friar park henley visit

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Henley England, Oxfordshire

Introduction.

Friar Park is a Victorian fantasy garden created for Sir Frank Crisp in 1896, and restored in the late-20th century by George Harrison. The site covers about 12 hectares, and features grottoes, caves, underground passages, a multitude of garden gnomes, and an Alpine rock garden with a scale model of the Matterhorn.

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

A late 19th-century house surrounded by contemporary elaborate gardens and pleasure grounds designed by the original owner Frank Crisp.

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

Friar Park stands on the west edge of Henley-on-Thames, located 1km from the centre of the town and the River Thames, on an east-facing hillside towards the southern end of the Chiltern Hills. The c 13ha site is bounded to the east by the straight lane called Hop Gardens , to the south by Gravel Hill, the lane from Henley to Greys Court (qv), to the west by an access lane, and to the north by a mid C20 housing estate. The setting is partly urban, to the east, and rural to the west, with long views north from the house and northern pleasure grounds over Fair Mile towards Henley Park.

Entrances and Approaches

The main entrance to Friar Park, standing 400m south-east of the house, is approached from the east, up the hill from the Market Place at the centre of Henley. The gateway, set back off Gravel Hill , is flanked by two sets of gate piers supporting central iron carriage gates and flanking pedestrian gates (late C19, listed grade II). The piers, of red brick and stone banding, formerly (stolen 1997) supported grave and gay friars' heads on the top of the outer two, with iron lamps remaining on top of the inner two. The gateway is flanked by brick walls with stone coping and banding. On the west side, behind one of the brick walls, stands the two-storey, brick and stone-banded Lower Lodge (late C19, listed grade II), built in Flamboyant Gothic style , with a polygonal watch tower supporting a pyramidal roof. The curving drive climbs north-westwards through the pleasure grounds, overlooking the lawns below and passing south of the lakes, arriving at the semicircular carriage sweep by the south, entrance front.

A service drive (late C20) enters from the west boundary, passing the kitchen garden and arriving at the west, service front of the house. Access was formerly gained from the west via the upper drive (disused), past the two-storey Upper Lodge (late C19, listed grade II) standing 200m west of the house, also built in Flamboyant Gothic style. The drive divided to the north and south of the kitchen garden, arriving at the rear (west side) of the house.

Middle Lodge (late C19, listed grade II) stands on the south boundary, half way between the other two lodges, adjacent to Gravel Hill. Built of red brick with stone dressings in similar style to the other lodges, it stands behind a railed wall with brick and stone-banded piers supporting iron gates (late C19, listed grade II). From here a short spur path joins the main drive 150m south-east of the house.

Principal Building

Friar Park (M Clarke Edwards 1889, listed grade II) stands on a plateau towards the west of the pleasure grounds, at the top of, and overlooking, an east-facing slope. The large, two-storey house, built in Flamboyant Gothic style of brick with stone dressings, is of irregular plan, with the entrance front to the south and the long garden front to the east. The latter, which is dominated by a large, square tower, overlooks a formal terrace and parterre below, and beyond, lawns leading down to the lakes.

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

The central garden feature is the formal terrace running along the east front, and the parterre below it. The 50m long terrace is approached via short paths from the south entrance front and through a door from the north front. A central, broad gravel path running along its whole length is bounded to the east by a grass bank, with a low stone wall at the top of the slope. At each end a bastion with a curved outer end projects over the parterre below, with steps curving down around the projection to the lower level. Here a central, apsidal parterre contains two box-hedged knots set within a panel of lawn, with a circular stone pond at the curved east end of the lawn. Stone steps at the north-east and south-east corners lead down to the open, informal lawn below, beyond which lie the lakes, partly screened by mature trees.

Several further garden features surround the house, connected by informal lawns and screened by mature trees, including many Scots pines . The 1.5ha rock garden, said to be the largest artificial rock garden in Britain (Inspector's Report 1990), lies north of the house, enclosed by mature trees. It is entered from a spur west off the path north from the house. The spur curves between large rock formations, opening out into the main body of the rock garden, built from 23,000 tons of rock by Backhouse of York and including a scaled-down Matterhorn. Begun in 1896, it contained c 4000 varieties of alpine plants, and during Frank Crisp's time was populated with china or tin chamois (Ottewill 1982). The view west, up what appears to be an alpine pass, focuses on the Henley Matterhorn, originally visible on the skyline and seeming to stand in the far distance but now with a background of mature trees obscuring the view and lessening the false perspective. The Ice Grotto, reproduced from a photograph of the cave in the Glacier du Geant , Chamonix, is said to lie beneath the Matterhorn, formerly populated with stalactites and cavities of blue ice, and with water from an artificial glacier entering in a fall which made real icicles (Jones 1974). Close by, and possibly still extant, a further grotto consisted of a series of caves lined with artificial tufa made with clinker from the glasshouse boilers, including the Vine Cave (with large bunches of glass grapes), the Wishing Well Cave, the Skeleton Cave, the Illusion Cave and the Gnome Cave. On the way out a distorting mirror gave the visitor's body the figure of a gnome (ibid).

East of the rock garden lies the Topiary or Dial Garden , with many evergreen topiary specimens set in a lawn crossed by gravel paths, laid out according to the plan of the labyrinth at Versailles, formerly with thirty-nine sundials. From here a path leads down to the remains of the adjacent Medieval Garden and Elizabethan Herb Garden, with pergolas and brick retaining walls.

A path leads south to the two lakes, the upper one being divided north/south into two levels by a dam. It is crossed by stone stepping stones which lead onto a small peninsula from where a path rises up onto the raised Japanese Garden , placed largely over the artificial cave system which separates the two lakes and containing a small waterway and encircling paths. Two sets of steps lead down to doors into the cave system, which is largely filled with water and encircled by perimeter paths linking the separate caverns. At the west end, a canal within a covered passage leads boats north out of the system, beneath the dam overhang, to the lower level of the north lake, overlooking the lower water level to the east. Within the caves the walls are formed into stalactites and stalagmites, with various reflective minerals incorporated into the dripping plasterwork. Light is admitted from above via panes of coloured glass set into the roof, incorporated into the Japanese Garden above. The water cave seems to have been based on the Blue Grotto of Capri (Jones 1974; Crisp early C20), lit by blue glass skylights and electricity. The main cave formerly contained stalactites, fossil trees, petrified birds' nests and rainbow lighting as well as blue glass (Jones 1974), some elements of which still remain.

The Japanese Garden overlooks the lower lake which lies in a small valley to the south, with a cascade on a rock face on the south side. Both lakes contain many small inlets, forming very irregular edges. The remainder of the pleasure grounds are laid to open lawns bounded by mature plantings, with many Scots pines. A maze formerly lay on the west boundary.

Crisp himself outlined his philosophy towards the gardens, which 'were however, designed, as it were, as specimens in a museum to illustrate the taste of a period or a Nation, leaving the observer to come to whatever decision he pleases for or against the particular idea, an opportunity having been given him of forming an opinion from an actual object lesson' (Crisp early C20).

Kitchen Garden

The kitchen garden , still under cultivation, lies immediately west of the house, bounded to the east and south by clipped evergreen hedges, and on the north side by a brick wall which formerly held a range of glasshouses, parts of which remain. The west side is bounded by further glasshouses, including a former 'Aquatic House' (Crisp early C20), which contains the remains of a large central pond with rockwork, surrounded by heating pipes beneath the perimeter path. North of this stand the remains of a fine fernery.

• OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1883; 2nd edition published 1900; 3rd edition published 1926
• OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1881; 2nd edition published 1899; 3rd edition published 1925

Archive sources

• Henley-on-Thames in old picture postcards (1983), illustrations 60-1
• RCHME, Yesterday's Gardens (1983), illustrations 69, 70, 98, 101
• Cottingham and Fisher, Henley-on-Thames (1990), illustrations 102-6

Description written: March 1998

Amended: March 1999; April 1999

Edited: January 2000, January 2023

Other Websites

• https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000504

19th Century

In the 1870s the area presently covered by Friar Park was occupied by two small estates, Friar Park to the west, and Friar's Field to the east, each with its own approach drive, pleasure grounds and small area of parkland (OS 1883). In the late 1880s Frank Crisp (1843-1919) began to draw the two estates together, building a large and ostentatious new house close to the site of the old Friar Park house and demolishing the Friar's Field house to the east.

20th Century

Crisp was a wealthy solicitor, a partner in the firm of Ashurst, Morris, Crisp and Co., and was created a baronet in 1913. He was involved with the Royal Horticultural Society, donating many plants to Wisley, and was treasurer of the Linnean Society. He built extravagant gardens around the house, dividing them into many themed sections, possibly advised by H E Milner (Inspector's Report 1990). Many of these areas are still recognisable when compared with Crisp's extensive Guide for the use of Visitors, which was published in several editions during the early 20th century in response to a protracted argument with E A Bowles regarding what a truly authentic rock garden should be.

The house was sold in the 1950s, becoming a convent school run by the Salesian Sisters of St John Bosco, and the gardens suffering much neglect, losing much of their detail. The house and gardens were returned to private ownership in 1971, since when considerable restoration work has been carried out.

• Henry Ernest Milner

Designations

The national heritage list for england: register of parks and gardens.

• Reference: GD1481
• House (featured building)
• Earliest Date: 01 Jan 1885
• Latest Date: 01 Jan 1899
• Garden Feature
• Description: The rock garden, built from 23,000 tons of rock by Backhouse of York and including a scaled-down Matterhorn. Begun in 1896, it contained c 4000 varieties of alpine plants.
• Earliest Date: 01 Jan 1896
• Description: Two lakes
• Japanese garden

Domestic / Residential

Civil Parish

Henley-on-Thames

• {English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest}, (Swindon: English Heritage, 2008) [on CD-ROM] Historic England Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest
• Ottewill, D., {The Edwardian Garden} (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1989) The Edwardian Garden
• Pevsner, N. and J. Sherwood, {The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire} (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974), p. 639 The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire
• Crisp, F., (early 20th century, various editions) Friar Park, Henley-on-Thames, Guide for the use of Visitors, guidebook
• (13 June 1903), pp 773-5; 18 (5 August 1905), pp 162-7; 33 (3 May 1913), pp 641-4; 46 (9 August 1919), pp 174-6 Country Life, 13
• Allen, M., (1973), pp 117-26 E A Bowles and his Garden at Myddleton House, 1865-1954
• Jones, B., (1974), pp 377-8 Follies, Grottoes and Garden Buildings

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George Harrison’s Garden: How the Beatle and his wife turned a ‘tangled jungle’ into a magnificent garden

When George Harrison first saw the famous Topiary Garden at Friar Park in Oxfordshire, it was a tangled jungle of overgrown yews. The work he began has been continued by his wife, Olivia, and, now, the display is back to its full glory, finds Charles Quest-Ritson.

Friar Park is a Gothic fantasy on the chalk downs just above Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. It was famous 100 years ago as the most eccentric and extravagant new garden in England. Today, it is no less famous as the place that the former Beatle George Harrison, with his wife, Olivia, loved and restored.

Friar Park has an interesting history. The original house was built in the 1870s, then enlarged in the 1890s. Harrison’s own description was spot on: ‘Victorian Gothic Revival, mixed with a French château … really incredible.’ The same is true of the gardens, which were laid out by a rich and eccentric lawyer, Sir Frank Crisp, between 1889 and his death 30 years later. Crisp’s creations included a vast alpine rock garden that covered four acres, topped by a scale model of the Matterhorn, as well as a series of stalactites, caves, grottos and underground passages populated by a multitude of garden gnomes. Country Life was impressed and, over the years, published several laudatory articles about the garden.

Crisp was a born collector and one of his passions was for sundials of every type, which he installed in an area he called the Dial Garden. Gnomons, astrolabes, armillary spheres and ring dials—all were corralled into his garden and mounted correctly. The layout copied the plan of the long-lost Labyrinth at Versailles in France, but with 39 sundials in place of the original fountains.

An aerial view of Friar Park, home of the late musician George Harrison. (Photograph by David Goddard/Getty Images).

Each of Crisp’s dial-stands carried a motto, exactly as Louis XIV’s fountains each bore an inscription. But nothing was ever quite straightforward about Crisp’s architectural and horticultural fantasies at Friar Park. First, he added comic statues with further inscriptions. Next, he started to plant topiary yews among his sundials, many of them the upright form Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’, known as the Irish yew. Crisp trained them in eccentric shapes, not only vases, puddings and obelisks, but dumb waiters, spirals, cockerels and peacocks perched on top—plus a fine pair of topiarised sheep.

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Friar Park was frequently open to the public during Crisp’s ownership. Sepia postcards were printed and sold for visitors to spread the fame of both house and garden. After his death in 1919, the estate was sold to Sir Percival David, a scholarly banker who built up one of the finest collections of Chinese porcelain in Britain. The garden was well maintained and open to the public right up to the outbreak of war in 1939.

Olivia Harrison captures the sun rising over the Chilterns. Credit: Olivia Harrison

The Second World War and the high taxation rates of the 1940s and 1950s put an impossible burden on the upkeep of large houses and gardens. Many were demolished. When Sir Percival put Friar Park up for sale in 1951, however, it found a buyer: an order of nuns, variously known as the Institute of Daughters of Mary Help of Christians or the Salesian Sisters of St John Bosco. Religious orders in Britain enjoyed a great boost in vocations after the war and the nuns—full of optimism—acquired Friar Park and ran a convent school.

There are pictures dating from the early years of their ownership of nuns busily clipping the yews in the topiary garden. It soon became clear, however, that the cost of maintaining the house and garden was way beyond their means. They tried, but failed, to obtain planning permission to carve up the garden into building plots, then decided that their best option was to sell the whole estate.

An Edwardian postcard printed by Sir Frank Crisp, from a collection at Friar Park. Credit: Harrison Family

Enter Harrison, aged 27, puzzled, but intrigued by the house and garden, which he bought from the nuns in 1970 after his success as a musician freed him to develop his cultural and historical interests. Friar Park was an essential part of this personal development and its eccentricities appealed to his artistic temperament. He confessed that, when he saw the Friar Park estate for the first time, he felt as if he had seen it before.

His wife, who first came to Friar Park in 1974, thinks it ‘brought to mind Victorian Calderstones Park on the edge of Liverpool, which George knew when he was a pupil at the Liverpool Institute for Boys’. The garden’s eccentricities chimed with his creative sensibility and his love of history.

Shape shifters: more than 160 topiary yew and box have been grown back from the original Edwardian trees and nurtured into fantastical new forms. Credit: Sue Flood

Harrison sometimes referred to the house at Friar Park as Crackerbox Palace, but, in 1970, it needed repair. Years later, he recalled the condition of the house at the time of his purchase: ‘It was all rotting—and nobody was interested. They were trying to pull it down and destroy it.’ He added, with justifiable pride: ‘Now, it’s a listed building.’

Repairing the house was a massive undertaking, but every part of the garden also called out for attention, as Harrison began to uncover and appreciate the structure of what remained of Crisp’s dramatic garden after nearly 30 years of neglect. Mrs Harrison has vivid memories of these years of rediscovery: ‘George used garden flame-throwers to clear the undergrowth and put two goats to clear the weeds and brambles on the rock garden. He hired and oversaw a team of local builders, who cleared ceramics and shopping trolleys out of the lake, which the nuns had allowed to be used as a dumping ground. And he personally oversaw the workmen he hired to cement the leaks and lay new pipework so that the lakes could be filled again.’ The topiary garden was completely overgrown, reduced to an impenetrable sea of bushes that had grown into each other and overrun by such weeds as ivy and brambles. Sir Frank’s sundials had long since disappeared.

Expert topiarist James Crebbin-Bailey felt as if he was being guided by Harrison in what shapes to create. Credit: Sue Flood

The Harrisons quickly became enthusiastic, hands-on gardeners. Together, they set to work, each tackling separate areas of the garden. Years later, their son, Dhani, confessed—in his mother’s book George Harrison: Living in the Material World —that: ‘My earliest memory of my dad is probably of him somewhere in a garden covered in dirt… just continuously planting trees. I think that’s what I thought he did for the first seven years of my life. I was completely unaware that he had anything to do with music.’

The Harrisons knew what should be done to recover the topiary garden, once the weeds had been cleared. The overgrown bushes, some of them now small trees, were pruned back to their trunks. Yews respond well to hard pruning and, gradually, they all grew back thick and bushy once again. Over the years, new topiaries began to be carved, although most of them were maintained in simple shapes as columns and cones.

After her husband’s premature death in 2001, Mrs Harrison engrossed herself in the garden, putting her energy into finding ever more interesting species to plant and overseeing the upkeep and maintenance of the whole estate. She commissioned expert topiarist James Crebbin-Bailey to develop the topiary and gave him a free hand on how best to develop the individual specimens.

A coloured glass plate shows some of the original sundials, gnomons, astrolabes and ring dials collected by Crisp. Credit: Harrison Family

Mr Crebbin-Bailey says that Mrs Harrison’s intuitive understanding of what he sought to achieve was invaluable. He also adds that, when he began work at Friar Park, he had a strong sense of the spirit of George Harrison present throughout the garden and that this helped him to choose his designs. The traditional forms, such as cones, vases, urns, mitres, spirals and a rabbit (the sheep have long since disappeared), were supplemented by hexagons, concave shapes and, more particularly, groups of pagodas, bullseyes, waves and psychedelic forms. Mr Crebbin-Bailey is convinced that these innovative features, reflecting a search for spiritual enlightenment, were guided by Harrison himself. Almost all Crisp’s collection of sundials had long since been sold or stolen: Mrs Harrison has tried to assemble replacements, to capture the spirit of the garden as Crisp envisaged it.

It is hard to say exactly how many individual topiaries are there today. They are very difficult to count without missing some out or counting them twice. Estimates range between 161 and 166, all of yew, apart from 13 of box. It is probably the greatest concentration of topiaries in Britain. The distinctive shapes combine harmoniously with their neighbours, which is all the more important because some of the plants are as much as 15ft high and the gaps between them are often quite narrow. The balance between solidity and openness in a comparatively small space is crucial to the success of the composition. In short, the impeccably maintained topiary garden at Friar Park today is a masterpiece—one of the most important in all Europe.

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Friar Park: Sir Frank Crisp’s Museum of Gardens

A documentary about Friar Park called Friar Park: Sir Frank Crisp’s Museum of Gardens , will be released later this year by investigative historian, Scott Cardinal.

Scott says of the documentary it is a time-travel journey to an extraordinary English country estate envisioned by Sir Frank Crisp in the medieval town of Henley-on-Thames where he created gorgeous grounds and gardens and an underland wonderland! Explore the magnificent mansion, meet those who spent time there and the man who was destined to call the estate his home and restored the estate to it’s former glory.

Scott has been posting, asking questions and researching for this documentary on local Facebook pages so we thought that we would speak to him to find out a bit more.

“I am an architectural and investigative historian. I also teach Design Psychology. My central focus is researching how creative and productive people throughout history have lived and worked. Understanding this, I feel, can help others figure out ways that they can become more creative and productive in their personal and professional lives.

My first books were about the Dakota apartment building in New York City because it always bothered me that all anyone ever knew about it was that is where John Lennon died. But it is such a beautiful building, with a fantastic design and history, and so I wrote books and have lectured about it. 

I’ve also done the same with John Lennon’s Tittenhurst Park, Friar Park, and other places of major architectural and historical significance.

As far as Friar Park, as difficult to believe as it may seem, George Harrison was the least interest part of its storied history.  Its ideator, Sir Frank Crisp, was legendary in his own time, as was Friar Park. The gardens he created were quite unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. It was referred to as a Museum of Gardens because Crisp seemed to be “collecting” gardens and putting them on display for visitors to see. 

For years I’ve been asked to put together a documentary about Friar Park, but there has been so much to tell that it was frustrating to try to squeeze in everything in a 60-90 minute film.

So I put one together that focuses on Sir Frank Crisp and what he created up until the time of his death in 1919. Of course I show Henley in a very positive light, as it deserves to be.

I’d like very much to produce a documentary about Friar Park when it was owned by Sir Percival & Lady David, but there is practically nothing out there about them, or their lives in Henley. This is astonishing to me. If anyone has any information they can provide, I would greatly appreciate it.

What I would like to do at this point is connect with a local, non-human animal adoption, rescue, and welfare organization and allow them to use the documentary – entitled FRIAR PARK: SIR FRANK’S CRISP’S MUSEUM OF GARDENS – as a fundraiser. If anyone has any suggestions about that, kindly let me know.

In the meanwhile, because I have so much research on Friar Park that couldn’t possibly be used in the documentary, for an assortment of reasons, I am releasing a video series called FRIAR PARK STORIES, and will be making them available on video platforms such as YouTube, Rumble, BitChute, and others.

For those who are interested in experiencing what it was like to visit Friar Park in the past, I have produced a series of time-travel-style Audio Tours. They are available on my website www.AudibleAdventures.com . They can also download the Audible Adventures App on their iPhone or Android devices.

People are also more than welcome to join the Friar Park Fan Club on Facebook where we discuss the architecture, and gardens, and history of Friar Park.”

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Friar Park is a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames, England, construction began in 1889 and was completed in 1895. It was built for lawyer Sir Frank Crisp, and purchased in January 1970 by English rock musician and former Beatle George Harrison. The site covers about 30 acres, and features caves, grottoes, underground passages, a multitude of garden gnomes, and an Alpine rock garden with a scale model of the Matterhorn.

More information and contact

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friar_Park

Address RG9 2, United Kingdom

Coordinates 51°32'23.566" N -0°54'51.569" E

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• United Kingdom
• Henley-on-thames
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• Address: Henley-on-Thames RG9 2HL, UK, United Kingdom
• Phone: +44-01865243006
• Tags: Park, Family And Kids , Landmarks, Parks

Constructed in 1889 on a 62-acre property in UK is a royal mansion that leaves one spellbound with its grandeur, the Friar Park. The 120-room mansion is a perfect blend of the Victorian and Neo-Gothic architecture. This estate in Henley, built by Sir Frank Crisp was the home of Beatles singer George Harrison. This huge property consists of numerous caves, underground passages, grottoes and an Alpine rock garden. Apart from this, magnificent gardens, ponds and sculptures adorn this majestic property. Visitors can visit the gates of this mansion and admire the splendor of this house and its surrounding areas.

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• Friar Park Address: Henley-on-Thames RG9 2HL, UK, United Kingdom
• Friar Park Contact Number: +44-01865243006
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Friar Park Reviews & Ratings

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What is the entry cost and opening times (Friar Park)?

It is a private residence and is not open to the public.

How far is Friar Park from London?

Friar Park is located about 38 miles away from London. If you drive from London, it would take about an hour to reach. You can also take a train from Paddington Station to Twyford and then from Twyford to Henley-of-Thames. 

Is it possible to bring a group of approximately 30 keen gardeners from Reading Gardeners to visit the gardens at Friar Park in 2020? Thank you Valerie Caesar Organiser Reading Gardeners

I do not think the gardens are open to the public. If you want, you may try contacting the authorities to see if they give such permission.