The Magic Lantern Festival And Its Mysterious Aftermath

Local anger at the delay in cleaning up Chiswick House grounds

The Magical Lantern Festival in Chiswick House lit up the gardens at night for several weeks and created a fairy tale atmosphere. But the magic has ended abruptly amid complaints that the exhibits were left lying abandoned in the gardens for several days after the festival finished on 1 January.

There are unconfirmed reports that Chiswick House had to hire in contractors to take away the exhibits when the festival organisers failed to do so. We emailed and phoned Chiswick House to seek answers on the matter and have yet to hear back.

Several disgruntled local residents who are regular walkers in Chiswick House have emailed us at Chiswickw4.com

One said; "Is this a Scrap yard, or the Orchard at Chiswick House? I’m dismayed by the damage that has been caused by the apparent impasse between Chiswick House and the promoter of the Magic Lantern festival. On previous occasions the displays have been removed within a week. This year no sign of the Chinese workforce - instead a few labourers pulling trolleys around by hand.

"It would appear that significant damage has been done to the lawns and particularly the Orchard. Can an explanation be found for this?"

Another resident posted; "I’m stood next to two benches which are snapped and broken, parts of the park that have been cleared still have fairy lights in the trees which have been forgotten, the ground is partially destroyed where the heavy installations where, the wall on the entrance by the tennis court has been driven in to by the huge lorries it appears and has collapsed, bins overflowing with plastic and workmen's rubbish...

"The level of disruption to local users (and taxpayers) alone should be questioned (never mind the aesthetic considerations), but I would be interested to know how much profit the CHG Trust has made considering that they seem to be paying for the clean up this year."

A display from the 2016 Festival

Another said;"If you look through the wall side gate across from the car park you can see huge shipping containers full to the brim with all the now redundant crushed lantern structures and a huge pile of them being scooped up by a digger. So assuming they were brought over from China (and the carbon footprint that would have created), coupled with the mountain of waste the festival has created, the ultimate cost has been to the environment."

And more comments...."Agree with everyone’s comments through on it being an eye sore, and being unfair Chiswick House had to do the clear up. I also saw the skips full of the installations which seems a huge waste - I don’t remember seeing this last year. Further to my walk on Saturday, there are also floating large parts of plastic in the water which I hope are cleared out so the birds and nesting birds aren’t affected."

The festival finished on New Year's Day. This year it had promised to be bigger and better, with a Santa's Grotto, food and drink, and fairground rides for children.

This year there was less goodwill towards the festival and local residents had sought a CPZ to prevent parking congestion particularly in Paxton, Short and Sutherland Roads.

We are trying to find out what went wrong and will report back.

January 22, 2018