The Holbein Chamber. Courtesy Friends of Strawberry Hill
A crumbling 18th-century castle once owned by gothic fiction writer Horace Walpole has come one step closer to complete restoration after receiving a £400,000 grant from English Heritage.
It is the second piece of funding this year for Strawberry Hill House, in Richmond Upon Thames, London. The building is currently undergoing an extensive program of repair, with this money being allocated towards the re-building of the South-East Tower.
“We are very grateful for the continuing support of English Heritage for this ambitious restoration project,” said Michael Snodin, Chair of the Strawberry Hill Trust. “We hope that this will invigorate our fund-raising efforts and help us reach our target of £8 million.”
Experts working on the project continue to make discoveries in the house, which is considered Britain’s finest example of Georgian Gothic Revival architecture and interior decoration.
The building was not always so grand, and began life as a modest house built by the coachmen of the Earl of Bradford. It was only when purchased by the eccentric Walpole in 1747 that it started to acquire its unique character.
The Library. Courtesy Friends of Strawberry Hill
Walpole, the son of Britain’s first Prime Minister, dreamed of living in a ‘Little Gothic Castle’- a combination of a medieval castle and abbey. Aided by William Robinson and James Essex, his vision slowly became a reality over the next thirty years.
Particularly of note is the library, with its gothic arch in front of every bookcase, based on the design of a side door in Old St Paul’s – the cathedral destroyed in the Great Fire of London and replaced by the current design.
The Long Gallery’s fan-vaulted ceiling is copied from the ceiling in the Henry VII chapel in Westminster Abbey, and most of the fireplaces are copies of tombs in the great cathedrals of Europe.
The condition of Strawberry Hill House today is in part due to the damage received during the Second World War.
