Garrick's Villa, Hampton, seen across the river
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Garrick's Villa, Hampton, seen across the river by Stefan Czapski as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Garrick's Villa, Hampton, seen across the river
Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 11 Nov 2012
David Garrick - the most outstanding actor of his time - came to Hampton in 1754, as tenant of the house which then stood on this site. Over the years he acquired various nearby properties and plots of land, extending the site available to him. Then, in the 1770's, he engaged Robert Adam to transform the existing house into what might pass for a nobleman's country seat. This must at the time have seemed a pretty audacious move - Garrick was laying claim to a position in society unprecedented for a man of the theatre. In Garrick's time, as in previous centuries, the property was known as Hampton House. The change of name - to Garrick's Villa - was made by Thomas Carr, who acquired the place after the death of Garrick's widow (in 1822). A detailed account of the history of the house can be found here: http://www.richmond.gov.uk/local_history_garricks_villa.pdf
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.412665
Longitude
-0.359005