18th centuries. The segmental-headed entrance and surrounding brickwork have been altered; the wall was possibly raised in the 18th century and subsequently reduced. The central stretch of the south-west wall is largely of later 20th-century date; only the south-west and north-west sections retain historic fabric.

In the eastern enclosure, the eastern and northern walls—the latter now forming the boundary with Gate House—are of red-brown brick in Flemish bond, 3 metres in height and buttressed. They formed the north-eastern extent of the walled gardens. The diagonal internal walls are of mixed brick from the mid to later 18th century.

Although sections of the walls are depleted, the walled gardens are included in the listing for the historic significance of the late 17th and early 18th-century layout and for their subsequent association with Chiswick House.

Historical Background

The gate piers, gates and walls to the kitchen gardens fall within the former grounds of the house at Chiswick built between 1682 and 1684 for Sir Stephen Fox by Hugh May, later known as Moreton Hall. The house was demolished in 1812 after the Duke of Devonshire bought the estate when he inherited Chiswick House, but the walled gardens remained. From the 1860s the Devonshires let Chiswick House, removing most of its contents to Chatsworth. In 1929 the reduced estate was sold to Middlesex County Council, and in 1948 the house and grounds passed to the Ministry of Works. During the early 1950s the gate piers and gates were surveyed and restored as part of a programme of works on the site.

Sir Stephen Fox (1627–1716) was a loyal courtier to Charles II and an eminent public servant. Until 1680 he served as Paymaster of the Forces, was one of the Lords of the Treasury, and sat in the House of Commons almost continuously from 1665 until his death in 1716. He was considered one of the wealthiest men in the country and was noted for his philanthropic work, which found favour with Charles II.

Hugh May (1622–1684) was the architect of a number of significant country houses after the Restoration, such as Cornbury in Oxfordshire for the Earl of Clarendon and Cassiobury in Hertfordshire for the Earl of Essex. Both projects appear to have involved garden works. He held public office as Comptroller of the King's Works and as Inspector of French and English gardeners at Whitehall, St James's, Greenwich and Hampton Court. He died before work on the house for Sir Stephen Fox was completed.

The house and grounds are depicted in contemporary topographical records including Kip and Knyff's Britannia Illustrata of 1707, where the south-west corner of the house and part of the grounds are shown, on John Rocque's Exact Survey (1744–46), and on Samuel Ware's survey of the estate of 1812, the latter showing the configuration of the garden walls and the position of the gateway. Estate accounts and comments by John Evelyn in his diary of 1682, and Gibson's A Short Account of Gardens near London of 1691, describe the early progress of the house and garden.

A survey of the grounds in 1983 and 1985 classified historic walls and gateways by date and identified the earliest surviving sections.

Later Garden Features

The two western enclosures of the walled gardens are laid out with a longitudinal vista extending from the principal late 17th-century gateway to the south to a smaller 18th-century brick gateway set into the boundary wall to the north, linked by a simple, altered arched gateway built into the transverse wall, which formerly marked the northern boundary of the first enclosure. Although the western boundary of the northern garden was largely rebuilt in the early 20th century, the garden remains part of the historic layout. The northern and eastern boundary walls of the northern enclosure are probably of mid-18th-century date, of red-brown and buff brick (some probably reused) in English and Flemish bond, standing up to 3 metres in height. A central gateway in the north-west wall has brick piers in red-brown brick that project forward from the wall line with replaced stone caps; the entrance, which is of painted rendered brick, has been modified. The north-eastern wall, now the boundary with Gate House, is altered and partly reduced in height to a low parapet wall. The south-west boundary wall is of 20th-century brick.

Outside the walled garden to the west is a triangular enclosure defined by the historical boundary with Chiswick House. The southern and south-west stretches of Chiswick House's historic eastern boundary wall are of 18th-century brick, partly rebuilt, and pierced by an altered 18th-century gateway; the northern stretch is early 20th century. The walled gardens are also associated with mid to later 18th-century brick garden walls, gate piers and gateways, and with Kent House and Paxton House. Probably dating from the period of Sir Stephen Fox's house, and of similar red-brown brick to the walled garden, is the former Burlington Lane boundary wall of the house, which now lies within the grounds of Chiswick House. None of these walls and gate piers are listed.