Cliveden Garden

Cliveden stands on a high wooded plateau overlooking the River Thames. The name "Cliveden" (formerly Cliffden or Clyveden) means "valley among cliffs". The original house was built in 1666. Charles Bridgeman designed walks and avenues. Lancelot Capability Brown gave advice on the park, presumably using the Thames as the curved water body so characteristic of the Serpentine Style. The present house and garden were designed by Sir Charles Barry in 1849, converting the estate to the Landscape Style. The garden is in the Italian mode of the nineteenth century Mixed Style. A balustrade was brought from the garden of the Villa Borghese, in Rome, in 1896. Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe designed a Rose Garden for Lord Astor in 1959.