As regular readers of this blog know, I like exploring follies, and Sunday's Open House gave me an opportunity to explore two of them in Gunnersbury Park which are not usually open to the public. One of these is known as Princess Amelia's Bath House, a miniature castle that was probably designed and built sometime between 1761 and 1786 when Princess Amelia (the daughter of King George II) lived at Gunnersbury. No one is sure of the exact date it was built because it doesn't appear on contemporary maps, and parts of the building are built from older walls that may have formed part of the estate boundary, but they've been unable to confirm this either way. In any case, the outer aspects that make the building resemble a miniature castle were in fact added later, probably sometime during the early 19th century, which means that the original structure would have looked a lot plainer — and a lot less whimsical.
Inside, there's a bathing-room (which we couldn't enter) with an antechamber (where we could, to peer into the bathing-room), both lined with flint and slag and rather dark and cold. There's another room, painted a regal and cosy red, which looks onto a small grotto originally made from quartz crystals and alabaster, and more slag that may have come from the nearby clay kiln in Brentford (about which I can't seem to find any information). At the moment, it's not very prepossessing or romantic, being mostly full of junk and weeds, but it was probably very romantic when the water was cascading over the crystal rocks and amongst the leafy ferns. Still bloody cold, though. Maybe people were hardier in those days — they were certainly shorter. Certainly, the main room was cool enough to be used as a dairy after Princess Amelia lived there, at least according to the information sheet that was handed out.
The other building that's not usually open to the casual public is the Doric temple, which is now used as a Victorian schoolroom as part of the activities of Gunnersbury Park Museum. The information sheet on this place also suggests that this was used as a dairy during Princess Amelia's time, but it's not clear why the dairy was moved to the bath house — if in fact it was. It's a bit of a disappointing building, being much more interesting from the outside, but it was interesting and entertaining to look through some of the school material — although much of it dates much more recently than the Victorian era.
There's also an intriguing ruin near the gate at Pope's Lane. Interestingly, it's not easy to tell just by looking at it whether it's a genuine ruin or a sham ruin, but cursory research suggests it's likely to have been an old gatehouse. If you go through the old archway, the space it used to occupy now seems to contain a compost heap.
Didn't have time to go to the museum, but it's open all year 'round so it won't be hard to go back. More pics from Gunnersbury Park here.
Then it was on a bus to Turnham Green, where we arrived in time for the last tour around Chiswick Town Hall. Like any town hall, it's a solid municipal building and not necessarily the most exciting or glamorous place to visit, but I still found it interesting. Originally built as a vestry hall in the Victorian era, it was extended in Edwardian times, and there's an interesting and very distinct contrast in the different styles inside the building, although the extension is not immediately obvious from outside. You notice it more once you're inside the building, with ballroom balconies obviously jutting into the former windows, and walls that were previously external now part of interior corridors. This leads to the effect of having windows overlooking areas that wouldn't normally have windows (similar to Andrew Logan's house on the Saturday), which is a great idea because it's a rather dark and gloomy building, on the whole. There are lots of green-tiled walls, heavy marble and dark (albeit pretty) art nouveau wallpaper.
Unfortunately, the dark interior and attempting to keep up with the tour made for some very poor quality photos (because you'd really need a tripod to do most of it justice), but there are a few more here anyway.
