Forum Topic

I have a question about the lake in Chiswick house grounds

Why does the lake level fluctuate so much?Including sometimes flooding the path?What controls the lake level?

Simon Pedley ● 21d21 Comments

I’ve never researched Chiswick House, but it’s impossible to research any part of Chiswick without understanding a bit of its history. The claim is not that it was once filled by a spring in Spring Grove, but that it is still fed from there today. I think if you went back far enough in time, before the Thames meandering created the peninsular of Chiswick the route of the Thames would of been close to where the spring also flowed. The first detailed map of Chiswick I have found from 1840’s shows the outflow above ground, there don’t appear to be any sluice gates, so presumably the lake would fill with every high tide. But there is no sign of any connection to Spring Grove above ground. Looking at the Tithe map there are two land boundaries in roughly that location, a good clue there was once something there, except one doesn’t reach Spring Grove and the other looks a bit too far north, so presumably the stream had already disappeared by then. I’ve never researched Stand on the Green, but I didn’t think it was ever part of Chiswick or Sutton Court, so Lord Burlington would never have owned the spring. I would of thought when the laundries opened around Spring Grove they would of diverted any spring on their land to their business rather than onto someone else's land. Google says Pier House Laundry opened in 1860’s, but there looks to be buildings there in the 1840’s. I knew the cascade never worked at intended but never realised they had hoped it would work with a pipe under the lake. Can you confirm if the pipe/culvert has only ever existed under the lake. A 500 meter pipe/culvert on his own land for an idea that didn’t really work seems excessive but makes sense. A 1500 meter pipe just to get to the edge of the lake, some of it across other peoples land doesn’t seem plausible to have been built in the first place or to have survived with all the houses now built above it. I think this is probably where the confusion comes from, that the pipe that does exist connects beyond the grounds to Spring Grove still today. Although I think we agree that the lake and the pipe has never been connected to the Bollo. Rivers south of the High Road, is a subject worse than religion or politics, I don’t think I’ve ever found two sources that agree.

Colin Potter ● 21h

Val has covered almost all the bases far more eloquently than I could. All I would add is that people buying houses in Wolesley Gardens and Chesterfield Road are sometimes surprised to find a brick built structure that crosses their gardens. This is the culvert for the river/stream rising in Spring Grove. I remember talking to an architect, several years ago, who was supervising the construction of a rear extension in Wolesely Gardens. He bemoaned the fact that he had been forced to insert substantial underpining into his original plans for the foundations when the builder encountered the old culvert.

Sam Hearn ● 1d

Colin - you have completely misunderstood this. The lake was created for Lord Burlington using the water supply he acquired when he purchased the Sutton Court estate. This stream rose at today's Spring Grove and flowed in a ditch across the parish to join the Thames beside St Nicholas Church. A raised bar of sand stopped it from flowing directly to the Thames at the north end of Strand on the Green. It fed the ponds at Sutton Court; Burlington adapted one of these to create the new lake and diverted the flow of the stream. The fall was so shallow that Burlington could not have the tumbling cascade he had hoped for at the top of his lake, so this was actually constructed at the outflow end of the lake and required an animal power source- not very successful! For decades the stream ran in a pipe through the lake but the main water supply, as other messages here have stated, is  still via a sluice from the Thames. Yes, the Bollo sometimes overflowed onto land the Duke of Devonshire owned but it did not feed the lake. Hope this helps -am not attempting to deal with the other rivers you mention, also nothing to do with Chiswick House!

Valerie Bott ● 1d

The lake is a man made ornamental lake and not part of a river. If you look at old maps it extended further to Eastbourne Road. On those maps there are fish ponds shown at the north end of Bollo Lane next to where Acton Town station is today and also on Elmwood road, but neither connect to Chiswick House. When I was looking into the local rivers the conclusion most came to was that as many were also boundaries it’s difficult to tell if the boundary was chosen as the river was there, or were the boundaries chosen and the rivers diverted. The southern section, the outflow from the lake that’s now under Promenade Approach looks more likely to be the second. If you look at the course of the River Brent, it does look like the natural route for the Bollo should be through Chiswick House, but I think the Romans were the first to divert it. Not only would it have protected the roads they had built it would also have dried out the marshland of Chiswick to make it useable land. One of the first recorded mentions of Padenswick House was when it was sold and it was listed with a moat filled with the springs from Acton. Last time I checked they still hadn’t found the moat so it’s unknown which springs filled it, the Bollo could have been one of them. When Sir Bazalegette built his sewers he mentioned the Bollo as being a perfect natural flush for his system. He generally tried to use what was there already and chose to divert it along Bath Road, roughly where the Northern Roman road once was and roughly where the Hounslow / Ealing borough boundary is today. The best bit of evidence the natural course for the Bollo is via Chiswick House is also proof it hasn’t flowed that way for centuries. The Duke of Devonshire wrote a letter complaining that the Bollo wasn’t being maintained and need to be fixed to stop it from flowing over his land. I’ve heard before the lake is filled by a pipe from Spring Grove, but last time I checked no one has found the pipe. A few problems with that idea, would it of survived with all the construction since. One for the Chiswick House historians is there a record of it being extended when the lake was shortened? As John Hickman mentioned you can see the outflow pipe that runs under Promenade Approach starting under the wooden bridge by the A316. Kathleen Healy is probably the best person to explain when and why its used, my understanding was that it was reversed for exceptional high tides on the Thames to help prevent flooding further upstream and the lake would fill. Then at low tide it would then drain back to the Thames. My interest was the Mill Hill Brook, another river that was moved and diverted. The Northern part looks to have been moved so Turnham Green could expand, it’s the reason some of Chiswick is in Ealing Borough today. It’s shown on some old maps but disappears when it gets to the Bath road. My best guess where it went south of that is also the boundary between the Prebend of Chiswick and Chiswick. So was the boundary chosen and the brook diverted, or was the brook there creating the boundary, then straightened later to make it a better drain to the Thames?

Colin Potter ● 2d

There’s a sluice gate in the bank the other side of the Pump House. It’s controlled from inside the Pump House.  A channel from it goes back to the serpentine in Chiswick House and tops up the level when the sluice is lifted at high water.As part of the HLF works, power was run along the culvert and sensors and lifting equipment installed in the Pump House, so the sluice could be raised remotely, after checking the water quality in the Thames was good. The equipment failed and was expensive to repair, so its now operated manually again.Dukes Meadows Trust led on the restoration of the gates and piers at the other end of Promenade Approach, raised grants and contributed £20k of the£50k cost. The Trust also led on the restoration of the Approach Road, carried out the consultation on the project and applied for a £217k Council CIL grant. The Trust paid for repointing and painting the Pump House and has just tendered for the replacement of the leaking, felt roof with clay tiles, which it will pay for.  Our volunteers planted up and are maintaining the bed around the Pump House and we’ve planted 4000 bulbs along the length of the Approach Road.

Kathleen Healy ● 5d

It absolutely is not fed by the Bollo Brook. James Wisdom's terrific article on the Brentford and Chiswick Local History Society sets it all out here: https://tinyurl.com/4m3xpf23The stream was called the "common sewer" in the 17th and 18th centuries - a significant drain which the Lord of the Manor had to maintain as a water supply for farmers and gardeners to use. Burlington obtained access to this water supply when he bought the Sutton Court estate - he wanted a cascade and a lake. But he ended up having to build his cascade at the downstream end of his new lake with a pump, probably driven by a dog, rather than at the top as there was no fall.

Valerie Bott ● 6d

After being on site while works were carried out to lay a new large water main and electricity supplies, the tunnel that holds the Bollo Brooke was made visible.It's made from bricks and looks well constructed, so it's a good job that the contractor knew it was there. When you follow the line of the tunnel from the gates in Edensor Road. It goes under the A316 and enters the park and still in a tunnel it goes underneath the lake.Many years ago it did feed the lake but there were so many Laundries upstream that were polluting the lake, the Bollo was diverted into a tunnel underneath the lake.The Building at the end of Promenade Approach Road is also something to do with the lake or the Bollo Brooke

Bernard Allen ● 6d

To confirm what I think has already been posted....The water in the lake is Thames Water. It is controlled by a sluice gate at the end of Promenade Walk that allows ingress/egress of water at high/low tide. It was built (to my understanding) some time in the 1800s. I can't remember who is responsible. If you walk over the wooden bridge by the A316end of Burlington Lane and peer over the edge you will see where the water flows out and into the underground "stream". There is a wall here that "controls" the amount of water allowed to flow out. Obviously, if too much flows out the wild life could be getting their feet very muddy.Overflow of water occurs when the sluice gate malfunctions and too much water flows into the lake and can't get out at low tide. The last time this happened was several years ago and I am reliably informed that it has (in the past) overflowed as far as Staveley Road, though I haven't seen this.

John Hickman ● 9d

https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Talk:Bollo_BrookThis wiki entry makes it quite clear that the idea that Bollo Brook enters the lake at Chiswick House is just misinformed. The Bollo Brook version of the story appears in "a book" but that does not make it true.The OS Map of 1873 Middlesex XXI would appear to be the key document to refer to. See also the link to the map in my previous post. Unfortunately the stream/river that rises at Spring Grove / London Stile does not appear to have a name.

Sam Hearn ● 10d

The laundry area, commonly known as soap sud city if I remember correctly.

Janice Evans ● 11d

Bollo Brook originally formed the boundary of Lord Burlington’s estate in Chiswick. After the estate was extended by the purchase of land the other side of the water in 1726-7, the Brook was widened and canalised & the grounds of the adjacent Chiswick House extensively landscaped. The house was a medium-sized Jacobean mansion used as a summer retreat to get away from London . The 3rd Earl of Burlington designed a villa next to the house to hold his collection of art and furniture. The design was inspired by his tours of Italy and the country’s Palladian architecture. The old house was demolished later that century and the villa itself became known as Chiswick House. The waters of Bollo Brook originally fed the lakes and fountains at Chiswick House, but these days the Brook is carried in a pipe underneath the lake joining the Thames a little further on. The reason for the culverting was due to the dirty water from the many laundries further upstream polluting the waters of the landscaped  gardens of Chiswick House.

Bernard Allen ● 11d

Bollo Brook flows east to the north of Chiswick High Road and joins Stamford Brook. This is clearly shown on the map with a facebook link below.https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10227427871507982&set=gm.2054276614725299It is therefore unlikely to be the source of the Lake in Chiswick House Grounds the grounds

Sam Hearn ● 12d

the Thames ...

Davey Harris ● 12d

Nothing conclusive yet.Answer to two points. Yes the building along promenade approach near the river. Secondly re-instatement of the stream unlikely. As it took decades to restore the area to what it is now and they spent money on re-surfacing the whole length. Nice thought though.

Paul Jennings ● 13d

We eagerly await your conclusions.I have so many important questions.Do you mean that building down at the river end of the promenade approach? If river water gets into the lake, does that mean the lake is brackish rather than fresh?Should we rename the park Bollo Park?Could we get the stream reinstated along Promenade approach? How cool would that be.

Simon Pedley ● 14d

Good point Simon. However if you follow the route from the lake to the Thames there is a building on Promenade approach which is linked to the flow of the underground river.It's easy to see now as vegetation has been cut back and you can walk round it again.I will investigate more.

Paul Jennings ● 16d

Thanks. So is the lake at such low elevation that at high tide water flows in from the thames, do you think (if the gates are open)?

Simon Pedley ● 17d

That's a helpful book Paul.So we have the Bollo Stream tumbling dowm from Acton/Ealing > bollo bridge road > the bollo pub > historic mild damage to some houses in "chiswick road" > fishers lane and onwards!

Jim Lawes ● 20d

https://www.londonslostrivers.com/bollo-brook.html

Paul James ● 20d

The "lake" is the only part of river that is mainly culveted and therefore invisible above ground. It begins at Spring Grove - the clue is in the name.

Sam Hearn ● 20d

If AI is to be believed."Chiswick House's sluice gates control the water level of the lake and the Cascade, drawing water directly from the Thames and requiring the gates to be opened to allow for debris to be flushed out. These gates are crucial for maintaining the garden's water features and are a key part of the landscape designed by the 3rd Earl of Burlington."I have also read  this from a more traditional source together with pictures, though I can't immediately remember where.

Bruce Hammal ● 21d