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Alexander Pope's Grotto

In 1719 the poet Alexander Pope moved to Twickenham, west of London. He was unable to live in London itself because he was a Catholic. Under legislation passed following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 Catholics were forbidden to live in London. Nevertheless Twickenham allowed easy access to London by road, or via the river Thames, on the banks of which Pope began to build a villa in the Palladian style. Pope had recently published his translation of Homer's Iliad, which had made him a great deal of money. He was now in the happy position of being the first English poet able to live from the proceeds of his writing. With his new money he created a villa, and a garden, buying land across the road from his villa to give him more space for his garden project. He even built a tunnel under the road to connect the garden next to the house with the larger area on the far side of the road. The tunnel led into the basement of the house, where a grotto was created. Here Pope attempted to recreate nature, decorating his grotto with a stalagmite donated by a local resident, and over a hundred other geological items. Two small pieces of basalt from the Giant's Causeway in Ireland were donated by Hans Sloane, the great collector who founded the British Museum. Many of these pieces remain at the grotto today, although some have disappeared over the years. The kind of appreciation of a naturalistic kind of beauty seen at the Grotto was soon to become a major preoccupation of the romantic poets who came along towards the end of the eighteenth century.

Sadly the villa was demolished in 1808, but most of the grotto survives, lying beneath the buildings of the St James Independent School For Boys.

Pope's Grotto can only be visited by appointment. Contact the St James Independent School For Boys at the number below.

Directions: St James School is in the Cross Deep area of Twickenham, on the A310 beside the north bank of the Thames. Trains run from Waterloo and Clapham Junction to Twickenham and Strawberry Hill stations which are within easy walking distance of the school. Buses run from Richmond Underground Station to Twickenham every ten to twenty minutes, and these pass the school. Click here for an interactive road and satellite map centred over Deep Cut, Twickenham.

Contact:

telephone: 020 8892 2002