Turners House - Virtual Tour

Hello, my name is Rita and I'm the learning and volunteer officer here at Turner's House. Today I'm going to bring you on a small tour, we're gonna start from the garden - please follow me. We are here in Turner's House Garden and we like to bring visitors here because you can really appreciate the whole of the house and its design. This house is rather special because it was designed by the Great British landscape painter James W. Turner himself.

James W. Turner also lived in the house but not on a regular basis; this was his country house when he was too stressed out from the busy life he had in central London. So the garden, as you can see today, has been replanted with kinds of plants that Turner would've known himself. Now let's have a look inside of the house. We are now inside of the house, let's have a quick look at the little parlour first - there is something interesting I wanted to show you.

This is something that I wanted to show you about this room, this is a reproduction of the view that Turner would've had from this window. Twickehnham was the countryside - so much different from the little town that we know today and the house stood quite alone in the landscape. Actually, you could see Marble Hill House from here. But, we have something else that is very special. This is an original brownwash by William Marvel (?), one of Turner's friends and painter. It's very special because we can see the house just one year after it was completed in 1813.

Now I'm going to take you to the sitting room. Let me introduce you to the man himself, James W. Turner. This is a portrait made by George the younger in 1800s when Turner was only 25 years old and we like to show this to our visitors because when Turner lived in this house, he wasn't the grumpy old man that everybody show and tell about - he was pretty young and already quite successful with lots of commissions, and when he came here he came here to relax and often invited friends for a dinner, or for a picnic.

This is quite a beautiful staircase going up to the first floor - oh by the way, on the way up, don't forget to have a look at the beautiful bay light on the top. We are now in Turner's bedroom, where he had a beautiful view out of the window. He could actually see the River Thames and Richmond Hill from here. Something else that is very special in this room is the wallpaper - in fact, it has been reproduced from an original piece found during the restoration. So this is probably the design that Turner chose himself.

And this is the dining room, this would've been the room where Turner would've entertained his guests - especially the picnic academical club, a group of young lads from the royal academy that went out for picnics, fishing trips, and maybe come back here for some drinks and food. And last, but not least, let me take you to the kitchen downstairs. And here we are in the kitchen. When Turner lived here, he wasn't all by himself - actually, his old dad came to live with him and this was his favourite place because it was the warmest room of the house and you can see it's quite cosy and welcoming.
And in this room you can slo find, what we like to call, the ghost of old dad appearing on the wall. And this was a sneak peak on the house - if you would like to find out more, we would love to see you here. For more information about tickets and opening times, visit our website www.turnershouse.org