Gunnersbury Park

The large mansion at Gunnersbury Park in West London has the inevitable historical associations with the rich and the powerful. Named after Gunylda, niece to King Cnut, it has been owned and occupied by Georgian princesses, puritan lawyers, medieval judges, earls and the famous Rothschild Family. In the 1920s, however, local councils clubbed together to provide open spaces for ordinary people and to provide some additional plots for housing. In 1926, Neville Chamberlain, the Conservative Minister for Health who had approved the loan from central government to enable the purchase, opened the new public amenity, declaring that he "rejoiced that the people had come into the possession of so magnificent and historical park". So from the ownership of the privileged few, the mansion and parklands can now be enjoyed by as many who are willing to go to them.

After the Fall of Adam, heaven and the very throneroom of God could only be enjoyed by righteous angels, but Christ Jesus effected a rescue mission by which Adam’s heirs could re-enter paradise based on His purchase, and requiring nothing of their contribution. Since then, the rough and the ready, the unwashed and the unlearned, have been piling in, freely enjoying His treasures and riches.

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Hebrews 4:11

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