Houghton Lodge is a Grade II* listed fishing lodge on the River Test

River Test

The River Test is a river in Hampshire, England. The river has a total length of 40 miles and it flows through downland from its source near Ashe, 10 km to the west of Basingstoke , to the sea at the head of Southampton Water...

 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 which was built c.1800, possibly by John Nash

John Nash (architect)

John Nash was a British architect responsible for much of the layout of Regency London.-Biography:Born in Lambeth, London, the son of a Welsh millwright, Nash trained with the architect Sir Robert Taylor. He established his own practice in 1777, but his career was initially unsuccessful and...

 for the Pitt-Rivers family.

English Heritage's suggested architect Nash, better known for his classical terraces and picturesque Gothic, is less well known as a great exponent of the cottage ornée style. The largest of such "cottages" was designed for George IV

George IV of the United Kingdom

George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...

 in Windsor Great Park. However, it was at the newly developing seaside resorts that the style was most popular.

The house

The architecture of Houghton Lodge marks a period of informality in English architecture which begin in the 1770s and lasted until the 1830s. The antecedents of Houghton's style of architecture, known as cottage ornée, can be traced to the 'Strawberry Hill Gothic' style made popular by Horace Walpole at his fantasy castle at Strawberry Hill

Strawberry Hill House

Strawberry Hill is the Gothic Revival villa of Horace Walpole which he built in the second half of the 18th century in what is now an affluent area of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in Twickenham, London...

 in the final quarter of the eighteenth century and further popularised by the writings of James Malton

James Malton

James Malton was an Irish engraver and watercolourist, who once taught geometry and perspective and worked as a draughtsman in the office of the celebrated Irish architect James Gandon...

 in his 1802 Essay on British Cottage Architecture.

During this period it became fashionable for the upper classes to enjoy country life due to the improvements in roads which made a visit to the country easier than it had been, allowing for shorter duration away from the more sophisticated entertainments to be found in London. For the first time a visit to the country became something to be enjoyed rather than endured. The new fashion extended to architecture and incorporated elements from the growing interest in the picturesque

Picturesque

Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...

. Designs became more rustic, houses became lower and seemingly smaller, often at the expense of the servants comfort, as the still essential domestic quarters were forced out of sight, often underground or onto a separate wing

Servants' quarters

Servants' quarters are those parts of a building, traditionally in a private house, which contain the domestic offices and staff accommodation. From the late 17th century until the early 20th century they were a common feature in all large houses...

 of their own. It was this separate wing which lead to the break in symmetry so rigorously enforced by the preceding diktats of architecture, thus complementing the contrived informality of the architecture.

Houghton Lodge exemplifies this cottage ornée style; the principal reception rooms are placed on the ground floor, rather than on a piano nobile

Piano nobile

The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...

. The reception rooms, typical of the style, have french windows, shaded by a verandah, allowing immediate access to the garden. Many of Houghton's windows are in the exaggerated, decorative Gothic, almost Islamic, style which originated from the Walpole's Strawberry Hill Gothic.

The grounds

The estate sits on the west side of the River Test, with watermeadows in the eastern part of the estate. An area of 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) of parks and lawns surround the house. A square planned grotto

Grotto

A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...

 was built to the south west of the house in the early 19th century. Its brick vault and walls are entirely lined with flint nodules and it has small haphazard turrets in each corner. The grotto received a separate grade II listing in 1986.

The early nineteenth century walled kitchen garden

Walled garden

A walled garden is specifically a garden enclosed by high walls for horticultural rather than security purposes, though traditionally all gardens have been hedged about or walled for protection from animal or human intruders...

 measures 95 m by 65 m, and is Grade II listed. The walls are rendered chalk cob, with greenhouses built against the west wall. One of these now houses a hydroponicum, demonstrating hydroponics

Hydroponics

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel, mineral wool, or coconut husk.Researchers discovered in the 18th...

, a system of growing plants without soil. A long herbaceous border

Herbaceous border

A herbaceous border is a collection of perennial herbaceous plants arranged closely together, usually to create a dramatic effect through colour, shape or large scale. The term herbaceous border is mostly in use in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth...

 flanks the exterior of the east wall. A topiary

Topiary

Topiary is the horticultural practice of training live perennial plants, by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, perhaps geometric or fanciful; and the term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. It can be...

 garden (known as the Peacock Garden) sits to the north of the house.

The estate has been owned by the Busk family since 1910. The watermeadows are designated an ESA (Environmentally Sensitive Area) and are managed appropriately, without the use of any fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides. A 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) meadow walk has recently been developed here. The grounds are open to visitors year-round but the house is only open by prior appointment to organised groups.

The house and grounds have been used as filming locations for the film Wilde

Wilde (film)

Wilde is a 1997 British biographical film directed by Brian Gilbert with Stephen Fry in the title role. The screenplay by Julian Mitchell is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 biography of Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann.-Plot:...

, and the television adaptations of David Copperfield

David Copperfield (1999 film)

David Copperfield is a two part BBC television drama adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield, adapted by Adrian Hodges. The first part was shown on Christmas Day and the second on Boxing Day in 1999...

, The Buccaneers

The Buccaneers

The Buccaneers is the last novel written by Edith Wharton. It was unfinished at the time of her death in 1937, and published in that form in 1938. Wharton's manuscript ends with Lizzy inviting Nan to a house party to which Guy Thwarte has been invited too...

and The Murder at the Vicarage

The Murder at the Vicarage

The Murder at the Vicarage is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1930 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...

.

External links

• Houghton Lodge website
• Images of England on Houghton Lodge, with Listing information
• page with photographs of the interior of the domed, circular music room, and of the dining room (scroll down a bit)
• Images of England on the lodge buildings to Houghton Lodge, with Listing information
• Images of England on the walled garden at Houghton Lodge, with Listing information
• Images of England on the grotto in the grounds of Houghton Lodge, with Listing information
• Images of England on the granary in the grounds of Houghton Lodge, with Listing information