Cliveden (pronounced ) is an English country house and estate in the care of the National Trust in Buckinghamshire, on the border with Berkshire. The Italianate mansion, also known as Cliveden House, crowns an outlying ridge of the Chiltern Hills close to the South Bucks villages of Taplow and Burnham. The main house sits above the banks of the River Thames, and its grounds slope down to the river. There have been three houses on this site. The first was built in 1666 and burned down in 1795, while the second house was constructed around 1824 and was also destroyed by fire, in 1849. The present Grade I listed house was built in 1851 by the architect Charles Barry for the 2nd Duke of Sutherland.

Cliveden has been the home to a Prince of Wales, two dukes, an earl, and finally the Viscounts Astor. As the home of Nancy Astor, wife of the 2nd Viscount Astor, Cliveden was the meeting place during the 1920s and 1930s of the Cliveden Set, a group of political intellectuals. Later, during the early 1960s, when it was the home of the 3rd Viscount Astor, it became the setting for key events of the notorious Profumo affair. After the Astor family stopped living there, by the 1970s, it was leased to Stanford University, which used it as an overseas campus. It is now leased to a company that runs it as a luxury hotel.

The gardens and woodlands are open to the public, together with parts of the house on certain days. Cliveden has been one of the National Trust's most popular pay-for-entry visitor attractions, and hosted 563,416 visitors in 2025.

Etymology

Cliveden means "valley among cliffs" and refers to the dene (valley) which cuts through part of the estate, east of the house. Cliveden has been spelled differently over the centuries, some of the variations being Cliffden, Clifden, Cliefden, and Clyveden.<sup>:10</sup>

Present house

Designed by Charles Barry in 1851 to replace a house previously destroyed by fire, the present house is a blend of the English Palladian style and the Roman Cinquecento. Continuing clockwise, text on the other fronts translates as: "Constructed upon foundations laid long before by George Villiers Duke of Buckingham in Charles the Second's reign", "Completed in the year of Our Lord 1851 when Victoria had been Queen by God's grace for fourteen years" and "Restored by George Duke of Sutherland and Harriet his wife on the site where two houses had previously been burnt down". The main contractor for the work was Lucas Brothers.

In 1984–86, the exterior of the mansion was overhauled and a new lead roof was installed by the National Trust, while interior repairs were carried out by Cliveden Hotel. In 2013, further exterior work was carried out including the restoration of 300 sash windows and 20 timber doors.

Interior

The interior of the house today is very different from its original appearance in 1851–52. This is mainly due to the 1st Viscount Astor, who radically altered the interior layout and decoration c.1894–95. Whereas Barry's original interior for the Sutherlands had included a square entrance-hall, a morning room, and a separate stairwell, Lord Astor wanted a more impressive entrance to Cliveden, so he had all three rooms amalgamated to create the Great Hall. The staircase newel posts are ornamented with carved figures representing previous owners (e.g. Buckingham and Orkney) by W.S. Frith.

Lord Astor installed a large 16th-century fireplace that was purchased from the Frederick Spitzer sale (lot 1273) in June 1893. To the left of the fireplace is a portrait of Nancy, Lady Astor, by the American portraitist John Singer Sargent. The room was and still is furnished with 18th-century tapestries and suits of armour.

Originally, the floor was covered with Minton encaustic tiles (given to the Sutherlands by the factory), but Nancy Astor had them removed in 1906 and the present flagstones laid. Above the staircase is a painted ceiling by French artist Auguste Hervieu, which depicts the Sutherlands' children painted as the four seasons, and it is the only surviving element of Barry's 1851&ndash;52 interior.

thumb|upright=1.2|The French Dining Room.

The French Dining Room is so-called because the 18th-century Rococo panelling (or boiseries) came from Château d'Asnières near Paris, a château which was leased to Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour as a hunting lodge. The panelling was sold in 1897 by Jules Allard to the 1st Viscount Astor, who had it installed at Cliveden. The gilded panelling on a turquoise ground contains carvings of hares, pheasants, hunting dogs and rifles. The console tables and buffet were made in 1900 to match the room.

The second-largest room on the ground floor, after the Great Hall, was the original drawing room, which is used as the hotel's main dining room. Also on the ground floor is the library, panelled in cedar wood, which the Astors used to call the "cigar box".

Upstairs, there are a total of 10-bedroom suites divided equally over two floors. The East wing was and still is guest accommodation, whereas the West wing was domestic offices that were converted into more bedrooms in 1994.

Clock Tower

The nearby 100-foot (30 m) clock tower was added in 1861 and is the work of the architect Henry Clutton. As a functioning water tower, it still provides water for the house today. It is rendered in Roman cement like the rest of the house, and it features four clock faces framed by gilded surrounds and a half-open staircase on its north side. It was described by the architectural critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the epitome of Victorian flamboyance and assertiveness."

The tower is topped with a modern reproduction of Augustin Dumont's 19th-century winged male figure Le Génie de la Liberté (the Spirit of Liberty). The original is atop the July Column in the Place de la Bastille, Paris. This replaces two earlier versions, the first having fallen from the tower during a storm in the 1950s. The new statue is made of bronze and was created using Dumont's original mould from the 1860s found in a museum in Semur-en-Auxois, France. Derived from several historical sources including George Lipscombe's History of the County of Buckingham, the Lysons brothers Magna Britannia, and James Joseph Sheahan's History of Buckinghamshire, it shows that in 1237 the land was owned by Geoffrey de Clyveden and by 1300 it had passed to his son, William, who owned fisheries and mills along the Cliveden Reach stretch of the Thames and at nearby Hedsor.

thumb|upright=1.5|The 1666 house. Only the arcaded terrace remains today. From [[Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus, c.1717.]]

In 1569 a lodge existed on the site along with of land and was owned by Sir Henry Manfield; it was later owned by his son, Sir Edward. In 1573, there were two lodges on of treeless chalk escarpment above the Thames. It was on this impressively high but exposed site that Buckingham chose to build the first Cliveden house.<sup>:2</sup>

Buckingham pulled down the earlier buildings and chose William Winde as his architect. Winde designed a four-storey house above an arcaded terrace. Today the terrace is the only feature of Buckingham's house to survive the 1795 fire. Although the Duke's intention was to use Cliveden as a "hunting box", it later housed Anna Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury. In 1668 a duel between the Duke and his mistress's husband Lord Shrewsbury took place at Barn Elms near London and resulted in Shrewsbury dying of his wounds. A contemporary account of Buckingham's affair with Anna was written about by Samuel Pepys, in his diary of the period.

John Evelyn, another contemporary diarist, visited the Duke at Cliveden on 22 July 1679 and recorded the following impression in his Diary:

18th century

1st Earl of Orkney

After Buckingham died in 1687, the house remained empty until the estate was purchased in 1696 by George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, a soldier and colonial official. All that remains of Archer's work inside the house today is a staircase in the West wing.]]

Countesses of Orkney

Orkney died in 1737, and Cliveden passed to his daughter Anne O'Brien, 2nd Countess of Orkney in her own right. She immediately leased it to Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son of George II and father of George III. After Frederick fell out with his father, Kew and Cliveden became his refuge from life at the royal court, becoming family homes for his wife Augusta and their children.

Cliveden was also the location for the final illness of the Prince: it was believed that while playing cricket in the grounds at Cliveden in 1751 the Prince received a blow to the chest from a batted ball and that this had caused an infection which proved fatal; however, an alternative interpretation shows he died from a cold, followed by a pulmonary embolism. After his death, Frederick's family retained Kew and their townhouse, Leicester House, but gave up their lease on Cliveden. Anne and her family moved back into the house, passing it to her daughter, Mary O'Brien, 3rd Countess of Orkney and granddaughter, Mary FitzMaurice, 4th Countess of Orkney, who also lived there. On the night of 20 May 1795, the house caught fire and burned down. The cause of the fire was thought to have been a servant knocking over a candle.

19th century

Sir George Warrender

After the fire of 1795 the house remained a ruin for the first quarter of the 19th century. In 1824, the estate was purchased by Sir George Warrender, 4th Baronet. To rebuild Cliveden, Warrender selected William Burn, a Scottish architect, and decided on a design for a two-storey mansion with entertaining on a grand scale in mind.

The Duke was prompt in commissioning the architect Charles Barry to rebuild Cliveden in the style of an Italianate villa.

The clock tower, which is actually a water tower (still working to this day) was added in 1861 by the architect Henry Clutton.

1st Duke of Westminster

Westminster was one of the wealthiest Englishmen of the period. During his ownership of the estate (1868–93), he contributed significant additions to the house and gardens, including the porte cochère on the north front of the mansion, a new stable block and the dovecote, all designed by Henry Clutton.

20th and 21st century

Astor era

upright|thumb|[[Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor|Nancy, Lady Astor by John Singer Sargent. The painting hangs at Cliveden.]]

In 1893 the estate was purchased by an American millionaire, William Waldorf Astor (later 1st Viscount Astor), who made sweeping alterations to the gardens and the interior of the house. He gave the house to his son Waldorf (later 2nd Viscount Astor) on the occasion of his marriage to Nancy Langhorne in 1906 and moved to Hever Castle.

The young Astors used Cliveden for entertaining on a lavish scale.

During the inter-war period the entertainer Joyce Grenfell, who was Nancy Astor's niece, lived in a cottage on the estate. In the preface to her memoir, James Roose-Evans stated that during the Second World War, Grenfell ran two wards of the hospital and worked as an informal welfare officer. This work included completing errands for patients, writing letters, shopping, teaching needlework, and organising social events, and informal concerts.

Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital

thumb|left|Cliveden War Cemetery in the Cliveden grounds

At the outbreak of World War I, Waldorf 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 the hostilities. In September 1939 with the outbreak of World War II Waldorf Astor again offered the use of the land at a rent of one shilling per year to the Canadian Red Cross and the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital was built to the designs of Robert Atkinson. After the war the hospital's main focus was as a nursing school, a maternity unit and a rheumatology unit.

The hospital closed and was abandoned in 1985. It lay derelict for two decades and was demolished in 2006 to make way for a housing development for people aged 55 and over.

Attached to the military hospital and within the grounds was established Cliveden War Cemetery. There are 42 Commonwealth war graves, 40 from World War I (mostly Canadians) and two from World War II, besides two American service war graves from the first war.

National Trust ownership

In 1942 the Astors gave Cliveden to the National Trust with the proviso that the family could continue to live in the house for as long as they wished. Should they cease to do so, they expressed the wish that the house be used "for promoting friendship and understanding between the peoples of the United States and Canada and the other dominions."

After the death of the 2nd Viscount in 1952, his son William (Bill) Astor, the 3rd Viscount Astor took over the house until his death in 1966. National Trust visitors to Cliveden can visit the parkland, and there is occasional limited access to a select area of the house. In 1994 the conversion of the West wing from domestic offices to provide more bedrooms and two boardrooms (Churchill and Macmillan) was completed. all of which are named after previous owners and guests (e.g. Buckingham, Westminster). In addition to the Terrace Dining room, there are a further four private dining rooms. Three rooms are licensed for civil ceremonies and each year many couples are married at Cliveden. In the early years of the 21st century the lease was acquired by von Essen Hotels.

In 2007, Cliveden House Hotel claimed to offer the "world's most expensive sandwich" at £100. The von Essen Platinum Club Sandwich was confirmed by Guinness World Records in 2007 to be the most expensive sandwich commercially available. Cliveden House was the "jewel in the crown" of Von Essen Hotels when the company collapsed in 2011.

The lease to Cliveden Hotel was then purchased in February 2012 by the property developers Richard and Ian Livingstone, owners of London & Regional Properties, (also the new owners of the next-door 220-acre estate called Dropmore Park) who placed it under the management of Andrew Stembridge from Chewton Glen. In 2015 Natalie Livingstone, the wife of Ian Livingstone, published The Mistresses of Cliveden, a history of some of the female occupants of the house. In January 2015 the hotel closed for one month to carry out a refurbishment of the interior and for the National Trust to repair the roof.

The hotel's insignia is that of the Sutherland family and consists of a coronet with interlaced "S"s and acanthus leaves. Three-dimensional versions of this insignia can be found on panels and radiator grills in parts of the house. The hotel's motto is "Nothing ordinary ever happened here, nor could it."

Gardens and grounds

thumb|upright=1.4|The parterre seen from the terrace, looking south, with the restored 19th-century style planting

The estate extends to of which about comprise the gardens, the rest being woodland and paddocks. The gardens are listed as Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Parterre

The formal parterre to the south of the house is one of the largest in Europe at . and is best viewed from the 20-foot (6.1m) high terrace on the south side of the mansion. This part of the garden has received the most attention over the centuries. The first arranging of the large plateau to the south of the house took place c.1723 during George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney's ownership. Although he had previously commissioned plans for elaborate parterre schemes from Claude Desgots, the nephew of André Le Nôtre (both designers had previously worked at Versailles), Orkney eventually chose a much simpler plan involving an open expanse of lawn surrounded by raised gravel walks and double rows of elm trees. At the far end there was (and still is) a sunken feature in the turf where Orkney's horses were exercised in a form of open-air manège.

Orkney referred to the garden as his "Quaker parterre" because of its simplicity. The Duke commissioned both Charles Barry (who had rebuilt the mansion after the second fire) and John Fleming (the head gardener) to produce designs for a complex parterre of flower beds. Fleming's design, which featured two sets of eight interlocking wedge-shaped beds, was chosen and is the template for what can be seen today. The beds were planted with a seasonal mix of bulbs, annuals, and shrubs such as gladioli, hollyhocks, tulips, pansies, and azaleas. Fleming pioneered this style of planting at Cliveden, which was later to be named "carpet-bedding." However, in 2010 the Trust decided to recreate Fleming's original 19th-century planting scheme.

Themed gardens

The Italian-style Long Garden consists of topiary in the form of corkscrew-spirals, peacocks, and seasonal planting within box hedges; it was created by garden designer Norah Lindsay in c.1900. The Japanese-style Water Garden was designed in c.1893 and is believed to be the first such East Asian inspired garden in the country. It features a pagoda, on an island, bought from the Bagatelle estate in Paris. The planting there is mostly spring-flowering: cherry trees, bush wisterias, and giant gunneras. Both gardens were commissioned by the 1st Lord Astor. The planting in the herbaceous borders in the forecourt was designed in the 1970s by the National Trust advisor Graham Stuart Thomas.

In 2011 the Trust began an ambitious project to restore the 19th-century Round Garden near the eastern edge of the estate. Originally this is where fruit was grown for the house, but since the 1950s it had become overgrown. The circular garden has a diameter of 250&nbsp;ft and restoration will include reinstating the paths and wrought iron arches as well as original fruit varieties where possible.

Woodland

There is a lime tree avenue on either side of the main drive to the house. Cliveden holds part of the National Plant Collection of Catalpa. In 1897 the 1st Lord Astor imported a section of a Californian redwood and had it installed in the woods. At across it is the largest section of a Sequoia gigantea in Britain.

The woodlands were first laid out by Lord Orkney in the 18th century.

Garden buildings: 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.

In the woods, there is a small flint folly thought to date from the late-18th to early-19th century.

Octagon Temple (Astor family chapel)

thumb|left|Giacomo Leoni's 1735 "Octagon Temple"

The Octagon Temple, situated 200&nbsp;ft above the Thames, was originally designed by Giacomo Leoni in 1735 as a gazebo and grotto but was later converted by the 1st Viscount Astor to become the Astor family chapel. The mausoleum contains the ashes of the 1st Viscount Astor, his son the 2nd Viscount, and of the latter's wife, Nancy Astor. The ashes of the 3rd Viscount and of Robert Gould Shaw III (Nancy Astor's son by her first marriage) are also buried here.

The mausoleum's interior and dome are decorated with colourful mosaics by Clayton and Bell representing religious scenes.

Sculpture collection

thumb|[[Thomas Waldo Story's Fountain of Love inscribed 'Waldo Story Roma 1897']]

One of the features of the gardens is the large collection of sculptures, most of them 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.

At the far end of the parterre is a twentieth-century copy of a bronze group entitled The Rape of Proserpina (Italian, c.1565), bought by William Waldorf Astor from Italy. The original is now housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The well-heads and oil jars found throughout the gardens came from Venice and Rome respectively.

Sitting on modern plinths in the Long Garden are two ancient Egyptian baboon sculptures, thought to be 2,000–2,500 years old, that were purchased by William Waldorf Astor in Rome in 1898. It is believed that these sculptures represent Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing and wisdom.

Borghese Balustrade

The largest sculpture on 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 gardens 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.

Spring Cottage

thumb|right| The west front of Spring Cottage across the River Thames with the Cliveden beechwoods behind.

This is the largest and most complex of the four timber-framed cottages designed or altered by the architect George Devey along the banks of the River Thames on the Cliveden estate. The first structure on the site was a Gothic-style summerhouse with an octagonal vaulted plaster ceiling designed in 1813 by architect Peter Nicholson for Mary FitzMaurice, 4th Countess of Orkney. She was living in one wing of the burnt down mansion at the time of the commission. It was used as a tea house and spa for the many visitors attracted to the nearby mineral springs, which flowed from the chalk cliff above and ran down into the Thames. while several decades later it was described as an "ornamental fishing villa." Throughout the remainder of the 19th century the main purpose of the cottage was as a place of leisure, and it was frequently used by the Duke's wife Harriet to entertain guests, most notably her friend Queen Victoria. A section of the original Thames towpath extends from the boathouse, north to Cookham Lock. Cliveden House may be accessed by watercraft from the mooring on Cliveden Reach half a mile downstream from Cliveden boathouse. A series of eyots in the reach are owned by the National Trust, and allow for short periods of mooring for passing boats. Cliveden Reach is a popular spot for canoeing, kayaking, and angling. The National Trust offers self-hire boats and guided river cruises.

Art

Cliveden has been depicted in paintings, for example: Cliveden, (c.1750–80), by William Tomkins, and A Fallen Beech with a Prospect of Cliveden, (1988), by Carl Laubin.

Film

The house has been used for filming on multiple occasions, including: A Very British Country House (2018); Hampstead (2017); Paul Hollywood City Bakes (2016); Mr Selfridge (2016); Cinderella (2015); Endless Night (2013); Sherlock Holmes (2009); Made of Honour (2008); Cards on the Table (2005); Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005); Thunderbirds (2004); Antiques Roadshow (2000); Carrington (1995); Chaplin (1992); Dead Man's Folly (1986); Operation Daybreak (1975); Don't Lose Your Head (1966); Help! (1965);

Literature

Cliveden has been referenced in literature including: Three Men in a Boat (1889); Alexander Pope's Moral Essays; Daniel Defoe's A Tour Through England and Wales (1726) and Gore Vidal's novel The City and the Pillar (1948).

Both the house and the river have been suggested as the inspiration for Kenneth Grahame's children's novel The Wind in the Willows.

<gallery heights=150 widths=150>

File:Cliveden_House_Parterre.jpg|The house from the Parterre showing the restored 19th-century planting scheme

File:Cliveden - Tortoise Fountain.jpg|The Tortoise Fountain and view over the River Thames

File:Cliveden_House,_Maidenhead_(7958658220).jpg|The North front with Clock tower

File:Dukes_Garden,_Cliveden_(7958654494).jpg|The dovecote behind the west-facing herbaceous border

File:Boathouse,_Cliveden_(7958632774).jpg|The 19th-century boathouse designed by George Devey

File:Cliveden-2375.jpg|Sir Bertram MacKennal's figure representing Canada in the War Memorial Garden.

File:Long garden (9061139862).jpg|Topiary spiral in the Long Garden.

File:Boat_Keepers_House,_Cliveden_(7958635982).jpg|A 19th-century Thames-side cottage designed by George Devey

File:Secret_Garden,_Cliveden_(7958662690).jpg|The circular Rose Garden with temporary herbaceous planting.

File:Water_Garden_Fountain_(7958579702).jpg|The fountain in the Water garden

File:Wooden_sculpture_of_a_bear,_Cliveden_-_geograph.org.uk_-_60111.jpg|Wooden bear sculpture in the woods

File:The_Long_Garden_(7958599338).jpg|Topiary and summer planting in the Long Garden

File:Gilded_clock,_Cliveden_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1209681.jpg|Gilded surrounds of the clock faces on the tower

File:Yew_Tree_Walk_(172_steps)_(7958638240).jpg|Yew Tree Walk with its 172 cliff-side steps down to the Thames

File:Secret_Garden,_Cliveden_(7958665142).jpg|Wounded Amazon statue purchased by W.W. Astor in the Rose Garden.

File:Cliveden_House_Driveway,_Maidenhead_(7958576650).jpg|The avenue leading up to the house

File:Pagoda (9058180373).jpg|The Pagoda in the Water Garden

File:Grotto,_Cliveden_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1209629.jpg|The 19th-century flint folly in the woods

File:Part of the east parterre at Cliveden, taken from above.jpg|Planting in the Parterre viewed from the terrace.

File:Temple at Cliveden - panoramio.jpg|18th-century Blenheim Pavilion – one of the oldest garden buildings at Cliveden.

File:Fountain (9061302250).jpg|Jets of water around the Fountain of Love.

File:Cliveden-8461.jpg|Concrete tree-trunk folly (an old chimney) near the estate offices.

File:Villa Borghese Park - Stone benches (9058834293).jpg|Seats in the Borghese Balustrade above the Parterre.

File:Baboon statues in Cliveden gardens-geograph-2579476.jpg|Granite Baboon statues in the Long Garden.

</gallery>

References

Bibliography

  • , England

Further reading

  • Astor, Michael, Tribal Feeling, London, 1963.
  • Coates, Tim, The Scandal of Christine Keeler and John Profumo: Lord Denning's Report 1967, London, England, 2003.
  • Fox, James, The Langhorne Sisters, London, England, 1998.
  • Hayward, Allyson, Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer, London, England, 2007.
  • Jackson-Stops, Gervase, An English Arcadia: 1600–1990, London, England, 1992.
  • Keeler, Christine, The Truth at Last: My Story, London, England, 2002.
  • Lacey, Steven, Gardens of the National Trust, London, England, 1994.
  • Livingstone, Natalie, The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power and Intrigue, London, England, 2015.
  • Rose, Norman, The Cliveden Set: Portrait of an Exclusive Fraternity, London, England, 2000.
  • Sinclair, David, Dynasty: The Astors and their Times, London, England, 1983.
  • Stanford, Peter, Bronwen Astor: Her Life and Times, London, England, 2001.
  • National Trust webpage for Cliveden
  • Cliveden House hotel website
  • National Trust Collections directory of items at Cliveden