A History of Cliveden House

Today Cliveden is a privately owned award-winning 5 Star hotel and is the sister hotel to the world-renowned Chewton Glen Hotel & Spa in Hampshire. One of the world’s finest luxury hotels, this grand stately home is set in the heart of the Berkshire countryside, surrounded by 376 acres of magnificent National Trust managed Grade I listed formal gardens and parkland. Cliveden has wonderful panoramic views over the River Thames and is one of the finest luxury hotels near London and Heathrow Airport. It is the perfect setting for small intimate boardroom style meetings or for entertaining high profile guests, with banquets catering up to 120.  

1666 The Cliveden Estate was acquired by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who built the original House on the terrace, as a hunting lodge to entertain his friends and mistress.  

1696 – 1751 Between these dates, the 1^st Earl of Orkney, the subsequent Countess of Orkney and her husband the 4^th Earl of Inchiquin, and the Prince of Wales and his wife, all had independent periods living in the home.  

1795 Cliveden was to suffer its first major disaster, a fire, which destroyed the entire main mansion, with only the wings remaining.  

1824 It was not until 1824 that Sir George Warrender commissioned William Burn to rebuild the main mansion, recapturing much of the lost splendour of earlier years. Then Prime Minister, George Canning, was a regular visitor to the House as a good friend of Sir George Warrender and spent much time contemplating whilst sat under an Oak tree by the Thames, which would subsequently be named “Canning’s Oak” the Prime Minister.  

1849 This was the year that the Duke & Duchess of Sutherland moved into Cliveden, only for the house to suffer another devastating fire destroying the main house. The Queen, who had seen the smoke from Windsor Castle, dispatched fire engines to help combat the fire. On this occasion, Charles Barry was commissioned to rebuild the mansion as it was discovered that shoddy workmanship from the previous fire had been the cause of the latest disaster.  

1868 Multi Millionaire William Waldorf Astor purchased Cliveden for $1.25 Million and a number of his purchases from this period, such as the wall panels in the French Dining Room, can still be seen at Cliveden today. Sadly, in 1894, Mamie, Lady Astor died at the age of 36 and William, devastated by the event, almost became a recluse at Cliveden.  

1914 MP Waldorf Astor, the son of William, who was given Cliveden by his father had volunteered for the army but failed the medical. Although home to the MP and his wife, Nancy, they turned Cliveden into a luxurious makeshift hospital for soldiers injured in World War One. The hospital was established with the help of the Canadian Red Cross and was known as The Duchess of Connaught Red Cross Hospital.  

1915 – 1932 Many famous people would visit Cliveden from Sir Winston Churchill, to the King and Queen of England, President Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin and Sir George Bernard Shaw.  

1961 Cliveden becomes the centre of one of the most prominent political scandals in British political history, known as the Profumo Affair. The Profumo Affair involved a brief sexual relationship between the British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo and a 19-year old model named Christine Keeler. The scandal, when first revealed, was stoked by reports that Keeler may have been simultaneously having an affair with Soviet naval attaché, Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, causing a potential risk to British security. It was a scandal that was said to have brought down the Macmillan government.  

1969 – 1983 The house is leased by Stanford University for educational purposes.  

1985 Cliveden House become a luxury hotel.  

2012 Owners of Chewton Glen Hotel & Spa Hotel in Hampshire acquire Cliveden House and begin a period of restoration and improvements that are sympathetically restoring Cliveden to its former glories. Exciting developments are due to be unveiled this summer.