The Thames from Hampton Court to Sunbury Lock

Sunbury Court Island

I don’t have much information on this island yet. There are around 30 houses.

 

It’s connected to the Middlesex bank by a footbridge with an ornate entrance tower—I guess 1920s—that was built to house a sewage pump, which is nice to know.

 

The large house on the downstream tip of the island was once owned by Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, stars of the BBC radio comedy series ‘Hi, Gang!‘ from 1940 to 1949 and ‘Life with the Lyons’ from 1951 to 1961. This programme was also adapted for television on BBC and ITV, and there were two cinema films based on the Lyon family.

 

Bebe Daniels (1901-1971) had been a Hollywood star, starting off in Hal Roach’s studio in 1915 and appearing in films with Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino and Bing Crosbie. Most of her 220 or so films were in the silent era, and she did little film work after 1938 apart from two in the 1950s based on Life with the Lyons.

 

Ben Lyon (1901-1979) was also a Hollywood star, appearing in films with Gloria Swanson, Mary Astor and Claudette Colbert—over 70 films in all.  His biggest role was as the hero in Howard Hughes’s film ‘Hell’s Angels’.

 

 

Sunbury Court Island is on the left

This is the footbridge and entrance tower of Sunbury Court Island. It is private

This is the view from the Surrey bank, with Sunbury Court in the background