| Marble Hill House | |
|---|---|
.jpg) North (town) front, with pilasters | |
| Type | Villa |
| Location | Twickenham |
| Coordinates | 51°26′58″N0°18′48″W / 51.44944°N 0.31333°W /51.44944; -0.31333 |
| OS grid reference | TQ 17296 73627 |
| Area | Richmond upon Thames |
| Built | 1724–1729 |
| Architect | Roger Morris |
| Architectural style | Neo-Palladian |
| Owner | Historic England |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Official name | Marble Hill House |
| Designated | 2 September 1952 |
| Reference no. | 1285673 |
  Location of Marble Hill House in London Borough of Richmond upon Thames | |
Marble Hill House is aNeo-Palladian villa, nowGrade I listed, inTwickenham in theLondon Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It was built between 1724 and 1729 as the home ofHenrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, who lived there until her death. The compact design soon became famous and furnished a standard model for the Georgian Englishvilla and forplantation houses in the American colonies.
The estate and house came under ownership of theLondon County Council and was open to the public in 1903. It was the first eighteenth-century house in England to be preserved by a public body. Restoration by theGreater London Council (GLC) began in 1965 and after the dissolution of the GLC the freehold of the house and estate passed toEnglish Heritage.[1][2]
Marble Hill House was built in 1724–1729 by Henrietta Howard, the mistress ofGeorge II,[3] to the designs of the architectRoger Morris (1695–1749) in collaboration withHenry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, one of the "architect earls".
Pembroke, then Lord Herbert, based the design of Marble Hill to a large degree onAndrea Palladio's 1553Villa Cornaro inPiombino Dese, Italy, and thus incorporated a cubic saloon on the first floor orpiano nobile.[4]Villa Cornaro also served as a model forplantation houses in theAmerican colonies, examples beingDrayton Hall (1738–1742) in Charleston, South Carolina, andThomas Jefferson's initial version ofMonticello (1768–1770). It was in other respects an adaptation of a more expansive design byColen Campbell. It is set in 66 acres (2.67 km2) of parkland known asMarble Hill Park. TheGreat Room contains lavishly gilded decoration and fivecapricci paintings byGiovanni Paolo Pannini. Marble Hill House also contains a loaned collection of earlyGeorgian furniture and paintings as well as theChinoiserie collection of the Lazenby Bequest.[5]
It was located a few miles away fromKendal House, another Palladian property built around the same time for a royal mistress,Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal who had been the long-term lover ofGeorge I.
BothAlexander Pope andJonathan Swift were regular guests at the house during the lifetime of Henrietta Howard.
In the late 18th century the house was rented by the Prince Regent (the futureGeorge IV) for his mistress,Maria Fitzherbert, so the two could continue to meet in private.
Marble Hill House soon became known from published engravings, and it was widely admired for its plan and tightly controlled elevations. Its design was much copied elsewhere, after 1750,[7] and provided a standard model for the Englishvillas built throughout theThames Valley and further afield, an early example being at New Place,King's Nympton, Devon, built between 1746 and 1749 to the design of Francis Cartwright ofBlandford in Dorset.[6]
An archaeological investigation found evidence of what has been described as a bowling alley next to the house in 2017.[8] However, it is likely that game resembledboules as much as bowling and the "alley" (better described as a depression in the ground) does not resemble the modern concept of a bowling alley. The main evidence that the area was used for some sort of bowling rests on contemporary plans.
The house is now owned byEnglish Heritage, which acquired it in 1986 following the abolition of theGreater London Council. Its extensive grounds are known asMarble Hill Park and provide many leisure facilities including rugby and hockey pitches, acricket pitch and nets,tennis courts, and a children's play area.[9]
In 2015, English Heritage won aHeritage Lottery Fund grant to develop Marble Hill House and its park in order to improve its presentation and the associated leisure facilities. As part of this projectHistoric England made a range of landscape investigations, includinggeophysical surveys,aerial photography andlidar mapping, analytical earthwork survey, coring and vegetation analysis to create a clear picture of the development of the Marble Hill landscape from the 17th century onwards.[10] Restoration work on the house included the reinstatement ofGeorgian colour schemes and renovation of the furnishings and pictures. The works took seven years to complete and cost £8M. The chief executive officer of English Heritage,Kate Mavor, described the restored house as “one of the forgotten gems of Georgian London”.[11]
Marble Hill House is used as a stand-in for a plantation house in the 1994 filmInterview with the Vampire.[12]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Media related toMarble Hill House at Wikimedia Commons| Districts |   | |
|---|---|---|
| Railway stations | ||
| Streets and roads | ||
| Walking and cycling routes | ||
| Thames bridges, islands and river services | ||
| Other rivers and streams | ||
| Sports venues | ||
| Events | ||
| Breweries and pubs | ||
| Theatres, cinemas and music venues | ||
| Film and recording studios | ||
| Media and publishing | ||
| Public art | ||
| Historical royal palaces | ||
| Historic houses |
| |
| Other places of interest |
| |
| Tragedy and disaster | ||
| Other history topics | ||
| Parliamentary constituencies | ||
| Other topics | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
