What’s new at Marble Hill
• The house is now open to the public after being conserved and re-presented. Visit for free from April to October, Wednesday to Sunday.
• More areas of the park have been opened up to create new habitats and improve the park’s biodiversity.
• The café has been refurbished.
• The new play area for children is open.
• The sports pitches and changing facilities have been improved.
Thank you to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund for helping us to complete the Marble Hill Revived Project.
Latest updates
Background to the Project
HENRIETTA HOWARD AND MARBLE HILL
Henrietta Howard (1689–1767) is best known for being the mistress of the Prince of Wales, later King George II. But that’s only a part of her life story. Orphaned at the age of 12, she was married at 16 to a drunk and a gambler, and from quite a young age was partially deaf, but she overcame these circumstances to become one of the most liked ladies of the royal court.
It was during her 20 years at court that she began to build Marble Hill at Twickenham as a retreat from court life. Here at Marble Hill, Henrietta built friendships and networks to become central to the ‘Twickenham set’, including Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Gay and Horace Walpole, and triumphed over adversity to marry again, happily, later in life.
Our new interpretation has re-animated the house at Marble Hill with tales of the vibrant cast of characters around Henrietta, from family members to visitors and pet dogs.
Read more about Henrietta HowardThe Historic Landscape
Henrietta Howard’s garden is a rare surviving example of an early 18th-century villa landscape. It was designed to provide an appropriately ‘ancient’ setting for the villa itself, which was in the classically inspired Palladian style. Key figures in the history of designed landscapes, including Charles Bridgeman and the poet Alexander Pope, played a part in the garden’s creation.
Marble Hill became a public park in 1902, after a campaign to protect the land from development and save the famous view from Richmond Hill – the only English landscape view protected by Act of Parliament. Today it’s a much-loved and lively local amenity, used for sports as well as a tranquil retreat from city life.
Before the Marble Hill Revived Project, the park reflected neither the landscape’s 18th-century origins, nor Henrietta’s story. English Heritage has restored elements of Henrietta’s lost garden, which lay directly between the house and the river. Key features, based on a detailed plan made in about 1749, has been recreated for the first time, including a ninepin bowling alley, flower gardens, terraces and serpentine paths.
Read more about the Historic LandscapeMore about Marble Hill
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History of Marble Hill
Read a full history of this English Palladian villa and its gardens beside the Thames, from its origins in the 1720s as a retreat from court life for Henrietta Howard to the present day.
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Henrietta Howard’s Garden at Marble Hill
Find out what makes the garden between the house and the river at Marble Hill so significant, what we know about it, and how English Heritage plans to restore it.
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Henrietta Howard
Read more about the life of Henrietta Howard, and how she overcame personal adversity to become an extraordinary figure in Georgian court society.
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The View from Richmond Hill
See how artists have depicted the panoramic view from Richmond Hill over the centuries and find out how Marble Hill was saved thanks to a campaign to preserve this view.
Thank You
We would like to thank the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund.
A project made possible thanks to a £5m grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund.
Please visit The National Lottery Heritage fund website
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use hashtag #NationalLotteryHeritageFund
