A look around Turner's newly restored garden
The calm, suburban avenues of St Margarets in south-west London seem a long way from the stormy seascapes for which Britain’s greatest landscape painter is best known.
But, unexpectedly, among the leafy streets in this quiet and well-heeled residential area is a hidden historical gem: J M W Turner’s self-designed retreat, Sandycombe Lodge. That it survived amid the encroaching housing is remarkable, especially when you hear its story: alterations, requisition as a Second World War airmen’s goggles factory and the eventual reluctance of the nation to save it.
In 1807, in his 30s, the “painter of light” bought the land and built the house to have a place in the country near the river. Back then the Twickenham area was rural, which suited Turner, whose life in central London was becoming unbearably hectic. The house and garden is his only home open to the public and the garden opened this spring, just in time for Turner’s birthday, on 23 April.
Thanks to the restoration, the garden is now full of heritage tulips and historically appropriate plants. The plot, a remnant of the original, is more “villa” garden than cottage garden these days. It slopes down towards the spot where Turner once had two fish ponds. The artist, who loved fishing in the nearby Thames, kept his catch there before his father, William, who acted as housekeeper and gardener, cooked them.
Turner used the house for entertaining and as a retreat, but his chief purpose in building it was as a home for William, a retired barber and wigmaker from Devon. William’s wife had recently entered a lunatic asylum.
The relationship between father and son was vividly portrayed in the 2014 Mike Leigh film Mr Turner. It is epitomised by William making a poultice of poppy and camomile picked from the garden for his son, who had damaged his Achilles tendon – presumably while fishing rather than painting.
Turner’s design for the house and the replanting of the garden was influenced by his friend, architect John Soane, whose own country villa, Pitzhanger Manor, is in Ealing, not far away.
Because Turner was not trained as an architect or garden designer, what he achieved is remarkable, albeit understated.
Sarah Couch and Ellen Bramhill of Historic Environment Associates worked on the restoration of Sandycombe, having been involved in projects including the Waddesdon and Eythrope Estates in Buckinghamshire, Copped Hall in Essex, and Hogarth’s House in Chiswick, west London.
The wallpaper has been recreated from an original scrap, while the garden is based on an 1814 drawing by William Havell, which shows a figure, probably old man Turner, tending the hollyhocks and roses. The original surroundings of grazing cattle, a muddy lane and woodland is related by means of a painted window and kaleidoscope-style telescope in an upstairs bedroom. The one flashy piece of tech in the house is a silhouetted video of “Old Dad”, in which he describes his day-to-day life at the house.
Turner’s house once had views towards Marble Hill, but these were long gone when Professor Harold Livermore bought the house in 1947 and lived there until his death in 2010. He couldn’t find anyone to take on the deteriorating and forgotten relic of British art history until local art academic Catherine Parry-Wingfield met the widower in the local post office.
“The professor always wanted it to be open to the public,” she said. “‘You have got to come and see the house,’ he said to me. He could have said that to lots of people, but he told an art historian. He was trying to leave the house to the nation but no one wanted it.”
That conversation began a decade of charitable trust work and “sleepless nights” raising funds via everything from plant sales to Heritage Lottery Fund grants, until the necessary £2.6 million was in the bank. The trust decided to demolish parts of the house and strip it to brick, as it would have been in Turner’s day. Butler Hegarty Architects took out the drive, extensions and conservatory. Yews next to the walls and a fig tree that had spread too far around the garden also went.
Archaeologists found contemporary clay pipes and crockery. Neighbours were initially anxious but are now pleased with the results, says Parry-Wingfield. Two are volunteer gardeners.
The informal planting, by Bramhill, includes historical varieties of Rembrandt tulips from Jacques Amand and old roses such as Provence, ‘Old Blush’ and Autumn Damask Rose, from Peter Beales. Burncoose supplied many plants, which still look pretty sparse. There’s a wildflower lawn where Turner might once have held picnics.
William had complained that willows were taking over more than 200 years ago. They were not replaced. Bramhill says: “It was very overgrown. There was a massive magnolia, the yew trees were very close to the wall, and there was a huge holly. It was very dark and shady.” She says the style in Turner’s day was “blowsy” and included camellias.
Sadly, Prof Livermore had sold a chunk of garden to neighbours, who don’t want to sell it back. The remainder is small – it was originally two acres – and gives just a flavour of what Turner knew. Bramhill says: “We wanted to try and show how rural it was and bring an element of retreat back. It was never in Twickenham – it was on its own.”
Couch says: “It’s just a fragment but because J M W built the house it is special and unexpected.”
Because Turner, who will be the next face of the £20 note (from 2020), was not trained as an architect or garden designer, what he achieved is remarkable, albeit understated. He owned the retreat until 1826, selling when his father became too doddery to live in the pre-railway countryside. But now his legacy lives on behind the picket fence of 40 Sandycoombe Road.
Open Weds-Sun, visits must be booked; turnershouse.org
