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THE KEW SOCIETY

A VIRTUAL REALITY VISIT TO SYON HOUSE

AN ARCHITECTURAL TOUR OF THE STATE ROOMS

Introduction

Syon House is only about forty minutes walk from Kew Green. It is still owned by the

Dukes of Northumberland and is the only major mansion in the London area still in

private hands. It has been in possession of the Percy family since 1594. The house and

the outstanding gardens are usually open three or four times a week from mid-March to

the end of October in most years. I hope that this Virtual Reality Tour will give you

encouragement to visit the house when it can be reopened.

The site of the present house was a convent of the Bridgettine Order which was founded

in 1415 with an endowment from Henry V. He also endowed a monastery for the

Carthusian Order at West Shene at the same time. The Bridgettine Convent was

originally at Isleworth, but moved to the present position in 1431. The convent was well

endowed, but the wealth of the monasteries and convents was their undoing. This convent

was suppressed by Thomas Cromwell in 1539 and Syon became crown property.

Catherine Howard was detained here from November 1541 to January 1542 while

awaiting trial and execution. The coffin of Henry VIII lay at Syon for one night on the

way from Westminster to Windsor.

When Henry VIII died in 1547, his son was still only ten. The Duke of Somerset became

the Lord Protector from 1547 to 1552 and secured the monastery and estate of Syon and

started building the present house. However, in 1552 Somerset was charged with felony,

possibly on “trumped-up” charges brought by the Earl of Dudley, and executed. This

allowed Lord Dudley to become de facto the new Lord Protector and he was made the

Duke of Northumberland. He was no relation to the previous Earls of Northumberland,

whose title was in temporary abeyance. He took possession of Syon and arranged for his

son, Lord Guildford Dudley, to marry Lane Jane Grey, the great-grand daughter of Henry

VII. On the death of Edwards VI, then aged 16, she was offered the crown while at Syon

to ensure a Protestant succession at a meeting of nobles here. She reluctantly agreed to

accept the crown, but reigned for only nine days. Mary I successfully claimed the throne

and sought to restore Catholicism. The Duke of Northumberland was arrested and

executed in 1553. Lady Jane Grey and her husband were executed in the following year.

Her execution was the subject of a famous painting in the National Gallery London by De

La Roche, a French 19th

century painter. Syon House reverted to the crown. In 1557, the

nuns, who were in exile in the Low Countries, were allowed by Mary I to return to Syon,

but they had to go into exile once more on the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558. Portugal

gave them sanctuary where they remained until 1861 and they then returned to this

country settling in Devon.

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The Earldom of Northumberland was brought out of abeyance by Mary I in 1557 and

Thomas Percy became the seventh earl. In 1569 he took part in the unsuccessful uprising

in the north against Elizabeth I and was captured and executed in 1572. He was

succeeded by his brother Henry Percy as the eighth earl. Having initially shown himself

as a loyal supporter of Elizabeth, he was arrested in 1584 on suspicion of attempting to

allow Mary Stuart to escape and incarcerated in the tower where he was fond dead in bed

shot through the heart. It may have been murder or suicide. His son, also Henry Percy,

became the ninth earl. Elizabeth I granted him the lease of Syon and in 1594 appointed

him the Steward of Isleworth. He supported James I’s succession. In return James

appointed him as a Privy Counsellor. He also gave him under letters patent “The Manor

of Isleworth-Syon and Syon House and the demesne lands with free Warren and all

Royalties and Appurtenances.“ However, he fell out of favour because his cousin,

Thomas Percy, who was closely involved in the Gun Powder plot, happened to be dining

with him the day before the plot was discovered. The ninth earl was held in the Tower of

London on suspicion of involvement for 15 years, even though there was no evidence

against him and he had to pay a fine of £11,000, before he could be released, a huge sum

then. The original fine had been £30,000, which even the rich Earl of Northumberland

was unable to pay. While in the Tower, he was allowed an extensive suite of rooms.

The ninth Earl died in 1632 and was succeeded by his son as the tenth earl. He supported

the Parliamentarians in the Civil War. At an historic Council held at Syon in 1647, this

Council gave Cromwell authority to march his army through London. The ninth Earl died

in 1668 and was succeeded by his son Josceline Percy, who died young two years later

and the title became extinct. His daughter, Lady Elizabeth Percy inherited all the family

estates in Northumberland as well as Syon House. She married, as her third husband, the

sixth Duke of Somerset, whose seat was at Petworth. He was known as the Proud Duke

because of his arrogance. In 1700 the Duke of Somerset planted the avenue of lime trees

that frames the approach to the main entrance today.

In 1748 when the Duke of Somerset died, his son the Earl of Hertford succeeded him as

the seventh duke. He gave Syon and the Northumberland estates to his daughter Lady

Elizabeth Percy and his son-in-law Sir Hugh Smithson, baronet. In 1750, by a special Act

of Parliament Sir Hugh Smithson became the Earl of Northumberland of a new creation.

He became the Duke of Northumberland in 1766. It would appear that that the Earl of

Northumberland was carrying out major work in 1751. However, in about 1760 he

instructed Robert Adam to remodel the interior of the house. By 1764 we know that the

work was quite advanced from a letter from Horace Walpole to Smithson’s father -in-law

the Earl of Hertford, where Walpole wrote:

I have been this evening to Sion, which is becoming another Mount Palatine.

Adam has displayed great taste with magnificence. His Gallery is converting

into a museum in the style of a Columbarium according to an idea I proposed to

my Lord Northumberland.

The first Duke held a number of important posts including Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He

was succeeded by his son in 1786, who was a distinguished soldier. The third Duke

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represented George IV at the coronation of Charles X of France. The fourth Duke was an

admiral and became First Lord of the Admiralty in Lord Derby’s short-lived

administration of 1852. The tenth Duke, who died in 1988, was a distinguished

agriculturalist. He was the chairman of the Agricultural Research and President of the

Royal Agricultural Society. He was succeeded by his son Henry Percy, who died

unmarried in 1995 aged 42. The present and 12th

Duke is Ralph Percy, who was born in

1956. His wife has recently created a large ornamental garden at Alnwick Castle, funded

by the National Lottery. The principal estates of the Dukes of Northumberland are

actually in Northumberland and they still own about 100,000 acres in Northumberland.

Their principal seat is Alnwick Castle, which was also refurbished by Robert Adam.

Syon is now the London home of the present Duke and Duchess of Northumberland.

One visits the house itself primarily to see the State Rooms designed by Robert Adam. I

have set out a brief biographical note on Robert Adams in an Appendix.

In an original plan prepared by Robert Adam, he had planned to put in a rotunda, where

the courtyard is now. This was never executed here. However, Robert Adam did use this

design, when he built Register House in Edinburgh

Robert Adams’ plan

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Register House, Edinburgh

TOUR OF THE HOUSE

The boundary wall of the park runs along the busy London Road from Brentford, but one

would be unaware of this road, when standing in front of the house

Syon House: Main front

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The Exterior The structure of the exterior of the house would appear to be partly Tudor and partly

Jacobean within the framework of the original convent. According to Pevsner, the

projecting corner towers were built at this time. As far as we are aware, Robert Adam did

not alter any of the exterior of the house. According to a surviving letter from the ninth

Earl of Northumberland to James I, we know that the ninth Earl laid out £9,000 on Syon

House to finish them according to the Duke of Somerset’s original plans. So a substantial

part of the structure of the house is probably Jacobean.

The finest view is across the River Thames from Kew Gardens looking at the garden

front. The lion in the centre of the building was originally on Northumberland House,

where Northumberland Avenue is today. The house was demolished in 1874.

Syon House: Garden front

The Interior

Robert Adam said that when he came to designing the interior:

Some inequality in the levels on the old floors and some want of an additional

height to the enlarged apartments were the chief difficulties with which I had to

struggle.

Robert Adam had been instructed to carry out the work in 1760 and most of his work was

probably completed by 1770. Smithson had asked Adam to recreate the interior within

the existing architectural framework transforming the house into a magnificent neo-

classical palace. Adam totally reconstructed the interior of the south side of the house

where there had been a staircase, into two large rooms and the dining-room.

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The convent’s cloisters form the present courtyard and a substantial part of the

Undercroft has survived with plain 15th

century vaulting

Undercroft

The Great Hall

This is much the plainest of the rooms designed by Robert Adam, but the white simplicity

does not detract from its grandeur. The room is approximately a double cube. The Doric

order is used here, which was regarded appropriate for halls.

The Great Hall

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The hall has a marble statue of Apollo by Joseph Wilton which is a copy of the one in

the Vatican.

Statue of Apollo

At the other end, there is a bronze statue of the Dying Gaul by Valadier, based on the

original and cast in 1771. Pevsner says that the special feature of the house,

unprecedented in Europe, was Adam’s use of copies of antique sculpture as part of the

scheme of interior decoration. This statue is set within a screen, which masks the

difference between the hall and the next room, the Ante-Room and the steps leading to

that room.

Statue of the Dying Gaul

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The Ante Room

There is an extraordinary contrast between the Hall and the Ante-Room. The former is

plain and this is richly decorated. This room is articulated by Ionic columns and pilasters

are ancient. Some of the columns are ancient Roman columns, made of marble, which his

brother James rescued from the Tiber and were taken to Syon in 1765. The others are

made from scagliola, made in imitation of the real ones. The room is dominated by four

triumphal arches which have gilded statues on top of them.

Ante Room

The design of the Ionic capitals is almost certainly based on the design made by Piranesi

in his Della magnificenze ed Architettura de’Romani. The room is a rectangle, but Adam

was able to mask this and give the illusion of a square by bringing forward the columns

on one side of the room to stand clear of the wall and carrying the entablature straight

across the vertical line, which is emphasised by way the statues are placed above the

columns. The richly gilded models were ultimately derived from those on the

Campidoglio, which Adam had a first hand knowledge. In the niches between the

windows are bronze casts of the Belvedere Antinous and Borghese Silenus.

Gilded statues in the entablature

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The Dining Room

This room was usually placed after the drawing room at this time. However, Adam

placed the drawing room after this room. This room is possible even richer in decoration

than the Ante-Room. At each end there are arched recesses, apses, half domes, and

columnar screens. The gilded decoration of the ceiling and the apses are very typical of

the designs that Robert Adam used. The gilded ceiling matches the richly gilded

Corinthian capitals and the architraves.

The Dining Room

The ceiling is a richly decorated with a pattern of fans and palmettes.

Detail of the Ceiling

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In the room there is a bas-relief of the Three Graces carved by Luc-François Breton.

The Three Graces.

The Red Drawing Room This is another very richly decorated room and was created out of a space where there

had been a staircase and two rooms. The three outstanding features of this room are the

deeply coved ceiling and the carpet and the crimson silk wall hangings.

The Red Drawing Room

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The richly designed ceiling was a mosaic pattern of figures set in diamond and octagon

with intersecting gilded Bands. The figures and designs set in roundels within these

diamond and octagon shapes. The ceiling was painted by Giovanni Battista Cipriani

(1727-1785), a leading decorative Italian artist and designer. Though born in Florence he

spent many years in England becoming one of the foundation members of the Royal

Academy.

The ceiling of the Red Drawing Room.

The walls of this room are hung with crimson silk made in Spitalfields. By the end of the

Second World War the hangings were in a poor state. They were restored by a team from

Uppark...

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There is a very richly designed fireplace decorated by Palmettes and by this wall one can

just glimpse the silk hangings. The mirror here would have been designed by Robert

Adam.

Fireplace in the drawing Room

The Long Gallery Adam said that he had planned this room for the particular delight of the ladies and was

“finished in a style to afford variety and amusement.” The problem here was to turn the

Long Gallery, a typical Tudor and Jacobean feature, into a form to match the classical

design and proportion of the other rooms. The room is 14 feet (4.2 metres) by 136 feet

(41.4 metres). There had been three pre-existing entrances to the room, one at each end

and one in the centre. Adam broke up the design of the room into three parts, based on

the central entrance with each side of the room on this side, being an exact copy of the

other. Each of the three parts are articulated by four pilasters. The whole room on each

side is also articulated by Corinthian and subordinate Ionic pilasters. Between these

tripartite units are bookcases. Above the bookcases, there are two semi-circular paintings

by Francesco Zuccarelli, six paintings of Rome by William Marlow and also 36

medallion portraits by Lindo, showing how the Percy family was descended from

Charlemagne. These series were commissioned to celebrate Sir Hugh Smithson’s

elevation from Earl to Duke of Northumberland in 1766. Francesco Zuccarelli, born in

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Rome, was an Italian landscape painter, which often featured mythological subjects. He

was also a founder member of the Royal Academy. William Marlow (1740-1813) was a

well-known English marine and landscape painter. The colour in this room is much

quieter than the preceding rooms. The work was done by Michelangelo Pergolesi, an

Italian designer and painter, whom Adam had invited to England in 1760

The Long Gallery

Adam made the design for the stucco ceiling with its intricate pattern of interlaced and

subdivided octagons.

Detail of the Ceiling

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The Long Gallery is the last of the state rooms and the following suite of rooms were not

designed by Adam. These rooms, including the Print room, form part of the alterations

made the third Duke of Northumberland in 1864. There is an interesting group of

paintings in the Print Room. The Oak Passage is hung with a series of royal and family

portraits. Possibly the most interesting item is Moses Glover map of Isleworth and Syon

dated 1635 The West corridor is dominated by a staircase, which dates from 1820s,

which leads to the family rooms, which are sometimes open to the public

Staircase

On the one of the walls of the staircase is a large painting by Rubens of Diana Returning

from the Hunt

Diana Returning from the Hunt

© John Moses 2020:

All the photographs are by the author of this article.

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Appendix

Robert Adam (1728-1792)

Robert Adam was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and was the son of William Adam, an

architect, builder and entrepreneur. Though he went to Edinburgh University, he did not

complete the degree in order to return to the family firm in 1745. His father died three

years later and he and his brother John took over the family business with sufficient

success that by 1754, Robert had built up capital of £5,000 roughly equivalent to about

£500,000 and this sum allowed him to go on the Grand Tour. He travelled with the Hon.

Charles Hope, whose friendship would give him an entrée into aristocratic society. In

Florence he met Clérisseau, an architectural designer, whom Adam persuaded to go with

him to Rome and there Clérisseau taught him to study antique classical architecture.

While in Rome he met Piranesi, who was promoting the new Neo-Classical style. He then

went over to Spalato (now Split) and with the help of Clérisseau, as the draughtsman

studied the ruins of Diocletian’s Palace and a few years later, he published The Ruins of

the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalato.

On returning to England, he set up in practice in London with his brothers John and

William. Robert Adam set up to revolutionise English architecture. For thirty years the

style had been based on Palladio’s interpretation of classical architecture, as laid down by

Lord Burlington (the architect and owner of Chiswick House) .Instead Robert Adam

brought in an elegant repertoire of architectural ornament based on a wide variety of

classical sources

One can see this today in two of his first major commissions, namely the state rooms at

Osterley and here at Syon House. Both at Osterley and here at Syon, Robert Adam was

totally responsible for every detail the design of the interiors from the walls, the ceilings,

chimney-pieces and carpets and even details like the doorknobs and candlesticks. The

panels were often painted by leading artists as one can see in the panels of the drawing

room ceiling and in the Long Gallery at Syon.

He and his brothers soon built up a major practice and among his other major

commissions were Lansdowne House, the remodelling of Kenwood House and the

completion of Kedleston Hall. He also designed the interiors of Harewood House,

Alnwick Castle, Hatchlands, and Home House, Portman Square. (The interiors of Home

House are still extant and can occasionally be seen in London Open Week-End)...

Robert Adam nearly became bankrupt, when he and his brother John carried out a huge

scheme to develop an estate just south of the Strand known as the Adelphi Estate, which

they started in 1768. However, they saved themselves by selling off the estate by a lottery

in 1774. A few of the houses there, designed by Robert Adam, have still survived

including the premises of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce.

One of his last major commissions was to design Fitzroy Square for the Duke of Grafton.

Robert Adam died suddenly in 1792, before work had been started there. He was buried

in Westminster Abbey.