This used to be one of a group of large houses close to London which served as country retreats for wealthy families, but were not true country houses on large agricultural estates. Other surviving country retreats of this type near London include Syon House and Chiswick House . The park is one of the largest open spaces in West London, though it is marred by the presence of the M4 motorway, which cuts across the middle of it. Adam's neoclassical interiors are among his most notable sequences of rooms. Horace Walpole described the drawing room as, "worthy of Eve before the fall." The rooms are characterized by elaborate but restrained plasterwork and rich, highly varied colour schemes. The grounds of Osterley Park were used for the training of the first members of the Local Defence Volunteers, who later became the British Home Guard in 1940.
