Cliveden House

Taplow, United Kingdom. The Cliveden Dining Room overlooking the Parterre, the Astor Grill in the former stables, and the Library Bar.

Cliveden HouseTaplow, United Kingdom

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Practical information

47 rooms and suites, including the Lady Astor and Prince of Wales suites, plus the riverside Spring Cottage.
The Cliveden Dining Room overlooking the Parterre, the Astor Grill in the former stables, and the Library Bar.
Spa with indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs; vintage boat trips on the Thames.
Located on a ridge high above the River Thames, amid some 375 acres of National Trust gardens and woodland.

12 dates, written by Grand Hotels of the World from the sources below.

1666
William Winde builds the first house on the site for George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.
1696
George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, buys the estate; Thomas Archer adds wings and Giacomo Leoni designs garden pavilions.
1 August 1740
With Frederick, Prince of Wales, as tenant, Rule, Britannia! is first performed in public in the garden amphitheatre.
20 May 1795
The house burns down, reportedly after a servant knocks over a candle.
1824
Sir George Warrender buys the ruined estate and has William Burn rebuild the house.
1849
Months after its sale to the 2nd Duke of Sutherland, the house is again destroyed by fire.
1851
Charles Barry builds the present Italianate mansion; its roofline inscription is composed by William Ewart Gladstone.
c. 1894
William Waldorf Astor, later 1st Viscount Astor, remodels the interior, creating the Great Hall; Rococo panelling from the Château d’Asnières follows in 1897.
1920s – 1930s
Nancy Astor makes Cliveden the meeting place of the “Cliveden Set” of political intellectuals.
Early 1960s
Home of the 3rd Viscount Astor, Cliveden becomes the setting for key events of the Profumo affair.
1985 – 1986
After a lease to Stanford University, Blakeney Hotels takes a 45-year lease from the National Trust and opens a hotel of 27 individually decorated rooms.
1994
The former domestic offices of the West wing are converted into additional bedrooms.