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DUKES AVENUE |
a road, you may as well have it named after you, Chiswick House passed
into the possession of the Duke of Devonshire following his marriage
to Lord Burlington's only surviving daughter. It then passed from duke
to duke until 1929.
When William Cavendish the sixth Duke of Devonshire, was in residence
in the 1820s he constructed a carriageway to the northern entrance of
Chiswick house, which later became Duke's Avenue. This was just one of
a number of measures of refurbishment and development that he took, after
inheriting the house in 1811.
Duke's Avenue was not his only road construction; he also had another
entrance to the south set down and rerouted Burlington Lane so that it
did not run so close to his house. This required a particular effort on
his behalf as an Act of Parliament had to be obtained first. Acquiring
a substantial amount of his neighbours' property, he set about creating
Italian gardens, which were laid out by Lewis Kennedy of Hammersmith's
Lee and Kennedy horticultural firm. The Duke also commissioned
Samuel Ware to set up an impressive greenhouse.
His freshly built roads certainly came in for a lot of use as visitors
flocked to Chiswick house. One attraction at the house was a menagerie
of exotic animals, which included elephants and giraffes. With such unusual
animals gracing the grounds, as well as the lavish parties he held, it is
no wonder that distinguished guests such as the King of Prussia, Queen Victoria
and Prime Minister George Canning came calling (although Canning's visit was
perhaps not such a happy occasion, he died at Chiswick House in 1827).
Around 120 years after it had been set down (having been repaved and
maintained along the way), a bomb fell on Duke's Avenue causing substantial
devastation. Crashing into the junction with Chiswick High Road on February
19th 1944, the bomb fractured water, gas and electricity mains, broke the
telephone and trolley bus wires and badly damaged the Roman Catholic Church.
Three people were killed in the incident.
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