[4] In around 1663, he built Gunnersbury House, a Palladian mansion modelled on the Villa Badoer, and designed by John Webb, the pupil and son-in-law of Inigo Jones.

[5] The house was bought in 1739 from Maynard's great-grandson John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire by wealthy merchant and MP Henry Furnese, after whose death in 1756 it was sold to Princess Amelia, the daughter of George II.

Amelia – George III's aunt, "that odd and hearty lady" – made Gunnersbury famous with her parties and political intrigues.

An old clay-pit in the south-west, "Cole’s Hole", was landscaped to become the Potomac lake, and the tile-kiln beside it modified to become a boat-house disguised as a gothic folly.

The "Queen of the Suburbs" did not want more municipal housing, as would likely be built by Brentford under its policies, on its doorstep and the Mayor of Acton concurred, persuading her Borough Council to make it a joint purchase.

In addition the construction of the Great West Road, immediately south of the estate, was attracting modern industries along its "Golden Mile".

Lionel Nathan de Rothschild had bought for his use Exbury House in 1919, by the English Channel and was investing in its fine, tourist attraction today, woodland garden, so selling Gunnersbury facilitated this.

They insisted that the greater part of the land should be used for housing, and opposed the loan of the purchase money to Ealing and Acton from the Ministry of Health.

Depending on political view, "civic pride" or "snobbery" prevailed, and the Rothschilds sold Gunnersbury on condition that it was only to be used for leisure and recreation  – save for houses to abut Popes Lane and Lionel Road to help repay the loan.

[15] The large mansion was converted into an exhibition space for local history and archaeology, costume and fine art as the Gunnersbury Park Museum in 1929.

[20] The large mansion is quite recognisable as the venue for the police exhibition in the climax of the Ealing Studios comedy The Lavender Hill Mob filmed in 1951.