Cliveden#Maze

Cliveden means "valley among cliffs"{{cite book | last = Room | first = Adrian | title = Brewer's Dictionary of Names: People Places and Things | publisher = Brewer | year = 1992 | page = 118 | isbn = 978-1-85986-232-2 }} 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.{{Cite book |last=Crathorne |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NXdJAQAAIAAJ&q=Cliveden:+The+Place+and+the+People |title=Cliveden: The Place and the People |date=1995 |publisher=Collins & Brown |isbn=978-1-85585-223-5 |language=en}}^:10

{{stack|File:Cliveden 02.jpg}}

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.^:29 The Victorian three-storey mansion sits on a {{convert|400|ft|m|adj=on}} long, {{convert|20|ft|m|adj=on}} high brick terrace or viewing platform (visible only from the south side) which dates from the mid-17th century. The exterior of the house is rendered in Roman cement, with terracotta additions such as balusters, capitals, keystones, and finials. The roof of the mansion is meant for walking on, and there is a circular view, above the tree-line, of parts of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire including Windsor Castle to the south.^:206

Below the balustraded roofline is a Latin inscription which continues around the four sides of the house and recalls its history; it was composed by the then prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. On the west front, it reads: POSITA INGENIO OPERA CONSILIO CAROLI BARRY ARCHIT A MDCCCLI, which translated reads: "The work accomplished by the brilliant plan of architect Charles Barry in 1851."{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=66}} The main contractor for the work was Lucas Brothers.NT Guide 1994, p. 30

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.NT Guide 1994, p. 46 In 2013, further exterior work was carried out including the restoration of 300 sash windows and 20 timber doors.{{Cite web|title = Cliveden House|url = https://www.trcwindows.co.uk/case-studies/cliveden-house/|website = TRC Windows|access-date = 29 September 2021|language = en}}

{{stack|File:Camino della sala grande nel Palazzo di Cliveden.jpg}}

The interior of the house today is very different from its original appearance in 1851–52. This is mainly due to the 1st Lord Astor, who radically altered the interior layout and decoration c.1894–95.{{Cite web |title=The Astors at Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/the-astors-at-cliveden |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}} 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.^:134

Astor's aim was for the interior to resemble an Italian palazzo, thus complementing the exterior. The ceiling and walls were panelled in English oak, with Corinthian columns and swags of carved flowers for decoration, all by architect Frank Pearson.{{Cite web |last=Trust |first=National |title=Ceiling 766556 |url=https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{Cite web |last=Trust |first=National |title=Panelling 766555 |url=https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The staircase newel posts are ornamented with carved figures representing previous owners (e.g. Buckingham and Orkney) by W.S. Frith.{{Cite web |last=Trust |first=National |title=Staircase 766558 |url=https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Astor installed a large 16th-century fireplace that was purchased from the Frederick Spitzer Sale (lot 1273) in June 1893.{{Cite book |last=Livingstone |first=Natalie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWbkBgAAQBAJ&dq=cliveden+fireplace&pg=PA404 |title=The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power and Intrigue in an English Stately Home |date=2 July 2015 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4735-0597-1 |pages=404 |language=en}} To the left of the fireplace is a portrait of Nancy, Lady Astor by the American portraitist John Singer Sargent.{{Cite web |last=Trust |first=National |title=Nancy Witcher Langhorne, Viscountess Astor CH, MP (1879–1964) 766112 |url=https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The room was and still is furnished with 18th-century tapestries and suits of armour.{{Cite journal |date=14 December 1912 |title=Country Home: Cliveden II |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_country-life_1912-12-14_32_832/page/n1/mode/2up?q=cliveden |journal=Country Life |volume=32 |issue=832 |pages=852–854}}

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.{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=42}}{{Cite book |last=Fawcett |first=Jane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hony9Z09oQ0C&dq=charles+barry+cliveden&pg=PA132 |title=Historic Floors |date=1 June 2007 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-136-39856-8 |language=en}} Above the staircase is a painted ceiling by French artist Auguste Hervieu which depicts the Sutherlands' children painted as the four seasons, and is the only surviving element of Barry's 1851–52 interior.{{Cite book |last=Greeves |first=Lydia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LuD3gfEDiSYC&dq=Auguste+Hervieu+cliveden&pg=PA90 |title=Houses of the National Trust |date=30 September 2008 |publisher=Pavilion Books |isbn=978-1-905400-66-9 |pages=90 |language=en}}

File:La sala da pranzo francese (Bloseries).jpg

The French Dining Room is so-called because the 18th-century Rococo panelling (or boiseries) came from the Château d'Asnières near Paris, a château which was leased to Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour as a hunting lodge.{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Norman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0rjIssE8EnAC&dq=cliveden+dining+room&pg=PT35 |title=The Cliveden Set |date=28 February 2011 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4464-5039-0 |language=en}} The panelling was sold in 1897 by Jules Allard to the 1st Lord Astor, who had it installed at Cliveden.{{Cite journal |last=Jenkins |first=Laura C. |date=2021 |title=The Gilded Interior: French Style and American Renaissance |journal=Architectural History |language=en |volume=64 |pages=91–112 |doi=10.1017/arh.2021.5 |s2cid=240547633 |issn=0066-622X|doi-access=free }} The gilded panelling on a turquoise ground contains carvings of hares, pheasants, hunting dogs and rifles.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}} The console tables and buffet were made in 1900 to match the room.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

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.{{Cite web |title=Cliveden Dining Room {{!}} Cliveden House, Taplow |url=https://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/dine-with-us/the-cliveden-dining-room/ |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=www.clivedenhouse.co.uk}}{{Cite book |last=Misiura |first=Shashi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFtmcKs-WnAC&dq=cliveden+dining+room&pg=PA97 |title=Heritage Marketing |date=11 August 2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-39926-8 |language=en}}

Also on the ground floor is the library, panelled in cedar wood, which the Astors used to call the "cigar box",^:181 and, next door, Nancy Astor's boudoir, which is used by the hotel as a meeting room.{{Cite web |title=The Boudoir Meeting Room {{!}} Cliveden House, Berkshire |url=https://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/organise-a-meeting/meeting-rooms/the-boudoir/ |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=www.clivedenhouse.co.uk}}

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.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

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 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."Pevsner, N. The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire, London, 1960, p. 48

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).{{cite web|url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lists/a-taste-for-the-new-19th-century-sculpture-at-cliveden|title=A taste for the new: 19th-century sculpture at Cliveden|publisher=National Trust|access-date=2 November 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/766041|title=Spirit of Liberty|publisher=National Trust Collections|access-date=2 November 2018}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356393440757/|title=Cliveden's Spirit of Liberty flies in|publisher=National Trust|access-date=1 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808042350/http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356393440757/|archive-date=8 August 2014|url-status=dead}} 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.{{dead link|date=November 2018}} It measures 2.2 metres (7'3") in height, is covered in two layers of 23.5 carat gold leaf and cost a total of £68,000.{{dead link|date=November 2018}} It is an allegorical sculpture which holds the torch of civilization in its right hand and the broken chain of slavery in its left. It was affixed to the tower in the spring of 2012.{{dead link|date=November 2018}}

{{stack|File:2ndDukeOfBuckingham.jpg by Sir Peter Lely.]]}}

Cliveden stands on the site of a house built in 1666 designed by architect William Winde as the home of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. But before Buckingham's purchase the land was owned by the Mansfield family and before that to the de Clyveden family.^:10

The details are recorded in a document compiled by William Waldorf Astor in 1894 called The Historical Descent of Cliveden.{{Cite web |last=Trust |first=National |title=The Historical descent of Cliveden 766071 |url=https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} 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.{{Cite book |last=Lipscomb |first=George |url=http://archive.org/details/historyantiquiti02lips |title=The history and antiquities of the county of Buckingham |date=1847 |publisher=London, J. & W. Robins |others=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center}}{{Cite book |last1=Lysons |first1=Daniel |url=http://archive.org/details/magnabritanniabe00lyso |title=Magna Britannia; : being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain. |last2=Lysons |first2=Samuel |date=1806 |publisher=London: : Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies ... |others=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Library}}{{Cite book |last=Sheahan |first=James Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V9oWAQAAIAAJ |title=History and Topography of Buckinghamshire: Comprising a General Survey of the County, Preceded by an Epitome of the Early History of Great Britain |date=1862 |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts |isbn=978-0-8048-3390-5 |language=en}}

File:CliveGardenFrontVitruviusBritannicus edited.jpg's Vitruvius Britannicus, c.1717.]]

In 1569 a lodge existed on the site along with {{convert|50|acre|ha}} 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 {{convert|160|acre|ha}} of treeless chalk escarpment above the Thames.{{Cite book |last=Page |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iirlrQEACAAJ |title=The Victoria History of the County of Buckinghamshire: Volume three / edited by William Page |date=1925 |publisher=St. Catherine Press |pages=243 |language=en}} It was on this impressively high but exposed site that Buckingham chose to build the first Cliveden house.{{Cite book |last=Bullen |first=Annie |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/840934689 |title=Cliveden, Buckinghamshire : a souvenir guide |date=2012 |others=Anna Groves, National Trust |isbn=978-1-84359-401-7 |location=[Swindon] |oclc=840934689}}^:2

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.{{sfn|Oxford Archaeology|2002|pp=1–2 (PDF 4–5)}} 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.NT Guide 2012, p. 3 A contemporary account of Buckingham's affair with Anna was written about by Samuel Pepys, in his diary of the period.{{Cite web |date=19 May 2016 |title=Cliveden's Jacobean surround sound system to open to the public |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/may/19/cliveden-berkshire-jacobean-surround-sound-system-to-open-to-the-public |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

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

{{quote|"I went to Clifden, that stupendous natural rock, wood, and prospect, of the Duke of Buckingham's, and buildings of extraordinary expense. The grots in the chalky rocks are pretty: it is a romantic object, and the place altogether answers the most poetical description that can be made of solitude, precipice, prospect, or whatever can contribute to a thing so very like their imaginations. The stand, somewhat like Frascati as to its front, and on the platform is a circular view to the utmost verge of the horizon, which, with the serpenting of the Thames, is admirable. The staircase is for its materials singular; the cloisters, descents, gardens, and avenue through the wood, august and stately; but the land all about wretchedly barren, and producing nothing but fern."{{cite book |last1=Evelyn |first1=John |title=The Diary of John Evelyn |date=1818 |publisher=M. Walter Dunne |location=Washington and London |page=136 |edition=1901 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42081/42081-h/42081-h.htm |access-date=28 January 2020}}}}

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.{{Cite web |last=Ingram |first=Dominic |title=Who was the Earl of Orkney? |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/who-was-the-earl-of-orkney |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}^:2–3 The Earl employed the architect Thomas Archer to add two new "wings" to the house, connected by curved corridors. Although an almost identical arrangement exists today, these are later reconstructions, the originals having been destroyed in the fire of 1795.{{Cite journal |last=Jackson-Stops |first=Gervase |date=1976 |title=The Cliveden Album: Drawings by Archer, Leoni and Gibbs for the 1st Earl of Orkney |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1568386 |journal=Architectural History |volume=19 |pages=5–88 |doi=10.2307/1568386 |jstor=1568386 |s2cid=191780952 |issn=0066-622X|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web |title=Georgian Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/georgian-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}} All that remains of Archer's work inside the house today is a staircase in the West wing.

Orkney's contributions to the gardens can still be seen today, most notably the Octagon Temple and the Blenheim Pavilion, both designed by the Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni.^:15 The landscape designer Charles Bridgeman was also commissioned to devise woodland walks and carve a rustic turf amphitheatre out of the cliff-side.^:12

{{stack|File:Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his sisters by Philip Mercier.jpg with his
sisters, c. 1733, by Philippe Mercier{{cite web |url=https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/766108.2 |title=Prince Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales (1707–1751) playing the Cello, accompanied by his Sisters, Anne (1709–1759), Caroline (1713–1757) and Amelia (1711–1786), making Music at Kew 766108.2 | National Trust Collections |access-date=12 July 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011005616/http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/766108.2 |archive-date=11 October 2016 }}]]}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk|title=Ownership / Occupants of Cliveden – Family of Earl of Orkney|publisher=National Trust UK|access-date=17 October 2012}} 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. During the Prince's tenure of the house, on 1 August 1740, Rule, Britannia! (an aria by the English composer Thomas Arne with lyrics by Scottish poet James Thomson) was first performed in public in the cliff-side amphitheatre at Cliveden. It was played as part of the masque Alfred to celebrate the third birthday of the Prince's daughter Augusta.{{Cite web |title=When Britannia Ruled the Waves; Cliveden's Royal Connections |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/when-britannia-ruled-the-waves-clivedens-royal-connections |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}

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;NT Guide 1994, p. 19 however, an alternative interpretation shows he died from a cold, followed by a pulmonary embolism.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/41xVBDYmZgbmgwPNc9XlNY8/frederick-prince-of-wales|title=The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain – Frederick Prince of Wales – BBC Four|website=BBC|access-date=11 August 2017}}Natalie Livingstone, The Mistresses of Cliveden (Random House, 2015), chapter 6, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wWbkBgAAQBAJ&dq=blood+clot+lungs+frederick+prince+wales&pg=PT160 p. 160] 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. The 4th Countess moved out after the fire but retained the site, only selling it in 1824.{{Cite web |title=FITZMAURICE, Hon. Thomas (1742–93), of Llewenny Hall, Denb. {{!}} History of Parliament Online |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/fitzmaurice-hon-thomas-1742-93 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}}

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.^:2

{{stack|File:Clivedenmorris edited.jpg}}

Warrender died in 1849 and the house was sold to the Sutherland family, headed by the second Duke. Sutherland had been in possession of the estate for only a few months when the house burned down for the second time in its history. The cause this time appears to have been negligence on the part of the decorators.NT Guide 1994, p. 28

The Duke was prompt in commissioning the architect Charles Barry to rebuild Cliveden in the style of an Italianate villa.^:3 Barry, whose most famous project is arguably the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, was inspired by the outline of the two earlier houses for his design. The third (and present) house on the site was completed in 1851–52, and its exterior appearance has little changed since then.{{Cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MYqtAwAAQBAJ&dq=charles+barry+cliveden&pg=PA358 |title=Creating Paradise: The Building of the English Country House, 1660–1880 |last2=Mackley |first2=Alan |date=1 January 2000 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-85285-252-8 |language=en}}

The {{convert|100|ft|m|adj=on}}-tall clock tower, which is actually a water tower (still working to this day) was added in 1861 by the architect Henry Clutton.^:20-21 During this period other additions were made to the estate, which included half-timbered cottages, a dairy, and a boathouse. Also around this time another architect, George Devey, was commissioned to build half-timbered cottages on the estate along with a dairy and boathouse.^:28–29

After the Duke's death in 1861 his widow Harriet continued to live at the house for part of the year until her death in 1868, after which it was sold to her son-in-law Hugh Lupus, Earl Grosvenor, later 1st Duke of Westminster.{{Cite ODNB |title=Grosvenor, Hugh Lupus, first duke of Westminster (1825–1899), landowner, racehorse owner, and politician |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-11667 |access-date=30 September 2022 | year=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/11667| isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}

{{Blockquote|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.quoted in Crathorne, 1995, frontispiece.}}

Westminster was one of the wealthiest Englishmen of the period.NT Guide 1994, p. 36 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.{{Cite journal |last=Hunting |first=Penelope |date=1983 |title=Henry Clutton's Country Houses |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1568439 |journal=Architectural History |volume=26 |pages=96–180 |doi=10.2307/1568439 |jstor=1568439 |s2cid=192335368 |issn=0066-622X|url-access=subscription }}

File:Nancy Viscountess Astor by John Singer Sargent.jpeg 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.^:3 However, after the early death of his wife, he lived a reclusive life at Cliveden.{{Cite book |last=Kavaler |first=Lucy |url=http://archive.org/details/astorsfamilychro00kava |title=The Astors; a family chronicle of pomp and power |date=1966 |publisher=New York, Dodd, Mead |others=Internet Archive |pages=172}} 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.{{Cite web |title=The Astors at Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/the-astors-at-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}

The young Astors used Cliveden for entertaining on a lavish scale. The combination of the house, its setting, and leisure facilities offered on the estate – boating on the Thames, horse riding, tennis, swimming, croquet and fishing – made Cliveden a destination for film stars, politicians, world leaders, writers and artists. The heyday of entertaining at Cliveden was between the two World Wars when the Astors held regular weekend house parties. Guests at the time included: Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Joseph Kennedy, George Bernard Shaw, Mahatma Gandhi, Amy Johnson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, H. H. Asquith, T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Arthur Balfour and the writers Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Edith Wharton.^:213

{{Blockquote|There is a ghastly unreality about it all ... I enjoy seeing it. But to own it, to live here, would be like living on the stage of the Scala theatre in Milan.|Harold Nicolson after a visit to Cliveden in 1936.quoted in NT Guide 1994, p. 45}}

During the inter-war period the entertainer Joyce Grenfell, who was Nancy Astor's niece, lived in a cottage on the estate.NT Guide 1994, p. 26 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.{{Cite book |last=Grenfell |first=Joyce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ye7rAE702AC |title=Time of My Life: Entertaining the Troops – Her Wartime Journals |date=1990 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=978-0-340-52813-6 |pages=xviii |language=en}}

{{main|Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital}}

File:Cliveden War Cemetery, panorama.jpg

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.{{Cite journal |last1=Roxanas |first1=Miltiadis G |last2=Gendek |first2=Marilyn A |last3=Lane |first3=Vivien E |date=2019 |title=Cliveden: The Canadian Red Cross Hospital, William Osler and the 'Taplow Affair' |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0967772019874293 |journal=Journal of Medical Biography |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=220–229 |doi=10.1177/0967772019874293 |pmid=31483685 |s2cid=201837265 |issn=0967-7720|url-access=subscription }} After the war the hospital's main focus was as a nursing school, a maternity unit and a rheumatology unit.{{Cite web |title=0689300000 - Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital, Cliveden Road |url=https://heritageportal.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/Monument/MBC22996 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website= Buckinghamshire's Heritage Portal |date=17 February 2017 }}

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.{{Cite web |title=I live in Cliveden |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2007/05/18/cliveden_feature.shtml |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=BBC |language=en-gb}}

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.{{Cite web |title=Cliveden War Cemetery {{!}} Cemetery Details |url=https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/36350/cliveden-war-cemetery/ |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=CWGC |language=en}}

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." With the gift of Cliveden, the National Trust also received from the Astor family one of their largest endowments: £250,000 in 1942, {{Inflation|UK|250000|1942|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}.{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1971|p=10}}

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. Following the death of Bill Astor, the National Trust took over the management of the estate.

Cliveden has become one of the National Trust's most popular pay-for-entry visitor attractions, hosting 524,807 visitors in 2019.{{cite web |title=ALVA – Association of Leading Visitor Attractions |url=https://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=423 |access-date=23 October 2020 |website=www.alva.org.uk}} National Trust visitors to Cliveden can visit the parkland, and there is occasional limited access to a select area of the house.^:32

In 1984 Blakeney Hotels (later Cliveden Hotel Ltd) acquired the lease to the house. Led by chairman John Lewis and managing director John Tham they restored and refurbished the interior.^:202

File:Cliveden House Pavilion Spa-2735570282.jpg

In 1990 they added the indoor swimming pool and spa treatment rooms in the walled garden, complementing the existing outdoor pool. Also in 1990, a new 100-year lease was granted to run from 1984.{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=26}} In 1994 the conversion of the West wing from domestic offices to provide more bedrooms and two boardrooms (Churchill and Macmillan) was completed. There are 48 bedrooms and suites,{{cite web|url=https://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/plan-a-party/stay-over/ |title=Cliveden Hotel website Stay over|publisher=Clivedenhouse.co.uk |access-date=2 November 2018}} all of which are named after previous owners and guests (e.g. Buckingham, Westminster).{{cite web |title=Cliveden Hotel website |url=https://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/ |access-date=2 November 2018 |publisher=Clivedenhouse.co.uk}} 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. The hotel also leases Spring Cottage by the Thames, one of the key places in the Profumo affair, and offer it as self-contained accommodation.

The hotel was listed on the London Stock Exchange for a period of time in the 1990s (as Cliveden Plc).^:202 This company was bought in 1998 by Destination Europe, a consortium including Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.{{cite news | title=The Company File Gates' group seals Cliveden deal | date=27 July 1998 | publisher=BBC | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/139907.stm | work =BBC News | access-date = 2 March 2010 }} 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.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/6669095.stm |title=World's most expensive sandwich|work= BBC News |date=18 May 2007 |access-date=11 March 2010}} Cliveden House was the "jewel in the crown" of Von Essen Hotels when the company collapsed in 2011.{{cite news|last=Neate|first=Rupert|title=Property magnates poised to buy Profumo mansion Cliveden|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/sep/02/cliveden-mansion-sale-property-magnates|access-date=6 September 2011|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2 September 2011|location=London}}

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.{{cite news|last=Harmer |first=Janet |title=Cliveden sale to complete tomorrow as new owners promise to return property's sparkle |url=http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/30/01/2012/342098/Cliveden-sale-to-complete-tomorrow-as-new-owners-promise-to-return-property39s.htm |access-date=4 February 2012 |newspaper=Caterer & Hotelkeeper |date=30 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202080037/http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/30/01/2012/342098/Cliveden-sale-to-complete-tomorrow-as-new-owners-promise-to-return-property39s.htm |archive-date=2 February 2012 |url-status=dead }} 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.{{cite book|author=Natalie Livingstone|title=The Mistresses of Cliveden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HYwQCgAAQBAJ|date=2 July 2015|publisher=Random House UK Limited|isbn=978-0-09-195452-9}} 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."Cliveden"

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.{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=85}} The hotel's motto is "Nothing ordinary ever happened here, nor could it."

In October 2021 the building was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35-million injection into the government's Culture Recovery Fund.[https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/heritage-and-craft-workers-across-england-given-a-helping-hand/ "Heritage and Craft Workers Across England Given a Helping Hand"] – Historic England, 22 October 2021

File:Cliveden parterre, central, from terrace.jpg

The estate extends to {{convert|376|acre|km2}} of which about {{convert|180|acre|km2}} comprise the gardens, the rest being woodland and paddocks. The gardens are listed as Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.{{NHLE|num=1000323|desc=Cliveden|access-date=5 February 2016|mode=cs2}}

The formal parterre to the south of the house is one of the largest in Europe at {{convert|4|acre|ha}}.{{Harvnb|Llewellyn|1989|p=123}} 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.NT Guide 1994, pp. 48–49 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.NT Guide 2012, p. 16 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.NT Guide 1994. p. 69

Orkney referred to the garden as his "Quaker parterre" because of its simplicity. The parterre endured in this form until the mid-19th-century when the estate was owned by the Duke of Sutherland and by which time the garden had been neglected. It was described by the Duke's son Lord Ronald Gower as "a prairie...a huge field of grass and wild flowers."Crathorne 1995, p. 99 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."

The Cliveden scheme in the 19th century is well documented in Fleming's handbook Winter and Spring Flower Gardening (1864). The Trust planted the present clipped yew pyramids at the corners of the beds in 1976. At this time (and for the next three decades) the beds contained a massed-planting effect of silver-evergreen Senecio "Sunshine" and Santolina.NT Guide 1994, p. 69 However, in 2010 the Trust decided to recreate Fleming's original 19th-century planting scheme.{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/|title=Cliveden|website=National Trust|access-date=11 August 2017}}

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.Quest-Ritson, The English Garden, London, 2001, p. 202 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.^:25

The circular Rose Garden, designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe for the Astor family in the early 1960s subsequently suffered from rose disease and was replanted as a "secret" garden of herbaceous plants in the 2000s, but in 2014 the roses were reinstated.{{cite web|url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/the-rose-garden-at-cliveden|title=The Rose Garden at Cliveden|website=National Trust}} The planting in the herbaceous borders in the forecourt was designed in the 1970s by the National Trust advisor Graham Stuart Thomas.^:11 The west-facing border features 'fiery'-coloured flowers (red, yellow, orange) and the east-facing border is planted with more subdued colours.{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Graham Stuart |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xJrGwAACAAJ |title=Thoughts from a Garden Seat |date=2000 |publisher=John Murray |isbn=978-0-7195-5731-6 |pages=14 |language=en}}

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.{{Cite web |title=The Round Garden at Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/the-round-garden-at-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}

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.{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=76}} In 1897 the 1st Lord Astor imported a section of a Californian redwood and had it installed in the woods. At {{convert|16|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} across it is the largest section of a Sequoia gigantea in Britain.{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=77}}

The woodlands were first laid out by Lord Orkney in the 18th century.^:26–27 They were later much restocked by Bill Astor, however many of the trees fell in storms in the late twentieth century.^:27

The original Cliveden maze, commissioned by Lord Astor in 1894, has undergone major restoration after having lain overgrown and inaccessible since the 1950s. It was replanted with 1,100 six-foot-tall yew trees covering an area of one-third of an acre (0.13 hectares) and opened to the public in 2011.[http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/News/Maze-at-Cliveden RHS website.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822074700/http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/News/Maze-at-Cliveden |date=22 August 2011 }} Last accessed 16/03/12

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.{{Cite web |title=Blenheim Pavilion |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/projects/blenheim-pavilion |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}^:10

The pagoda in the water garden was made for the Paris Exposition Universelle (1867) and was purchased by the 1st Viscount Astor from the Bagatelle estate in Paris in 1900.{{Cite web |title=The Water Garden at Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/the-water-garden-at-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=The Pagoda Bells |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/projects/the-pagoda-bells |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}

In the woods, there is a small flint folly thought to date from the late-18th to early-19th century.{{Cite web |title=Wonders of the woodlands at Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/wonders-of-the-woodlands-at-cliveden |access-date=18 October 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}

File:Cliveden-2365.jpg

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.^:15

In addition to its function as Astor family chapel, the Octagon Temple was adapted to serve as the family mausoleum in 1893. Today, three generations of Astors are buried here.{{Cite web |title=The Chapel |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/the-chapel-at-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/wra-1356328922750/view-page/item378250/|title=From a tea-room temple to a chapel|publisher=National Trust|access-date=1 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528010146/http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/wra-1356328922750/view-page/item378250/|archive-date=28 May 2014|url-status=dead}} 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.{{Cite book |url=https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/cliveden/documents/cliveden-chapel-guidebook.pdf |title=Cliveden Chapel Guidebook |publisher=National Trust}}

The mausoleum's interior and dome are decorated with colourful mosaics by Clayton and Bell representing religious scenes.{{cite web|url=http://www.mmtrust.org.uk/mausolea/view/14/Astor_Mausoleum|title=Astor Mausoleum – Mausolea & Monuments Trust|website=www.mmtrust.org.uk|access-date=11 August 2017|archive-date=25 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725074059/http://www.mmtrust.org.uk/mausolea/view/14/Astor_Mausoleum|url-status=dead}}

File:The Fountain of Love (7958584598).jpg'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.{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=}} 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.^:7 It features a large Carrara marble shell supporting three life-size female figures attended by cupid. The "Tortoise" fountain near the parterre was also made by Story at around the same time.^:19

In the forecourt, there is a collection of eight marble Roman sarcophagi, some of which date from {{circa|100}} AD and were bought by Lord Astor from Rome.^:20–21

The Queen Anne Vase at the end of the Long Walk is said to have been given to Lord Orkney by Queen Anne in the eighteenth century.^:7 It consists of a tall urn on a plinth decorated with the Greek key pattern.{{Cite web |title=MNA129994 {{!}} National Trust Heritage Records |url=https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA129994 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk |language=en}}

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.NT Guide 1994, p. 47

The well-heads and oil jars found throughout the gardens came from Venice and Rome respectively.{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=60}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/the-cliveden-baboons|title=The Cliveden Baboons|website=National Trust}}

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.{{Cite web |title=MNA129220 {{!}} National Trust Heritage Records |url=https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA129220 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk |language=en}}^:18–19

In 2004, a colony of small Mediterranean land snails of the species Papillifera bidens was discovered living on the Borghese Balustrade. Presumably, this species, new to the English fauna, was accidentally imported along with the balustrade in the late 19th century and managed to survive the intervening winters to the present day.{{cite web|first=Janet Rideout|last=Sharpe|date=March 2005|url=http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eaydinslibrary/MalacGp07.pdf|title=Papillifera papillaris (Gastropoda:Clausiliidae): a new record for Britain|publisher=The Archeo+Malacology Group Newsletter, (7)|pages=6–7|access-date=1 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629095810/http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eaydinslibrary/MalacGp07.pdf|archive-date=29 June 2011|url-status=dead}}

File:Cliveden Estate from the River Thames - geograph.org.uk - 94809.jpg

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.ihbc.org.uk/context_archive/60/cliveden/springcot.html|title=Spring Cottage|publisher=Institute of Historic Building Conservation contacts|access-date=1 August 2014}} 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.

Nicholson published his designs for the house in his Architectural Dictionary of 1813 in the form of a cross-section of the interior and ceiling projection. In auction particulars dated 1821, which list all structures on the estate, the building is described as a Banqueting house "at the much admired spring",quoted in Crathorne 1995, p. 79 while several decades later it was described as an "ornamental fishing villa."

In 1857, the Duke of Sutherland, who had owned Cliveden for eight years, commissioned George Devey to enlarge the existing building into a two-storey cottage. The subsequent alterations were in the vernacular style with brick and stucco walls, fish-scale pattern roof slates, a Gothick-style loggia and a turret above an exterior staircase leading to a balcony.{{NHLE|num=1125050 |desc=Spring Cottage|access-date=1 August 2014}} 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.

In 1957, the cottage came to the attention of London osteopath Stephen Ward, who had been hired to treat Bill Astor. He leased the cottage from the Astors for a minimal rent for use as a weekend retreat. Among the guests invited to stay, there were Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies.^:184 A chance meeting in 1961 between Keeler and cabinet minister John Profumo (a guest of the Astors) at the Cliveden swimming pool led to the Profumo affair which so damaged the Macmillan government.^:185

Spring Cottage was awarded Grade II listed status in 1986, and in 1997 the hotel company which leased Cliveden House from the National Trust also acquired the lease to the cottage. A reported £750,000 was spent restoring and refurbishing the dilapidated building before it reopened in 1998 as a self-contained luxury holiday let.

Cliveden Reach, between Cookham Lock and Boulter's Lock, is one of the most scenic stretches of the Thames.{{Cite book |last=Pratt |first=Derek |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KinlDQAAQBAJ&dq=cliveden+reach&pg=PA68 |title=The Thames: A Photographic Journey From Source to Sea |date=19 January 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4729-4700-0 |pages=68 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Lambe |first=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-VuoAwAAQBAJ&dq=cliveden+reach&pg=PT80 |title=The Three Men in a Boat Companion: The Thames of Jerome K. Jerome |date=15 September 2012 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-1574-5 |language=en}} A section of the original Thames towpath extends from the boathouse, north to Cookham Lock.{{Cite book |last=Co |first=Ward, Lock & |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-xvmVboKJ_UC&q=cliveden+reach+thames+towpath |title=A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to the Thames from Putney to Cricklade: With Notes on Navigation ... and a Guide for Thames Anglers ... |date=1918 |publisher=Ward, Lock |pages=109, 111, 115 |language=en}} Cliveden House may be accessed by watercraft from the mooring on Cliveden Reach half a mile downstream from Cliveden boathouse.{{Cite web |title=An autumn of adventure at Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/a-summer-of-entertainment |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Boating at Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/boating-at-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}

Cliveden has been depicted in paintings, for example: Cliveden, (c.1750–80), by William Tomkins,{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object|title=A View of Cliveden 766126|first=e3 Media|last=Ltd|website=www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk}}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and A Fallen Beech with a Prospect of Cliveden, (1988), by Carl Laubin.{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object|title=A Fallen Beech with a Prospect of Cliveden 766365|first=e3 Media|last=Ltd|website=www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk}}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

The house has been used for filming on multiple occasions, including: A Very British Country House (2018);{{Cite web |title=A Very British Country House – All 4 |url=https://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-very-british-country-house |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=www.channel4.com}} Hampstead (2017);{{Cite web |title=Hampstead comes to Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/hampstead-comes-to-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}} Paul Hollywood City Bakes (2016);{{Cite web |date=2020 |title=London – Paul Hollywood City Bakes (Series 1, Episode 3) {{!}} Apple TV |url=https://tv.apple.com/gb/episode/london/umc.cmc.65d4l3vn07zf2bkvfczszidut?showId=umc.cmc.n6f6lomauqf3d6rts4a9als9 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=Apple TV |language=en-GB}} Mr Selfridge (2016);{{Cite web |title=Photography and filming at Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/photography-and-filming-at-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}} Cinderella (2015); A Little Chaos (2014);{{Cite web |title=Eagle-eyed film fans spot famous Bucks scene in new cinema release |url=https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/12919087.scenes-for-movie-a-little-chaos-filmed-at-cliveden-in-taplow/ |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=Bucks Free Press |date=28 April 2015 |language=en}} Endless Night (2013);{{Cite web |last=Head |first=Lawrence |title=A Night at… Cliveden House {{!}} |date=23 September 2019 |url=https://www.thearcadiaonline.com/a-night-at-cliveden-house/ |access-date=30 September 2022 |language=en-US}} Sherlock Holmes (2009);{{Cite web |title=Jude Law chooses 'glorious' Cliveden as his special place |url=https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/12231/Jude-Law-chooses--glorious-.html |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk |language=en}} Made of Honour (2008);{{Cite web |title=Filming Locations for Made Of Honor (2008), in New York, Los Angeles, Scotland, London, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. |url=http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/m/Made-Of-Honor.php |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations}} Cards on the Table (2005);{{Citation |title="Poirot" Cards on the Table (TV Episode 2006) – IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478226/locations |access-date=30 September 2022}} Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005);{{Citation |title=Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005) – IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413015/locations |access-date=30 September 2022}} Thunderbirds (2004);{{Cite web |last=Drew |first=Sophie |date=12 February 2021 |title=Six famous movies that were filmed at Cliveden House |url=https://www.buckinghamshirelive.com/whats-on/whats-on-news/six-famous-movies-were-filmed-4888078 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=buckinghamshirelive |language=en}} Antiques Roadshow (2000);{{Cite web |title=BBC One – Antiques Roadshow, Series 23, Cliveden |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007c33p |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}} Carrington (1995);{{Citation |title=Carrington (1995) – IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112637/locations |access-date=30 September 2022}} Chaplin (1992);{{Cite web |title=Chaplin Filming Locations |url=http://www.british-film-locations.com/Chaplin-1992 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=British Film Locations |language=en-GB}} Dead Man's Folly (1986);{{Citation |title=Dead Man's Folly (TV Movie 1986) – IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090914/locations |access-date=30 September 2022}} Operation Daybreak (1975);{{Citation |last=Gilbert |first=Lewis |title=Operation: Daybreak |date=29 February 1976 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075019/ |type=Drama, History, War |publisher=Howard R. Schuster, American Allied Pictures, Ceskoslovenský Filmexport |access-date=30 September 2022}} Don't Lose Your Head (1966);{{Citation |title=Carry on Don't Lose Your Head (1967) – IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060330/locations |access-date=30 September 2022}} Help! (1965); and Yaadein (2001).{{Citation |title=Yaadein... (2001) – IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0248617/locations |access-date=30 September 2022}}

Cliveden has been referenced in literature including: Three Men in a Boat (1889); Boogie Up the River (1989);{{Cite book |last=Wallington |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-BxIBAAAQBAJ&dq=cliveden+boogie+up+the+river&pg=PT48 |title=Boogie Up The River: One Man and His Dog to the Source of the Thames |date=31 October 2014 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4735-1863-6 |language=en}} Alexander Pope's Moral Essays;{{Cite book |last=Pope |first=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=siEJAAAAQAAJ&dq=cliveden+alexander+pope&pg=PA310 |title=The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. In Verse and Prose: Containing the Principal Notes of Drs. Warburton and Warton: Illustrations, and Critical and Explanatory Remarks, by Johnson, Wakefield, A. Chalmers, F.S.A. and Others. To which are Added, Now First Published, Some Original Letters, with Additional Observations, and Memoirs of the Life of the Author |date=1806 |publisher=J. Johnson, J. Nichols and Son, R. Baldwin, F. and C. Rivington, W. Otridge and Son ... [and 24 others] |language=en}} Daniel Defoe's A Tour Through England and Wales (1726){{Cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MYqtAwAAQBAJ&dq=cliveden+daniel+defoe&pg=PA405 |title=Creating Paradise: The Building of the English Country House, 1660–1880 |last2=Mackley |first2=Alan |date=1 January 2000 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-85285-252-8 |language=en}} and Gore Vidal's novel The City and the Pillar (1948).{{Cite book |last=Vidal |first=Gore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZngAAAAMAAJ&q=cliveden+gore+vidal |title=The City and the Pillar |date=1979 |publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=978-0-345-33271-4 |language=en}}

Both the house and the river have been suggested as the inspiration for Kenneth Grahame's children's novel The Wind in the Willows.{{Cite web |title=The Wind in the Willows author Kenneth Grahame |url=https://www.countryfile.com/people/wild-people-writer-kenneth-grahame/ |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=Countryfile.com |language=en}}

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.

{{Reflist}}

• {{citation|last=Crathorne|first=James|title=Cliveden: The Place and the People|location=London|year=1995}}
• {{citation|last=Llewellyn|first=R.|title=Elegance and Eccentricity|year=1989}}
• {{citation|last=National Trust|first=The|title=Guide to Cliveden|publisher=National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|location=London|year=1971 |ref={{harvid|NT Guide|1971}}}}
• {{citation|last=National Trust|first=The|title=Guide to Cliveden|publisher=National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|location=London|year=1994 |ref={{harvid|NT Guide|1994}}}}
• {{citation|last=National Trust|first=The|title=Guide to Cliveden|publisher=National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|location=London|year=2012}}
• {{citation |author=Oxford Archaeology |date=8 November 2002 |title=The south Terrace at Cliveden, Archaeological Watching Brief |publisher=OA Library |url=https://library.thehumanjourney.net/2179/1/CLIST02_PdfA.pdf}}

• Astor, Michael, Tribal Feeling, London, 1963.
• Coates, Tim, The Scandal of Christine Keeler and John Profumo: Lord Denning's Report 1967, London, 2003.
• {{cite book|last1=Dimas |first1=Stephanie |last2=Reinsberg |first2= Carola |last3=von Hesberg |first3=Henner |author-link3=Henner von Hesberg | title=Die Antikensammlungen von Hever Castle, Cliveden, Bignor Park und Knole |series=Monumenta artis romanae | volume=38 |location=Wiesbaden |publisher=Reichert |year=2013| isbn=978-3-89500-714-9}}
• Fox, James, The Langhorne Sisters, London, 1998.
• Hayward, Allyson, Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer, London, 2007.
• Jackson-Stops, Gervase, An English Arcadia: 1600–1990, London, 1992.
• Keeler, Christine, The Truth at Last: My Story, London, 2002.
• Lacey, Steven, Gardens of the National Trust, London, 1994.
• Livingstone, Natalie, The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power and Intrigue, London, 2015.
• Rose, Norman, The Cliveden Set: Portrait of an Exclusive Fraternity, London, 2000.
• Sinclair, David, Dynasty: The Astors and their Times, London, 1983.
• Stanford, Peter, Bronwen Astor: Her Life and Times, London, 2001.

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden National Trust webpage for Cliveden]
• [https://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/ Cliveden House hotel website]
• [https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/place/cliveden National Trust Collections directory of items at Cliveden]

{{Coord|51.55850|-0.68823|type:landmark_region:GB-BKM|display=title}}

{{Royal palaces in the United Kingdom}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1851 establishments in England

Category:Houses completed in 1851

Category:Astor family residences

Category:Buildings and structures on the River Thames

Category:Country houses in Buckinghamshire

Category:Gardens in Buckinghamshire

Category:Grade I listed buildings in Buckinghamshire

Category:Grade I listed houses

Category:Grade I listed parks and gardens in Buckinghamshire

Category:Historic house museums in Buckinghamshire

Category:Hotel spas

Category:Hotels in Buckinghamshire

Category:Italianate architecture in England

!

Category:Mazes

Category:National Trust properties in Buckinghamshire

Category:South Bucks District

Category:Tourist attractions in Buckinghamshire

Category:Charles Barry buildings

Category:Country house hotels

Category:Frederick, Prince of Wales