Canons Park: The Life and Times of the Duke of Chandos

(68 reviews)

London audio tour: Canons Park: The Life and Times of the Duke of Chandos

This is a 1.4mi walking tour

It takes an average of 60 mins to complete.

London

The United Kingdom

Free

Access all 22 locations offline with the VoiceMap app

Reviews

About the Tour

Why was Canons Park once one of Britain’s finest palaces? In the early 1700s, it was home to the Duke of Chandos, who poured millions of pounds into the house and gardens, turning it into a centre of collecting and connoisseurship which astounded everyone who visited. It even rivaled Blenheim Palace in its grandeur.

Based on years of research, and developed in collaboration with the Friends of Canons Park and the Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities at the University of Oxford, this walking tour will allow you to explore the rise and fall of Canons Park. You’ll retrace the Duke of Chandos’ steps through the grounds, find out what the trees in the garden say about his taste in art and architecture, and how a temple reveals something of empire and slavery.

Highlights on this tour include hearing about:

How Chandos made his millions with the Duke of Marlborough
The boom and bust in the South Sea Bubble
Canons Park’s hidden legacy of empire and slavery
Why the grounds and gardens were at the forefront of science
The story of how a church led Handel to compose the Chandos Anthems
Canons Park’s fame and subsequent infamy, thanks to Alexander Pope

Whether you’ve lived near Canons Park for years or you’re just visiting, this tour brings to light the life and times of its most famous resident like never before.

Tour Producer

Aaron Graham

1 tour

I'm a historian and lecturer, based at University College London. I've also held several posts at the University of Oxford, and was a Knowledge Exchange Fellow with The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities.

My research looks at politics, finance and slavery in Britain and the British Empire between about 1660 and 1850. I've published several books and over thirty articles on these topics. You can find more details at my website below

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/history/people/academic-staff/dr-aaron-graham

Preview Location

Location 8

Western Avenue II

Until the Underground arrived in the early twentieth century, this was the western avenue of Canons Park, which stretched all the way from the house behind you to Stanmore, about a mile. Brydges spent at least £2,700 – about £3 million in modern money – planting chestnut trees... Until the Underground arrived in the early twentieth century, this was the western avenue of Canons Park, which stretched all the way from the house behind you to Stanmore, about a mile. Brydges spent at least £2,700 – about £3 million in modern money – planting chestnut trees and installing sculptures, stone and marble urns and other ornaments all the way along it. No doubt it made for a pleasant journey as he rode over to Stanmore, perhaps to speak with Andrew Drummond, his banker and the founder of the bank of Drummonds & Company, which still exists today. One of the things they might have talked about, before 1720, was his investment portfolio, in particular the tens of thousands of pounds he had invested in the South Sea Company here in Britain.

Brydges was therefore at the forefront of what historians have called the “financial revolution”. The Bank of England had been founded in 1694, the East India Company was offering new shares, and the first great stock market boom of the modern world was underway. For people with money, the right connections and strong nerves, there were profits to be made, and Brydges – who had been made the Earl of Carnarvon in 1714 and the Duke of Chandos in 1719 – had all three. He put lots of money into the new South Sea Company, which made an agreement with the British government in 1720 to wipe out all of the national debt in return for trading privileges in Spanish America. With an ambitious business plan and the support of government and financial markets, the price of the stock rose from £100 per share in January to nearly £1,000 per share in August, and seemed poised to go higher.

As you probably guessed, the shares then went the other way. The price collapsed and hundreds were ruined. For a long time historians thought Chandos was too. He complained to his banker in Amsterdam, for example, that he had lost nearly £850,000, close to £8.5 billion in modern money. In fact what he had been doing was buying options or futures, so he had only lost the chance to gain that much. He went on to say that he still had about £300,000 or £3 billion in modern money in other stocks and shares, so he was hardly short of cash as a result. The whole experience was definitely a shock though, and although Chandos did not stop dabbling in the stock markets, he also began to look after 1720 for more secure investments, as you will hear at the next stop. Read More

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Major Landmarks

Canons Park

Getting There

Route Overview

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Start location
Canons Park, London HA8 7RJ, UK
Total distance

2km
Final location
Canons Park, Edgware HA8, UK
Distance back to start location

87.83m

Directions to Starting Point

The tour begins at the Bothy in Canons Park. This can be accessed from the entrances at Canons Drive, Whitchurch Lane, Donnefield Avenue and Howberry Road. On-street parking is available at all four entrances, subject to local restrictions, and there is a station carpark at Donnefield Avenue. Maps at these entrances will guide you to the Bothy.

Canons Park is within walking distance of Canons Park Underground Station on the Jubilee Line, via Donnefield Avenue. There is also a bus stop at Whitchurch Lane (Buses 79, 186, 340)

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

The Good Friends Cafe at the Bothy is open every day except Mondays from 11am to 4pm. There is also a toilet, which is opened during the day by volunteers and maintained by Harrow Council on a weekly basis

Best time of day

The park is open from dawn to dusk. Although part of the route is over flat pathway that is accessible to wheelchair users, the remainder is over grass, which can be muddy in winter or after heavy rain!

Precautions

No precautions, the park is safe.

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