Neo-Classical Splendor: Chiswick House

One of my favorite spots in London is the beautiful Chiswick House, to me this beautiful Neo-Palladian villa set in a gorgeous array of gardens and fountains is the epitome of my favorite architectural style; the English Neo-Classical one. A triumph of understated good taste, order, and elegance.. Indeed, some of the greatest architects from late-Baroque and Georgian Britain worked on it, making it one of the most ethereal, ascetic, and bucolic places in London - walking through it is like taking a visual journey through the likes of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

As previously mentioned, Chiswick House is a fine Neo-Palladian villa built by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, and completed in 1729. It is set in a beautiful landscape garden designed by William Kent and it is probably the earliest example of an English landscape garden. After the death of the 3rd Earl of Burlington in 1753, of his last surviving daughter in 1754, and of his widow in 1758; the property passed on to William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, after his death in 1764, his son’s wife, Georgiana Spencer, one of the most controversial figures of Georgian Britain, used the house as a retreat and Whig political center. During the 19th century, the house fell into disrepair and the family rented it out. It was used as a mental hospital from 1892 until 1929 when the 9th Duke of Devonshire sold it to the Middlesex County Council which turned it into a fire station. The villa suffered damage in 1944 when a German rocket damaged one of the wings. Today, the house is a Grade I building.

Originally, the first building on the site was a large Jacobean house built around 1610 and owned by Sir Edward Wardour, possibly built by his father with four sides and an open courtyard. In 1624, the house was sold to Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset. During the First English Civil War, the house was at the south end of the royalist line during the Battle of Turnham Green in 1641. The house was purchased by Charles Boyle, 3rd Viscount Durgarvan in 1682. The house was used as the family summer retreat from Burlington House, their London home. In 1725, a large fire damaged a large portion of the house; Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, chose to rebuild the house to the west of the former mansion. During his Italian Grand Tour in 1791, the earl had acquired a taste for Palladian architecture and collected some of his drawings owned by the great English architect Inigo Jones and his pupil John Webb. Burlington’s mission was that of reinstating the Classical canons of Vitruvian Rome.

Lord Burlington himself was a talented architect and was named “Apollo of the Arts” by Horace Walpole - he designed the new villa with the aid of William Kent who also helped designing the new gardens. The new building was spacious enough to house the earl’s very fine art collection and his furniture; of which some pieces were collected during the Grand Tour. Construction of the new villa took place between 1726 and 1729. The house was inherited by William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire who married Lord Burlington’s daughter, Charlotte.

The duke himself died in 1764, leaving his property to his son William, the 5th Duke of Devonshire. In 1774, William married Lady Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, who enjoyed Chiswick House which she described as her “earthly paradise” which she used as a base for parties and political meetings. In 1788, the Jacobean House was demolished and a certain John White was commissioned with the construction of two new wings to increase the accommodation capabilities of the house. In 1774, the duchess commissioned the Classical Bridge to the renowned Georgian architect James Wyatt. She died in 1806. In 1813, a conservatory was built by Samuel Ware and it housed exotic fruit and flowers while gardener Lewis Kennedy built an Italian garden around it. In 1844, a great garden party was thrown by the 6th Duke for Tsar Nicholas of Russia. Between 1862 and 1892, the house was rented to the Duchess of Sutherland, then the Prince of Wales in the 1870s, the Marquess of Bute, patron of the architect William Borges. Between 1892 and 1928, the house was used as a mental asylum, in 1897 the two sphinxes on the main gate were removed to Green Park during the celebrations of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee but were never returned!

The 9th Duke of Devonshire sold Chiswick House to Middlesex County Council in 1929, the price being met by contributions from public subscribers, including King George V. The house suffered damage during WWII and subsequently the damaged wings were demolished in 1956. In 1948, the Georgian Group prevented the house from being demolished and it came under the patronage of English Heritage.

Through the villa’s long history, many faces of history became guests; notably Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Russian Tsars Nicholas I and Alexander I, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, as well as Sir Walter Scott or the likes of William Ewart Gladstone and Robert Walpole.

Chiswick House was effectively Lord Burlington’s attempt to recreate a Roman villa, situated in a Roman garden. Chiswick Villa is indeed inspired by the work of perhaps the “purest” of Renaissance architects, Andrea Palladio. The interior of the building, especially the central room were inspired by the Baths of Diocletian in Rome. The architect was also inspired by other great minds of the Renaissance, such as Leon Battista Alberti. The villa is originally made out of simple brick covered in beautiful Portland stone, with a certain amount of decorative stucco. The fine Corinthian columns, carved by John Boson, are inspired by the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome. The main door is inspired by the base of Trajan’s Column. The exterior decoration is once again remindful of Inigo Jones and Palladio, and especially his San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The decorative cornice at Chiswick is inspired by James Gibbs’ one at St-Martin-in-the-Fields. On the portico is a bust of Emperor Augustus who was regarded by Georgian aristocracy as the greatest leader of antiquity, indeed the early Hanoverian era was known as the Augustan Age. This link with Augustus was strengthened by the decoration of the “temple” with Egyptianazing elements such as sphinxes, obelisks, and stone lions - after the emperor’s capture of Egypt and how he brought so many trophies back to Rome. The influence of Rome at Chiswick is rather strong, that includes the display of the statuary which includes copies of the Borghese Gladiator, the Venus de’Medici, the Roman she-wolf, and others. Inside the villa are many visual references to figures such as Aeneas. Horace Walpole called the villa “the beautiful model”.

Much like the house itself, the gardens at Chiswick were an attempt at recreating an ancient Roman garden, following the example of great Roman gardens such as that at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, from which three of the statues surrounding the exedra are supposed to have come, according to Daniel Defoe. The original gardens were of standard Jacobean design, but by the 1720s came a constant fase of continuous change. Lord Burlington and William Kent experimented with what would become the features of any Neo-Classical garden; mock fortifications, Egyptian objects, classical fabriques, statues, groves, cascades and all manner of water features. The great authors of antiquity, including Horace and Pliny, were major influences for Georgian thinkers with their descriptions of gardens, with alleys shaded by trees and fountains. The first architect for the gardens seems to have been the King’s gardener, Charles Bridgeman, who likely worked with Lord Burlington around 1720, and subsequently with William Kent on his return from his second Grand Tour in 1719. The great poet, Alexander Pope, who had his own villa nearby, was involved in this recreation of a Greco-Roman garden, ruled by nature under God - this was proven thanks to his translation of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, which gave wonderful descriptions of Greek gardens, proving the successive naturalistic appearance of Roman gardens. William Kent proceeded to add more theatrical elements common at the time. The gardens were filled with Egyptian, Greek, and Roman or even Renaissance architecture, such as the various temples, and mock ruins. This architectural capriccio set in the wildest nature would be the basis of what became known as the English Landscape Garden. 

A theater of hedges, known as the exedra was designed by William Kent to display statues of unknown Roman gentlemen, identified by Daniel Defoe as Caesar, Pompey, and Cicero - later, it was discovered that the statues represented Horace, Homer, and Virgil. William Kent also added a grotto which featured a cascade inspired by the ninfeo at the Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati. Kent’s garden also featured a flower garden, an orchard, an aviary and a symmetrical arrangement of trees. By the grove, three avenues terminate with buildings which include the Casino and later the Pagan Temple and the Rustic House, designed in 1716 by James Gives and Lord Burlington respectively.

On one end of the Ha-Ha is the Deer House, designed by Lord Burlington, its Vitruvian doors are inspired by Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura from 1570. Beyond this is the Orangery, next to the Deer House is a Doric column supporting the statue of the Venus de’Medici - the ancient goddess was seen as the protector of gardens and gardeners. Other statues made by Lord Burlington include a wolf, a boar, a goat, a lion, and a lioness; as well as statues of Mercury, Hercules, Cain and Abel, and a gladiator.

Beyond the exedra is what is known as the “Orange Tree Garden” in which is located the iconic Ionic Temple, a circular building, possibly derived from the Pantheon or the Temple of Romulus in Rome. The portico is inspired by the Temple of Portunus which William Kent illustrated in one of the rooms of the villa. The temple faces onto a circular pool of water with a small obelisk positioned at its center. Another obelisk is located beyond a cascade to the west of the villa.

The beautiful lawn at the rear of the house was created in 1745 and planted with Cedar of Lebanon trees which alternate with stunning funerary urns designed by William Kent himself, between the urns and the trees are three more sphinxes facing the direction of the sun.

A lake was added around 1727 by widening the Bollo Brooks, the excess soil was then used to produce an elevated walkaway for people behind the cascade to admire the gardens and a view of the river Thames. A stunning gateway designed by Inigo Jones in 1621 for Beaufort House inn Chelsea was brought to the gardens in 1738. Lord Burlington’s gardens have no oriental elements, despite Chinese art being en vogue at the time, nor do they have the slightest tribute to English architecture, unlike other gardens of the time, this is because Lord Burlington, found the English Gothic style as barbaric and backward.

The Classic Bridge located beyond the Orange Tree Garden was built for Georgiana Spencer, it was designed by James Wyatt and built in 1774. Between 1778 and 1784, the 5th Duke of Devonshire had the Casina and the Gibbs Pagan Temple demolished due to a change in taste. In the first decade of the 19th century, the garden acquired its current looks with the latest addition and modifications.

Chiswick House remains a Georgian haven of peace and tranquillity in London, as well as a testament to an era of great taste. It truly is Neo-Classical splendor.