A mere 8 miles from Piccadilly Circus lies this grand Neo-classical palace, set in an idealised landscape. Osterley Park and House is an astonishing survival, an eighteenth-century country estate on the western flank of London. The faint roar in the distance is the traffic on the M4, and planes fly directly over the imposing pedimented portico as they land and take off at nearby Heathrow.

Despite the encroachments of the last century, the park remains one of the largest open spaces in West London, and is much valued by people living locally.