Cliveden
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Cliveden (pronounced CLIV-d'n) is a mansion in Buckinghamshire, England overlooking the River Thames owned by the National Trust and operated as a hotel by von Essen hotels. The present house was built in 1851 by the architect Charles Barry for George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland.
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[edit] The present house
The three-storey house, in the classic Italian style, was built in 1851 on the broad terraces of its predecessor, for the Duke of Sutherland, who required a country retreat near London. This new mansion was considerably grander and more luxurious than the previous house. The exterior remains much as designed by Barry, but the interiors were extensively altered in the 1870s, when the house was owned by the Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, and again in the 1890s when the architect John Loughborough Pearson remodelled the entrance hall and sweeping staircase.
In the formal gardens are temples and follies built by various owners and tenants. The Octagon temple (now the chapel), designed by the architect Giacomo Leoni, was commissioned by George Douglas-Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney in 1735.
[edit] Early history
Cliveden stands on the site of a house built in 1666 designed by architect William Winde as the home of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. The house was let to Frederick, Prince of Wales from 1739 to 1751 during whose tenure, in 1740, the song "Rule, Britannia" was first performed, in the rustic theatre in the garden. In 1795 the house was seriously damaged by fire and for the next 30 years it remained a shell; following a second rebuilding it was again destroyed by fire in 1849.
[edit] The Astor era
The house became the home of the Astor family in 1893 and from 1919 it was the home of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor and his wife, Nancy Astor, who was the first woman Member of Parliament to take her seat. At the outbreak of World War I, Astor offered the use of some of the grounds to the Canadian Red Cross for the building of a hospital - The HRH Duchess of Connaught Hospital - which was dismantled at the end of hostilities.
In the 1930s, while the home of the Astors, the house became a very fashionable place for prominent figures in both politics and the arts to meet, hunt, stroll in the gardens, and attend lavish parties. This prominent group of individuals became known as the 'Cliveden Set' and were very influential over the affairs of state.[1] It was about this time that the Astors had the house extended in the form of a horseshoe-shaped wing, to provide extra bedrooms for the house-parties
In September 1939, with the outbreak of World War II, Astor again offered the land, for a rent of 1 shilling per year, to the Canadian Red Cross, and the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital was built to the designs of architect Robert Atkinson. After the war the hospital's main focus was as a nursing school, a maternity unit and a rheumatology unit, which was headed by Dr Barbara Ansell.
In 1942 Astor gave the property to National Trust, with the proviso that the family continue to live there. Should this cease, he expressed the wish that the house be used:
....as my wife and I have tried to use it, to bring about a better understanding between the English-speaking world and between various groups or sections of people of this and other countries.[citation needed]
In 1961 the house became the centre of the Profumo Affair, after a chance meeting at a party between cabinet minister John Profumo and showgirl Christine Keeler led to a brief affair, which when made public a year later caused a national security scare as Keeler had also been having an affair with an attaché at the Soviet embassy.
From 1969 to 1983 Stanford University ran an overseas studies campus at Cliveden and a basement pub was opened to students and locals.
[edit] Cliveden today
Today the National Trust has leased the house as a five-star hotel operating in the style of an Edwardian country house. Part of the house, the gardens and woodlands are open to the public on a seasonal basis.
[edit] Cliveden on film and television
- The 2001 Bollywood film Yaadein was partly filmed at Cliveden.
- In the 2004 film Thunderbirds, Cliveden is used as the location for Lady Penelope's house, 'Creighton-Ward Mansion'.
- The house features in the 2005 film Mrs. Henderson Presents.
- In the second Beatles film, "Help!"(1965), the scenes that were supposed to be in Buckingham Palace were filmed in Cliveden.
[edit] References
- ^ Quigley, C The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden, G S G & Associates, ISBN 0945001010
[edit] External links
- nationaltrust.org.uk Cliveden information at the National Trust
- Cliveden House Official hotel site
- The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden by Carroll Quigley
[edit] Gallery of images
 Cliveden as seen from its lawn. |
 The Tortoise Fountain and view over the River Thames. |
 Fountain of Love. |
 Overlooking 42 inscribed stones to the dead of The Great War Sir Bertram MacKennal's figure represents Canada with the head reputedly modelled by Lady Astor |
 This copy of Vincenzo de'Rossi's work on a pedestal in The Ring of the Parterre faces the Garden Front of Cliveden House |
 Thomas Waldo Story's Fountain of Love inscribed Waldo Story Roma 1897 |
 Henry Cluttons disguised water tower 1861 |
 Giacomo Leoni's 1735 "Temple" |
 1893 Gas Yard Concrete Tree disguising the gas works chimney |
 Elephant carving in the grounds |
 View of the River Thames from the river walk at Cliveden. |
.JPG/120px-Bavin's_Gulls_on_the_River_Thames_at_Cliveden_Deep_(Nancy).JPG) Cliveden from the River Thames |
