SYON PARK BRIDGE 1790 James Wyatt Isleworth, London HEW 2376 TQ 172 768 N51o 28' 37.0" W0o 19' 7.8"
This is a very interesting, but simple wrought iron bridge which once carried a carriage drive across an ornamental lake in the Duke of Northumberland's estate just outside London across the Thames from Kew Gardens. Three spans of 30'9" in the middle flanked by spans of 25'6" carry a slightly arched deck between stone abutments. It was designed by the architect James Wyatt. It is made up of wrought iron bar with the arched edge girders being 12 inches deep. Its spare Palladian design with flared parapets at either end is shared by the pair of bridges Wyatt designed for Croome Hall (1795) in Worcestershire.
The provenance of these bridges is even more fascinating. Catherine the Great of Russia recruited John Busch (c1730-95) from London where he was the leading garden supplier. He worked with her Russian landscaper Trifon Ilyin to create an English garden at Tsarskoe Selo Palace near St. Petersburg . They created ten wrought iron bridges for her gardens in the 1780's. When Busch turned his Russian position over to his son and returned to England in 1789, he settled on the Syon Park estate of the Duke of Northumberland and no doubt influenced James Wyatt's design of these bridges and others on the Duke's estates in the North of England. (See Hulne Park).