- Syon House
Syon House and its 200 acre (80
hectare /800,000 m²)park is situated in WestLondon , inEngland . It belongs to theDuke of Northumberland and is now his family's London residence. The family's traditional central London residence wasNorthumberland House .History
Syon House shares its name with
Syon Abbey , a medieval monastery of the Bridgettine Order, founded in 1414 or 1415, at the current Syon Park site, by Henry V and completed by his son, Henry VI. In 1539, the abbey was surrendered to the English crown during theDissolution of the Monasteries , and the monastic community was expelled. [Citation |last= |first= |title=Syon Park:History |series=Syon Park:The London Home of the Duke of Northumberland ]In 1541 and part of the following year, Henry VIII's fifth wife,
Catherine Howard , was brought to Syon for her long imprisonment. In February of 1542, she was taken to theTower of London and executed on charges of adultery.Syon was in the possession of
Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (through his wife, Elizabeth Seymour ("née" Percy), Duchess of Somerset) in the late 17th century. After the future Queen Anne had a disagreement with her sister, Mary II, over her friendship with Sarah Churchill, Countess of Marlborough, she was evicted from her court residence at thePalace of Whitehall and stayed at Syon with her close friends, the Somersets, in 1692. Anne gave birth to a stillborn child there. Shortly after the birth, Queen Mary II came to visit her, again demanding that Anne dismiss the Countess of Marlborough, and stormed out again when Anne flatly refused.In the eighteenth century, Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, commissioned architect and interior designer
Robert Adam , and landscape designerLancelot “Capability” Brown to redesign the house and estate. Work began on the interior reconstruction project in 1762. Five large rooms on the west, south and east sides of the House, were completed before work ceased in 1769. A central rotunda, which Adams had intended for the interior courtyard space, was not implemented, due to cost. [cite book |last=Field |first=D. M. |title=The World's Greatest Architecture Past & Present |page=p.207]Syon Park
Syon Park borders the
Thames , looking across the river toKew Gardens , and near its banks is a tidal meadow flooded twice a day by the river. It contains more than 200 species of rare trees. Although the park and lake were designed by Capability Brown in 1760, their character today is nineteenth century. The circular pool has a copy ofGiambologna 's Mercury.The Great Conservatory in the gardens, designed byCharles Fowler in 1828 [cite web
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title = Great Conservatory
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url = http://www.syonpark.co.uk/tour_conservatory.asp
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accessdate = 2008-07-18] and completed in 1830, was the first conservatory to be built from metal and glass on a large scale. The conservatory was shown in a dream sequence inMeera Syal 's 1993 film "Bhaji on the Beach ". It was also the setting for the music video to The Cure's 1984 single The Caterpillar, directed byTim Pope .Henry Percy, 11th Duke of Northumberland who was head of the family from 1988 to 1995, was noted for planting many trees in the grounds of Syon.In 2002, the English poet
Geoffrey Hill released a booklength poem, "The Orchards of Syon", to much acclaim. "The Orchards of Syon", focuses on the history of the region and in particular on the orchard of rare trees first planted in Syon Abbey.Robert Altman 's 2001 film,Gosford Park , was partly filmed at Syon House.
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