Gunnersbury Park is a park in Brentford, West London, England. Purchased for the nation from the Rothschild family, it was opened to the public by Neville Chamberlain, then Minister of Health, on 21 May 1926. The park is currently jointly managed by Ealing and Hounslow borough councils.

History

Private use

The name Gunnersbury derives from Gunylda, the niece of King Canute who lived there until her banishment from England in 1044. The manor, owned by the Bishop of London, was occupied by the Frowyk family in the 15th century; Sir Thomas Frowyk, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was born there in 1460. In the mid-17th century, Gunnersbury was acquired by Sir John Maynard, a lawyer and politician during the time of Cromwell. It was he who built Gunnersbury House, a Palladian mansion modelled on the Villa Badoer, and designed by John Webb, the pupil and son-in-law of Inigo Jones. A map of Ealing dated 1777, shows the house in the north-east corner of the park, facing a horseshoe-shaped lake.

Coordinates: 51°29′34″N 0°16′40″W / 51.4927°N 0.2777°W / 51.4927; -0.2777

Gunnersbury is a place in the London Borough of Hounslow, with its northern edge in the London Borough of Ealing, west London. It has an area of less than half a square kilometre and is within the west area of the Chiswick W4 postal district of London.

Toponymy

The name "Gunnersbury" means "Manor house of a woman called Gunnhildr", and is from an old Scandinavian personal name + Middle English -bury, manor or manor house.

Development

Gunnersbury consists mainly of pre-war housing of a variety of types, including flats, terrace, semi detached, and detached houses, some of which are ex-local authority built.

The defining symbol of Gunnersbury is the 18-storey high BSI (British Standards Institution) building on Chiswick High Road. Below this building Gunnersbury station serves the Richmond branch of the District line and the London Overground to Stratford.

In August 1921, London General Omnibus Company established a bus overhaul facility off Chiswick High Road. It incorporated a Training School with a bus Skid-Pan. In 1989, London Transport closed the works. In 2001 the site was redeveloped as the Chiswick Business Park with 12 medium density office buildings. It houses companies including SBS Broadcasting Networks Ltd., Teletext Ltd, CBS News, Technicolor, Discovery Channel Europe, Intelsat, Singapore Airlines, Qantas Airlines, Foxtons Estate Agents, and a Virgin Active health club.