Claremont

Claremont is an 18th-century Palladian mansion near Esher in Surrey. The Grade I listed house stands on a rise above landscaped gardens owned by the National Trust. Claremont Fan Court School now occupies the building, while the gardens remain open to the public. The estate began in 1708 when Sir John Vanbrugh built a small house and stables for himself. He later added wings and a belvedere for the Earl of Clare, who renamed the place Claremont. The gardens are among the earliest English Landscape Gardens still in their original form. Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown, William Kent and Vanbrugh shaped the grounds between 1715 and 1727. A serpentine lake reflects an unusual turfed amphitheatre and Vanbrugh’s black-and-white painted Belvedere Tower. The Duke of Newcastle sold the estate to Lord Clive of India, who rebuilt the house with Capability Brown and Henry Holland. After Clive’s death, the mansion passed through several owners before becoming a royal residence. Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold lived at Claremont after it was bought for them in 1816. Queen Victoria often stayed there as a child and later lent it to exiled French royalty. The house contains a marble memorial to Princess Charlotte and a map of the estate from the 1860s. The National Trust restored the gardens in the 1970s, preserving their 18th-century design. Today visitors walk beside the lake, climb the Belvedere Tower and see the Palladian mansion rising above the trees.