Historic Houses & Museums
Gunnersbury Park Museum Gunnersbury Park, Popes Lane, London, W3 8LQ. Tel: 020 8992 1612 |
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The Colours of Another Age:
Behind the Camera
A free talk at the museum
Sunday November 6th at 2pm
The Terrace Room of the Small
Mansion, Gunnersbury Park
Victor Gray, former Director of the Rothschild Archive, will give the story behind the current exhibition of early Autochromes (colour plate photographs) taken by Lionel de Rothschild between 1908 and 1912.
Admission Free
Tel: 020 8992 1612
email: vanda.foster@laing.com
The Colours of Another Age: The Rothschild Autochromes
An exhibition from the Rothschild Archive
During the early years of the twentieth century, the long dream of photographers to be able to capture the image of the world in colour finally became reality with the invention, in 1907, of the Autochrome.
Among the earliest photographers to experiment with this new process was the young Lionel de Rothschild, who lived at Gunnersbury Park.
When Lionel died in 1942, he left behind the largest collection of Autochromes to survive from any single British photographer. For years they remained wrapped in newspaper and forgotten, but they have now been rediscovered and a selection of the finest have been enlarged and mounted in light-boxes, 
so their delicately beautiful colours can be viewed to best advantage.
These photographs show portraits of Lionel’s relatives and friends, dressed in the elegant fashions of the Edwardian era and set against the backdrop of their opulent gardens. Lionel’s own garden, Gunnersbury Park, is shown in its heyday, carpeted with flowers, the horseshoe pond full of water lilies. A portrait of King Edward VII, a frequent visitor to Gunnersbury, is the first known colour image of the monarch, taken not long before his death. Animals and birds are also featured, in the first known colour photographs of London Zoo.
This exhibition has been lent to Gunnersbury courtesy of the Rothschild Archive.
Dates: Aug 6th 2011– January 29th 2012
Free entry
Opening times: 7 days a week, April – Oct: 11am – 5pm, Nov – March: 11am – 4pm
“A Hive of Industry”
Famous products made in Hounslow and Ealing
Did you know that Queen Elizabeth I insisted that her bread be made from Heston wheat?
Did you know that Buckingham Palace was built with bricks made in Northolt?
Did you know that an Acton toy factory made the teddy bear which was the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh?
Did you know that Feltham supplied fire extinguishers to the Tsar of Russia?
This exhibition is full of surprising facts.
Over the years, the area of West London which now forms the boroughs of Hounslow andEaling has been the home to an amazing variety of industries and has produced an enormous range of goods, many of them household names.
The collections at Gunnersbury Park Museum include many of these goods and they are now on show, some of them for the first time. You will find a vacuum cleaner from the Hoover factory; tins of Cherry Blossom boot polish; a Bush radio and a Leak tuner: a 17th century sword from the Hounslow sword factory: a Jantzen swimming costume: beer bottles from Fuller Smith and Turner; early pharmaceuticals from Glaxo; a 
Noon curry box; razors from Gillette and Wilkinson Sword; a poster for an Ealing Studios film; and a wealth of other products from well-known factories such as Coty, Sandersons, Firestone, Macleans, and Lucozade.
This exhibition explains why the area has been so productive: how the local soils encouraged market gardens and brick-making; the River Thames gave us fishing and boat-building; the canals and railways attracted a huge variety of industries; the Great West Road gave space for model factories and the clean air west of the City attracted both film studios and 
airports.
Perhaps you or your family have worked in these local industries? Come and share your thoughts and memories with us and add to the exhibition.
“A Hive of Industry” is open from September 11th 2010 to September 2011.
The exhibition and the museum are free.
The museum is 7 days a week
Opening times - 11am to 5pm April – October; 11am to 4pm November – March.
For further details, contact the Curator, Vanda Foster on 0208 992 1612; vanda.foster@laing.com
PAST EXHIBITIONS
The Voice of Iranian Artists
An exhibition about the work and heritage of Iranian artists in the UK and particularly in West London.
“Fascinating to see a side of Iran most British people are totally unaware of” Museum visitor
After the 1979 revolution in Iran, large numbers of Iranian artists and intellectuals were forced to leave their country in order to escape the restrictions of the new regime. Many settled in London and have pursued their cultural activities, often with remarkable success, despite language barriers and cultural differences.
Saeed Kamali Dehghan has written for the Guardian and was named as the 2010 Journalist of the Year by the Foreign Press Association. Sufi singer Parvin Cox has recorded with Sir John Tavener. Ghazi Rabihavi, playwright and novelist, was introduced to the British public by Harold Pinter. Ealing-based Hadi Khorsandi, satirist, poet and stand up comedian, has appeared in over 1000 performances in the West and both his children have become British media personalities in their own right.
The lives and experiences of twenty of these artists have been recorded on film and in an illustrated catalogue. The interviews with these artists are reproduced in the exhibition. Also on show are some examples of their paintings and books, together with a selection of the Iranian musical instruments on which many of them perform.
This exhibition has been put on by the Iranian Artists Association, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
It will be on show at Gunnersbury Park Museum from March 1st – May 8th. Admission Free
The museum is open 7 days a week, from 11am – 4pm
“A Hive of Industry”
Famous products made in Hounslow and Ealing
Did you know that Queen Elizabeth I insisted that her bread be made from Heston wheat?
Did you know that Buckingham Palace was built with bricks made in Northolt?
Did you know that an Acton toy factory made the teddy bear which was the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh?
Did you know that Feltham supplied fire extinguishers to the Tsar of Russia?
This exhibition is full of surprising facts.
Over the years, the area of West London which now forms the boroughs of Hounslow andEaling has been the home to an amazing variety of industries and has produced an enormous range of goods, many of them household names.
The collections at Gunnersbury Park Museum include many of these goods and they are now on show, some of them for the first time. You will find a vacuum cleaner from the Hoover factory; tins of Cherry Blossom boot polish; a Bush radio and a Leak tuner: a 17th century sword from the Hounslow sword factory: a Jantzen swimming costume: beer bottles from Fuller Smith and Turner; early pharmaceuticals from Glaxo; a Noon curry box; razors from Gillette and Wilkinson Sword; a poster for an Ealing Studios film; and a wealth of other products from well-known factories such as Coty, Sandersons, Firestone, Macleans, and Lucozade.
This exhibition explains why the area has been so productive: how the local soils encouraged market gardens and brick-making; the River Thames gave us fishing and boat-building; the canals and railways attracted a huge variety of industries; the Great West Road gave space for model factories and the clean air west of the City attracted both film studios and airports.
Perhaps you or your family have worked in these local industries? Come and share your thoughts and memories with us and add to the exhibition.
“A Hive of Industry” is open from September 11th 2010 to September 2011.
The exhibition and the museum are free.
The museum is 7 days a week
Opening times - 11am to 5pm April – October; 11am to 4pm November – March.
For further details, contact the Curator, Vanda Foster on 0208 992 1612; vanda.foster@laing.com
New costume display at Gunnersbury
There is a new display of Victorian dress at Gunnersbury Park Museum which shows the range of clothes which a fashionable Victorian lady might wear in any one day.
Nowadays it is fashionable to look casual and to wear the same clothes from morning to evening, but in the 19th century a fashionable woman would have changed her clothes several times a day. There was a strict etiquette which ensured that formal outfits were usually made of expensive fabrics, legs must be covered at all times and low necks and short sleeves were only suitable for the evening.
For our Victorian lady, the day starts with a starched white cotton nightdress, beautifully decorated with whitework embroidery, but maintaining the purity and modesty of the wearer. She then puts on underwear, consisting of combinations, corset and bustle, which show just how women created the angular silhouette of the1880s. If she is going out, there is the choice of a cashmere shawl or a beaded mantle. For receiving afternoon visitors, there is a silk dress in a rich purple which must have been dyed with one of William Perkin’s new aniline dyes, then being manufactured just up the road, in Greenford. For a grand reception or dinner there is a magnificent blue satin and plush gown, made by a top quality costumier. If she chooses to go out on her bicycle (all the rage in the 1890s) there is a special woollen suit with a hole in the skirt which fits over the saddle.
Finally, there is a magnificent figured silk wedding dress, smothered in artificial pearls.
All these outfits have been given to the museum over the years and are just a sample of the rich and varied collections at Gunnersbury Park Museum.
This exhibition was put on with help from a team of volunteers from EDFAS (Ealing Decorative and Fine Art Societies).
It will be on show until summer 2011. Entrance is free.
We are currently displaying an exhibition of historic local paintings - Opening Hours >
Steyne Mills
The Acton laundry building in the 1870s
< Click on the painting to view a larger image (808Kb)
New exhibition at Gunnersbury Park Museum
Spencer Perceval and All Saints Church
October 3rd 2009 – Jan 3rd 2010 11am – 4pm
Open every day (except December 25th – 26th)
FREE ENTRY
Spencer Perceval was the only Ealing resident to become Prime Minister (in 1809) and the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated (in 1812).
During his three years in office he had to deal with the war against Napoleon, the increasing madness of King George III and the Luddite riots against the spread of factory machinery. He was shot on the afternoon of Monday May 11th 1812, just as he was entering the House of Commons. His assassin, John Bellingham, had a general grudge against the government, rather than with Perceval himself.
This exhibition tells the story of his life and career, his assassination and the building of his memorial Church, All Saints, on land that once belonged to Gunnersbury Park.
Here you will find relics from Perceval’s official life including original letters, parchment documents of appointment and the red despatch box that he was carrying when he was shot, but there is also fascinating material from his private life.
It was in 1808, after 20 pregnancies and 12 surviving children, that his wife Jane encouraged Perceval to buy a bigger house in the “country quiet” of Ealing Common. The exhibition shows watercolours of their 36 acre estate at Elm Grove, which looked down to the Thames and the Surrey hills. Their family life is reflected in a handwritten prayer which Spencer and Jane composed when their first-born baby son was very ill. Thankfully, he recovered and the exhibition also includes a letter which Spencer Perceval wrote to him when he was at Harrow School, recommending that he concentrate on his studies and play less football. The most touching item is Perceval’s actual death mask, made by well-known sculptor, Joseph Nollekens, and used as the basis of all the official portraits.
Ealing residents will be particularly interested in how the Perceval family have left their mark on Ealing. Four of Perceval’s daughters lived for many years at Pitzhanger Manor and are responsible for the Victorian extension to this John Soane house. All Saints Church, in Elm Grove Road, was built by Perceval’s youngest daughter as a memorial to her father. (She was only seven when he died.) Walpole Park is named after Spencer Walpole, Perceval’s son-in-law, while Ealing’s civic centre is called Perceval House.
The exhibition is at Gunnersbury Park Museum, Gunnersbury Park, W3 8LQ
email: gp-museum@laing.com Telephone: 0208 992 1612
