Winfield House

Winfield House
Winfield House 1936
General information
Architectural style	Neo-Georgian
Location	Regent's Park London, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51.5308°N 0.1644°W / 51.5308; -0.1644
Current tenants	United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (since 1955)
Construction started	20th century
Completed	20th century
Design and construction
Owner	United States government
Architect	Leonard Rome Guthrie
Architecture firm	Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie

Winfield House is a mansion set in 12 acres (49,000 m²) of grounds in Regent's Park, London, England - the largest private garden in or close to central London after that of Buckingham Palace. Since 1955, it has been the official ambassadorial residence of the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

History

Property before Winfield House

The first house on the site was Hertford Villa, the largest of the eight villas originally built in the park as part of John Nash's development scheme. Later the Georgian villa was known as St Dunstan's, because of the distinctive church clock that hung in front of it. Occupants of the villa included the Marquesses of Hertford, newspaper proprietor Lord Rothermere, and the American financier Otto H. Kahn. (Kahn lent it during World War I to a new charity for blinded servicemen, from which St Dunstan's takes its name.) The villa was damaged by fire in the 1930s and was subsequently purchased by the American heiress Barbara Hutton, who demolished it.

Winfield House

In 1936, Hutton had a mansion built in the Neo-Georgian style, designed by Leonard Rome Guthrie of the English architectural practice Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie. It was at first known by the name of its predecessor, but Lord Fraser of Lonsdale, head of St Dunstan's, approached her, explaining that the name of her house and his organisation (still with an office in Regent's Park) caused confusion, and asking that she give up the historical name. She agreed to the request and chose a new name, derived from her grandfather Frank Winfield Woolworth and likely Winfield Hall, his estate in Glen Cove, New York.

Her only child, Lance Reventlow, was born in Winfield House.

Its exterior features:

• 13 bay entrance front with projecting three-bay ends flanking additional single storey entrance extension with central door flanked by Doric columns carrying a segment-topped parapet, containing a relief of the seal of the USA
• Continuous heavy stone cornice on all sides, angle quoins to all corners
• French windows with mullions and transoms to ground floor of each front
• 6' x 9' pane sash windows to first floor elevations
• 6' x 6' pane dormer windows to attic storey.

Its interior features:

• Entrance hall with neo-Adam plasterwork
• Reception hall entered via screen of paired fluted Doric columns
• Pilasters with Doric entablatures, pedimented doorcases to walls
• Green or Garden Room hung with Chinese wallpaper (originally from Townley Castle, County Louth, Ireland with Rococo carved chimneypiece
• Second Drawing Room with 18th century French boiseries and marble chimneypiece
• Family Dining Room with English 18th century-style panelling
• State Dining Room with fine 18th century French Rococo overdoor reliefs alongside later plasterwork * Staircase (altered 1969) with balustrade of wrought iron with lyre decoration and plaster ceiling top landing with screen of columns.
• First floor rooms including bedroom (originally Hutton's own, now called the Hutton Room) with painted Etruscan decoration and a French marble chimney-piece with columns; several panelled bedrooms
• Intact marble-lined bathrooms from Hutton's day.
• Neo-Georgian wrought iron stairs with scrolled decoration and brass hand-rail to attic floor, on which numerous 1930s features (but not a mural) survive from the former nursery suite.

In the listed buildings research, it details that after extensive alterations the house was first officially used by Winthrop Aldrich, Ambassador 1953-57. The interiors have undergone extensive alterations at several points, including 1969 by William Haynes, decorator.

It was Grade II listed for being:

An exceptional ambassador's residence and as a notable Neo-georgian town house containing numerous features of note.

World War II usage

During World War II, the house was used by a U.K. Royal Air Force 906 barrage balloon unit and as an officer's club. It was visited during the war by film actor Cary Grant who was married to the owner at the time. Between February 1951 and June 1952, it was the home of comedian and actor Arthur Askey.

Sale to the U.S. government

After the war, Hutton sold the house to the American government for one dollar. In the early 1950s, the building was used as the London officers' club for the U.S. Third Air Force.

Ambassador's official residence

It became the ambassador's official residence in 1955. Among the ambassadors in residence have been Walter Annenberg, Anne Armstrong, and John Hay Whitney and the house has been visited by Queen Elizabeth II, several U.S. presidents and many distinguished guests.

The house is listed on the U.S. Secretary of State's Register of Culturally Significant Property, which denotes properties owned by the U.S. State Department with particular cultural or historical significance.

See also

• List of structures in London
• Shadow Lawn, mansion of Hubert T. Parsons, president of the F.W. Woolworth Company
• United Kingdom – United States relations
• U.S. Embassy, London

External links

• Staff writer (undated). "Winfield House". U.S. Embassy, London. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
• Winfield House (Hertford Villa, St Dunstan's)