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Orleans House Gallery

James Gibbs's baroque Octagon Room of 1720, all that is left of a Thames-side villa, free, with the borough's art collection beside it.

Public galleryFree

Photo by Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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James Johnston, a Scottish politician who had helped bring the Hanoverians to the throne, built a villa by the river at Twickenham in 1710, and in 1720 had James Gibbs add a garden room in which to entertain George I's daughter-in-law, Queen Caroline: an octagon of brick outside and, inside, plasterwork by the Italians Artari and Bagutti so lavish that it is one of the finest baroque rooms in England. The exiled Louis-Philippe of France lived in the house from 1815 and gave it its name. Almost everything else was pulled down for the gravel beneath it in 1926; the Octagon was saved by Nellie Ionides, the shipping heiress next door, who bought it and left it to the borough with her pictures of the river. The gallery that has grown round it since 1972 holds the borough's art collection, thousands of works of the Thames from Hampton to Kew, with changing exhibitions in the old stables and a café. Entry is free.

Where
Riverside, TW1 3DJ
Nearest station
Twickenham · 9 min walk

Step-free access

On here now

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Hours

MondayClosed
Tuesday10:00 – 17:00
Wednesday10:00 – 17:00
Thursday10:00 – 17:00
Friday10:00 – 17:00
Saturday10:00 – 17:00
Sunday10:00 – 17:00

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