This important house was built on the site of the Middle Gate to Richmond Palace in about 1703, with the portico and two pairs of Tuscan columns added some 20 years later.
It takes its name from from the two statues of trumpeters, which stood either side of the front of the house and are believed originally to have adorned Richmond Palace. They exist still, standing in the side garden of Trumpeters House.
In 1729 Henrietta, elder daughter of the first Duke of Marlborough, was living here. She was a duchess in her own right and wife of the second Earl Godolphin. It was briefly the home of the Austrian statesman Prince Metternich in 1848-9. Benjamin Disraeli wrote in April 1849: "I went yesterday to pay a visit to the Metternichs. They live in a most delightful old house on Richmond Green called the Old Palace. Nothing can be conceived more picturesque, and with a sunny day - with its gardens, glimpse of the river, birds, dogs and long gallery library - it was really worthy of Watteau."
Trumpeters House in the early C20th is described in the Victorian County History as follows: "The house to the west of the court, sometimes called the Trumpeting House, and occupied by the Rev. Arthur Welsh Owen, is an 18th-century building, said to have been erected by Richard Hill, brother to Queen Anne's favourite, Mrs. Masham, who had it on lease in 1703. It has a fine ceiling in the drawing-room. The 'Trumpeters' are two half-size stone figures of men or boys in the dress of the time of Henry VII—flat caps, long hair, long cloaks, and tight hosen—with their arms (formerly) in such a posture as to suggest they were blowing trumpets; their arms are now broken off."
Other notable occupants included the Chevalier Marconi in 1911. In WWII the house was taken over by the American Red Cross to use as a club from 1943-44, and in 1951 it was converted to four apartments and a small house in the west wing by architect Bernard Brown.
The wide lawn dividing the house from the riverside was the site of the central Fountain Court and of the Privy Lodgings of Richmond Palace. The garden to the west comprised most of the Great Orchard, some of which was transferred to the grounds of Asgill House in the C18th.
Trumpeters House opens under the National Gardens Society scheme, when visitors can enjoy its landscape and setting which includes a delightful summer or bath house by the river wall, overlooking the Thames.
Sponsored by: The Richmond Society and The Richmond Civic Trust.