Teddington's famous National Physical Laboratory (NPL) will be opening Bushy House to the public as part of Open House Festival London 2021 on 12 September between 10am and 4.30pm, offering visitors a rare chance to explore the fascinating history and better understand scientific significance of the former royal residence and well-known local landmark.

Visitors will have the opportunity to explore various parts of the original home of NPL, which today, 121 years since it was founded, still contains laboratories with experts working on the Kibble Balance.

In the grounds visitors will also be able to explore the wild flower meadow and descendant of the apple tree said to have inspired Sir Isaac Newton's theory of gravity.

Access to parts of the ground floor of Bushy House, which feature historic photographs and artefacts, will provide an opportunity to learn more about the previous occupants and the science conducted at Bushy House.

In NPL's historical museum, visitors will also be able to explore over a century's worth of cutting-edge research and view many historic artefacts on display.

For those who want to see science in action, their ever-popular liquid nitrogen show for families will be running throughout the day, as well as demonstrations about the world of measurement units.

Originally built in 1661, Bushy House has been home to a number of notable figures over the years, including William, Duke of Clarence, the future King William IV.

After being offered by Queen Victoria to the Royal Society in 1900 'for the purposes of a physical laboratory', the newly established NPL was opened by HRH the Prince of Wales, later King George V, in 1902

At the opening, HRH used the words that have come to be accepted as the effective, if not formal, objectives:

"I believe that in the National Physical Laboratory we have the first instance of the State taking part in scientific research.

"The object of the scheme is, I understand, to bring scientific knowledge to bear practically upon our everyday industrial and commercial life; to break down the barrier between theory and practice; to effect a union between science and commerce."

The house acted as a starting point for NPL, with its original laboratories in the basement while the Director lived on the first and second floors.

Since its establishment the scientific research carried out at NPL has included all branches of physics - light, radio communications, metallurgy, and aeronautics to name a few.

Many of Britain's most renowned scientists have been involved in NPL's work, including Alan Turing, Louis Essen and Donald Davies. It is also the birthplace of Turing's ACE computer, the first universal computer of its kind; packet switching, the basis of the internet; and atomic time, the backbone of GPS and global communications.

Find out more about the Bushy House Open Day.

Find out more about the history of NPL.

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