Gunnersbury Park - Today

Today

The actions of the Rothschilds and the Ealing and Acton councils provided the local residents with the park that exists today. There is a substantial open area to the west bordering Lionel Road, which accommodates thirty-six football pitches in the winter.

The large mansion is now Gunnersbury Park Museum — opened in 1929 — a showcase for local history and archaeology, costume and fine art. Some memorabilia of the Rothschilds remain, including a number of their horse-drawn coaches.

There is a boating pond nearby, overlooked by a temple folly dating from 1760 — the only 18th-century building still standing in the park. Opposite this is a large Pitch and Putt next to some tennis-courts. There is an Orangery built in 1836 by Sydney Smirke, who designed the British Museum Reading Room, and the remains of a Gothic fantasy disguising the old stables. Close to the Orangery is what is left of the western half of the Horseshoe Lake – devoid of water now but planned for renewal.

On the east side of the park, adjacent to the boundary with the North Circular Road is where the Japanese water-garden used to be. It was laid out in 1901 as a site for Leopold de Rothschild’s water lilies. This too is due for restoration. In the south western corner of the park is the Potomac fishing-lake complete with its boat-house folly.

Princess Amelia’s most famous contribution to Gunnersbury was the bathhouse, a “battlemented Gothic building” still visible in the park near the eastern end of the small mansion. Current research shows that the visible building is 19th-century, although the 18th-century foundations of the original bathhouse have been identified under the floor.

Gunnersbury Park was a haven for small boys wanting to fly kites and model aeroplanes and float model boats in the pond, and avoid being evicted by vigilant park-keepers for riding their bikes. The large mansion is quite recognisable as the venue for the Police Exhibition in the climax of the Ealing Studios Comedy The Lavender Hill Mob, when the model Eiffel Towers were exposed as being made from stolen gold bullion. And recognising the cultural diversity of Hounslow and Ealing boroughs, for the last four years to 2007, the London Mela has been held in Gunnersbury Park – a celebration of culture from the Indies with live music, dance and fashion as well as market stalls and a selection of food and drink.

In 1991 the London-based indie band The Hit Parade released their single 'In Gunnersbury Park'; the song describes the failing relationship between songwriter J.Henry and his girlfriend Joanna Wood who lived a short diatance from the Park in Bollo Lane.