Sandycombe Lodge was built by 1813 to the designs of England’s great landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner; working here as his own architect to create a quiet retreat for himself, away from the pressures of the London art world. It also provided a home for his father, old William, in retirement from his trade as a barber and wigmaker in Covent Garden. With old William’s declining health and changes in his own life, Turner sold the house in 1826.
Turner’s House Trust is a registered charity 1111653 and is registered with Companies House. The Trust became the owners of Sandycombe Lodge in December 2010 and responsible for the management of this historic property.
Turner’s House Trust is an independent registered charity which relies on visitors admission, grants and donations to remain open at all.
If you would like to donate to help us into the future, you can do it here:
What do visitors see at Turner’s House?
Soanian arches in the hallway
At Sandycombe Lodge our aim has been to create the quiet, domestic space that Turner used as his retreat from the London art world. The architecture of this little building is quirky, reflecting Turner’s own designs but also the influence of his good friend, John Soane, and is worth close attention. Turner made many sketches before arriving at his final design, and these are now brought together in a facsimile sketchbook.
Many rich stories have emerged during our researches into the years Turner spent at Sandycombe, such as those relating to the Napoleonic wars. Some of the beautiful etchings from his Liber Studiorum are on display here, several of them of them responding to those troubled years when England was under threat of invasion, along with beautifully crafted models of ships, variations on those which Turner had here.
Model ships in the Sitting Room
In Turner’s time, Sandycombe stood on a large plot of land, bordered by two huge estates. His grounds have now been built over, as have the estates – we have brought back the open views he would have had by digital technology. The small remains of the once-large gardens have now been beautifully planted.
Projection of ‘Old Dad’.
Friends came to Sandycombe, many of them fellow artists, and our ‘speaking clock’ captures their reminiscences. In the basement, domain of Turner’s father, a piece of digital magic brings ‘Old Dad’, housekeeper, gardener and general factotum at Sandycombe, into our space.
Go to the Visit us page to book your visit, and for information about group visits, including connoisseur tours.
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R.A. AND HIS HOUSE AT TWICKENHAM
THE SANDYCOMBE STORY
The early 1800s
In 1807 J.M.W. Turner, then a young but already well-known and commercially successful painter, bought two plots of land on the edges of two large estates between Twickenham and Richmond Bridge. It was six years before he finally built Sandycombe Lodge on the larger plot, to his own designs, which can be traced through his sketchbooks, now part of the Turner bequest at Tate Britain. Here he fulfilled his wish – he apparently said that if he could have his life again, he would have been an architect. Turner installed his father, Old William, who tended the Sandycombe garden and kept house. Turner used this peaceful spot, with no other buildings nearby, to retreat from the pressures of the London art world, to walk and sketch along the Thames, to fish with one or two close companions, and occasionally to entertain larger groups of friends.
One of the fishing companions was John Soane, 20 years older than Turner, and a fellow Royal Academician. Soane was the architect of the Bank of England, and many other prestigious commissions. His influence on Turner’s designs at Sandycombe was very strong, particularly seen in the series of arches in the small entrance hall and corridor, and in the graceful top-lit stair. It would have taken Turner about half an hour to walk to the top of Richmond Hill, sketchbook in hand, and the Arcadian landscape on this part of the Thames inspired a number of beautiful paintings, the most expansive being England: Richmond Hill on the Prince Regent’s Birthday, painted in 1819 (Tate Britain).
In 1826 Turner sold Sandycombe Lodge to his nearest neighbour, Joseph Todd, the owner of Twickenham Park. Todd enlarged the little villa and it was rented out, then sold many times over the next 100 years. From the 1880s onwards, the large grounds diminished as a new suburb, St Margaret’s, grew up around the railway station.
Professor Livermore, Joy Cuff 2004
The 20th century
In World War ll Sandycombe became a ‘shadow factory’, where airmen’s goggles were made. The use of heavy sewing machines damaged the house badly and it was in a very poor state when in 1947 it was bought by Professor Harold Livermore and his wife Ann. They were careful custodians of the house and its precious heritage, and well-informed collectors of art relating to Turner and his time https://turnershouse.org/collections/. In the 1950s they secured Grade 2* listing for the building. Professor Livermore set up The Sandycombe Lodge Trust, now Turner’s House Trust, in 2005 and on his death at the age of 95 in 2010, the Trust became the owner of Sandycombe.
Fundraising
The Dining Parlour at Turner’s House post conservation
Turner’s House Trust was faced with immediate challenges: the roots of yew trees planted close to the house brought rot, and damp from failing gutters and downpipes caused a succession of ceiling drops. Our plans for conservation of the house and for presenting to the public as a small historic house of great significance were carefully drawn together, and our application to the Heritage Lottery Fund was successful. This allowed us to appoint Gary Butler (Butler Hegarty Architects) as our conservation architect, and to begin the extremely hard work of securing £2.4m for plans to go ahead. A further grant of £1.4m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and funds raised from generous foundations and individuals (see our donors’ page for details). Our goal was reached in April 2016, and work began at that time.
Conservation
An important decision had to be made early on. Would we retain the house as it stood, or would we remove the additions of upper rooms and extensions that had been added to Turner’s own design? We chose to return to Turner’s intentions, drawing on the evidence of his own later sketches (Tate Britain Turner Bequest D08966 TB CXXVll 2), the drawing of c. 1814 by William Havell, and the evidence already visible in the building itself.
View from the top of the staircase post conservation
During the early stages of conservation work some amazing discoveries were made, making us rethink what we thought we knew about the appearance of Turner’s House. As we had all known it, Sandycombe was rendered stucco, and this seemed to be borne out by Havell’s drawing. But when upper rooms were removed there was no trace of render or paint. When more render was removed, it became apparent that when first built for Turner, Sandycombe was an unrendered and handsome brick building, with careful ‘penny line’ pointing.
Some fascinating objects were found within the wallspace of the first floor corridor, which had probably fallen through from the roofspace, including fragments of children’s drawings and toys from a later period than Turner’s occupation. But most interestingly this little treasure trove included a scrap of early wallpaper, incomplete and very dirty, but just sufficient to allow recreation of the design which is now hung in the large bedroom. Paint analysis has been a valuable source of information and has allowed us to find some original wall colours and to recreate the early delicate marbling of the hall and stairs.
Sandycombe has been lightly furnished with objects from the early 19th century, using as a source contemporary accounts and information on the old-fashioned items listed in the inventory of his London house, taken after his death in 1851.
Today
Left- View of the window today in the Small Parlour.
Conservation of Sandycombe Lodge was completed in the Summer of 2017, with its brickwork beautifully restored, and all the results of careful conservation study and craftsmanship visible in the joinery, plasterwork and paint finishes. We hope that our visitors will enjoy the experience of discovering this lovely little building, and learning more about the life and work of J.M.W. Turner, one of England’s greatest painters.
More information on the history of Sandycombe Lodge can be found in J.M.W. Turner, RA: the artist and his house at Twickenham, available for £5 at Sandycombe. Jonathan Crane’s one hour documentary DVD which charts the fascinating story of conservation is on sale at the shop at Sandycombe Lodge.