Garrick's Tunnel under Hampton Court Road
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Garrick's Tunnel under Hampton Court Road by Sean Davis 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 Tunnel under Hampton Court Road
Image: © Sean Davis Taken: 30 Jul 2008
Actor David Garrick retired to Hampton in 1754. He employed the Adam Brothers to improve the house on two distinct phases (1775-6 and 1772-4). Capability Brown was consulted over the grounds and suggested building the still existing, grotto-like tunnel under the road joining the house to the riverside gardens. The riverside gardens are now named Garrick Lawn and in the centre of the photo you can make out the tunnel under the road. The boat sticking into the right side of the photo is The Astoria. It was built for Fred Karno in 1913. It was sold to Vesta Victoria, a music hall singer and entertainer who made "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow" famous. She lived in it till her death in 1951. It was then sold to a businessman who didn't like all the attention the houseboat attracted, so he moved it the short distance up the river to where it is moored today. In 1986 the Astoria was bought by Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour and turned into a recording studio.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.412268
Longitude
-0.358243