Building of the Week: Highclere Castle, Hampshire, England



Highclere Castle



Highclere Castle

Fans of ITV’s Downton Abbey (now playing in the U.S. on PBS’s Masterpiece Classic on Sunday nights) are aware that the true main character of the show is the house itself. Much of the program is filmed on location at Highclere Castle in the English county of Hampshire. In reality, the stately Elizabethan style estate is the country home of the Earl of Carnarvon.

The Carnarvon family has lived on that land (about 1000 acres) since 1679 though not in the house that stands today. The original house was a medieval palace built by the Bishops of Winchester. That structure gave way to a classical style mansion with very square, typically Georgian lines. A slideshow on Highclere’s Web site shows the transformation of the house. In the 1830’s the Georgian mansion was almost completely demolished to make way for a grander structure. None other than Sir Charles Barry—who had just completed his remodeling of the Houses of Parliament—undertook designing the mansion. Barry envisioned an “Elizabethan Style” castle, meaning that it combined Tudor sensibilities with the visual ideals of the Italian Renaissance. To make the house truly unique, Barry mixed his styles, adding a more pointed element to the arches so that they’d more closely resemble the ogival windows of Gothic architecture than they would the gentler curves of the Tudor.

The gardens are just as dramatic as the house itself. A massive gate, follies and winding, elaborate plantings form the park outside of the mansion. Much of the garden’s design still mimics the 1770’s-era work of Capability Brown.

The mansion’s interior features a grand assortment of staterooms which branch from a vaulted Great Hall. One of the main theatrical features of the mansion is its sweeping oak staircase—something that is brilliantly showcased in Downton Abbey. Highclere Castle is also the home to dozens of priceless paintings, sculptures and historical artifacts, including a library of over 5000 antique books. Presently, “The Antiquities Room” showcases a magnificent collection of Egyptian artifacts—some which were collected by the Carnarvon family and others which have been loaned to the castle for the exhibit.

The estate is open to the public and available for rental for events. It’s currently receiving a great deal of attention for its role in Downton Abbey—attention it so richly deserves. Highclere Castle is a gorgeous representation of Victorian grandeur.