Cliveden House, a sprawling Italianate manse overlooking the Thames, was once the home of the Waldorf Astors, who entertained a varied lot, including their pro-fascist aristocratic friends — known as “the Cliveden Set” — before World War II. It was also the backdrop of the Profumo Affair, the political sex scandal that brought down Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s government 50 years ago. A recent renovation has transformed the manor, located an hour outside of London, into an aristo fantasy camp, complete with 38 Edwardian rooms and a storybook riverside cottage that comes with its own butler, on request. Owned by the National Trust, the luxury hotel and spa overlooks 376 acres of forests and meadows. There’s a garden ma e, a 19th-century parterre and a full range of anachronistic amusements — from snooker to archery to a la y river cruise on an electric canoe that Lady Astor had built for herself in the 1920s.
Cliveden’s face-lift coincides with a new Andrew Lloyd Weber musical about the Profumo Affair that may have its debut as early as this summer at his Sydmonton Festival in Hampshire. Despite its naughty history, the estate perfectly embodies a maxim by one of its frequent guests, Henry James. “Of all the great things that the English have invented,” he wrote, “the one they have mastered most completely… is the well-appointed, well-administered, well-filled country house.” Rooms from about $390; clivedenhouse.co.uk.
T Maga ine: Sleeping Beauty
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