Picnics and Perambulations in & around Twickenham A meander with numerous diversions from Strawberry Hill to Richmond A gentle 2 to 3 mile walk linking two unique historic houses. Strawberry Hill and Sandycombe Lodge
Created by Tess Nowell for the People, Places & Spaces Module of the MA Public History at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, May 2016 Photographs Tess Nowell Designed in Pages using Baskerville and Didot typefaces Front Cover detail of JMW Turner The Thames From Richmond Hill c1815 Tate
Twickenham For centuries the stretch of the Thames from Isleworth to Hampton Court has attracted people of note. During the 18th century the possibility of creating houses set in arcadian riverside landscapes reasonably close to London caused the area to become very fashionable. The area also attracted visitors and just as now there were guidebooks for example the Ambulator or, the Stranger’s Companion in a tour round London was already in it’s 7th edition by 1794. Proximity to London combined with suitable soil meant that the big houses became interspersed with productive market gardens and nurseries growing fruit, flowers and vegetables. After the railway arrived in 1848 the large estates began to be sold off for speculative housing to accommodate the expanding numbers of commuters. While only a few of the great houses built in the area remain others live on in street and place names. Fortunately enough has survived to see glimpses of what the area was like over three hundred years ago when Walpole created Strawberry Hill and Turner Sandycombe Lodge. We can also see the Thames through Turner’s eyes in his sketchbooks and paintings, while Walpole wrote thousands of letters which provide us with a surprisingly vivid commentary on his life and times.
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A meander from
Strawberry Hill to Richmond with numerous diversions This gentle 2 to 3 mile walk links two unique historic houses. Strawberry Hill and Sandycombe Lodge Strawberry Hill & Sandycombe Lodge might appear to have little in common. However both could be described as self-builds designed by owners who probably did not imagine that they would survive for several hundred years. My buildings are paper, like my writings, and both will blow away in ten years after I am dead,
Horace Walpole 1761
Both houses have survived (just) to tell their stories through the passion, dedication and intervention of local people who formed The Strawberry Hill Trust and the Turner’s House Trust to save them. The Heritage Lottery Fund has contributed towards the restoration of both houses enabling them to be shared with visitors. Check opening times before paying a special visit. As well as historic houses this walk passes numerous children’s playgrounds, cafes and pubs so a few miles could take some time! 2
From Strawberry Hill to Sandycombe Lodge via the river path is around 2 miles and takes about an hour on foot, continuing on to Richmond Bridge adds another mile or so. The total distance and time will vary according to how many meanders and detours the walker takes.
Map image from Nicholson Greater London Atlas 13th edition 1999
Because the Thames is tidal parts of the suggested route become submerged around high tide. This car parked on the slipway by Richmond Bridge and then the tide came up ‌. tide tables for Richmond Lock are at www.tidetimes.co.uk 3
Getting here The public transport options include the 33 and R68 buses or the train to Strawberry Hill, a short walk away. For more information about public transport in the area go to the Transport for London website: tfl.gov.uk It is possible to do the walk in reverse starting at Richmond Bridge or to divide it into sections or to use public transport for all or part of the journey. Just up the road from Strawberry Hill House on the edge of a car park at St Mary’s University is Walpole’s Chapel in the Woods (c1760). The ornate carved stone front of this Grade 1 listed building could be inspired by the Audley Tomb in Salisbury Cathedral.
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Strawberry Hill has become synonymous with the Gothic fantasy house built by Horace Walpole (1717 -1797) to house his collection of treasures. The house is now surrounded by roads and houses but when Walpole arrived in 1747 this place offered the prospect of a poetic natural landscape with views of the Thames. The land running down to the Thames was sold in the 1920s and the river view was lost.
The enclosed enchanted little landscape, then, is Strawberry Hill….The lawn before the house is situated on the top of a small hill, from whence to the left you see the town and church of Twickenham encircling a turn of the river, that looks exactly like a seaport in miniature. The opposite shore is a most delicious meadow, bounded by Richmond Hill,…… Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann June 12 1753
The walk starts outside Strawberry Hill House on Waldegrave Road. With the house behind you turn right and walk down to the mini-roundabout. Use the zebra crossings to cross over Waldegrave Road and Cross Deep to reach Radnor Gardens. Cross Deep is closely associated with another writer, the poet, Alexander Pope (1688-1744) and his villa by the Thames. 5
Radnor Gardens Radnor Gardens, a small public park running down to the Thames was formed from the grounds of two 18th century houses Cross Deep House and Radnor House. Radnor House was destroyed by a bomb in September1940. This stone in a remaining area of wall commemorates a particularly high tide in 1774. The same high tide is commemorated on the retaining wall at the corner of Embankment and Riverside in Twickenham. The War Memorial to the 1914-18 war by Mortimer Brown (1874-1966) includes three relief panels of Sailors, Airmen and Women at War. On the other side of the road is the Alexander Pope Hotel previously the Pope’s Grotto Pub.
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Leave Radnor Gardens and cross over the road at the crossing outside Radnor House School. The striking black and white half timbered building known as ‘Pope’s Villa’ was built around 1842 by H. E Kendall (1805-1885) for Thomas Young, a tea merchant. While the original Pope’s Villa is long gone his grotto survives underneath Cross Deep despite visitors taking souvenirs home. In the late 18th century there was a short lived fashion for grottos; another one survives in Marble Hill Park. Look through the railings in front of St Catherine’s School to glimpse the steps down to Pope’s Grotto.
The once celebrated grotto is no longer remarkable, but for having been erected under the immediate direction of our bard. The delapidations of time, and the pious thefts of visitors, who select the spars, ores and even the common flints, as so many sacred relics, have almost brought it to ruin. It no longer forms a "camera obscura;” nor does the “the thin alabaster lamp of an orbiular form” now “irradiate the star of looking-glass” placed in the centre of it. Ambulator seventh edition 1794
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Carry on walking up the road towards Twickenham on the left hand side past still rural looking Grotto Road. The left hand side of the road provides the best view of the few grand riverside houses that survive including Cross Deep, a late 17th century brick built house of five bays. The two extensions on either side are by the architect James Gibb (1682-1754) who also designed the Octagon Room at Orleans House as well as remodelling Pope’s Villa. The house has striking sash windows with Gothic detailing which are probably a 19th century addition. The semi detached houses of Poulett Gardens which curves round Cross Deep were built in the 1920s on the site of the last remaining market garden in central Twickenham which was operated by William Bates until his death in 1922. Until 1986 there was a cinema at the junction of Cross Deep and Heath Road. The Egyptian style Luxor Picture Theatre opened in 1929 but by 1946 it was just another Odeon.
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At the top of Cross Deep is the centre of Twickenham where three main roads meet. Cross over the road again, bear right and turn down Wharf Lane towards the Embankment and the river. At this end of the Embankment the Diamond Jubilee Gardens and Sunshine Cafe have been created on the site of the old swimming pool. Continue along the Embankment where the houses are a hodgepodge of elegant eighteenth century town houses and modest cottages. The Barmy Arms public house dates back to at least the 17th century when it was known as the Queen’s Head. A footbridge leads to Eel Pie Island named after the pies consumed by visitors to the island in the 19th century. The island’s more recent claim to fame is as the location of the Eel Pie Hotel where numerous rhythm and blues groups including the fledgling Rolling Stones and Who performed in the early 1960s 9
Continue walking along the Embankment to the junction with Riverside. At this point we divert up Church Lane to take a closer look at St Mary’s Church where Alexander Pope is buried. Building failure due to neglect is nothing new and in 1713 the church collapsed leaving just the tower. The replacement red brick Queen Anne nave and chancel were designed by John James. When the tide is up this section of road is often underwater !
Church Street was the main road to Richmond until York Street was driven through the original ancient street plan in 1899 Is a handsome populous village pleasantly situated on the river Thames between Teddington and Isleworth or as it is commonly pronounced Thistleworth to the Eastward of the former between two brooks that here fall into that river and in the county of Middlesex The Histories and Antiquities of Twickenham‌.
Just up the road by the church is
this group of houses built around 1720, one of which houses the Twickenham Museum.
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St Mary’s Church The interior of St Mary the Virgin with it’s Victorian box pews includes some interesting monuments such as this one to Hamon L’Estrange Gent and his wife Sarah. Alexander Pope’s simple gravestone with it’s single ‘P’ has been supplemented by an inscribed plaque. Here are buried the mortal remains of Alexander Pope, 1688-1744. Qui nil molitur inepte (who wrote nothing inept). R.I.P. This tablet was placed by three members of the Faculty of English of Yale University, 1962.
Outside in the Church Yard there are numerous grave stones and memorials including ones to the actress Kitty Clive (1711-1785), the tea merchant Thomas Twining (1675–1741) and Mary Beach.
Walk thorough the Churchyard and out onto the Riverside by Dial House. Thomas Twining tea merchant and founder of Twinings Tea lived at Dial House with it’s striking sundial. In 1889 the house was bequeathed to the parish. Across the road to the right is the entrance to Champion’s Wharf. The sculpture Pope’s Urn designed by architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios to celebrate Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was recently installed in this area. As well as this public art work commissioned by Poet in the City in 2015 there is a children’s play beach with a model Viking Ship and Thames Wherry. 11
Walk through the archway at the far end into the Fountain Gardens then take the first left where you will come across the Naked Ladies. This surprising group of nymphs were brought to Twickenham by Sir Ratan Tata in 1909. With the Naked Ladies behind you walk down to the round pond and go up the stone steps on the left.
From the top of the bridge you will see the back of York House across a large sunken lawn. (York House may also be approached on the flat from the front and side.) York House had a long and chequered history before being purchased from Lady Tata by Twickenham Council in 1924. It is now council offices, including the Registry Office, surrounded by a public park.
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Walk over to the back of York House and follow the side exit by the tennis courts out to Sion Road. Discreetly placed on the right of the path is this rare late Victorian cast iron urinal made at the Saracen Foundry, Glasgow. At the park gates turn right past the terraced houses of Sion Row (1721) and back down to the riverside. The terrace has an unusual decorated eaves cornice picked out in black and white. The White Swan pub on the corner of Ferry Road is one of the oldest in Twickenham dating back to 1722. This part of the Riverside with it’s 18th and 19th century houses has a seaside feel and is popular with filmmakers.
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Continue walking along Riverside which as it bends round towards Orleans House Gallery is crossed by a cast iron footbridge almost lost in the surrounding trees. On the river side of the road Orleans Gardens has a children’s playground, dog free grass area and cafe.
Orleans House Gallery Orleans House had a chequered history ending up in the ownership of the Crane River Sand and Ballast Company who demolished most of it around 90 years ago. The next owner Mrs Ionides saved the remains which included the unique Octagon Room (1716-20) by James Gibbs bequeathing the buildings and her art collection to the local authority on condition that Orleans House should be used as an art gallery. Orleans House runs a extensive programme of art activities for everyone and in recent years the gallery has expanded into the Stables. There is a cafe in the north stable block plus toilets. The woodland part of the grounds has several paths ending at a gate onto Orleans Road. 14
Where Riverside meets Orleans Road, you can either turn left up Orleans Road to one of the entrances to Marble Hill Park or continue along by the river past Marble Hill House until you reach the riverside entrance to the Park. At this point you can also shorten the walk by continuing straight along the footpath towards Richmond which is about 20-30 minutes away.
Just past the playground and the junction with Orleans Road is Hammerton's ferry, the last remaining privately owned foot ferry on the tidal Thames which carries people, dogs and bicycles across the river. In Winter and early Spring there is a good view over to Ham House. In Little Dorrit Charles Dickens describes a scene familiar to anyone who has used the ferry from Marble Hill over to Ham. Arthur Clennam is visiting Mr Meagles at his cottage by the Thames at Twickenham. As the morning was fine, and he had an hour on his hands, he crossed the river by the ferry, and strolled along a footpath through some meadows. When he came back to the towing-path, he found the ferry-boat on the opposite side, and a gentleman hailing it and waiting to be taken over. Charles Dickens Little Dorrit (1857) Chapter 17
In the early 19th century the small islands in the Thames or aits at Chiswick, Brentford, Isleworth and Twickenham were important sources of willows and osiers for the local basketmakers. Until the 1890s baskets were important for transporting fruit and vegetables for example strawberries were sold in small cones called pottles that fitted into round wicker baskets called marnes. 15
Marble Hill House
Built in 1724-1734 for Henrietta Howard Countess of Suffolk (c1688-1767) mistress of George II, Marble Hill is the last complete survivor of the villas and gardens built along the Thames as Arcadian retreats from London in the 18th century. It was at the centre of fashionable life in eighteenth century Twickenham with poets and wits including Jonathan Swift, John Gay, Alexander Pope and later Horace Walpole on Henrietta Howard’s guest list. The Park was saved for the public in 1901 when the house and surrounding land was purchased by the then London County Council. Marble Hill House and Park are now maintained by English Heritage.
In order to celebrate this birth day we had a cold dinner at Marble hill. Mrs Susan offered us wine upon the occasion and upon such an occasion we could not refuse it. Our entertainment consisted of flesh and fish and the lettuce of a Greek island called Cos. Alexander Pope in a letter to Henrietta Howard where he describes how he was entertained at her house in her absence. June 20 1726
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Marble Hill House - Model Market Garden The Kitchen Garden at Marble Hill has recently been recreated in the same area of the park as the original created by Henrietta Howard in the 1720s. In today’s park this is the far corner beyond the Adventure Playground and One O’Clock Club. Market gardens along the Thames had supplied vegetable, fruit and flowers for London since the late 1600s. In the 18th century produce was taken from Brentford, Isleworth and Twickenham to Covent Garden by river, foot and cart. The fruit-gardeners have what they call an upper and an under crop-growing on the same ground at one time. First, the ground is stocked with apples, pears, cherries, plums,walnuts, &c. like a complete orchard, which they call the upper crop: secondly, it is fully planted with raspberries, gooseberries, currants, strawberries, and all such fruit, shrubs, and herbs, as are known to to sustain the shade and drip from the trees above them with the least injury; this they term the under crop. The Beauties of England and Wales: or, Delineations, topographical, historical, and descriptive, of each county - London and Middlesex part 1 by Edward Wedlake Brayley 1810
Isleworth was known for strawberries, with the first successful commercial strawberry Keen’s Seedling raised there in the early 1800s. In the 19th century produce grown in the Twickenham area included pineapples, peaches and chillies. In the early 20th century Poupart’s Jam Factory graced Third Cross Road. While the arrival of suburban railway lines in the nineteenth century initially helped the market gardens the demand for housing eventually led to their demise. By the1970s there were just a few nurseries left in the Hampton area where the horticultural past lives on in the name Hampton Nurserylands.
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Terraced Houses Near Marble Hill Park are several outstanding examples of early 18th century terraced houses. In the early 1700s a retired Naval officer Captain John Gray entered the world of property speculation by constructing 24 houses in Montpelier Row and 10 in Sion Row. Several of these houses have fire marks. Fire insurance started in 1680 when Nicolas Barbon set up the Fire Office. As the idea caught on each company designed it’s own distinctive emblem, for example, the Hand in Hand, the Sun and the portcullis of the Westminster insurance company. Notable residents of Montpelier Row include the landscape painter Thomas Christopher Hofland (1777 - 1843) and at number 15, the corner house with it’s distinctive curved bay windows, poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and musician Pete Townshend.
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Plaques - not just round Founded in 1866 by the Society of Arts, London’s blue plaques link notable people with the buildings in which they lived and worked. There are twenty four in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, three of which may be seen on this walk. The scheme is now run by English Heritage.
While different colours and shapes were used before the circular blue and white roundel became the standard design the two square plaques commemorating Alfred Lord Tennyson and Horace Walpole are not included on the English Heritage list of plaques.
Horace Walpole Strawberry Hill House, Waldegrave Road Henry Labouchere Radnor House School, Cross Deep Alfred Lord Tennyson Chapel House, (now No. 15) Montpelier Row Walter de la Mare End House, Montpelier Row James Mallord William Turner, Sandycombe Road 19
Sandycombe Lodge To reach Turner’s House walk through Marble Hill Park to the Pedestrian Gate onto Richmond Road situated roughly in the middle of the park ’s frontage onto the road. Cross over Richmond Road turn left and walk down Sandycombe Road, Turner’s House is on the right almost at the end where it meets St Margaret’s Road. Sandycombe Lodge was designed and built by the English landscape artist J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Turner was already familiar with the area having lived in Brentford as a boy then Isleworth in the years before he bought the land at Twickenham in 1807. Originally called Solus Lodge this modest whitewashed villa was created as his retreat and escape from London; where his devoted father tended to the garden and kept house including walking to Brentford Market for provisions. In 1826 Turner’s 80 year old father was brought back to live in central London and later that year Turner sold Sandycombe although he retained the adjoining meadow until 1848 when he sold it to the Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway.
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After a succession of owners the property is now owned by the Turner’s House Trust. The last owner Professor Harold Livermore (1914-2010) did much to ensure that this unique place should become a monument to Turner in Twickenham. During the Summer of 2016 the house will be closed to visitors while repair and restoration work is undertaken with the aim of returning the building to Turner’s original two bedroom design.
Sandycombe Lodge, engraved by W.B. Cooke 1814 Tate Gallery
Elevation and Floor Plan Ideas from Sandycombe and Yorkshire Sketchbook JMW Turner c.1809–11 Tate Gallery
The house includes some elegant details such as the entrance hall with it’s graceful top-lit staircase
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Marble Hill Park to Richmond Bridge To finish the walk at Richmond Bridge return to Marble Hill Park taking the path towards the river to the left of the house passing the ancient black walnut tree. With the Thames in front of you turn left along the Warren Footpath towards Richmond. If the tide is up you may have to divert along the Cambridge Park footpath. When gentleman poet Richard Owen Cambridge (1717-1802) moved to the house he called Twickenham Meadows in 1751 he landscaped the gardens to create a fashionable vista open to the river. He allowed boating parties to land and picnic on his land until bad behaviour by some put an end to his benevolence. All that remains of the house is the street name Cambridge Park.
1822 Thomas Christopher Hofland Government Art Collection
It was customary for parties of pleasure, ‌to go up with the tide to the extensive lawn in the front of the house, carrying a cold repast with them; at a proper distance, they spread their cloth on the verdant carpet, and thus enjoyed the enchanting prospect around them. The late good-natured owner of the premises, year after year, signalized his urbanity to his fellow-citizens, by permitting this annual recreation. We add, with regret, that since his death the indulgences is withdrawn, and prohibitions in large letters painted on boards, are exhibited along the banks of the Thames, to prevent the renewal of those rural excursions to this beloved retreat
M The European Magazine September 1803 (p. 204)
George Owen Cambridge in a letter to the editor printed in the October 1803 issue (p.255) explains that scenes of riot and disorder as well as the grossest licentiousness and indecency drove his father to put up the boards forbidding the landing of boats. 22
Richmond Bridge Richmond Bridge (1774-1777) designed by James Paine, is the oldest surviving bridge across the Thames in London. It has rained this whole month, and we have got another inundation. The Thames is as broad as your Danube, and all my meadows are under water. Lady Browne and I, coming last Sunday night from Lady Blandford’s, were in a piteous plight.Th e ferry-boat was turned round by the current,and carried to Isleworth.Then we ran against the piers of our new bridge, and the horses were frightened. Richmond Hill & Bridge JMW Turner c1828 Watercolour British Museum
Horace Walpole letter to Conway 27 September 1774
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Picnics Mole’s breathless description of Rat’s luncheon basket has become our idea of the archetypal summer picnic: "What's inside it?" asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity. "There's cold chicken inside it," replied the Rat briefly: "coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrolls– cresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater—"
illustration EH Shepard Wind in the Willows Kenneth Graham 1908
"O stop, stop!" cried the Mole in ecstasies. "This is too much!" "Do you really think so?" enquired the Rat seriously. "It's only what I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are always telling me that I'm a mean beast and cut it very fine!”
But when and how did this idea of a picnic, of a meal packed in a basket and eaten outdoors in a bucolic setting come about ? The Rat brought the boat alongside the bank, made her fast, helped the still awkward Mole safely ashore, and swung out the luncheon-basket. The Mole begged as a favour to be allowed to unpack it all by himself; and the Rat was very pleased to indulge him, and to sprawl at full length on the grass and rest, while his excited friend shook out the table-cloth and spread it, took out all the mysterious packets one by one and arranged their contents in due order, still gasping: "O my! O my!" at each fresh revelation.
Tasha Tudor Wind in the Willows 1966
EH Shepard Wind in the Willows Kenneth Graham 1908
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While for centuries working people have sat down in the open air to eat food carried from home the idea of the picnic as a specific type of meal is more recent. In 1802 an exclusive and fashionable amateur dramatic group known as the Pic-Nic Society was founded in London where the society’s events often concluded with a supper where the members supplied the refreshments. On the 16th March 1802 The Times newspaper felt that it needed to explain this modern term Pic-Nic to it’s readers.
JMW Turner Workmen Lunching in a Gravel Pit c.1797 Tate
As the expression of a PIC-NIC Supper is become so fashionable, though it is much oftener used than understood, it may be necessary to explain it for the information of many of our Readers:A Pic-Nic Supper consists of a variety of dishes. The Subscribers to the entertainment have a bill of fare presented to them, with a number against each dish. The lot which he draws obliges him to furnish the dish marked against it, which he either takes with him in his carriage, or sends by a servant. The proper variety is preserved by the Maitre d’Hotel, who forms the bill of fare. As the cookery is furnished by so many people of fashion, each strives to excel; and this a Pic-Nic Supper not only gives rise to much pleasant mirth, but generally can boast of the refinement of the art.
Although the theatrical activities of the Pic-Nic society outraged the London newspapers for a while, the am-dram sharing supper connection was soon forgotten and the word became associated with out door eating. One of the leading members of the Pic-Nic Society was Lady Albinia Buckinghamshire, a colourful character and society hostess who ran high stakes gambling parties from her home. She was satirised by the cartoonists of the day such as James Gillray in this 1795 portrayal of her. British Museum
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A few years before the Pic- Nic Society became the talk of the town Lady Albinia then know as Mrs Hobart had held several extravagant open air rural breakfasts at her villa Sans Souci on Ham Common. This spectacular event was described at length in various newspapers of the time and by Horace Walpole in letters to Mary Berry. In June 1791 the weather was typically English: hay and ice, orange flowers and rheumatism’s! I am now cowering over the fire. Mrs Hobart had announced a rural breakfast at Sans Souci last Saturday: nothing being so pastoral as a fat grandmother in a row of houses on Ham Common. It rained early in the morning: she dispatched post-boys-for want of cupids and zephyrs, to stop the nymphs and shepherds who tend their flocks in Pall Mall and St Jame’s Street but half of them missed the couriers and arrived. Walpole to Mary Berry 14 June 1791 The Garden, which is shady and pleasant was formed into a French village, in which the Breakfast was laid out in true rural style - Tables, adorned with “bouquets" of flowers, were placed under the trees, and formed a novel spectacle… There was actually an oven, and a French cook, who, as fast as he could give cakes, found ready and devouring customers Lloyd’s Evening Post London 22 June 1791 Woe is me! I have not an atom of news to send you, but that the second edition of Mother Hubbards Tale was again spoiled on Saturday last by the rain, yet she had an ample assemblage of company from London and the neighbourhood Walpole to Mary Berry 23 June 1791
A Party in the Grounds of Ham House,Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827). Watercolour V&A Museum
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In July 1813 a party of 17 including the artist Turner enjoyed what we would call a picnic at Ham followed by coffee and tea at Turner’s new house. An event described by H.Elliott, (a private secretary in the War Office) in a letter to Robert Finch Our four-oared boat just held our party of 17, consisting of the Well’s, Herbsts, Miss Perks, Turner, Wilson, Thos, Chas & Jas Wheeler, Edward and I . The six last only rowed. ….We dined in a beautiful part of Ham Meadows upon half-made hay, under the shade of a groupe of elms near the river & had coffee and tea at Turner;s new house. …we had good veal & fruit pies, beef, salad &c H Elliott letter to Finch 27th July 1813
At around the same time Jane Austen was employing the word to poke gentle fun at her characters in her novel Emma (1815) Emma had never been to Box Hill she wished to see what every body found so well worth seeing ……it was to be done in a quiet unpretending elegant way infinitely superior to the bustle and preparation, the regular eating and drinking and pic-nic parade of the Eltons and the Sucklings
Figures picnicking by the Thames at Twickenham, by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827). 27
Beyond the walk Many of the buildings, people and places described in this walk have groups associated with them. Plus various projects have been set up to explore and record the history of the Twickenham area and the river Thames. Cast Iron Urinals - The Heritage Group of the Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers has further information and pictures Campaign to Protect Rural England: London - 2015 report looking at threats to the Arcadian Thames The Arcadian Thames: Planning Policy Ignored Cinema Treasures for information about the lost cinemas of Twickenham. Eelpiland - The Birth of Rhythm and Blues celebrating the music history of Eel Pie Island in Twickenham. English Heritage - Membership organisation that looks after ancient monuments and historic houses including Marble Hill House. It also runs the Blue Plaque scheme. Marble Hill Society - Lots of detailed information about the house and it’s history Jam Yesterday Jam Tomorrow is a project exploring the Market Garden History of Middlesex. It is part of the Environment Trust for Richmond Upon Thames Memories of Twickenham Riverside - a community project which focuses on various riverside sites including the swimming pool Panorama of the Thames Project - this is a conservation project creating a record of the river through London including a digital version of a 1829 tourist guide to the Thames between Westminster and Richmond upon Thames. Popes Grotto Preservation Trust - Information about visiting the grotto which at present can only be visited during the Twickenham Festival in June and Open House London in September or by special arrangement. 28
Strawberry Hill House - website includes information about the Friends of Strawberry Hill Thames Landscape Strategy - this website includes information about The Arcadian Thames: ‘London’s Countryside’. Turner’s House Twickenham - website with information about the project to restore Sandycombe Lodge J M W Turner - Information and images of works by Turner including his sketchbooks Twickenham Museum - Museum and website introducing the history of Twickenham, Whitton, Teddington and the Hamptons. York House Society - Twickenham's oldest amenity society.