National Trust - Osterley Park and House Reviews Summary

House and Architecture

Pros:

• "Fabulous house designed in every detail by Robert Adam in the eighteenth century."
• "The house is magnificent in proportion designed originally by Robert Adam."
• "The house is amazing - the furniture and decor is outstanding and rich with history."
• "Magnificent stately home with 8 amazing rooms you can visit."
• "Neo-classical house designed by Robert Adam, with beautiful landscaped park and gardens."
• "The house itself is magnificent and filled with lavish decoration and furnishings to admire."
• "The house itself was designed by the legend that is Robert Adam. The rooms are spectacular."

Cons:

• "The house is lovely, but there was not much of it that was accessible."
• "It’s very disappointing that half the house is closed due to lack of volunteers."
• "There was a real lack of decoration or imagination. The kids quickly lost interest."
• "Half of the rooms were shut due to shortage of volunteer staff."
• "The house barely furnished."
• "The house is not fully open, there is a small but interesting exhibition on the ground floor."
• "The house never seems to be open, when we visit."

Staff and Volunteers

Pros:

• "Staff are really friendly and always helpful."
• "The staff were friendly and helpful."
• "The most enthusiastic and knowledgeable National Trust volunteers we have ever met at Osterley!"
• "The volunteers are hugely knowledgeable about the house and they are keen to share their knowledge with you."
• "Nice stately home with very helpful and enthusiastic volunteers who were very knowledgeable."
• "The volunteers are incredibly knowledgeable and happy to share the history of the house with you."
• "Very helpful and knowledgeable volunteers."

Cons:

• "Everyone who works there lacks any enthusiasm to offer good service."
• "Also the staff was not competent. I waited few minutes for her to scan my member card but she ignored me."
• "The staff were clearly disgruntled and had no idea who was in charge."
• "A couple of the volunteers excelled but it did not make up for the shocking service in the cafe, 3 jacket potatoes later resulted in a refund and going hungry."
• "Like many National Trust properties OP is not in any way as good as they think."
• "All the volunteers inside each room were extremely helpful and happy to provide information."
• "I loved the story tellers in some of the rooms, even if one was on her phone ignoring us."

Park and Gardens

Pros:

• "There is a good size garden to walk around with half of it planted up with herbaceous plants and the other informal woodland."
• "Great place to visit and for relaxing as well with all kinds of birds and animals."
• "An amazing escape from west London life, this is a huge park and house that will take hours to explore."
• "The gardens have some interesting plants."
• "Lovely private gardens, members are free and ticket prices for visitors, calm and relaxing for some peace and quite, or just a family picnic away from cyclists, dog walkers, football players, joggers and litter."
• "The gardens were gorgeous, so well maintained and a nice lake with a variety of birds and ducks."
• "The garden is a delight and a really nice place to chill out on a sunny day."

Cons:

• "The beds in the main gardens have not been planted recently, plants struggling through from bygone years."
• "Even my shoes became yellow from road dust on a dry day."
• "The amount of recreational drug use going on in hidden corners of the grounds; not ideal when walking a young child around."
• "Only downside were the renovations on the cafe, outdoor space surrounded by scaffolding which took away the charm."
• "Also a little spoit by proximity to M4 and Heathrow."
• "The far end of the grounds bathed in constant, loud traffic noise."
• "Gets very dirty especially if you come with buggy."

Facilities and Amenities

Pros:

• "There are toilets, transfer buggy, lakes, wildlife, picnic areas, cafe, shop and wooded areas where children can make and play in dens."
• "Great food in the cafe but was very busy when we went there."
• "Free parking when registering with your NT card."
• "Extra thanks to the kindly cafe staff member who gave us a free fresh scone at closing time so as not to waste it!"
• "The Stables Cafe uses veg grown in the gardens in their kitchen."
• "The café has vegan options (including vegan ice-cream!)"
• "You can buy duck food in the shop to especially feed the feather friends."

Cons:

• "Sadly no proper toilets were available so we had to use dirty portaloos with no toilet tissue."
• "Not enough toilets only two for men and two for woman and they were potra cabins."
• "Lovely park, but has no footpath to the park entrance from syon lane."
• "The bacon bap lacked bacon and the bap itself was very very dry."
• "The cafe/coffee shop staff were extremely slow so it took over an hour to get a coffee with only a few people in front of us."
• "The toilets were filthy and the human waste on the floor and toilet seat there when we arrived in the morning was still there when we left in the afternoon."
• "Due to COVID restriction there was no seating place at all and no benches nearby."

Parking and Accessibility

Pros:

• "For National Trust members, you can also park for free and enter the house."
• "Car park has plenty of space and again fixed pricing is reasonable, whether you want to visit for a couple of hours or spend the entire day!"
• "We parked just outside, the main road has free parking after 12pm vs. £7 car park fee."
• "Plenty of parking - paid, but free for NT members - plus toilets and a cafe."
• "Parking fee was waived when we visited July 2023."
• "We drove and there was free parking along the ramp up towards to park."
• "We visited Osterley park and we had National trust card so Free parking."

Cons:

• "The car park is £7."
• "Park parkings is expensive, cost 7 pounds per day."
• "Parking charges apply if you are not an NT member."
• "Parking on-site at a charge unless you are a NT member."
• "The parking charges are excessive even by London standards, £7 per car - free for National Trust members."
• "Parking located inside the park is costly, 7 pounds no matter how long you stay."
• "For non national trust members it is £7 per day parking which is a bit steep as you can do the gardens in under 2 hours."