Cliveden
An Italianate palace on a terrace 40 metres above the Thames — home of the Astors and their “set”, the stage for the Profumo scandal, and now a National Trust estate and hotel.
At a glance
Cliveden stands on a wooded escarpment above the River Thames on the Buckinghamshire–Berkshire border, its terrace and 375 acres of gardens sloping to the water. The present Grade I house is the third on the site — the two before it both burned down — and it is now cared for by the National Trust, with the house run as a country-house hotel.
History
The house seen today was built in 1851 by the architect Charles Barry, of Houses of Parliament fame, for the 2nd Duke of Sutherland, replacing an 1824 house destroyed by fire in 1849. In 1893 the estate was bought by the American millionaire William Waldorf Astor, who gave it in 1906 to his son Waldorf on his marriage to Nancy Langhorne.
As the home of Nancy Astor — the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons, in 1919 — Cliveden became in the 1920s and 1930s the meeting place of the “Cliveden Set”, a circle of political intellectuals later accused of favouring appeasement of Germany. In 1961 John Profumo, Secretary of State for War, met Christine Keeler at Cliveden; the ensuing scandal helped bring down a government and drove the Astors from the house by 1966.
What you see
Barry designed Cliveden as an Italianate palazzo, its long balustraded terrace — older than the house itself — commanding the valley below.
The formal gardens, the parterre and the woodland walks that William Waldorf Astor reshaped survive as one of the great Thames-side landscapes, open to the public through the National Trust.
Cultural significance
Few English houses carry so much twentieth-century political history. Cliveden was where a governing class entertained itself and, at least once, undid itself: from Nancy Astor’s salon to the Profumo affair, its guest lists shaped and shook British public life.
Key facts
- Built: 1851, by Charles Barry for the 2nd Duke of Sutherland (third house on the site)
- Astor era: bought 1893 by William Waldorf Astor; home of Nancy Astor from 1906
- Cliveden Set: political circle of the 1920s–30s
- Profumo affair: Profumo met Christine Keeler here in 1961
- Status: National Trust estate; Grade I listed; hotel in the main house
Practical information & getting there
Cliveden is near Taplow, off the A4094, about 40 minutes by train from London Paddington to Taplow or Maidenhead. The gardens and woodlands are open to National Trust visitors; the house is a hotel with limited public opening days.
Sources & resources
- National Trust — History of Cliveden: nationaltrust.org.uk
- Cliveden House — The House / History: clivedenhouse.co.uk/the-house/history
- Countryfile — Cliveden House guide
- Maidenhead Heritage Centre — William and Nancy Astor
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