Кливден: История английской усадьбы и отеля

17th century Italianate mansion
the estate in England

Cliveden (pronounced '/k//l//ɪ//v//d//ən/) 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 Burnham and Taplow. 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, built in 1666, burned down in 1795 and the second house (1824) 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 of the Cliveden Set of the 1920s and 1930s—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. Today the house is leased to a company that runs it as a five star hotel. The gardens and woodlands are open to the public, together with parts of the house on certain days. Cliveden was one of the National Trust's most popular pay for entry visitor attractions, hosting 524,807 visitors in 2019.

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. :10

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. The main contractor for the work was Lucas Brothers. In 1984–86 the exterior of the mansion was overhauled and a new lead roof 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.

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.]]

Orkney died in 1737, and Cliveden passed to his daughter Anne, 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 and granddaughter, the 3rd and 4th Countesses, 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.

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 100 feet (30 m) tall clock tower, which is actually a water tower (still working to this day) was added in 1861 by the architect Henry Clutton.

When one lives in Paradise, how hard it must be to ascend in heart and mind to Heaven.|Lady Frederick Cavendish on Cliveden, June 1863. 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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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 ft and restoration will include reinstating the paths and wrought iron arches as well as original fruit varieties where possible.

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 16 feet (5 m) 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.

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.

The Octagon Temple, situated 200 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.

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 20th century copy of a bronze group entitled The Rape of Proserpina (Italian, c.1565), bought by W. W. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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);