Osterley Park and House

About the garden

One of the last country estates in London, Osterley's 18th century Robert Adam house is surrounded by 350 acres of parkland, farm and gardens.    

Osterley Park's formal garden was transformed during a six-year project from an overgrown wilderness back to its 18th-century grandeur with herbaceous borders, roses and ornamental vegetable beds. With bulbs springing to life in the garden throughout the year and garden buildings to explore, there's plenty to enjoy whatever the weather.

Features include the Garden House with its tender plants and collection of lemon trees, American Border of rare North American trees and shrubs, a walled garden with herbaceous borders and ornamental vegetable plots. The Winter Garden injects colour into the colder months.

This semi-circular building, built in 1780 and designed by Robert Adam, is a fascinating feature of the garden set among the borders of Mrs Child’s Flower Garden, and was used to entertain guests. Mrs Child filled the Garden House with exotic scented plants, including grapes, pineapples and, according to the 1782 inventory, ‘Forty five Orange and Lemon trees in tubs’.

The many fine trees include cedars, oaks, Picea omorika and oriental plane planted in 1755 whose lowest boughs have swept right down to ground-level and taken root before turning skywards again. In early spring the Long Walk is carpeted with bluebells. The walled potager garden is not to be missed with its eye-catching mix of traditional plantings, ornamental vegetables and bright obelisks.