Description

The following building shall be added:

SYON PARK PARK ROAD
TQ 1776
787-/33/10007 Former riding school of
Syon Park
II

Riding School, now garden centre. c1819-1826. Built for Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of
Northumberland (1785-1847), who succeeded in 1817. Brick. Roof of slate. The west elevation
of nine-window range, above a bare ground-floor plinth. Each bay articulated by broad
pilasters in contrasting brick and with a Diocletian window; blocked round-arched window in
north gable end. Tudor effect to parapet coping. East elevation largely obscured by a C20 shed;
faced in yellow brick and having no pilasters; battlemented section to the centre. The most
noteworthy feature is found on the side, a 28-bay iron roof of composite truss construction.
Although it is difficult to arrive at a precise date for this structure, its tentative design suggests
one early in the history of iron construction. It can be attributed with a degree of certainty
either to Charles Fowler, an advocate of all-iron roofs who was active at Syon later on, or to
Thomas Cundy I, who recased Syon House in Bath stone in the early 1820s. The school
reflects the late C18/early C19 revival of tightly controlled dressage and forms a group with the
near contemporary stable block (q.v.). Alterations at the time of conversion to a garden centre,
c1967, have obscured the north end where it joins the stable block; the floor is believed to date
to the early C20, when the riding school was used as a war hospital.

Listing NGR: TQ1716876761

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26551655

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)