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Chiswick House Review

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Chiswick House

Address: Burlington La., Chiswick, London, W4 2RP | Map It
Phone: 020/8995-0508
www.chgt.org.uk

Category: Houses/Mansions
Location: The Thames Upstream

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Fodor's Review:

Completed in 1729 by the Earl of Burlington (the Lord Burlington of Burlington House, Piccadilly, home of the Royal Academy, and, of course, the Burlington Arcade) as a country residence in which to entertain friends—who included Pope, Swift, Gay, and Handel—and as a kind of temple to the arts, this is the very model of a Palladian villa, inspired by the Villa Capra near Vicenza in northeastern Italy. Georgiana, the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806), referred to the house as "my earthly paradise." The house fans out from a central octagonal room in perfect symmetry, guarded by statues of Burlington's heroes, Palladio himself and his disciple Inigo Jones. Burlington was a great connoisseur and an important patron of the arts, but he was also an accomplished architect in his own right, fascinated by—obsessed with, even—the architecture and art of the Italian Renaissance and ancient Rome, with which he'd fallen in love during his Italian Grand Tour. Along with William Kent (1685-1748), who designed the sumptuous interiors (including the Blue Velvet Room with its gilded decoration and intricate ceiling paintings) and the rambling gardens filled with classical temples, statues, and obelisks, Burlington did a great deal toward the dissemination of Palladian ideals around Britain: Chiswick House sparked enormous interest, and you'll see these forms reflected in hundreds of later English stately homes both small and large. It also houses a fabulous collection of paintings and furniture. The gardens are being restored to their 18th-century glory; work started in March 2008 and is scheduled for completion in spring 2010.

Cost: £4.20
Open: Apr.-Oct., Sun.-Wed. and bank holidays 10-5; Nov. and Dec. by appointment only. Gardens daily 7-dusk
Tube: Turnham Green, Chiswick

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