Pleasure Garden to Parkland: The Changing Landscape of Orleans House

The Thames brought commerce and wealth to South West London, attracting royalty, aristocrats, artists, writers and wealthy property owners. The legacy of these luminaries is an area exceptionally rich in heritage buildings, gardens and landscapes. Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust and English Heritage’s Marble Hill have organised a series of nine free virtual talks over three weeks beginning on Wednesday 27th January.  Experts will explore, explain and offer insight about a luminary, their landscape, garden and property.

The gardens and grounds of Orleans House were ceremoniously transformed and reconfigured by each occupant of the 18th century house. As the estate expanded down to the river and up towards Richmond Road, the gardens saw orchards, grottos, ice houses, formal planting and wild woodland. This talk will take us through the notable features of the ever changing gardens, from their initial landscaping by James Johnston to the woodland grounds you can walk through today.

This talk will be give by Minna Andersen who is a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. She has organised art gallery tours, visits to London sights and specialist walking tours. She frequently appears in Finnish TV and news to promote all aspects of London. She is a volunteer with Orleans House Gallery and the Poppy Factory. More about the talk and the speaker can be found here.

Admission to this talk is free but but we encourage you to make a £5 donation for each talk, if you are able, which will be divided equally between the nine participating organisations.

The talk will start at 7 pm and last for approximately 20 minutes with time being allowed for questions and answers at the end. The event will end at or before 8 pm. It will be delivered using Zoom so you will need a computer or tablet with the Zoom program/app on it. You will be sent a link by email shortly before the lecture begins and you should follow this link at the appropriate time to join the audience. If you haven’t used Zoom before, you will be prompted to download the appropriate software as soon as you try to join.