Syon

In eighteenth century Britain architecture seemed to take a turn to the dramatically (if that's not the wrong word) austere:

Syon Park, nestled in several hundred prime acres on the banks of the River Thames, is a glorious example of the type.

From the outside it's almost childishly simple -- even the dimmest child would recognise it as a castle:

Like much of the work of the Adam brothers it exudes strength and solidity, but it also reeks of power (this being the London seat of the Dukes of Northumberland, Earls of Essex):

Syon Park is an immensely masculine piece of architecture -- look at how massively built the porte cochère is:

And when you finally make it up to the front door (which wouldn't disgrace some major national public institution), you are aware of the enormous volume of space that sits on the other side...

In fact, on the opposite side of the hall you can see an open door into a central courtyard, which turns out to be this delightful space:

Alas, back inside the house there is a complete ban on any photography whatsoever, including mobile phones. Bastards. The warders are hypersensitive (possibly because I set off an alarm by leaning too far over a rope barrier, to see behind a door) so you get no photos of the interior other than this delicious portrait of the 3rd Duke of Northumberland, tucked away in some ratty old nursery corridor miles from anywhere:

No, photography at Syon has to resume in the gardens. But they are rather impressive:

Genius landscape designer "Capability" Brown laid them out, though modern hands have also added to them:

Even when the clouds made everything overcast to give the impression of a typical English summer's day, there was interest and movement and life:

And when the sun broke through...

Being an eighteenth century palace, the grounds (like the house) are stuffed full of sculpture:

Some of it extraordinarily monumental in character:

And there's a soaring greenhouse tucked away, which apparently was used in at least some respects as an inspiration for the Crystal Palace building:

There is a huge area of marshy meadows which is flooded twice a day by the inrushing tide from the Thames -- the last sanctuary of salt meadow left anywhere around these parts:

But it's the great house that's the thing. Extraordinary.

One of this summer's photography expeditionary themes will be Great Houses What I Have Not Previously Visited. I'm hoping to bag at least Highclere and Tyntesfield before the summer's over.