Osterley Park Short Walk

10.4 km/6.5 mi with negligible ascent.

Time: 2 hour 15 mins

Start: Osterley Underground Finish: Hanwell Crossrail or Osterley Underground

Osterley Station is on the Heathrow Branch of the Piccadilly Line. Journey time is 16 minutes from Hammersmith and 33 minutes from Green Park. Hanwell is on the Heathrow arm of Crossrail and journey time to Paddington is 20 minutes. Both stations are in Zone 4.

This varied route of many delights initially meanders through the publicly accessible parts of the landscaped Osterley Park, while limiting the exposure to the noise from the M4. Some parts of the park show fine displays of bluebells in season. On an extension through the ticketed part of the park, more bluebell areas can be seen, and a flower garden and a walled garden can be explored.

From the café in the Stables Courtyard right by the grand Osterley House, you leave the park in a northerly direction to cross the M4 and a field into Norwood Green, where the fine bluebell wood of the Tentelow Woodland is passed through, before you cross the Grand Junction Canal and walk through the Glade Lane Canal Side Park to join the towpath along the canal. Pass the famous Three Bridges site, an engineering feat of its time where railway, canal and road intersect, and walk along the former Hanwell Insane Asylum (now Ealing Hospital) and past the Hanwell Flight of Locks to the junction with the River Brent.

Turn left upstream along the river and through a large riverside hay meadow to the picturesque, grand Wharncliffe Viaduct, which carries the Great Western Main Line 20m above the Brent Valley. Another small park lies between the river and Hanwell Station with its vintage (and heated) waiting room.

A Circular Walk (returning to Osterley Station from Osterley House) is 5.9 kilometres long.
An Extension through the (ticketed) garden of Osterley House is well worth the effort and a suggested 2.2 km route is shown on the route map. Open 10.00-17.00 (-16.00 in winter) daily except Xmas Day/Boxing Day, last entry an hour before closing. Note: entrance is free to NT members only, tickets are £8 for garden-only access (only sold on Mon and Tue when the house is closed) and £14 (08/23 prices).
Bus Line E5 starts at Toplocks Estate, Glade Lane (7.1 km into the walk) and connects to Southall Station.

Stables Café Jersey Road, Isleworth, Hounslow TW7 4RB (020 8232 5050). Located 4.4 km into the walk, open 10.00-17.00 daily.
The Plough Tentelow Lane, Norwood Green, London UB2 4LG (020 8574 7473). Located 5.8 km into the walk and open all day every day.
Osterley Cricket Club Bar & Restaurant Tentelow Lane, Norwood Green, London UB2 4LW (020 8571 2301). Located 6.6 km into the walk and open all day every day.
The Fox Green Lane, Hanwell, London W7 2PJ (020 8847 1548). Located 100m off route and 1.7 km from the end of the walk. Open all day every day.
The Viaduct 221 Uxbridge Road, Hanwell, London W7 3TD (020 8810 0815). Located 100m off route and 1.0 km from the end of the walk. Open all day every day.

Refreshments Osterley Ending
Stables Café (as above)
Memories of India 160-162 Thornbury Road, Osterley, Isleworth, Hounslow TW7 4QE (020 8560 7464). Open 12.00-14.30 and 17.30-23.00 daily.
Tiger Lily 167-169 Thornbury Road, Osterley, Isleworth, Hounslow TW7 4QG (020 8560 0455). Open 12.00-14.30 Tue-Sun and 17.30-23.00 daily.
The Park Café 163 Thornbury Road, Osterley, Isleworth, Hounslow TW7 4QG (020 8560 7464). Open to 16.00 daily.

Osterley Park and House
Osterley Park is a Georgian country estate in west London, straddling the boroughs of Ealing and Hounslow. Originally dating from the 1570s and built for the banker Sir Thomas Gresham, the estate contains a number of Grade I and II listed buildings, with the park itself listed as Grade II^*. The main house was re-modelled by Robert Adam between 1761 and 1765 for then owner Sir Francis Child. Adam's neoclassical interiors are characterised by elaborate but restrained plasterwork, rich, highly varied colour schemes, and a degree of coordination between decor and furnishings unusual in English neoclassical interiors.
George Child Villiers, 9^th Earl of Jersey, opened the estate to the public in 1939, having received many requests to see its interior. After WW II, he approached Middlesex County Council who had shown interest in buying the estate, but eventually decided to give the house and park to the National Trust. The furniture was sold to the V&A, the house was restored to its late 18^th-century state and the NT took charge in 1991. A 2018-2021 restoration repaired structural deterioration and discolouring of the external brickwork.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/osterley-park-and-house https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osterley_Park

Grand Junction Canal
The Grand Junction Canal connects Braunston in Northamptonshire to the Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-passing the upper reaches of the Thames near Oxford, thus shortening the journey. In 1927 the canal was bought by the Regent's Canal Company and, since 1 January 1929, has formed the southern half of the Grand Union Main Line from London to Birmingham.

Three Bridges
Properly known as Windmill Bridge, Three Bridges is a compact three-level crossing of bridges on the Grand Junction Canal, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel's last major undertaking (1856-1859). The three bridges are an overlapping arrangement allowing the routes of Windmill Lane (top), the Grand Junction Canal (middle) and the Brentford Dock Line railway (bottom) to cross. The structure is a scheduled monument.

River Brent
The River Brent is a Thames tributary in west and northwest London. 29 km (18 mi) in length, it rises in the Borough of Barnet and flows in a generally south-west direction before joining the Thames at Brentford.

Wharncliffe Viaduct
The Wharncliffe Viaduct, built in 1836–7, is a brick-built viaduct that carries the Great Western Main Line railway across the Brent Valley, at an elevation of 20 metres and 270-metre-long with eight semi-elliptical arches. It was the first major structural design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the first building contract to be let on the GWR project, and the first major engineering work to be completed. It was also the first railway viaduct to be built with hollow and tapered piers (now hosting bat colonies). On the central pier on the south side is a carving of the coat of arms of James Stuart Wortley Mackenzie, Lord Wharncliffe, who was chairman of the parliamentary committee that steered the passage of the GWR Bill through Parliament.
The viaduct was among the first structures to be listed (as a Grade I listed building) in November 1949.

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National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Traveline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234

Aug-23 Thomas G