Strawberry Hill House and garden has been open to visitors for over 250 years. If you have not yet discovered it, I urge you to go. Created by renowned writer Horace Walpole (1717-1797), Straw-berry Hill is internationally famous as Britain’s finest example of domestic Georgian Gothic revival architecture. Strawberry Hill’s 18th-century garden is one of the earliest in the English naturalistic style. Horace Walpole’s delightful essay on garden design is per-haps the most famous and in-fluential piece of writing on the English landscape garden, first published in 1780 as part of his Anecdotes of Painting in England. In recent years, the house and garden have been sympa-thetically restored to recreate Walpole’s unique vision and in the 21st century his “land of beauties” continues to thrive as a haven for wildlife and visitors throughout the year. The Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival returns for a fourth successive year on 23rd-25th September with a spectacular showcase of the very best of British-grown flowers, foam-free sustainable floristry and the design creativity of the UK’s leading floral design-ers. Curated by Leigh Chappell and Janne Ford, the Flower Festival is produced for the first time this year in association with Flowers from the Farm, the award-winning membership organisation championing artisan growers of local, seasonal British cut flowers. With vividly decorated or gilded rooms, illuminated by beautifully shaped windows, complete with stained glass, Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham offers a breath-taking setting for the three-day Flower Festival. Shining a spotlight on the beauty, variety and versatility of the fresh and dried flowers and foliages cultivated by British flower farmers, the Flower Festival gives free creative rein to the in-vited florists to share their artistry, expertise and pas-sion for sustainable floral design in design installa-tions and floral demonstra-tions throughout the remark-able Gothic manor house. The Flower Festival has developed a devoted follow-ing and become a highlight in the event diary at Straw-berry Hill House, as festival manager, Claire Leighton explains: “Visitors were amazed. I spotted one visitor looking at the stairs and saying, ‘I didn’t realise flowers could look like this’.” Visitors to the Flower Festival should make time to wander around the wonderful grounds. Horace Walpole was a keen garden-er, writing the hugely influential essay The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening which was first published in 1780. Walpole’s five-acre garden has been faithfully restored to much of its original appearance, with a variety of beds, borders, walks, groves, lawns and woodland that would be wholly familiar to him today.
Tickets for the Flower Festival are available online now. Prices, tour and talk times can be found at the website: www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk/flower-festival/ or follow on social media #StrawberryFlowerFestival Strawberry Hill House and Garden, 268 Waldegrave Road, Twickenham, TW1 4ST. www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk / Twitter @ strawbhillhouse / Facebook @StrawberryHillHouse / Instagram @strawbhillhouse