Bushy House

Bushy House

This mansion was built for Lord Halifax during the reign of George II on the site of an earlier building. It served as the home of William IV for 36 years, both when he was Duke of Clarence and after his accession to the throne. The house underwent various alterations and additions during his time there. It now functions as the residence of the Director of the National Physical Laboratory, with the basement and ground floor used as laboratories. The property stands within its own grounds of 7 acres.

The original house comprises a square centre block with a lower square pavilion at each corner, linked to the main front by curved screen walls and passages. The entire structure is built in brown brick with red dressings. Early 19th-century alterations and additions are in stock brick, and the whole house was re-sashed at this date.

The centre block rises three storeys above a basement. It features seven windows on all fronts with bands between the storeys and a small cornice below the top floor. A parapet with stone capping runs along the roofline, which is covered in old greenish slate. The pavilions are single-storey structures, each with three round-headed windows featuring stone archivolts and key blocks, eaves cornices, and slate roofs with lead hips topped with small urn finials.

The east front, which serves as the main entrance, features a slightly recessed three-window centre with a central stone porch. The porch is embellished with fluted and reeded Ionic columns bearing enriched capitals, with swags carved in the round between the volutes, and an enriched entablature and cornice above. Original wrought iron railings run along the steps. Round-headed windows flank either side of the porch. Early 19th-century single-storey buildings built into the curve of the screen walls and against the pavilions feature four windows to the sides and semi-circular bays at the ends.

The south front, which overlooks Bushy Park, displays windows arranged 1-5-1 with a central round-headed window on the first floor. Windows at either end of the facade have been blocked, an alteration made in the early 19th century when extra chimneys were inserted. The ground floor has been stuccoed and the windows altered to French doors opening onto a lead-roofed iron verandah across the front, with a central projecting porch at the head of a double flight of steps. The top floor features modern casement windows. Curved passages connecting to the pavilions contain round-headed windows. The pavilions themselves have stone Tuscan porches which have been infilled with brickwork and feature round-headed windows on the sides facing each other. On their ends they are stuccoed with tall square-headed windows beneath lead-hooded iron verandahs.

The west front, also overlooking the garden, mirrors the east front and likewise features early 19th-century buildings in the angles of the screen walls and pavilions. An early 19th-century Tuscan porch with three columns grouped at the corners has been added here.

The north front is largely obscured by early 19th-century stock brick additions, notably a wing built out at the centre. These additions rise three storeys but are considerably lower than the main block, each side featuring three windows with a plain modillion cornice and slate roof. A wooden porte cochere stands at the centre. This section housed the later kitchen and service quarters. Facing across what was once the coach yard are additional early 19th-century buildings that formerly served as stables.

The interior is largely of early 19th-century and later date and remains quite plain. Little of the original decoration survives beyond two staircases, some panelling, carved doors and shutters, and the fireplace and woodwork of the hall. Many rooms are now lined with distempered paper over canvas, apparently concealing earlier panelling. One small octagonal room, known as "The Little Library", is lined with early 19th-century grained yellow and black bookcases fitted with "Gothic" wire grilles.