The Lion’s Tail
Doing some casual swotting on architects and London, I found this drawing, which I recognised as being the so-called Lion Gate at Syon Park, Isleworth, just up the road: I’ve driven past it hundreds of times. It’s sometimes referred to as a screen and you’ll find very little information on it, even on Syon Park’s own web site. But it’s by Robert Adam, from 1769. He also decorated many of rooms at the house.
And here it is, this afternoon: the pixels are still wet. You can see it’s very much the same as Adam’s drawing. The only real difference is that Adam’s lion has a realistic wavy tail, whereas on the actual gate, the lion has the bizarre-looking stiff horizontal tail, the emblem of the Percy family, who have owned the estate for many centuries.
Overall, the gate appears to be in good condition, but could do with a little TLC to bring it up to scratch. Perhaps the Duke of Northumberland might invest a little from the new Waldorf Astoria hotel which was opened on the estate last year.
Thank you for that enlightening detail! I always thought the tail is straight because of a less versatile technology available at the time when the gate was erected 🙂 I like the light holders decorating the top of the structure, imagining what an impression the fire flames stoked there must have made to guests at evening balls in the eighteen century. They seem to be part of the original design as far as I can distinguish on Adam’s plan presented here. When an article about such artefacts still surviving in London?
Valentin,
Bucharest
I was wondering what those items were, thought maybe for pot plants or something! I saw one just like it yesterday in St James’s. This is not the current entrance to the Syon estate, BTW, and I wonder if it ever was, it seems likely. I’ll try to find out.
The lion was originally atop the entrance of the Northumberland House, the earl’s town house, demolished in the 19th century, to make way for Northumberland Ave. the lion was taken to Sion House at that time. There’s an 18th century engraving of Northumberland House which shows that the lion had the bizarre straight tail then.
Canaletto did a great picture of NH, example here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Northumberland_House_by_Canaletto_(1752).JPG
There are two lions. The one that used to be on Northumberland House is usually atop Syon House. It’s being restored and will go back up after they’ve finished messing about with the building. (It was still missing in December-I haven’t been down that way lately.)
Interesting. I’m trying to ascertain the origins of Northumberland House, built just north of Stoke Newington in 1822. In 1826 it was sold for conversion to what became one of London’s premier mental hospitals. Over the gateway there is what looks unmistakably like the Percy Lion. However, I have yet to find any definitive connection with the family – http://www.harringayonline.com/photo/844301:Photo:51030
Hello Hugh. Interesting. Given the distinctive lion, there must be a connection, surely. I’d be inclined to contact the Percy family directly, they should have some sort of archivist at either Alnwick or Syon. Otherwise try the nearest Local Studies dept to the area concerned. After that, London Metropolitan Archives, possibly.