England

London

Middlesex

Brentford

51.476667

-0.3125

18th century around Tudor core

Fully Extant

Grade I

Grade I

No

Vol. I, p. 182, 1852.

XLVI, 728, 802, 838, 874, 1919. CVIII, 1873, 1950. Apr 16, 1992.

Yes

01815-600-883

01815-680-936

Individual / Family Trust

Private Home

London home of the Duke of Northumberland

Duke of Northumberland; Percy family here since 16th century.

Duke of Somerset, Seymour family. Hugh Smithson, 18th Earl of Northumberland, later created 1st Duke of Northumberland (Percy family).

Early Britons drove stakes into the bed of what is today the River Thames at Syon in an attempt to stop the legions of Julius Caesar from crossing the river (one of the actual stakes was discovered during dredging in the late 20th century and can be seen on display in the House today). It's ironic that Robert Adam’s 18th century designs at Syon, most particularly his Entrance Hall, would be easily recognizable today to an ancient Roman. Syon was originally the site of a Medieval abbey named after Mount Zion (Sion) in the Holy Land and founded by Henry V so that 60 nuns and 20 priests could carry forth never-ending prayers to God to save the soul of the King's father for his role in the murder of Richard II. It was one of the last great abbeys to be built in England (completed 1431) and was dedicated to the Bridgettine Order, founded in the 14th century by the Swedish mystic St. Bridget. The Abbey was brutally dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and by 1547 had been turned into a private house (Edward VI, in the first year of his reign, granted the monastery of Sion to Edward, Duke of Somerset, the Lord Protector). King Henry VIII's coffin rested at Syon in 1547 on its way to Windsor for burial; during the night the coffin burst open and in the morning dogs were found licking up the fluids that had leaked out of the coffin during the night. This was regarded as a divine judgment for the King's desecration of Sion Abbey. It was also at Syon in 1553 that Henry VIII's great-niece, Lady Jane Grey, reluctantly accepted the crown (she reigned for 9 days as Queen before being deposed by Mary I, who had executed for treason in 1554). Other royal visitors have included Queen Victoria and Queens Catherine of Aragon (kept as a prisoner at Syon) and Catherine Howard, both wives of Henry VIII. The celebrated Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, after whom Brantford, Ontario is named, met the 2nd Duke of Northumberland here and fought for the British in the American War of Independence. Robert Adam designed interiors for 1st Duke of Northumberland in the 1760s. A natural son of the 1st Duke was James Smithson (born 1765), who founded the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Adam's brilliant Glass Drawing Room from Northumberland House was disassembled and stored at Syon after the demolition of Northumberland House in 1874; a few bits of it are still at Syon today, though most of it was sold to Bert Crowther, who famously hired the Room out for parties. In 1953 Crowther's parts of the Room were purchased by the Victoria & Albert Museum; in 2002 one section of the Glass Drawing Room was installed in the V&A's new British Galleries. A fine painting of Syon House by Canaletto is now on display at the Duke of Northumberland's primary seat, Alnwick Castle in Northumberland.

An inlaid scagliola chimneypiece and heart-slab formerly in the Glass Drawing Room at Northumberland House, designed by Robert Adam, 1774, and probably made by Bartoli and Richter, is now in the Green Drawing Room at Syon. A pair of lacquered brass gas lights, 122 inches tall, is today at Syon House (there is a matching set at The Bowes Museum, County Durham); both sets were made for first floor parade rooms of Northumberland House by William Collins in 1823.

Eileen Harris, writing in "The Genius of Robert Adam: His Interiors," states that the Ante Room at Syon "is the first English interior decorated in the manner of a classical triumphal-arch with projecting columns carrying free-standing figures." Christopher Hussey, writing in “English Country Houses: Mid Georgian, 1760-1800,” cites the Hall at Heveningham as “Wyatt’s surviving masterpiece as an interior designer and perhaps, after Adam’s Anti-room at Syon, the finest room produced by English neo-classicism.” Mark Girouard, writing in "Historic Houses of Britain," calls Adam's rooms at Syon "the most brilliant sequence of rooms of his career."

Capability Brown landscaped the grounds. Charles Fowler designed the Great Conservatory in the 1820s. Syon today sits in a 200-acre park. The English architect John Johnston went to Brazil in 1815 to oversee the building of a replica of Robert Adam's Entrance Screen (Lion Gate) at Syon for the Prince Regent of Portugal, who was living in exile in Rio de Janeiro. The 2nd Duke of Northumberland commissioned the replica Coade stone gateway as a gift for the Portuguese royal. In 2002 the 12th Duke proposed building a new 154-bed hotel on the grounds of Syon House. In 2004 permission was granted for the deluxe £35 million Radisson Edwardian Hotel to be located beside the main Estate parking lot, with plans to build and open in 2008-09. The hotel that actually opened on Mar 11, 2011 in the grounds of Syon was the 5-star, £40 million Waldorf Astoria London Syon Park (londonsyonpark.com). The new 137-room hotel’s exterior was required to be sympathetic with its historic surroundings and was built on the site originally intended for the Radisson Edwardian Hotel. As part of the development deal, Ability, the construction company, restored the Adam oval carriageway in front of Syon House and the Duchess Gate, which was opened for the first time since the 1930s. In Nov 2010, during the construction phase for the new hotel, the remains of an ancient Roman village were uncovered; discovered approximately 20 inches below ground were over 11,000 fragments of pottery, 100 coins and pieces of jewelry, and human remains. The village was very likely built to serve the Thames crossing on the major Roman road to Silchester in northern Hampshire.

"Bedazzled" (1967 - using The Great Conservatory). "King Ralph" (1991 - the grounds were used as those of Buckingham Palace, including The Great Conservatory; Robert Adam's Great Hall and Ante Room were used as interiors of Buckingham Palace). "The Madness of King George" (1994). "Emma" (1996). "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" (1996). "The Wings of the Dove" (1997). "The Avengers" (1998). "Love in a Cold Climate" (2000). "Longitude" (2000 - TV mini-series). "The Golden Bowl" (2000). "Wives and Daughters" (2000 - London Ball). "Gosford Park" (2001). "Daniel Deronda" (2002 - TV mini series). "Byron" (2003 - TV mini-series). "The Young Visiters" (2003 - TV movie). "The Lost Prince" (2003 - TV movie, as the interiors of Marlborough House and as staterooms of Buckingham Palace). "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking" (2004 - BBC TV movie, as interiors of the palace where the ball took place). "Amazing Grace" (2006). "Miss Marple: Nemesis" (2007 - TV series, as exterior and interiors of Forester Grange). "Miss Austen Regrets" (2008 - TV, as the Prince Regent's Carlton House). "Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour of Europe" (2009 - TV mini series). "Great Expectations" (2011 - BBC TV mini series, as Pip's club).