Cliveden, Buckinghamshire
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Now a hotel, Cliveden's grounds contain sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, and the house a collection of 18th century Brussels tapestries depicting the Duke of Marlborough's campaigns.
Situated on a terrace high above the Thames, Sir Charles Barry’s 3-storey Italianate villa exudes the confidence and prosperity of early Victorian Britain. The house, which was built in 1850-1 for the Duke of Sutherland, replaced two earlier mansions. The first, put up by William Winde in c.1674-7, was destroyed by fire in 1795; the second, designed in 1827-30 by William Burn suffered a similar fate in 1849. The interior of Barry’s house was altered by Frank Pearson for William Walfdorf Astor in the 1890s. In the early years of the 20th century, Cliveden became a political and literary centre where the 2nd Viscount Astor and his wife Nancy entertained Rudyard Kipling, Henry James and Winston Churchill, amongst others. The interior features an opulent panelled hall and study by Pearson and a dining room with Rococo boiseries by Nicolas Pineau.
Now a hotel, Cliveden's grounds contain sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, and the house a collection of 18th century Brussels tapestries depicting the Duke of Marlborough's campaigns.