A Robert Adam mansion and its lakes, hemmed in by the west London suburbs but still a proper green escape
Open to visitorsa National Trust place — check opening times and admission before you go
The M4 hums along one edge and planes climb out of Heathrow overhead, and yet step into the park and it turns quietly rural: broad grass, old cedars, a chain of lakes with wildfowl on them. The house at the centre began as a Tudor mansion built for the banker Sir Thomas Gresham, then the Child family, bankers themselves, had Robert Adam remodel it in the later 18th century. What he left behind is one of the most complete Adam interiors anywhere, room after room of his ceilings, plasterwork and furniture designed to match.
The park is free to walk and open daily, which makes it a genuinely useful bit of green space for this side of London, good for a stroll or a picnic without paying a penny. The house is the paid National Trust part, with set opening hours that are shorter in winter, so check before making a special trip for the interiors.
If you’re stringing together the green spaces along the Thames, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Syon Park are close to the south-east, and the Thames Path is walkable from here. Richmond Park, the big one, lies a little further in the same direction.
