Syon House and Syon Park

The house was named after Syon Abbey, a medieval monastery that was founded by Henry V in 1415 and which occupied the current site of Syon House from 1431. Syon Abbey was closed in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and shortly afterwards the property was leased to the 1st Duke of Somerset who built Syon House in 1552.

In 1542, during the short period between the closure of Syon Abbey and the construction of Syon House, Catherine Howard (Henry VIII’s fifth wife) was imprisoned here before being executed at the Tower of London and in 1547, Henry VIII’s funeral procession stopped here en route to his burial at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.

In 1594, the property was acquired by Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland and it has remained in the family ever since. In 1692, Princess Anne lived at Syon House after a disagreement with her sister Mary II (wife of William III).

The Percy family (which includes the current Duke of Northumberland) still live in the house for part of the year (their principal residence is Alnwick Castle in Northumberland) and parts of the house have been open to the public since 1951. The estate is managed by the family and nowadays it is a rather commercial venture with a large garden centre and a Hilton hotel operated on the site.

Several films and television programmes have been filmed on the property including Poirot (1989–2013), King Ralph (1991), the Madness of King George (1994), the Avengers (1998), the Golden Bowl (2000), Bridgerton (2020) and Gosford Park (2001).

What to see at Syon House and Syon Park

In the mid-15th-century, Syon House was built by the 1st Duke of Somerset in the Italian Rennaissance style and in the 18th-century the house was expanded by Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, who commissioned Robert Adam to work on the house and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (considered England’s greatest landscape architect) to redesign the landscape surrounding the house, which is now known as Syon Park.

What to see at Syon House

The house is built mostly in the neo-classical style and it boasts spacious rooms with ornate interiors. The interior style popular during the Georgian era is echoed in Robert Adam’s design, however, there is considerable variation between one room and another which makes Syon House an interesting place to visit. Rooms open to visitors include the Great Hall, the Ante Room, the State Dining Room, the Red Drawing Room, the Long Gallery, the Print Room and Princess Victoria’s Bedroom.

The Great Hall features a striking black and white chequerboard floor and the house’s most famous artwork, The Dying Gaul, a statue depicting a wounded soldier.

The Great Hall leads to the opulent Ante Room, which is ringed by 12 dark green scagliola Ionic columns topped by gilded statues of Greek and Roman gods.

The State Dining Room is noted for its Corinthian columns and its marble statues of Bacchus and Ceres.

The Red Drawing Room is noted for its crimson red walls, its paintings of both the Percy family and Stuart royalty and its ornate ceiling.

The 41.4m (136 ft) Long Gallery is lined with bookshelves and Jacobean panelled walls. It is believed that Lady Jane Grey (who was queen for just nine days) was offered the crown in this room in 1553.

The Print Room was originally home to over 100 prints that were collected by the 1st Duchess of Northumberland but these have been replaced by portraits from the 16th- to 18th-centuries depicting notable people associated with Syon House.

The young Princess Victoria (who would later become Queen Victoria) visited the house frequently over a six-year period and Princess Victoria’s Bedroom is the room she stayed in during this time.

What to see in Syon Park

Syon Park is the complex of 56.6ha (139 acres) of gardens and parkland that surround Syon House. The park includes several lakes and flood meadows adjoining the River Thames that look towards Kew Gardens.

The Great Conservatory is one of the more impressive buildings on the estate. It was designed by Charles Fowler in the 1820s and completed in 1827. In its heyday, the conservatory would have been home to, then exotic, plants from Australia, China and South Africa.

Syon Park is also home to the Syon Park Trout Fishery, which operates at a 2.43ha (six acre) lake that was originally constructed by Capability Brown. The lake is stocked with brown trout and it is a beautiful spot for fishing. An additional charge applies to anyone wanting to fish here with a day ticket costing £12–16 (£9–13 if you pre-book online), although season memberships work out cheaper if you live nearby and come here regularly.

Visiting Syon House and Syon Park

Syon House and Syon Park are open to visitors between mid-March and late October.

During the open season, the gardens are open every day but Syon House is only open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays and on bank holidays.

Although Syon House is not part of either English Heritage or the National Trust, it is part of the Historic Houses Association (HHA) and Historic Houses members can visit free of charge.

Syon Park is located between Brentford and Isleworth in west London. Syon House is located well inside the park with access via Park Road in Isleworth and access by public transport is not particularly convenient.

If you are arriving by public transport, the easiest way to get here is by train to Syon Lane (which has four trains per hour from London Waterloo) and then take a 10-minute walk to the northern pedestrian entrance on London Road, followed by a short walk through the park to the main car park. Alternately, visitors can take the tube to Gunnersbury (on the District line) and then take bus route 237 or 267 before entering via the pedestrian entrance on London Road. Free parking is available and it is much easier to visit if you’re driving.

There is one guided tour each week, departing from the Great Hall at 2pm on Wednesdays. Apart from this tour, visitors are free to explore the public areas of the house independently. There are guides in all the open rooms who are able to tell you more about the house.

There are several places to eat and drink on the estate. Most visitors go to the Garden Kitchen Restaurant in the Wyedale Garden Centre although there are also bars and restaurants on the grounds of the Syon Park Hilton hotel.

As one of England’s more commercially-oriented stately homes, there are several businesses operated on the property including a children’s play centre (Snakes and Ladders), a Hilton hotel, a garden centre and Syon Park Trout Fishery.

Although you can see the house in under an hour, you really should allow at least a couple of hours for your visit once you factor in time to see the gardens plus the walk to and from the railway station (or the bus stop). Many visitors combine a visit to Syon House with a visit to nearby Kew Gardens or the attractions in Brentford (the Musical Museum and the London Museum of Water and Steam).