{"id":1488,"date":"2020-10-31T19:02:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T19:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toonsarah-travels.blog\/staging\/?p=1488"},"modified":"2021-03-18T11:25:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T11:25:35","slug":"friendly-friday-challenge-neighbourhood-walk-walpole-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toonsarah-travels.blog\/staging\/friendly-friday-challenge-neighbourhood-walk-walpole-park\/","title":{"rendered":"A neighbourhood walk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Autumn in Walpole Park<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the architect Sir John Soane built his weekend retreat, Pitzhanger Manor, in what was then rural Ealing, his aim was to design a showcase for his own idiosyncratic architectural style with its stripped classical detail, radical colour schemes and inventive use of space and light. Here he would entertain some of the most influential people of the day, using the house to show potential clients what he could do for them.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the rear he created an ornamental garden with a pretty pond surrounded by flowering shrubs, an old stone bridge and some beautiful cedars on the lawns next to the house. He designed the pond to look like a stream, and there he would fish with his friend William Turner, the artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soane sold the house in 1810; it passed through a succession of owners until in 1843 it became home to the daughters of Spencer Perceval, Britain’s only assassinated Prime Minister. In 1899 it was sold by the then owner, Spencer Horatio Walpole (three times Home Secretary), to Ealing District Council for \u00a340,000. Walpole stipulated that the last of the Perceval sisters, Frederika, should be allowed to remain there until her death. When she died in 1900 the house was extended to become a public library; at the same time Soane’s ornamental gardens and parkland became Walpole Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n