Chiswick is a wide Georgian and Victorian high street in west London with a Palladian villa, a working brewery and one of the prettiest riverside lanes in the city hidden behind it. Kew, across the bridge, is a village green with the botanic gardens on one side and the National Archives on the other. Both are on the District line, about half an hour from central London.
Most visitors come out here for Kew Gardens, which is a full day and is covered in detail on its own page. What this article is for is the other things within a mile of it, several of which are free and none of which appears on a standard itinerary.
The short version: Chiswick House gardens cost nothing and are open every day, the riverside at Strand-on-the-Green is the best short walk in west London, and the house where Hogarth painted is free and almost empty.
Chiswick and Kew at a glance
- Best for
- A Palladian villa and its gardens, riverside pubs, a brewery tour, a Georgian high street
- Stations
- Turnham Green, Chiswick Park and Stamford Brook (District line); Kew Gardens (District and Mildmay lines); Chiswick and Kew Bridge (South Western Railway)
- Free
- Chiswick House gardens, Hogarth's House, Chiswick Mall, Strand-on-the-Green, Kew Green
- Chiswick House
- Gardens free and open daily; house £13.50 for an adult, seasonal opening
- Brewery tour
- £25 for about 1 hour 45 minutes at the Griffin Brewery, booked in advance
- Time needed
- Half a day for Chiswick; a separate full day for Kew Gardens
Which station, and the District line problem
Chiswick is served by three District line stations, and they are not interchangeable. Turnham Green is the one for the high street and for Chiswick House. Stamford Brook is closer to the Hogarth roundabout and the brewery. Chiswick Park serves the northern end.
The complication is that the District line's Richmond branch and its Ealing branch both pass through here, and not every train stops at every station: Turnham Green is famously served by the Piccadilly line only early in the morning and late at night, so a Piccadilly train will usually sail straight past it. Check the front of the train, and if in doubt take a District line train marked Richmond or Ealing Broadway.
For Kew, use Kew Gardens station, which is on the District line and on the London Overground's Mildmay line running from Richmond through Gunnersbury, Willesden Junction and Highbury & Islington to Stratford. Our explainer on the Overground's line names covers what the Mildmay line replaced.
Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Chiswick House and its gardens
Chiswick House is a small, perfect Palladian villa built in the 1720s for the third Earl of Burlington, who designed it himself after two long visits to Italy. It is not a house anyone lived in comfortably: it was built to display a collection and to hold parties, and the rooms are arranged for effect rather than for living. Its influence on British and American architecture over the next two centuries was enormous.
The gardens are the other half of the achievement. Laid out with William Kent, they are one of the first English landscape gardens, with a lake, temples, an Italian garden, a cascade and a conservatory. They cover sixty-five acres, they are open every day, and they are free.
| Chiswick House (2026 season) | Price |
|---|---|
| Adult | £13.50 |
| Child | £6.50 |
| Family, one adult and three children | £18.50 |
| Family, two adults and three children | £29.50 |
| Gardens | Free, open every day |
The house opens seasonally rather than all year: in 2026 it ran from 24 May to 29 September, Thursday to Sunday, 10.30am to 3.30pm. Outside that window the gardens are still open and still free. Check current prices and opening dates with the Chiswick House and Gardens Trust, which runs the site with English Heritage. Our page on Chiswick House and Gardens goes into the architecture in detail.
The gardens alone justify the journey, and they cost nothing. Sixty-five acres of eighteenth-century landscape design, open every day of the year, ten minutes from a Tube station, with a café in the middle. If the house is shut when you visit, you have still had the better part of the site.
Hogarth's House, which is free and nearly empty
A few minutes from Chiswick House, beside the roaring Hogarth roundabout, stands the modest country retreat of the painter and engraver William Hogarth. The contrast between the eighteenth-century house and the dual carriageway six metres away is absurd, and the house survives anyway.
Admission is free. It usually opens Tuesday to Sunday from midday to 5pm, and on bank holiday Mondays, closing on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Inside are prints, including the famous satirical series, and there is an old mulberry tree in the walled garden. It takes forty minutes. Our round-up of London's best small museums puts it alongside the other one-artist houses.
The brewery on the river
The Griffin Brewery on Chiswick Lane South has been brewing on the same riverside site for centuries and is one of the few full-scale working breweries left in London. Public tours run for about an hour and three quarters, cost £25 (September 2026), start in the brewery shop and take you through the process from mash to cask, ending with a tasting.
Book in advance; tours sell out, and changes need 48 hours' notice. Check the current price and availability on the brewery's own site. Our guide to craft beer and brewery taprooms covers the smaller, newer breweries in Bermondsey and the east, which are a completely different experience, and our page on gin distilleries and tours covers the other end of the drinks industry.
Chiswick Mall and Strand-on-the-Green
Chiswick has two riverside stretches, on either side of the brewery, and they are the best thing in the area.
Chiswick Mall runs east towards Hammersmith: large eighteenth- and nineteenth-century houses with gardens on the far side of the road, facing the water. There is no towpath here, just the road and the river, and at high spring tides the water comes over and floods it, which local residents treat as a normal feature of life. It connects directly to the riverside walk on the Hammersmith side, described below.
Strand-on-the-Green, west of Kew Bridge, is a narrow lane of cottages and old pubs right on the waterline, reached by a passage from the main road. Several of the houses have raised front doors and flood boards because the river comes up over the path regularly. Three pubs sit along it, all with tables outside facing the water. Our guide to riverside pubs on the Thames explains why the tide matters so much here.
Both riverside lanes flood, and they flood on a schedule. Chiswick Mall and the path at Strand-on-the-Green go under water at high spring tides, around the new and full moon. It is not dangerous if you are paying attention, but it will ruin your shoes and cut off the walk. Look up the day's high tide before you plan a route along either of them.
Chiswick High Road
The high street is wide, leafy and prosperous: a long run of cafés with pavement tables, restaurants, delicatessens, several good charity shops and the usual chains. It is a pleasant place to eat lunch and an unremarkable place to shop, unless charity shops are your sport, in which case our page on charity shops in London explains why the wealthier suburbs are the ones to work.
Turnham Green, the green itself, is at the eastern end with a church on it. On the day of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race the whole area fills, because the course passes along the Chiswick bank and Duke's Meadows is one of the more comfortable places to watch from; see our guide to the Boat Race for where to stand.
Kew: the village, not the gardens
Kew Green is a large triangular green with a church in the middle, cricket on it in summer, Georgian houses along two sides and the main gate of the botanic gardens at the western end. It is free, it is pretty, and a great many people walk straight past it into the gardens without noticing.
Kew village, around the station, is small: a handful of shops, a bookshop, cafés and two or three pubs. It takes twenty minutes to see and works best as somewhere to eat before or after the gardens.
The National Archives, five minutes from Kew Gardens station, is the United Kingdom's public record office, holding a thousand years of government documents from Domesday Book onwards. It has free public exhibition space and a reading room open to anyone who registers for a reader's ticket, which requires identification. Check what is on display and what the current access arrangements are before travelling; it is a research institution first and a visitor attraction second.
Fitting Kew Gardens into the day
Do not try to do the botanic gardens and Chiswick on the same day. Kew Gardens is very large and is a full day on its own, and an adult ticket was £25 online in the peak season and £28 at the gate in September 2026, with cheaper winter pricing from November and £10 Tuesdays running from 8 September to 29 December 2026. Children aged four to fifteen were £2 online.
One thing to know if you are planning ahead: Kew Palace and the other Historic Royal Palaces buildings within the botanic gardens shut their doors on 28 September 2026 and are not due to reopen before the spring of 2027. Everything else in the gardens carries on as normal. Our guide to Kew at Christmas covers the winter light trail, which runs from mid-November.
What to combine this with
The natural pairings are along the river. Downstream is Hammersmith; upstream, past Mortlake, are Richmond and the Twickenham riverside. Inland, the District and Elizabeth lines take you to Ealing and west London, which covers Pitzhanger Manor and the film studios.
A good compact day: Chiswick House gardens in the morning, lunch on the high street, Hogarth's House in the early afternoon, then the walk along Strand-on-the-Green and a drink by the water before the light goes.
Who it is for
Worth it for
- Sixty-five acres of eighteenth-century landscape garden, free
- A Palladian villa that changed British architecture
- A free house museum with almost no visitors
- Two riverside lanes that flood on purpose
- A brewery tour on a site that has been brewing for centuries
Not the place for
- Anyone trying to fit Kew Gardens in as well
- Cheap eating: Chiswick is a prosperous area and prices show it
- Visiting Chiswick House itself outside its short summer season
- A wet day, since most of this is outdoors
- Nightlife of any kind
Frequently asked questions
Is Chiswick House free?
The gardens are free and open every day; the house is ticketed and opens seasonally. In 2026 the house ran from 24 May to 29 September, Thursday to Sunday, 10.30am to 3.30pm, at £13.50 for an adult and £6.50 for a child, with family tickets at £18.50 and £29.50. Check the Trust's website for the current season and prices.
Which Tube station is best for Chiswick?
Turnham Green on the District line, for the high street and Chiswick House. Stamford Brook is closer to the brewery and Hogarth's House. Note that Piccadilly line trains usually pass straight through Turnham Green without stopping except early in the morning and late at night, so take a District line train.
Can you visit Hogarth's House for free?
Yes. Admission is free and it usually opens Tuesday to Sunday from midday to 5pm, plus bank holiday Mondays. It closes on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. It is small and takes about forty minutes, and it stands next to the Hogarth roundabout on the A4.
How much is a Fuller's brewery tour in Chiswick?
£25 as of September 2026, for a guided tour of about an hour and three quarters starting in the brewery shop and ending with a tasting. Tours must be booked in advance, and changes require 48 hours' notice. Check the brewery's own website for current availability and prices.
Can you do Kew Gardens and Chiswick in one day?
Not properly. Kew Gardens is very large and takes a full day; Chiswick House, Hogarth's House and the riverside take most of another. Pick one. If you only have one day in this part of London and have never been to Kew, go to Kew.
Sources
- Chiswick House & Gardens - Opening times and prices (checked September 2026)
- Hogarth's House, London Borough of Hounslow - Visit us (checked September 2026)
- Fuller's Brewery - Griffin Brewery tours (checked September 2026)
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - Tickets and prices (checked September 2026)
- The National Archives - Visit us at Kew (checked September 2026)