Think you know Chiswick? Take a fresh look!
Follow our Arts & Heritage Trails in 2026 – on foot, online or on mobile. Click the blue links:
Enjoy the maps … the art … the buildings … the gardens … the writers … the churches … the markets … and the festivals.
Don’t Skip Chiswick, a lush Paradise that inspired Van Gogh, W.B. Yeats and More – The Wall Street Journal
Chiswick has inspired and been home to great writers and artists for 400 years, from Donne, Pope, Thackeray, Hogarth & Van Gogh to Nobel Prize winners, Yeats & Pinter, and the ‘grandfather of British Pop Art’ Peter Blake. Our organisations* encourage you to explore Chiswick’s arts and heritage through its trails – online and on foot. Click the links above or scroll down for more.
The trail maps can be downloaded to mobiles or computers. Printed copies can be picked up, free, from St Michael & All Angels Church and other locations. There are also walks led by qualified tour guides and videos on YouTube (scroll down for details).
* Abundance London . Chiswick Book Festival . St Michael & All Angels Church . The Chiswick Calendar . Chiswick House & Gardens . Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society
- In 2025 we celebrated the 150th anniversary of Bedford Park, the first garden suburb.
- ‘The Royal Garden Party at Chiswick’ was put on display in Chiswick House (when the house is open).
Read the Chiswick Book Festival’s Guide.
Arts and heritage trails
- Chiswick Timeline Art Trail – 23 artworks and 16 maps illuminating Chiswick (best viewed on Chrome). Download the map/flyer. Created by Abundance London.
- Chiswick Timeline Writers Trail – 36 acclaimed novelists, poets and playwrights. Download the map/flyer (detail right, zoom in). Created by the Chiswick Book Festival
- In Georgian Footsteps – Explore the lanes and paths of 18th century Chiswick (detail below). Created by Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society, Chiswick House & Gardens and William Hogarth Trust.
- The Battle of Turnham Green – Follow the trails created by The Battlefields Trust and Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society
- ‘Explore Bedford Park with WB Yeats’ – Follow the Smartphone Trail created by the WB Yeats Bedford Park Artwork Project and watch the video ‘Discovering Bedford Park…’ (narrated by Ciarán Hinds) on YouTube.
- Arts Society Chiswick’s Outside Art Trail – interactive online map of 24 places where you can find art in Chiswick, Acton and Hammersmith
- Chiswick House & Gardens – Audio tours of the house narrated by Elizabeth McGovern (for adults) and Sophie Ellis-Bextor (for children) are included in the price of a ticket. The House and Kitchen Garden are open from Thursdays to Sundays.
- Read ‘An A-Z of the Chiswick House Archives’ by its volunteer archivist Cluny Wells: A is for Althorp. B is for Burlington. C is for Coad Stone. D is for Dogs. E is for Elephants and lots more right through to X is for Xanthe!
- Read A Chiswick Book Festival Guide to ‘The Royal Garden Party at Chiswick’
- Abundance London Treasure Trail – find some of their Chiswick gardens. The trail is no longer active but is still fun! Download the map/flyer to print out (detail right – click to expand)
- Chiswick Fruit Timeline: A History in Apples and Pears – from Abundance London. Available from local shops (listed on link) and online.
- Hogarth’s House – view a virtual 3D tour of the home of William Hogarth, ‘the father of British painting’
Exploring further
– Chiswick Timeline: A History in Art & Maps – over 400 years of Chiswick history (images, above)
– Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books – over 400 writers from Chiswick (including stories and anecdotes in the Writers Tales pages)
– Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society – fostering interest in the area’s history
– Gill Clegg’s Chiswick History – people and places, by one of Chiswick’s best-loved historians
– The Bedford Park Society has a ‘Guide to Bedford Park in the form of Two Walks’ – order for £2 (plus p&p) from their Publications page.
– Beautiful Bedford Park’, the Bedford Park Society’s 150th anniversary publication
– Chiswick Pier Trust offers several trails and walks by the river to download
– How the arts trails began – The Chiswick Calendar
– Ealing and West London Tour Guides offer tours of Chiswick led by qualified guides.
– Chiswick – Wikipedia
– Discover Chiswick website
– Quiz celebrating 150 years of Bedford Park
Chiswick churches – history and heritage (see a fuller list here):
– St Michael & All Angels Bedford Park – Engaging with the arts – Stained-glass windows, Lent reflections
– Maps and WW1 memorials – Parish Hall history
– St Michael’s, Elmwood Road
– St Nicholas, Chiswick – Notable tombs – Graves of artists and architects – Stained-glass windows – Chaloner Monument – History
– St Paul’s, Grove Park – including a 24-page History to download
Chiswick in film
Chiswick has been a popular location for filmmakers for many years and many actors, directors and other creatives live here. Each year, The Chiswick Cinema and The Chiswick Calendar organise The Chiswick In Film Festival. Click to see some of Chiswick’s writers, directors, actors and films.
Watch ‘Discover Bedford Park with WB Yeats’ (2:42)
Watch ‘Bedford Park – a brief history’ (12:42)
Chiswick shops, markets, pubs, restaurants, cinema, theatre – and other businesses
Chiswick is a thriving area for food, drink and culture. Many offer discounts to holders of The Chiswick Calendar Club Card.
Firms actively support local arts and community events through partnerships such as those with the Bedford Park Festival and the Chiswick Book Festival (several of their estate agent partners publish online guides to Chiswick).
Thanks to Val Bott, Karen Liebreich, Sarah Cruz, Torin Douglas and many others who are credited in the trails and archives – and to Horton & Garton for sponsoring the printed Art Trail and The Chiswick Cinema for sponsoring the Writers Trail map.
Further reading
– Bedford Park bibliography – Bedford Park Society
– Book Shop – Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society
– Chiswick’s art, architecture & history – Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books
– Novels, scenes set in Chiswick – Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books
– Chiswick in fiction/ History of Chiswick – ChiswickW4.com
– Waterstones Chiswick, Foster Books and Chiswick Library have sections about Chiswick
2024 saw the launch of a new Public Art Trail along Turnham Green Terrace, incorporating four public art projects shown above, from Chiswick High Road (centre image 3: William Hogarth statue) via Turnham Green Station (from left: images 1 and 2: Abundance London’s W4th Plinth; images 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9: the Chiswick Timeline mural); to St Michael & All Angels Church (WB Yeats Bedford Park sculpture by Conrad Shawcross). Harold Pinter’s screenplays were celebrated in the ‘Pinter On Screen’ season at The Chiswick Cinema.
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2023 marked the Centenary of WB Yeats’s Nobel Prize for Literature and the 50th anniversary of Artists at Home; the WB Yeats Bedford Park Smartphone Trail was launched – see ‘Discover Bedford Park with the young WB Yeats’ (above). The new extended edition of the Chiswick Book Festival Writers Trail map was published in the Spring and in June the glories of Chiswick were proclaimed by the Wall Street Journal: Don’t Skip Chiswick, a lush Paradise that inspired Van Gogh, W.B. Yeats and More.
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