Hello Magazine

‘We drove up the
driveway and it was
almost like a spell
had been cast on me’
10
Natalie shows off the French Dining Room (above), which is a reconstruction of Madame de
Pompadour’s 18th-century dining room at Château d’Asnières. William Waldorf Astor bought the
gilded panelling along with the table and chairs after visiting the château in 1897. The formal
parterre to the south of the house (below) dates back to the 18th century
live at Cliveden. It was leased to US university
Stanford for use as a place of learning until 1983,
after which it was acquired by a hotel group and
transformed into a luxury hotel.
In 2012, billionaire brothers Ian and Richard
Livingstone, who already owned the five-star
Hampshire country house hotel Chewton Glen,
purchased Cliveden. Ian’s wife Natalie, who has
written a book on the mistresses of Cliveden,
has said of it: “The grounds are magical and
there is so much history embedded in every
ibre of this house.”
And of the irst time she saw the house after
her husband bought it, she said: “We drove up
the driveway and it was almost like a spell had
been cast on me.”
AFITTINGEND
The current house owes its elegant architecture
to Sir Charles Barry, famous for designing the
Palace of Westminster and Highclere Castle, the
main setting for ITV period dramaDowntonAbbey.
His imposing masterpiece, created in the early
1850s, is the third Cliveden House, the other two
having burned down. The 1st Viscount Astor was
largely responsible for the grand style of the interior.
The hotel offers 48 individually designed
rooms and suites, sleeping up to 90 guests. Each
room is named after a former famous guest; the
Prince of Wales suite, which costs from £1,535 a
night, offers a spacious separate living room, a
large hall and dressing area, a huge bathroom
and views over the beautiful lower garden.
It would have been a rather nice touch if
bride-to-be Meghan had stayed in this particular
suite on the night before being accompanied
down the aisle by her now father-in-law, the
Prince of Wales.
H
REPORT: SALLY MORGAN
PHOTOS: ANDREW BUTLER/NATIONAL TRUST. CAMERA PRESS. CLIVEDEN HOUSE/SPLASH NEWS. NI SYNDICATION. SPLASH NEWS