Mentmore Towers
Encyclopedia
Mentmore Towers is a 19th century English country house
in the village of Mentmore
in Buckinghamshire
. The house was designed by Joseph Paxton
and his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes, in the revival Elizabethan and Jacobean style of the late 16th century called Jacobethan
, for the banker and collector of fine art, Baron Mayer de Rothschild
as a country home, display case for his collection of fine art and as an assertion of status. The mansion has been described as one of the greatest houses of the Victorian era. In keeping with the contents intended to be displayed within, the interiors take their inspiration principally from the Italian Renaissance, although the house also contains drawing rooms and cabinets decorated in the gilded styles of late 18th century France. Historically it was first known simply as 'Mentmore'. The design is closely based on that of Robert Smythson
's Wollaton Hall
. It is a Grade 1 listed building.
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Mentmore was the first of what was to become a virtual Rothschild enclave in the Vale of Aylesbury, as later, other members of the family built houses at Tring
in Hertfordshire
, Ascott
, Aston Clinton
, Waddesdon
and Halton
. Since 1846 Baron Mayer de Rothschild had been slowly buying land in the area.
, was responsible for the ridge and furrow glass roof which covered the central hall, designed to imitate the arcaded courtyard of a Renaissance palazzo, while Stokes was co-architect and clerk of works
. The builder was the London based firm George Myers
, frequently employed by members of the Rothschild family.
, later Countess of Rosebery. Following her death from Bright's Disease
in 1890 at age 39, the house became the home of her widower Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, later Prime Minister
for two years from 1894. In the late 1920s, the fifth earl gave the estate to his son Harry
, Lord Dalmeny, who in 1929 on the death of his father, became the sixth Earl.
Both earls bred numerous winners of classic horse races at the two stud farms on the estate, including five Epsom Derby
winners. These were Ladas
, Sir Visto
, and Cicero
from the Crafton Stud; plus Ocean Swell and Blue Peter
from the Mentmore stud. Both stud farms were within a kilometre of the mansion and together with the stable yard were designed by the architect George Devey
, who also designed many cottages in the estate's villages of Mentmore, Crafton and Ledburn
.
During the Second World War, the Gold State Coach
was transferred to Mentmore to protect it from German bombing.
Following the death of the sixth earl in 1973, the Labour government of James Callaghan
refused to accept the contents in lieu of inheritance taxes
, which would have turned the house into one of England's finest museum
s of European furniture, objets d'art and Victorian era
architecture
. The government was offered the house and contents for £2,000,000 but declined, and after three years of fruitless discussion, the executors of the estate sold the contents by public auction
for over £6,000,000. Among the paintings sold were works by Gainsborough
, Reynolds
, Boucher
, Drouais, Moroni
and other well known artists, and cabinet makers, including Jean Henri Riesener
and Chippendale
. Also represented were the finest German and Russian silver- and goldsmiths, and makers of Limoges
enamel. This Rothschild/Mentmore collection is said to have been one of the finest ever to be assembled in private hands, other than the collections of the Russian and British royal families.
founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
. In 1992, the TM organization made Mentmore the British national headquarters of its political arm, the Natural Law Party
.
From 1977 to 1979, the building housed the national office of the TM organization, and was used for weekend and longer residence courses in Transcendental Meditation, as well as World Peace Assemblies for the practice of the more advanced TM-Sidhi program
. In early 1979, Maharishi moved about a hundred young men, all TM teachers, to the property to maintain continuous group practice of the TM-Sidhi program. Mentmore was set up as the UK seat of the World Government for the Age of Enlightenment (founded in 1975) and was used as the launching point to establish City Parliaments in most of the UK's larger cities. For roughly three years (1979 through 1982), Mentmore Towers saw an immense level of activity, with numerous banquets to woo influential academic, government and business figures. A number of laboratories were built in the former servants' wing and used for TM research. These operated under the name Maharishi European Research University (MERU), after the original institution of the same name established earlier at Seelisberg in Switzerland. Several series of seminars were run, aimed at inspiring academics, principally from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, to do research on TM. Visiting speakers included Nobel Laureate Brian Josephson, Professor Ilya Prigogine
, Hans Eysenck
, and many other leading international academics.
In 1982, Mentmore's role was changed to become the home of Maharishi University of Natural Law. In 1992, it was transformed again, to be the UK headquarters of the Natural Law Party, which launched over 300 candidates from the UK and Commonwealth countries to contest the election in that year.
In a search for sources of income, the TM organisation ran a number of businesses out of Mentmore (including making fudge, selling silk dresses, hosting classical music concerts and using the building as a film location). After 1982, the number of staff at Mentmore decreased to about thirty until the building was sold.
, now named Mentmore Towers Ltd, that, while restoring it, plans to turn it into a luxury hotel with 101 suites, including 62 in a new wing on the slope below the house. However, in September 2004 a local resident won a last-minute injunction
in the High Court
to halt work on the hotel while a judicial review
investigated if the planning permission
granted had followed the correct procedures. In March 2005 the High Court ruled that Aylesbury Vale District Council's decision to grant planning permission to the developers was "unimpeachable" and legally sound. However, with Simon Halabi's property empire in serious trouble due to the housing market's collapse, the project seems to have stalled. English Heritage has placed it on the "At Risk register" and the house needs urgent work on the roof and chimneys. There is concern that weather will penetrate to the interiors, considered among the finest examples of Victorian design and craftsmanship in Britain.
's Brazil (1985), Slipstream
(1989), Stanley Kubrick
's Eyes Wide Shut
(1999), Philip Kaufman
's Marquis de Sade
biopic
Quills
(2000), The Mummy Returns
(2001), Ali G Indahouse
(2002), Johnny English
(2003), and Christopher Nolan
's Batman Begins
(2005) where it was used as the gothic Wayne Manor
.
In 1982 director Howard Guard filmed the Roxy Music
video to "Avalon", starring Sophie Ward
, at the house. It also served as the filming location of Enya
's Dan Nathan-directed "Only If.." (1997) and the Spice Girls
Howard Greenhalgh-directed "Goodbye" (1998) music videos.
English country house
The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...
in the village of Mentmore
Mentmore
Mentmore is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about three miles east of Wingrave, three miles south east of Wing.The village toponym is derived from the Old English for "Menta's moor"...
in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
. The house was designed by Joseph Paxton
Joseph Paxton
Sir Joseph Paxton was an English gardener and architect, best known for designing The Crystal Palace.-Early life:...
and his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes, in the revival Elizabethan and Jacobean style of the late 16th century called Jacobethan
Jacobethan
Jacobethan is the style designation coined in 1933 by John Betjeman to describe the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance , with elements of Elizabethan and...
, for the banker and collector of fine art, Baron Mayer de Rothschild
Mayer Amschel de Rothschild
Mayer Amschel de Rothschild of the English branch of the Rothschild family was the fourth and youngest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild . He was named Mayer Amschel Rothschild, for his grandfather, the patriarch of the Rothschild family.-Life:Known to his family as "Muffy", he was born in New Court,...
as a country home, display case for his collection of fine art and as an assertion of status. The mansion has been described as one of the greatest houses of the Victorian era. In keeping with the contents intended to be displayed within, the interiors take their inspiration principally from the Italian Renaissance, although the house also contains drawing rooms and cabinets decorated in the gilded styles of late 18th century France. Historically it was first known simply as 'Mentmore'. The design is closely based on that of Robert Smythson
Robert Smythson
Robert Smythson was an English architect. Smythson designed a number of notable houses during the Elizabethan era. Little is known about his birth and upbringing—his first mention in historical records comes in 1556, when he was stonemason for the house at Longleat, built by Sir John Thynne...
's Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Hall is a country house standing on a small but prominent hill in Wollaton, Nottingham, England. Wollaton Park is the area of parkland that the stately house stands in. The house itself is a natural history museum, with other museums in the out-buildings...
. It is a Grade 1 listed building.
Tring
Tring is a small market town and also a civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, England. Situated north-west of London and linked to London by the old Roman road of Akeman Street, by the modern A41, by the Grand Union Canal and by rail lines to Euston Station, Tring is now largely a...
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, Ascott
Ascott, Buckinghamshire
Ascott is a hamlet and country house in the parish of Wing, Buckinghamshire, England. The hamlet lies completely within the boundary of the Ascott Estate; it is home to many of the estate and house staff....
, Aston Clinton
Aston Clinton
Aston Clinton is a village and civil parish close to the main A41 road in Buckinghamshire, England between Tring and Aylesbury. The parish covers and is about east of Aylesbury. The village is at the foot of the chalk escarpment of the Chiltern Hills at the junction of the pre-historic track the...
, Waddesdon
Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...
and Halton
Halton House
thumb|right|300px|Halton House, BuckinghamshireHalton House is a country house situated in the Chiltern Hills above the village of Halton in Buckinghamshire, England. It was built for Alfred de Rothschild between 1880 and 1883...
. Since 1846 Baron Mayer de Rothschild had been slowly buying land in the area.
Architecture
The house was built between 1852 and 1854 for Baron Mayer de Rothschild, who required a house close to London. Paxton, who had previously designed the Crystal PalaceThe Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
, was responsible for the ridge and furrow glass roof which covered the central hall, designed to imitate the arcaded courtyard of a Renaissance palazzo, while Stokes was co-architect and clerk of works
Clerk of works
Clerks of Works are the most highly qualified non-commissioned tradesmen in the Royal Engineers. The qualification can be held in three specialisations: Electrical, Mechanical and Construction. The clerk of works , often abbreviated CoW, is employed by the architect or client on a construction site...
. The builder was the London based firm George Myers
George Myers (builder)
George Myers was an English builder, best known for his work with the architect and designer Augustus Pugin.-Biography:Myers was born in 1803 in Kingston-upon-Hull. He first met Pugin in 1827 while working as an apprentice to the Master Mason of Beverley Minster, William Comins...
, frequently employed by members of the Rothschild family.
The Rosebery era
Baron Mayer de Rothschild and his wife did not live long after the Towers' completion. After the Baroness's death it was inherited by her daughter HannahHannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery
Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery was the daughter of Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana, née Cohen...
, later Countess of Rosebery. Following her death from Bright's Disease
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
in 1890 at age 39, the house became the home of her widower Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, later Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
for two years from 1894. In the late 1920s, the fifth earl gave the estate to his son Harry
Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery
Albert Edward Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery and 2nd Earl of Midlothian , known by his third name of Harry, was a UK politician who briefly served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1945...
, Lord Dalmeny, who in 1929 on the death of his father, became the sixth Earl.
Both earls bred numerous winners of classic horse races at the two stud farms on the estate, including five Epsom Derby
Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...
winners. These were Ladas
Ladas (horse)
Ladas was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1893 to 1894 he ran eleven times and won seven races. He was the outstanding British two-year-old of 1893 when he was unbeaten in four starts. In the following year he won the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and the Derby...
, Sir Visto
Sir Visto
Sir Visto was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1894 to 1896 he ran thirteen times and won three races. As a three-year-old in the 1895 he won both the Epsom Derby and the St Leger at Doncaster...
, and Cicero
Cicero (horse)
Cicero was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was the best English two-year-old of 1904, winning all five of his races. In 1905 Cicero became one of the shortest priced successful favourites in the history of the Derby, winning at 4/11 to remain undefeated...
from the Crafton Stud; plus Ocean Swell and Blue Peter
Blue Peter III
Blue Peter was a British bred Thoroughbred racehorse whose career was cut short by the outbreak of World War II. He won the Epsom Derby and was later a Leading broodmare sire in Great Britain & Ireland....
from the Mentmore stud. Both stud farms were within a kilometre of the mansion and together with the stable yard were designed by the architect George Devey
George Devey
George Devey was a British architect, born in London, the second son of Frederick and Ann Devey. Devey was educated in London, after leaving school he initially studied art, with an ambition to become a professional artist...
, who also designed many cottages in the estate's villages of Mentmore, Crafton and Ledburn
Ledburn
Ledburn is a hamlet in the parish of Mentmore, in Buckinghamshire, England. The name Ledburn is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means "stream with a conduit". In manorial records of 1212 it was recorded as "Leteburn"....
.
During the Second World War, the Gold State Coach
Gold State Coach
The Gold State Coach is an enclosed, eight horse-drawn carriage used by the British Royal Family. It was built in the London workshops of Samuel Butler in 1762 and has been used at the coronation of every British monarch since George IV...
was transferred to Mentmore to protect it from German bombing.
Following the death of the sixth earl in 1973, the Labour government of James Callaghan
James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was a British Labour politician, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...
refused to accept the contents in lieu of inheritance taxes
Inheritance Tax (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, Inheritance Tax is a transfer tax. It was introduced with effect from 18 March 1986 replacing Capital Transfer Tax.-History:...
, which would have turned the house into one of England's finest museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
s of European furniture, objets d'art and Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
. The government was offered the house and contents for £2,000,000 but declined, and after three years of fruitless discussion, the executors of the estate sold the contents by public auction
Public auction
A public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government, or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a government agency with similar authority....
for over £6,000,000. Among the paintings sold were works by Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
, Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
, Boucher
François Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
, Drouais, Moroni
Giovanni Battista Moroni
Giovanni Battista Moroni was a North Italian painter of the Late Renaissance period. He is also called Giambattista Moroni...
and other well known artists, and cabinet makers, including Jean Henri Riesener
Jean Henri Riesener
Jean-Henri Riesener was the French royal ébéniste, working in Paris, whose work exemplified the early neoclassical Louis XVI style"....
and Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director...
. Also represented were the finest German and Russian silver- and goldsmiths, and makers of Limoges
Limoges
Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....
enamel. This Rothschild/Mentmore collection is said to have been one of the finest ever to be assembled in private hands, other than the collections of the Russian and British royal families.
The Maharishi era
The empty house, unaltered since the day it was built, was sold in 1977 for £220,000 to the Transcendental Meditation movementTranscendental Meditation movement
The Transcendental Meditation movement is a world-wide organization, sometimes characterised as a neo-Hindu new religious movement, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1950s...
founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
. In 1992, the TM organization made Mentmore the British national headquarters of its political arm, the Natural Law Party
Natural Law Party
The Natural Law Party was a transnational party based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was active in up to 74 countries, and ran candidates in at least ten. Founded in 1992, it was mostly disbanded in 2004 but continues in India and in some U.S. states.The NLP viewed "natural law" as...
.
From 1977 to 1979, the building housed the national office of the TM organization, and was used for weekend and longer residence courses in Transcendental Meditation, as well as World Peace Assemblies for the practice of the more advanced TM-Sidhi program
TM-Sidhi program
The TM-Sidhi program is a form of meditation introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1975. It is based on, and described as a natural extension of the Transcendental Meditation technique...
. In early 1979, Maharishi moved about a hundred young men, all TM teachers, to the property to maintain continuous group practice of the TM-Sidhi program. Mentmore was set up as the UK seat of the World Government for the Age of Enlightenment (founded in 1975) and was used as the launching point to establish City Parliaments in most of the UK's larger cities. For roughly three years (1979 through 1982), Mentmore Towers saw an immense level of activity, with numerous banquets to woo influential academic, government and business figures. A number of laboratories were built in the former servants' wing and used for TM research. These operated under the name Maharishi European Research University (MERU), after the original institution of the same name established earlier at Seelisberg in Switzerland. Several series of seminars were run, aimed at inspiring academics, principally from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, to do research on TM. Visiting speakers included Nobel Laureate Brian Josephson, Professor Ilya Prigogine
Ilya Prigogine
Ilya, Viscount Prigogine was a Russian-born naturalized Belgian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility.-Biography :...
, Hans Eysenck
Hans Eysenck
Hans Jürgen Eysenck was a German-British psychologist who spent most of his career in Britain, best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas...
, and many other leading international academics.
In 1982, Mentmore's role was changed to become the home of Maharishi University of Natural Law. In 1992, it was transformed again, to be the UK headquarters of the Natural Law Party, which launched over 300 candidates from the UK and Commonwealth countries to contest the election in that year.
In a search for sources of income, the TM organisation ran a number of businesses out of Mentmore (including making fudge, selling silk dresses, hosting classical music concerts and using the building as a film location). After 1982, the number of staff at Mentmore decreased to about thirty until the building was sold.
Future as a hotel
In 1997 Mentmore Towers was sold to a company, owned by Simon HalabiSimon Halabi
Simon Halabi is a Syrian-born in Damascus Syria, he is a businessman formerly based in the United Kingdom. He is married to Lithuanian born Urte and has two sons, Samuel and Jacob. Samual died in August 2003 in a pool accident in France....
, now named Mentmore Towers Ltd, that, while restoring it, plans to turn it into a luxury hotel with 101 suites, including 62 in a new wing on the slope below the house. However, in September 2004 a local resident won a last-minute injunction
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
in the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
to halt work on the hotel while a judicial review
Judicial review
Judicial review is the doctrine under which legislative and executive actions are subject to review by the judiciary. Specific courts with judicial review power must annul the acts of the state when it finds them incompatible with a higher authority...
investigated if the planning permission
Planning permission
Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...
granted had followed the correct procedures. In March 2005 the High Court ruled that Aylesbury Vale District Council's decision to grant planning permission to the developers was "unimpeachable" and legally sound. However, with Simon Halabi's property empire in serious trouble due to the housing market's collapse, the project seems to have stalled. English Heritage has placed it on the "At Risk register" and the house needs urgent work on the roof and chimneys. There is concern that weather will penetrate to the interiors, considered among the finest examples of Victorian design and craftsmanship in Britain.
Golf courses
The park is home to Mentmore Golf and Country Club, established in 1992, which has two eighteen hole golf courses, the Rothschild Course and the Rosebery Course.Film location
The house has appeared in many films, including Terry GilliamTerry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
's Brazil (1985), Slipstream
Slipstream (1989 film)
Slipstream is a 1989 post-apocalyptic science fiction adventure film. The plot has an emphasis on aviation and contains many common science-fiction themes, such as taking place in a dystopian future in which the landscape of the Earth itself has been changed and is windswept by storms of great power...
(1989), Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
's Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 drama film based upon Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Traumnovelle . The film was directed, produced and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, and was his last film. The story, set in and around New York City, follows the sexually-charged adventures of Dr...
(1999), Philip Kaufman
Philip Kaufman
Philip Kaufman is an American film director and screenwriter. His movies have adapted novels of widely different types – from Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being to Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun; from Tom Wolfe’s heroic epic The Right Stuff to the erotic writings of Anaïs Nin’s...
's Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
biopic
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
Quills
Quills
Quills is a 2000 period film directed by Philip Kaufman and adapted from the Obie award-winning play by Doug Wright, who also wrote the original screenplay. Inspired by the life and work of the Marquis de Sade, Quills re-imagines the last years of the Marquis' incarceration in the insane asylum at...
(2000), The Mummy Returns
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Freddie Boath. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy...
(2001), Ali G Indahouse
Ali G Indahouse
Ali G Indahouse is a British comedy film directed by Mark Mylod and starring the fictional character Ali G, who is performed by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen...
(2002), Johnny English
Johnny English
Johnny English is a 2003 British action comedy film parodying the James Bond secret agent genre. The film stars Rowan Atkinson as the incompetent titular English spy, with John Malkovich, Natalie Imbruglia, Tim Pigott-Smith and Ben Miller in supporting roles...
(2003), and Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer.He received serious notice after his second feature Memento , which he wrote and directed based on a story idea by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan went to co-write later scripts with him,...
's Batman Begins
Batman Begins
Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...
(2005) where it was used as the gothic Wayne Manor
Wayne Manor
In DC Comics, Wayne Manor is a fictional setting, the personal residence of Bruce Wayne, who is also Batman. The residence is typically depicted as a huge stately mansion on grounds outside Gotham City, maintained by the Wayne family's servant, Alfred Pennyworth...
.
In 1982 director Howard Guard filmed the Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
video to "Avalon", starring Sophie Ward
Sophie Ward
Sophie Ward , is an English actress and the daughter of actor, Simon Ward.-Career:One of Ward's early film roles was in the film Young Sherlock Holmes. Other early films included Return to Oz, Little Dorrit and A Summer Story, and she also portrayed the unattainable love object in the video of Roxy...
, at the house. It also served as the filming location of Enya
Enya
Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...
's Dan Nathan-directed "Only If.." (1997) and the Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
Howard Greenhalgh-directed "Goodbye" (1998) music videos.
See also
- Rothschild properties in BuckinghamshireRothschild properties in BuckinghamshireOf all the landowners in the Home counties, particularly the Buckinghamshire area, none has had more impact on the landscape than the Rothschild family...
- Rothschild familyRothschild familyThe Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...
- Rothschild banking family of EnglandRothschild banking family of EnglandThe Rothschild banking family of England was founded in 1798 by Nathan Mayer von Rothschild who first settled in Manchester but then moved to London. Nathan was sent there from his home in Frankfurt by his father, Mayer Amschel Rothschild...
- Château de FerrièresChâteau de FerrièresChâteau de Ferrières is a French château built between 1855 and 1859 by Baron James de Rothschild in the Goût Rothschild. Rothschild ownership of the Château de Ferrières was passed down through the male line according to the rule of primogeniture...