Alexander Pope's Twickenham 'Grotto' beneath saved after conservation

Warren of hidden tunnels built underneath Twickenham by poet Alexander Pope as part of an incredible secret grotto are saved from ruin

• Tunnels known as Pope’s Grotto are last surviving part of his villa
• Grotto boasts patchwork of minerals mined from all over the world 

A stunning network of tunnels built beneath Twickenham by the 18th century poet Alexander Poet have been saved after a conservation programme. 

The tunnels, known as Pope’s Grotto, are the last remaining part of the writer’s famous villa and gardens.

He built the property on the banks of the River Thames at Twickenham in south London in 1720 and it stood until 1809, when it was demolished by its new owner.

Pope lined the tunnels, which were completed in 1725, with an array of minerals that had been mined from all over the world.

The grotto fell into disrepair in recent decades but has now undergone a £250,000 restoration using funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England. 

Images shared with MailOnline by conservation group Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust show the restored space in all its glory. A patchwork of stones, rocks and bricks lining its archways. 

A stunning network of tunnels built beneath Twickenham by the 18th century poet Alexander Poet have been saved after a conservation programme

Pope built his villa (depicted above) on the banks of the River Thames at Twickenham in south London in 1720 and it stood until 1809, when it was demolished by its new owner

Renovations included the lifting of a concrete floor to reveal original brickwork and resetting mineral samples which formed Pope’s original design before his death in 1744.  

Who was Alexander Pope? 

Alexander Pope was a poet, translator and satirist best known for works including The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad and An Essay on Criticism. 

He also produced a translation of Homer’s epic poem the Iliad. 

Such was his influence that some of his verses have become part of everyday language, including ‘damning with faint praise’ and ‘to err is human; to forgive, divine’. 

Alexander Pope was a poet, translator and satirist best known for works including The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad and An Essay on Criticism

Born in London in 1688, the year of the Glorious Revolution, Pope spent much of his early life in Berkshire.

He was afflicted by health problems including tuberculosis and only ever grew to a height of 4ft 6in. 

Pope used the money generated from his translation of Homer to build his famous villa in Twickenham.

He died aged 56 in 1744. 

As a result, the grade II listed grotto has now been removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register. 

The estate containing the grotto was bought by St James’s Independent School for Boys in 1996  

The land containing the grotto was bought by Radnor House private school in 2010. Before that, it was owned by St James’s Independent School for Boys.

Pope, best known for his translations of Homer’s Iliad and works including The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad, came to live in Twickenham in the spring of 1719.

After building his villa he obtained a license to build a tunnel that would lead from his cellar to his five-acre garden.

During a visit to the famous Hotwell Spa on the banks of the River Avon in Bristol in 1739, Pope became fascinated by the geology of the area and so set about turning his grotto into a haven of minerology.

He lined it with geological features including a stalagmite from Wookey Hole in Somerset and two pieces of basalt from the Giants’ Causeway in Ireland.

Other expert friends delivered more material over the course of the next five years and, by the time of his death, there were more than 140 mineral contributions from all over the world. 

Due to the presence of a natural spring in the grotto, Pope is alleged to have said: ‘Were it to have nymphs as well – it would be complete in everything.’ 

He wrote of the spring when he updated his friend Edward Blount on his subterranean excavations. 

Writing in 1725, he said: ‘I have put the last hand to my works … happily finishing the subterraneous Way and Grotto: I then found a spring of the clearest water, which falls in a perpetual Rill, that echoes thru’ the Cavern day and night.’

He added: ‘When you shut the Doors of this Grotto, it becomes on the instant, from a luminous Room, a Camera Obscura, on the walls of which all the objects of the River, Hills, Woods, and Boats, are forming a moving Picture … And when you have a mind to light it up, it affords you a very different Scene: it is finished with Shells interspersed with Pieces of Looking-glass in angular Forms … at which when a Lamp …is hung in the Middle, a thousand pointed Rays glitter and are reflected over the place.’  

Describing the grotto in his 1963 biography of Pope, author Bonamy Dobree said it was a ‘delirious fantasy in which Pope let himself go; for year after year it was his great toy, his unfailing release, and he kept on improving and enlarging it…’

During a visit to the famous Hotwell Spa on the banks of the River Avon in Bristol in 1739, Pope became fascinated by the geology of the area and so set about turning his grotto into a haven of minerology

The tunnels, known as Pope’s Grotto, are the last remaining part of the writer’s famous villa and gardens

Pope’s Grotto is a patchwork of different minerals mined from all over the world

The grotto has been restored thanks to funding from the National Lottery and Historic England

Writing in 1725, he said: ‘I have put the last hand to my works … happily finishing the subterraneous Way and Grotto: I then found a spring of the clearest water, which falls in a perpetual Rill, that echoes thru’ the Cavern day and night. 

Describing the grotto in his 1963 biography of Pope, author Bonamy Dobree said it was a ‘delirious fantasy in which Pope let himself go; for year after year it was his great toy, his unfailing release, and he kept on improving and enlarging it

The grotto is not currently open to the public but visits are set to resume later this year

A 1785 plan of the grotto shows its various rooms and passageways, leading ‘to the house’ and ‘to the cold bath’

He added: ‘In the summer it was deliciously cool and you could sit and talk in it, at any rate in theory.’  

Efforts had been made to restore the grotto since 1993. The attempts were boosted by the founding of the Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust in 2004.

Restoration work was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic but the conservation was finally completed over the course of the past year. 

The work was completed with stones and minerals that had been donated by the public.  

The grotto is not currently open to the public but visits are set to resume later this year.  

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