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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. Cliveden means "valley among cliffs" and refers to the dean or valley which cuts through the estate to the East and South of the house.The gardens and woodlands are open to the public, together with parts of the house on certain days. The present house was built in 1851 by the architect Charles Barry for George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland.
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.
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Encyclopedia
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. Cliveden means "valley among cliffs" and refers to the dean or valley which cuts through the estate to the East and South of the house.The gardens and woodlands are open to the public, together with parts of the house on certain days. The present house was built in 1851 by the architect Charles Barry for George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland.
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. The clock tower next to the house is in fact a disguised water tower.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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 (April-October for the house, March-December for the gardens). The house has a Berkshire postal code, leading many (including the media and the hotel itself) to believe that it is in Berkshire. In fact, the Berkshire postal codes stretch into much of Buckinghamshire, even through the county boundary is formed by the River Thames.
Gardens and Grounds
The estate extends to 375 acres of which about 180 acres comprise the gardens, the rest being woodland and paddocks. The formal Parterre to the South of the house is one of the largest in Europe (four acres). It consists of wedge-shaped beds edged with box hedging and filled with catnip, santolina and senecio. The Long Garden consists of topiary and box hedges and was designed by Norah Lindsey in c.1900. The Water Garden was was laid out by the 1st Lord Astor in c.1900 and features a pagoda bought from the Bagatelle estate in Paris. The original Rose Garden, designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe for the Astor family in the early 1960s has since suffered from rose disease and has been replanted as a "Secret" garden of herbaceous plants. The planting in the Herbaceous Borders in the forecourt was designed by Graham Stuart Thomas in the early 1970s. There is a lime tree avenue either side of the main drive to the house. In 1897 the 1st Lord Astor imported a section of a Californian redwood and had it installed in the woods. At 16ft 6in across it is the largest section of a Sequoia gigantea in Britain.
Temples, pavilions and follies
The earliest known garden buildings at Cliveden were both designed by Giacomo Leoni for Lord Orkney; the Blenheim Pavilion (c.1727) was built to commemorate Orkney's victory as a general at the Battle of Blenheim. The Octagon Temple, situated two-hundred feet above the Thames, was originally designed as a gazebo and grotto but was later converted by the 1st Lord Astor to become the family chapel. Its interior and dome are decorated with colourful mosaics by Clayton and Bell representing religious scenes. The pagoda in the Water Garden was made for the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 and was purchased by the 1st Lord Astor from the Bagatelle estate in Paris in 1900. In the woods there is a small flint folly thought to date from the mid-nineteenth century.
Sculpture Collection
One of the features of the gardens is the large collection of sculpture, most of it acquired by the 1st Lord Astor from 1893 to 1906. The shell fountain, known as the "Fountain of Love", greets visitors at the end of the lime tree avenue up to the house. It was sculpted by Thomas Waldo Story, (American, 1855-1915) in Rome in 1897 and was commissioned by Lord Astor for this site. It features a large Carrara marble shell supporting three female figures attended by cupid. The "Tortoise" fountain near the Parterre was also made by T.W. Story at around the same time.
In the forecourt there is a collection of eight marble Roman sarcophagi, some of which date from c.AD 100 and were bought by Lord Astor from Rome.
The "Queen Anne Vase" at the end of the Long Walk is said to have been given to Lord Orkney by Queen Anne in the eighteenth century and consists of a tall urn on a plinth decorated with the Greek key pattern.
The largest sculpture in the grounds, technically in two parts, is the 17th century Borghese Balustrade on the Parterre. Purchased by Lord Astor in the late 19th century from the Villa Borghese in Rome, it is crafted from Travertine stone and brick tiles by Giuseppe Di Giacomo and Paolo Massini in c.1618-19. It features seats and balustrading with fountain basins and carved eagles.
The well-heads and oil-jars found throughout the gardens came from Venice and Rome respectively.
The "Cliveden snail"
In 2004, a colony of small Mediterranean land snails of the species Papillifera bidens was discovered living on the Borghese Balustrade. Presumably this species, new to the English fauna, was accidentally imported along with the balustrade in the late 19th century, and managed to survive through all the intervening winters to the present day.
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 is featured 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 at Cliveden.
- The house appears in the film, Don't Lose Your Head
- Horse and carriage sequences in The Card (aka The Promoter) (1952) starring Alec Guinness were filmed on the drive.
- The Thames at Cliveden appears in both Chaplin (1992) and Carrington (1995).
- Cliveden's panelled library stands in for a priest's New York study in Maid of Honour (2008) starring Patrick Dempsey.
- A UK lotto advertisement portrays a man running around on the grounds at Cliveden.
- Cliveden was featured as part of a reward on the UK television show, The Apprentice with Sir Alan Sugar.
- In 2000 the Antiques Roadshow used the grounds as a venue for a valuation day.
Cliveden in Literature
In Chapter 12 of Three Men in a Boat (1889), Jerome K. Jerome describes the Cliveden stretch of the Thames as "unbroken loveliness this is, perhaps, the sweetest stretch of all the river..."
In Boogie Up the River (1989) Mark Wallington retraces Jerome's journey to mark its centenary, with the Thames at Cliveden described in Capter 5.
The poet Alexander Pope wrote (c.1730) of the Duke of Buckingham's affair with Anna, Countess of Shrewsbury: "Gallant and gay in Cliveden's proud alcove/The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love."
Cliveden: In the know
"Cliveden" has been spelt differently over the centuries. Here are some of the variations: Cliffden, Clifden, Cliefden, Clyveden and Cleveden.
Cliveden holds the National Plant Collection of Catalpa (aka Bean Tree).
When the restoration of the old maze between the Water garden and walled car park is completed in 2011-12 its size is expected to rival the world-famous maze at Hampton Court Palace.
The Earl of Orkney, Cliveden's second owner, was Governor of Virginia, USA (1710-37) without ever setting foot on American soil.
In 1994 while laying cables under the forecourt, a building contractor uncovered a brick-lined tunnel and two rooms. They are believed to date from the early 17th century and have since been covered up again.
The entertainer Joyce Grenfell was Nancy Astor's niece and once lived in a cottage on the estate. She also entertained injured troops at the hospital on the estate during WWII.
Cliveden Hotel claims to offer the "world's most expensive sandwich" at £100GBP. The von Essen Platinum club sandwich was confirmed by Guinness World Records in 2007 to be the most expensive sandwich available commercially.
External links
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