Today, Syon House is the London home of His Grace The Duke of Northumberland and it has been in his family for over 400 years. Surrounded by 200 acres of its own parkland alongside the River Thames, it is hard to believe that Syon is barely 10 miles from central London.

Syon Park dates back to 1415, when King Henry V founded two religious houses; one at Shene and one at Twickenham. The Twickenham site however proved unsuitable and the abbey was moved to the site now occupied by Syon House. Construction began in 1426 and by 1431, the first buildings were ready for occupation.

It is a wonderful house, full of beauty and magnificence, of great paintings and furniture, with perhaps the finest Robert Adam interior in the country. The entrance to the Great Hall is through the porte-cochere, built in the 1820s, when the exterior walls of the house were resurfaced with Bath stone by the 3rd Duke. Robert Adam's instructions were 'to create a palace of Graeco-Roman splendour'. The contrast between the Great Hall and the Ante Room is startling. Here the vivid colourings are enhanced by the twelve Ionic columns veneered with verd-antique scagliola, obtained by James Adam in 1765 in Rome. The Dining Room was the first of the state rooms to be finished in 1763 and with its arched recesses, apses, half domes and colunbnar screens, it is quintessentially Adam. The wall hangings of crimson Spitalfield silk in the Red Drawing Room were re-woven in the 1820s. The Long Gallery was planned by Adam for the particular delight of the ladies; in his own words 'finished in a style to afford variety and amusement'.

The centrepiece of the Gardens is the Great Conservatory, arguably the finest surviving garden building of its era. The central dome and specimen plants within give the air of a 19th century conservatory, while allowing flexibility of space for functions and events.

Beyond the Great Conservatory lies the lake. It was 'Capability' Brown's intention that this should appear to be a completely natural stretch of water. It is about a quarter of a mile in length and holds a wide variety of fish as well as providing a home for waterfowl.