Lady Caroline Percy is an interior designer and consultant in Fine Art and Antiques and founder of Hotspur Design. It was lovely to chat with Lady Caroline Percy this week about her life growing up in Syon House and Alnwick Castle and her love of antiques. Caroline and I first met at Syon House about 15 years ago when I produced TV show Antique Secrets.
Later, I was invited to the Historic Interiors lectures she organised with Oliver Gerrish and I have visited Syon House many times. Syon House is nestled beside the River Thames just west of London. It has appeared in many films as an amazing backdrop to everything from Downton Abbey to The Madness of King George.
Its theatrical presence and Robert Adam architecture is sublime and it includes furniture made by master cabinet maker Thomas Chippendale to mirror the architectural plaster work, colours and form. Wandering the corridors is an absolute treat. Looking out one of the windows across the grounds Caroline remembers her childhood.
She said: “Children don’t relate to large spaces. The idea of going into the garden without descending flights of stairs was appealing to me. As a child I enjoyed arts and crafts Tudorbethan small houses with gables and turrets as they reminded me of the houses in fairy stories.
” Tudorbethan is a style that amongst others, architect Ernest Trobridge created, building housing developments in a fairy tale style in the suburbs of London. You can visit examples of his architecture near Kingsbu.
