Osterley Park and House
A city-edge escape where Tudor bones wear a Robert Adam tuxedo. Osterley began as Sir Thomas Gresham’s 1570s mansion and was refashioned in the 1760s–80s for the banker Child family as a stage set for power: a show-house to wow clients with taste, money and modernity. Adam’s interiors are tutorials in light and proportion—the circular hall, the ‘Etruscan’ dressing room painted from vase patterns, and a theatre-long gallery that seems to lengthen as you walk. Outside, a moat-like lake, meadows and cattle make West London feel like deep countryside. Do the house in 60–75 minutes (Hall → State Apartments → Long Gallery), then walk the lake loop (30–40 minutes) for deer, waterbirds and big skies.
Opening Hours
Admissions
What's not to miss inside?
The Entrance Hall
Adam’s ‘welcome with geometry’ momentCool stone, pale walls and a measured play of circles and right angles announce the house’s new 18th-century identity—Tudor mass with Neoclassical manners.
📍 Ground floor, main door
Etruscan Dressing Room
Britain’s pioneering ‘Etruscan’ interiorPainted bands copy ancient vase decoration the Georgians called ‘Etruscan’—really Greek—and turn scholarship into fashion.
📍 Family apartments, first floor
State Bed & Apartments
Sleeping as theatreA show bed hung in lush textiles and rooms choreographed for procession—status you could walk through, not just see.
📍 First floor, east range
The Long Gallery
Perspective play on a grand scaleLight, mirrors and repeated ornament make distance feel elastic—the Georgians’ Instagram corridor before cameras existed.
📍 Upper floor, garden side
Lake & Meadow Loop
Country air inside the M25Water, cattle and big oaks frame the house like a landscape painting; the banking show-home dissolves into rural calm.
📍 From the garden gate, clockwise path
Inspire your Friends
- Osterley’s 18th-century ‘Etruscan’ dressing room is among the first British interiors directly painted from ancient vase patterns—scholarship turned into décor.
- The makeover was bankrolled by Child & Co., who used Osterley as a living showroom—clients saw their banker’s taste before they saw his ledgers.
- Beneath the elegance sits Tudor fabric: the 1760s refit wrapped and reorganised a 16th-century house built for Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange.
- Film scouts love its time-travel trick: the same shooting day can deliver Tudor, Georgian and timeless ‘grand country house’ looks without leaving the site.
- The parkland still runs cattle—one reason birdlife is so good here; hooves open ground for seeds and invertebrates that pull in herons and wagtails.
