Pitzhanger Manor

Pitzhanger Manor is a Grade I listed historic house museum located in the London Borough of Ealing, United Kingdom. Situated within Walpole Park, the Regency manor is renowned as the country home of the neoclassical architect Sir John Soane. Built between 1800 and 1804, the house is a rare example of a building designed, built, and lived in by Soane himself. He intended the property as a domestic space to entertain guests and showcase his architectural talents and collection of art and antiquities, as well as a future seat for an architectural dynasty starting with his sons. Following a major conservation project completed in 2019, the manor and its adjoining gallery now operate as a heritage attraction and contemporary art venue.

A substantial dwelling has stood on the site since at least the late seventeenth century, when a property there was taxed for sixteen hearths. In 1768, architect George Dance the Younger was commissioned to build an extension for the owner, banker Thomas Gurnell. A young John Soane worked on this project as an apprentice. After Gurnell's descendants put the estate up for sale, Soane purchased it on August 1, 1800, for four thousand five hundred pounds. He demolished most of the older structure but retained Dance's two-storey south wing, completing his radical rebuilding by 1804. Soane lived there until 1810, selling the property after falling out with his sons and because his wife felt isolated away from central London. The house passed through several private owners, including the daughters of former Prime Minister Spencer Perceval. In 1900, Ealing Urban District Council acquired the estate for forty thousand pounds, converting the building into a free public library following the death of its last resident in 1901. The library relocated in 1984, and the site opened as a heritage attraction in 1987, later adding contemporary art exhibitions in 1996.

During his residency, Soane used Pitzhanger Manor to house and display a significant portion of his growing collection of paintings, classical antiquities, books, and architectural fragments. These items were intended to impress his guests and potential clients. After selling the property, Soane moved these collections to his London home at Lincoln's Inn Fields, where they now form the holdings of the Sir John Soane's Museum. Today, the gallery at Pitzhanger Manor focuses on presenting rotating exhibitions of contemporary art, a program established in 1996. Additionally, the site holds a collection of English ceramics by the Martin Brothers dating from 1873 to 1923.

While Soane's original art and antiquities returned with him to London in 1810, the manor retains its significant architectural features as its primary holdings. The interiors display Soane's characteristic design vocabulary, including quartered and canopy dome ceilings, inset mirrors, and extensive wooden panelling. Externally, the facade features Ionic columns crowned by ceramic statues, alongside decorative medallions and relief panels carved from Portland stone. In the surrounding Walpole Park, a stone bridge designed by Soane survives as an ancillary landscape feature. The contemporary gallery space, converted from the 1930s lending library, hosts rotating exhibitions by prominent modern artists, such as Anish Kapoor.

The overall plan of Pitzhanger Manor combines a central two-storey brick block with surviving wings and later additions. Soane's central section, completed in 1804, features a compact form with a single-storey north wing. To the south, Soane retained George Dance the Younger's earlier two-storey wing. Soane also extended the complex eastward with a kitchen block and constructed fragments resembling Roman ruins, though these eastern structures were demolished around 1901. The exterior frontage, with its engaged columns, was designed to recall the Arch of Constantine in Rome. Between 2015 and March 2019, a major conservation project led by Jestico + Whiles and Julian Harrap Architects restored the Grade I listed building to Soane's original designs. This work involved demolishing later Victorian and Edwardian infill wings, removing a 20th-century eating room extension and porch, and recreating key lost elements such as a conservatory, a roof lantern, and a colonnade linking the manor to the gallery. Paint archaeology recovered original colours and marbling effects, including an arsenic-based pigment. The adjoining 1930s library building was transformed into a two hundred and twenty-five square metre contemporary gallery, and a new cafe was constructed in the walled garden.

Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery is located at Ealing Green, London, W5 5EQ, within Walpole Park. The site is owned by the London Borough of Ealing and operated by the Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery Trust. It is open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday and on Bank Holidays from 10:00 to 17:00, with late opening until 20:00 on the first Thursday of the month. The site is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, with last admissions one hour before closing. Visitors can access the restored historic manor rooms and the contemporary gallery exhibitions. Step-free access is available, though routes may vary during partial closures or events. The venue also includes a shop and a cafe, which can be visited without an admission ticket, and offers spaces for venue hire and community learning.