Clandon House
| Clandon Park | |
|---|---|
 |
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| General information | |
| Status | Gutted by fire |
| Architectural style | Palladian |
| Location | West Clandon, Surrey |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 51°15′02″N 0°30′30″W / 51.25046°N 0.50836°WCoordinates: 51°15′02″N 0°30′30″W / 51.25046°N 0.50836°W |
| Client | Thomas, 2nd Baron Onslow |
| Owner | National Trust |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Giacomo Leoni |
| Other designers | Lancelot Brown (Garden) |
| Designations | Grade I listed |
| Website | |
| www |
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Clandon Park is a 220-hectare (540-acre) private agricultural parkland estate near West Clandon, near Guildford in Surrey, owned and managed by Rupert Onslow, 8th Earl of Onslow. It has been the seat of the Earls of Onslow for over two centuries.
On the edge of the estate sits Clandon House, an early 18th-century grade I listed Palladian mansion. The house and garden were gifted by Gwendolen Guinness, Countess of Iveagh, to the National Trust in 1956. Some of its contents have also been acquired by the Trust in lieu of estate duty. The house was substantially damaged by fire in April 2015, leaving it "essentially a shell". In January 2016, the National Trust announced that some of the principal rooms on the ground floor would be fully restored to the original 18th-century designs, and upper floors will be used for exhibitions and events.
The house was built, or perhaps thoroughly rebuilt, in about 1730–33 (the latter date is on rainwater leads), by Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow (1679-1740) to the design of the Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni. It replaced an Elizabethan house. The estate with Elizabethan mansion house (together with Temple Court Farm at Merrow) had been purchased in 1641 from Sir Richard Weston of nearby Sutton Place, by Sir Richard Onslow, MP for Surrey in the Long Parliament, great-grandfather of Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow who rebuilt it. Many members of the Onslow family followed political careers; three of them, including Arthur Onslow, were Speakers of the House of Commons. Clandon House interiors, completed in the 1740s, featured a two-storey Marble Hall, containing marble chimney pieces by the Flemish sculptor Michael Rysbrack, and a rococo plasterwork ceiling by Italian-Swiss artists Giuseppe Artari and Bagutti. In 1895, the House was investigated for paranormal activity by the Marquess of Bute and Ada Goodrich Freer on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research. During World War I the Onslow family created & managed a hospital in Clandon House for the war injured.
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Wikipedia