Chapter II / Osterley Walk
The Birth of Osterley Manor

Enter the car park and walk through the grove.

The mid 1500s saw the initiation of Britain’s transatlantic slave trade by John Hawkins.⁸

In the 1570s, an English merchant named Thomas Gresham became so enamoured by a slave trade-driven financial model of the bourse at Antwerp, that he went on to replicate the model in England. The Royal Exchange came into being in the heart of the British empire: the City of London.⁹

© National Portrait Gallery, London.

Around the same time, Gresham acquired the license to empark and enclose the fields that you now see around you. A manor house was built for him in his property at Osterley, which would later entertain several visits from Gresham’s employer, Queen Elizabeth I.¹⁰

© National Library of Scotland.

Five thousand miles away, the southeastern coast of the Indian subcontinent thrived as an ancient hub of trade and commerce. This Indian Ocean littoral, called the Coromandel Coast, fell under the occupation of the Portuguese to satisfy their mercantile interests.¹¹ In a small settlement on the coast, the Portuguese established Sao Thome as their headquarters, competing with the interests of Dutch settlers in the area.¹²

Image:
1. Hollar, Wenceslaus. Mid 17th century. The Royal Exchange in London as built by Thomas Gresham D25432 © National Portrait Gallery, London.
2. Glover, Moses. 1880. Estate Maps, 1750s-1900s (facsimile). © National Library of Scotland. (Creative Commons)

⁸ Royal Museums Greenwich. “Who was John Hawkins?”. Accessed June 9, 2024. https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/john-hawkins-admiral-privateer-slave-trader

⁹ Drayton, Richard. 2019. “Slavery and the City of London”. Gresham College. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2019-10-28_RichardDrayton_SlaveryCity-T.pdf

¹⁰ Oxford Archaeology. 2020. “Osterley Park, Hounslow: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment”. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://nationaltrusthbsmr.esdm.co.uk/LLWS/LLFiles/201251/original_201251.pdf

¹¹Pillai, Naraina, Peter Bernhard, and Wilhelm Heine. 2024. “From the Coromandel Coast to the Straits: Revisiting Our Tamil Heritage.” Roots.sg. https://www.roots.gov.sg/stories-landing/stories/From-the-Coromandel-Coast-to-the-Straits
¹²Aranha, Paolo. “From Meliapor to Mylapore, 1662–1749: The Portuguese Presence in São Tomé between the Qutb Shāhī Conquest and Its Incorporation into British Madras.” Chapter. In Portuguese and Luso-Asian Legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511–2011, Vol. 1: The Making of the Luso-Asian World: Intricacies of Engagement, 67–82. Lectures, Workshops, and Proceedings of International Conferences. ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, 2011.

Detours: OSTERLEY PARK

Audio-walks in Hounslow and the City, London

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© 2024 Tejesvini Saranga Ravi MA Situated Practice Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL tejesvini.ravi.23@alumni.ucl.ac.uk

© 2024 Tejesvini Saranga Ravi
MA Situated Practice
Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
tejesvini.ravi.23@alumni.ucl.ac.uk