Cliveden

Cliveden is a grand Italianate country house on a ridge above the River Thames near Taplow in Buckinghamshire. The present Grade I listed mansion was built in 1851 by Charles Barry for the 2nd Duke of Sutherland after two earlier houses on the site were destroyed by fire. The house stands on a long brick terrace 40 metres above the river, with views across parts of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire including Windsor Castle. A Latin inscription around the roofline records its history and the names of those who shaped it. The estate covers 375 acres of gardens and woodlands open to the public.

The house has been home to princes, dukes and the Astor family, and its rooms witnessed key moments in British history. Nancy Astor, the first woman to take a seat in Parliament, hosted the influential Cliveden Set here in the 1920s and 1930s. Later, in the early 1960s, the Profumo affair played out during the time of the 3rd Viscount Astor. The interior was transformed in the 1890s by the 1st Viscount Astor, who created a grand Italian palazzo style with oak panelling, Corinthian columns and carved figures.

Visitors walk through the Great Hall with its oak panelling and staircase topped by a painted ceiling of the Sutherlands’ children as the four seasons. The French Dining Room features 18th-century Rococo panelling from a Paris château once used by Louis XV. The library, panelled in cedar, still shows the marks of its past use as a smoking room. Outside, the 100-foot clock tower provides water for the house and carries a gilded winged figure symbolising liberty. The gardens and woodlands stretch down to the Thames, offering long views over the surrounding countryside.