110. A Public Park & Goodbye
NARRATOR: Chiswick was one of the first historic parks to be taken into public ownership for use by the nation. Today, the house and gardens are run by the Chiswick House and Gardens Trust, supported...
View Article10. Parklife
NARRATOR: ‘Parklife’ by Leah Kharibian, an audio script-writer and occasional film-maker who lives in Leicestershire. Ted Musing to himself Don’t know why they gave him a bike for his birthday –...
View Article109. Inigo Jones Gateway
NARRATOR: The gateway was designed by the celebrated architect Inigo Jones for Beaufort House in Chelsea in 1621. Lord Burlington admired Jones’s design and acquired the gateway in 1738 when his...
View Article9. A Prize for the Architect Earl
This poem, ‘HERACLES’, is by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. To look at him now, who would think he’d flayed a pelt of iron, bronze, stone from a lion, hacked its head for a helmet… held the Hydra’s...
View Article108. The Duke and his Menagerie
NARRATOR: The 6th Duke of Devonshire owned a large collection of exotic animals, among them an Indian bull, a Neapolitan pig, and a Peruvian llama. One of the star attractions was Saidi, an Indian...
View Article8. Long-Necked Visitors
NARRATOR: ‘Long Necked Visitors’ by Under 18s competition winner Lily Hewitt, aged 17. Herald: And to welcome the Tsar of Russia to Chiswick Gardens, we have for the audience’s pleasure, four...
View Article107. Goosefoot, Exedra, and Rock’n’Roll
NARRATOR: At the end of this path is one of the key features of Chiswick’s garden, a series of radiating avenues forms known as a patte d’oie, or ‘goosefoot.’ It probably dates from 1716 and has been...
View Article7. An Audience of Oranges
NARRATOR: ‘An Audience of Oranges,’ a.k.a. ‘Critic’s Circle’ by Adult competition winner Katharine Kavanagh. Waiting in the wings the sweet triffids, potted critics, surround the scene, ready to pass...
View Article106. The Classic Bridge and Orangery
NARRATOR: From 1946 until 1992 the Turnham Green Cricket Club played on the pitch at weekends. Celebrity cricket matches were a regular feature in the 1940s and 50s, in which famous cricketers like...
View Article6. A Sporting Tradition
NARRATOR: ‘A Sporting Tradition’ by Chiswick Residents competition winner Nigel Macarthur. MALE VOICE (in a comic fashion): Our spying is top secret, We will not give our names. Inside the boundary,...
View Article105. A Peaceful Asylum
NARRATOR: The Tuke brothers ran their mental asylum here at Chiswick for more than 35 years. Rather than prescribing drugs, they listened and talked to their patients and were celebrated for their...
View Article5. A Place of Healing
NARRATOR: ‘A Place of Healing’ by Adults competition winner Jo Thomas. Constance: Another beautiful day Lydia, and in such perfect surroundings. Lydia: Dearest Constance, I could not agree more. When...
View Article104. Chiswick after Lord Burlington
NARRATOR: After Lord Burlington died in 1753, Chiswick House was inherited by his daughter, Charlotte, who married the 4th Duke of Devonshire. The Devonshires were one of the richest and most powerful...
View Article4. The Ionic Temple
NARRATOR: Former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion reads his poem, ‘The Ionic Temple, Chiswick.’ SIR ANDREW MOTION: Once upon a time it was the thimble a seamstress might wear to work for the big Classical...
View Article103. The Obelisk, Lord Burlington and William Kent
NARRATOR: Burlington added the Obelisk to the garden in 1732. Built into its base is a classical sculpture of a man and a woman, probably carved to record a marriage. It had been given to the young...
View Article3. The Artist Admires His Handiwork
NARRATOR: The Artist Admires His Handiwork, a.k.a. ‘It’s not Bill,’ by Under 18s competition winner Florence Read, aged 15. WILLIAM KENT: I really do wish that they’d all stop calling me Bill. My...
View Article102. A Revolutionary Garden
NARRATOR: Chiswick was a new and revolutionary kind of garden. At the beginning of the 18th century, it was fashionable to have formal gardens, which were laid out in carefully planned geometric...
View Article2. Chiswick as it Never Was?
NARRATOR: ‘The Shadow’ by Michelle Penn, a London-based poet and fiction writer. SHADOW: (Tone: humorous jealousy) I am only her follower, her echo, barely noticeable. She flits and she flirts with the...
View Article101. About Chiswick House
NARRATOR: Lord Burlington designed the villa we know as Chiswick House in about 1725. It’s one of the most important examples of Palladian architecture in the country, a style named after the work of...
View Article1. Mind the Carriage!
Jacques Rigaud: (Drawing a picture) Can you see what it is yet? I’ve got the new house, dead centre. Lovely columns, pediment, Palladian front, dome worthy of the Eternal City itself, very nice. I’m...
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