Autumn Family Festivities: Tea, Nature Trails, and Fun Fridays
Looking for fun activities for all the family this Autumn?
Read on to find our about our half price family ticket offer at Chiswick House, plus all of our free Kitchen Garden activities, including ‘make your own tea bag’ and a kid-friendly nature trail.
Family Fridays
Did you know that families can get half price family tickets to Chiswick House on Fridays throughout September? Use the code FamilyFriday24 when booking Family tickets online or ask at the ticket desk.
Visiting hours for the House are 10.30am to 3.30pm, Thursday to Sunday, with the Family Fridays offer applicable on Fridays only. Chiswick House closes for the year on September 29th. Book your tickets here.
Kitchen Garden: Flower Feast trail
The interactive trail nature trail, designed by local artist Jaixia Blue as part of our Arts Council England-funded Creative programme, is designed to get kids and visitors to explore all the different kinds of life in the garden, learning about the importance of pollinators and engaging with the exciting sounds, smells and textures around them.
Children (and adults too!) will be able to find out more about insect life in the garden by creating ‘Flower Feasts’ for various species, as part of a project designed to get us all to think a little more about how the food we grow and enjoy, as well as the act of eating itself, is connected to the natural world.
Alongside encouraging children to discover the garden’s resident insects, the project will also focus on sensory immersion and mental wellbeing, reminding us that nature is a space where we can all find peace.
Pick up a copy at the Kitchen Garden entrance. Available during Kitchen Garden opening hours: Thursday to Friday, 10.30am to 3.30pm. The Kitchen Garden is free to enter for all, but closes for the year on October 27th. Find out more about the trail here.
Kitchen Garden: Explore the new long table
As part of our 2024 Creative Programme, generously funded by Arts Council England, London-based artist Ayesha Weekes designed and created a beautiful communal wooden long table, constructed in collaboration with her husband Mark Weekes, and destined to have a lasting home in the Kitchen Garden.
Made from reclaimed materials, including fallen holly and sycamore logs from the Chiswick House woodlands, the table now sits inside the 17th century walled garden, surrounded by the fruit, grains, flowers and vegetables cultivated by CHGT’s dedicated gardeners and volunteers. Going forwards, it will act as a gathering point for Kitchen Garden visitors to spend time together, learn and relax, and exchange food and food stories.
Visit the table during Kitchen Garden opening hours and find out more about the project here. The Kitchen Garden is free to enter for all, but closes for the year on October 27th.
Kitchen Garden: Make time for Tea
Every Friday, up until the end of October, Chiswick House and Gardens is offering visitors the chance to pick leaves and flowers from the Kitchen Garden and create their own, individually-blended herbal teabag to take home, choosing from a range of organic herbs and plants grown by the Chiswick House gardeners and volunteers in the Tea Garden.
Discover a range of infusions, including blends said to reduce stress and aid sleep, containing herbs and flowers like lavender and passionflower; infusions used to boost immunity and health, like sage, nettle, achillia and calendula; digestive-aids like mint and fennel, and energy-giving monarda and tulsi.
Visitors will also have the chance to find out more about the sustainable, organic growing practices used by the Kitchen Garden team, and about ways to ensure their own tea drinking is as environmentally friendly as possible.
Taking place every Friday during the Kitchen Garden’s opening hours: 10.30am to 3.30am. There will be no charge for the herbs, plants or tea bag, although visitors will be restricted to one per person.