Friday 10 July 2015

Strawberry Hill (London Museum #19 )

This is Strawberry Hill House near Twickenham in West London.








Strawberry Hill House was the home of Horace Walpole, a poet, novelist and prolific letter writer of the 18th Century. He was inspired by Gothic Cathedrals and you can see the influence as you wander through the rooms.





He bought up pieces of old renaissance windows from the Netherlands and other parts of Europe to create his own spectacular windows.


                                                        This glass dates back to 1642.
















The Gallery is the most extravagant  part of the house but also the most familiar to myself. During 1969 -1972 I visited this house many times as the building is owned by St Mary's University London where I trained as a teacher. Many seminars and meetings with tutors took part in this part of the college.


At the time of his death in 1797 Walpole had spent over £20.000 to turn Strawberry Hill House into 'the most celebrated Gothic House in England'.



But this really was a walk down memory lane. My friend and room mate from my college days accompanied me and we spent all day reminiscing about our youth.








I recall doing many circuits of this track!
The beautiful flower meadows that now surround the playing fields.


Sharing with James at Weekend Reflections.

15 comments:

  1. wow, so much to see and study. I love all those beautiful windows. Such gorgeous work. :)

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  2. That is quite a place - he must have been very eccentric!

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  3. The Strawberry Hill House is really unique with the spectacular windows...Thanks for sharing those beautiful photos...

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  4. Just beautiful! I love having a chance to reminisce with old friends, especially when you shared such a really wonderful place back then. Thank you for sharing it with me. :-)

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  5. Beautiful building with an exquisite ceiling and lovely stained glass.

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  6. beautiful building and I particulary love the stain glas windows as well as the gorgeous flowersin the meadow. Have a lovely weekend.

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  7. Beautiful home and grounds. Horace apparently did quite well financially! Fun to reminisce with a good friend.

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  8. I just love those book cases!

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  9. He must have been very sucessful to be able to put that much into a home. Thanks for the tour. Sounds like you and your friend had fun.

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  10. Wow! What a house! Love those windows.

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  11. What a beautiful white building, beautiful. And those flowers are lovely.
    Hugs

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  12. It's a beautiful "house" but not for me, I wouldn't like to live in a house with churchlike windows !

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  13. I bet he would have been absolutely horrified if he saw one of those 'minimalist' homes! It might be a bit much to live in, but it certainly is lovely though!

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  14. That is a very special place , very curious with all those stained glass windows. Always nice to go back to memorylane, a great place to have studied.

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  15. I would love to visit that home and thanks for sharing your visit with us. Beautiful stained glass that he incorporated into his home and a nice nostalgic visit for you and your friend.

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