Editing Cliveden (section)

==History==

=== Duke of Buckingham and early history ===
{{stack|[[File:2ndDukeOfBuckingham.jpg|upright|thumb|[[George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham]] by [[Sir Peter Lely]].]]}}
Cliveden stands on the site of a house built in 1666 designed by architect [[William Winde]] as the home of [[George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham]]. But before Buckingham's purchase the land was owned by the Mansfield family and before that to the de Clyveden family.<ref name=":5" /><sup>:10</sup>

The details are recorded in a document compiled by William Waldorf Astor in 1894 called ''The Historical Descent of Cliveden''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Trust |first=National |title=The Historical descent of Cliveden 766071 |url=https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Derived from several historical sources including George Lipscombe's ''History of the County of Buckingham,'' the Lysons brothers ''[[Magna Britannia]],'' and James Joseph Sheahan's ''History of Buckinghamshire,'' it shows that in 1237 the land was owned by Geoffrey de Clyveden and by 1300 it had passed to his son, William, who owned fisheries and mills along the Cliveden Reach stretch of the Thames and at nearby [[Hedsor]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lipscomb |first=George |url=http://archive.org/details/historyantiquiti02lips |title=The history and antiquities of the county of Buckingham |date=1847 |publisher=London, J. & W. Robins |others=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lysons |first1=Daniel |url=http://archive.org/details/magnabritanniabe00lyso |title=Magna Britannia; : being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain. |last2=Lysons |first2=Samuel |date=1806 |publisher=London: : Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies ... |others=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Library}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sheahan |first=James Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V9oWAQAAIAAJ |title=History and Topography of Buckinghamshire: Comprising a General Survey of the County, Preceded by an Epitome of the Early History of Great Britain |date=1862 |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts |isbn=978-0-8048-3390-5 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:CliveGardenFrontVitruviusBritannicus edited.jpg|thumb|The 1666 house. Only the arcaded terrace remains today. From [[Colen Campbell]]'s ''Vitruvius Britannicus'', c.1717.]]
In 1569 a lodge existed on the site along with {{convert|50|acre|ha}} of land and was owned by Sir Henry Manfield; it was later owned by his son, Sir Edward. In 1573, there were two lodges on {{convert|160|acre|ha}} of treeless [[chalk]] escarpment above the Thames.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Page |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iirlrQEACAAJ |title=The Victoria History of the County of Buckinghamshire: Volume three / edited by William Page |date=1925 |publisher=St. Catherine Press |pages=243 |language=en}}</ref> It was on this impressively high but exposed site that Buckingham chose to build the first Cliveden house.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Bullen |first=Annie |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/840934689 |title=Cliveden, Buckinghamshire : a souvenir guide |date=2012 |others=Anna Groves, National Trust |isbn=978-1-84359-401-7 |location=[Swindon] |oclc=840934689}}</ref><sup>:2</sup>

Buckingham pulled down the earlier buildings and chose [[William Winde]] as his architect. Winde designed a four-storey house above an arcaded terrace. Today the terrace is the only feature of Buckingham's house to survive the 1795 fire.{{sfn|Oxford Archaeology|2002|pp=1–2 (PDF 4–5)}} Although the Duke's intention was to use Cliveden as a "hunting box", it later housed [[Anna Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury]]. In 1668 a duel between the Duke and his mistress's husband [[Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury|Lord Shrewsbury]] took place at [[Barn Elms]] near London and resulted in Shrewsbury dying of his wounds.<ref name="guide3">NT Guide 2012, p. 3</ref> A contemporary account of Buckingham's affair with Anna was written about by [[Samuel Pepys]], in his diary of the period.<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 May 2016 |title=Cliveden's Jacobean surround sound system to open to the public |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/may/19/cliveden-berkshire-jacobean-surround-sound-system-to-open-to-the-public |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

[[John Evelyn]], another contemporary diarist, visited the Duke at Cliveden on 22 July 1679 and recorded the following impression in his [[John Evelyn's Diary|Diary]]:
{{quote|"I went to Clifden, that stupendous natural rock, wood, and prospect, of the Duke of Buckingham's, and buildings of extraordinary expense. The grots in the chalky rocks are pretty: it is a romantic object, and the place altogether answers the most poetical description that can be made of solitude, precipice, prospect, or whatever can contribute to a thing so very like their imaginations. The stand, somewhat like [[Villa Aldobrandini|Frascati]] as to its front, and on the platform is a circular view to the utmost verge of the horizon, which, with the serpenting of the Thames, is admirable. The staircase is for its materials singular; the cloisters, descents, gardens, and avenue through the wood, august and stately; but the land all about wretchedly barren, and producing nothing but fern."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Evelyn |first1=John |title=The Diary of John Evelyn |date=1818 |publisher=M. Walter Dunne |location=Washington and London |page=136 |edition=1901 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42081/42081-h/42081-h.htm |access-date=28 January 2020}}</ref>}}

===18th century===

====1st Earl of Orkney====
After Buckingham died in 1687, the house remained empty until the estate was purchased in 1696 by [[George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney]], a soldier and colonial official.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ingram |first=Dominic |title=Who was the Earl of Orkney? |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/who-was-the-earl-of-orkney |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><sup>:2–3</sup> The Earl employed the architect [[Thomas Archer]] to add two new "wings" to the house, connected by curved corridors. Although an almost identical arrangement exists today, these are later reconstructions, the originals having been destroyed in the fire of 1795.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Jackson-Stops |first=Gervase |date=1976 |title=The Cliveden Album: Drawings by Archer, Leoni and Gibbs for the 1st Earl of Orkney |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1568386 |journal=Architectural History |volume=19 |pages=5–88 |doi=10.2307/1568386 |jstor=1568386 |s2cid=191780952 |issn=0066-622X|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Georgian Cliveden">{{Cite web |title=Georgian Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/georgian-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}</ref> All that remains of Archer's work inside the house today is a staircase in the West wing.<ref name=":6" />

Orkney's contributions to the gardens can still be seen today, most notably the Octagon Temple and the Blenheim Pavilion, both designed by the Venetian architect [[Giacomo Leoni]].<ref name=":1" /><sup>:15</sup> The landscape designer [[Charles Bridgeman]] was also commissioned to devise woodland walks and carve a rustic turf [[amphitheatre]] out of the cliff-side.<ref name=":1" /><sup>:12</sup>

{{stack|[[File:Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his sisters by Philip Mercier.jpg|thumb|[[Frederick, Prince of Wales]] with his<br> sisters, c. 1733, by [[Philippe Mercier]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/766108.2 |title=Prince Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales (1707–1751) playing the Cello, accompanied by his Sisters, Anne (1709–1759), Caroline (1713–1757) and Amelia (1711–1786), making Music at Kew 766108.2 &#124; National Trust Collections |access-date=12 July 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011005616/http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/766108.2 |archive-date=11 October 2016 }}</ref>]]}}

====Countesses of Orkney====
Orkney died in 1737, and Cliveden passed to his daughter [[Anne O'Brien, 2nd Countess of Orkney]] in her own right. She immediately leased it to [[Frederick, Prince of Wales]], eldest son of [[George II of Great Britain|George II]] and father of [[George III]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk|title=Ownership / Occupants of Cliveden – Family of Earl of Orkney|publisher=National Trust UK|access-date=17 October 2012}}</ref> After Frederick fell out with his father, [[Kew Palace#George II's children|Kew]] and Cliveden became his refuge from life at the royal court, becoming family homes for his wife [[Augusta, Princess of Wales|Augusta]] and their children.<ref name="Georgian Cliveden"/> During the Prince's tenure of the house, on 1 August 1740, ''[[Rule, Britannia!]]'' (an aria by the English composer [[Thomas Arne]] with lyrics by Scottish poet [[James Thomson (poet, born 1700)|James Thomson]]) was first performed in public in the cliff-side amphitheatre at Cliveden. It was played as part of the [[masque]] ''[[Alfred (Arne opera)|Alfred]]'' to celebrate the third birthday of the Prince's daughter [[Princess Augusta of Great Britain|Augusta]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=When Britannia Ruled the Waves; Cliveden's Royal Connections |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/when-britannia-ruled-the-waves-clivedens-royal-connections |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}</ref>

Cliveden was also the location for the final illness of the Prince: it was believed that while playing [[cricket]] in the grounds at Cliveden in 1751 the Prince received a blow to the chest from a batted ball and that this had caused an infection which proved fatal;<ref name="Ref-1">NT Guide 1994, p. 19</ref> however, an alternative interpretation shows he died from a cold, followed by a pulmonary embolism.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/41xVBDYmZgbmgwPNc9XlNY8/frederick-prince-of-wales|title=The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain – Frederick Prince of Wales – BBC Four|website=BBC|access-date=11 August 2017}}</ref><ref>Natalie Livingstone, ''The Mistresses of Cliveden'' (Random House, 2015), chapter 6, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wWbkBgAAQBAJ&dq=blood+clot+lungs+frederick+prince+wales&pg=PT160 p. 160]</ref> After his death, Frederick's family retained Kew and their townhouse, [[Leicester House, Westminster|Leicester House]], but gave up their lease on Cliveden. Anne and her family moved back into the house, passing it to her daughter, [[Mary O'Brien, 3rd Countess of Orkney]] and granddaughter, [[Mary FitzMaurice, 4th Countess of Orkney]], who also lived there. On the night of 20 May 1795, the house caught fire and burned down. The cause of the fire was thought to have been a servant knocking over a candle.<ref name="Ref-1"/> The 4th Countess moved out after the fire but retained the site, only selling it in 1824.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FITZMAURICE, Hon. Thomas (1742–93), of Llewenny Hall, Denb. {{!}} History of Parliament Online |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/fitzmaurice-hon-thomas-1742-93 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}}</ref>

===19th century===

====Sir George Warrender====
After the fire of 1795 the house remained a ruin for the first quarter of the 19th century. In 1824, the estate was purchased by [[Sir George Warrender, 4th Baronet]]. To rebuild Cliveden, Warrender selected [[William Burn]], a Scottish architect, and decided on a design for a two-storey mansion with entertaining on a grand scale in mind.<ref name=":1" /><sup>:2</sup>

====2nd Duke of Sutherland====
{{stack|[[File:Clivedenmorris edited.jpg|thumb|A 19th-century engraving of the 1851 house from the parterre.]]}}
Warrender died in 1849 and the house was sold to the Sutherland family, headed by the [[George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland|second Duke]]. Sutherland had been in possession of the estate for only a few months when the house burned down for the second time in its history. The cause this time appears to have been negligence on the part of the decorators.<ref>NT Guide 1994, p. 28</ref>

The Duke was prompt in commissioning the architect [[Charles Barry]] to rebuild Cliveden in the style of an [[Italianate architecture|Italianate]] villa.<ref name=":1" /><sup>:3</sup> Barry, whose most famous project is arguably the [[Houses of Parliament]], [[Westminster]], was inspired by the outline of the two earlier houses for his design. The third (and present) house on the site was completed in 1851–52, and its exterior appearance has little changed since then.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MYqtAwAAQBAJ&dq=charles+barry+cliveden&pg=PA358 |title=Creating Paradise: The Building of the English Country House, 1660–1880 |last2=Mackley |first2=Alan |date=1 January 2000 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-85285-252-8 |language=en}}</ref>

The {{convert|100|ft|m|adj=on}}-tall clock tower, which is actually a water tower (still working to this day) was added in 1861 by the architect [[Henry Clutton]].<ref name=":1" /><sup>:20-21</sup> During this period other additions were made to the estate, which included half-timbered cottages, a dairy, and a boathouse. Also around this time another architect, [[George Devey]], was commissioned to build half-timbered cottages on the estate along with a dairy and boathouse.<ref name=":1" /><sup>:28–29</sup>

After the Duke's death in 1861 his widow [[Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland|Harriet]] continued to live at the house for part of the year until her death in 1868, after which it was sold to her son-in-law [[Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster|Hugh Lupus, Earl Grosvenor]], later 1st Duke of Westminster.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Grosvenor, Hugh Lupus, first duke of Westminster (1825–1899), landowner, racehorse owner, and politician |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-11667 |access-date=30 September 2022 | year=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/11667| isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref>

====1st Duke of Westminster====
{{Blockquote|When one lives in Paradise, how hard it must be to ascend in heart and mind to Heaven.|Lady Frederick Cavendish on Cliveden, June 1863.<ref>quoted in Crathorne, 1995, frontispiece.</ref>}}

Westminster was one of the wealthiest Englishmen of the period.<ref>NT Guide 1994, p. 36</ref> During his ownership of the estate (1868–93), he contributed significant additions to the house and gardens, including the ''[[porte cochère]]'' on the north front of the mansion, a new stable block and the [[dovecote]], all designed by [[Henry Clutton]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hunting |first=Penelope |date=1983 |title=Henry Clutton's Country Houses |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1568439 |journal=Architectural History |volume=26 |pages=96–180 |doi=10.2307/1568439 |jstor=1568439 |s2cid=192335368 |issn=0066-622X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===20th and 21st century===

====Astor era====
[[File:Nancy Viscountess Astor by John Singer Sargent.jpeg|upright|thumb|[[Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor|Nancy, Lady Astor]] by [[John Singer Sargent]]. The painting hangs at Cliveden.]]
In 1893 the estate was purchased by an American millionaire, [[William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor|William Waldorf Astor]] (later 1st Viscount Astor), who made sweeping alterations to the gardens and the interior of the house.<ref name=":1" /><sup>:3</sup> However, after the early death of his wife, he lived a reclusive life at Cliveden.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kavaler |first=Lucy |url=http://archive.org/details/astorsfamilychro00kava |title=The Astors; a family chronicle of pomp and power |date=1966 |publisher=New York, Dodd, Mead |others=Internet Archive |pages=172}}</ref> He gave the house to his son [[Waldorf Astor|Waldorf]] (later 2nd Viscount Astor) on the occasion of his marriage to [[Nancy Astor|Nancy Langhorne]] in 1906 and moved to [[Hever Castle]].<ref name="The Astors at Cliveden">{{Cite web |title=The Astors at Cliveden |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/the-astors-at-cliveden |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Trust |language=en}}</ref>

The young Astors used Cliveden for entertaining on a lavish scale.<ref name="NT42"/> The combination of the house, its setting, and leisure facilities offered on the estate – boating on the Thames, horse riding, tennis, swimming, [[croquet]] and fishing – made Cliveden a destination for film stars, politicians, world leaders, writers and artists. The heyday of entertaining at Cliveden was between the two World Wars when the Astors held regular weekend house parties. Guests at the time included: [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Winston Churchill]], [[Joseph Kennedy]], [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], [[Amy Johnson]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[H. H. Asquith]], [[T. E. Lawrence]] (Lawrence of Arabia), [[Arthur Balfour]] and the writers [[Henry James]], [[Rudyard Kipling]], and [[Edith Wharton]].<ref name=":5" /><sup>:213</sup>

{{Blockquote|There is a ghastly unreality about it all&nbsp;... I enjoy seeing it. But to own it, to live here, would be like living on the stage of the [[Scala Theatre|Scala theatre]] in Milan.|[[Harold Nicolson]] after a visit to Cliveden in 1936.<ref>quoted in NT Guide 1994, p. 45</ref>}}

During the inter-war period the entertainer [[Joyce Grenfell]], who was Nancy Astor's niece, lived in a cottage on the estate.<ref>NT Guide 1994, p. 26</ref> In the preface to her memoir, [[James Roose-Evans]] stated that during the Second World War, Grenfell ran two wards of the hospital and worked as an informal welfare officer. This work included completing errands for patients, writing letters, shopping, teaching needlework, and organising social events, and informal concerts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grenfell |first=Joyce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ye7rAE702AC |title=Time of My Life: Entertaining the Troops – Her Wartime Journals |date=1990 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=978-0-340-52813-6 |pages=xviii |language=en}}</ref>

====Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital====
{{main|Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital}}
[[File:Cliveden War Cemetery, panorama.jpg|thumb|left|Cliveden War Cemetery in the Cliveden grounds]]

At the outbreak of [[World War I]], Waldorf Astor offered the use of some of the grounds to the [[Canadian Red Cross]] for the building of a hospital—the HRH Duchess of Connaught Hospital—which was dismantled at the end of the hostilities. In September 1939 with the outbreak of [[World War II]] Waldorf Astor again offered the use of the land at a rent of one [[shilling]] per year to the Canadian Red Cross and the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital was built to the designs of [[Robert Atkinson (architect)|Robert Atkinson]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Roxanas |first1=Miltiadis G |last2=Gendek |first2=Marilyn A |last3=Lane |first3=Vivien E |date=2019 |title=Cliveden: The Canadian Red Cross Hospital, William Osler and the 'Taplow Affair' |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0967772019874293 |journal=Journal of Medical Biography |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=220–229 |doi=10.1177/0967772019874293 |pmid=31483685 |s2cid=201837265 |issn=0967-7720|url-access=subscription }}</ref> After the war the hospital's main focus was as a nursing school, a maternity unit and a rheumatology unit.<ref>{{Cite web |title=0689300000 - Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital, Cliveden Road  |url=https://heritageportal.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/Monument/MBC22996 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website= Buckinghamshire's Heritage Portal |date=17 February 2017 }}</ref>

The hospital closed and was abandoned in 1985. It lay derelict for two decades and was demolished in 2006 to make way for a housing development for people aged 55 and over.<ref>{{Cite web |title=I live in Cliveden |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2007/05/18/cliveden_feature.shtml |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=BBC |language=en-gb}}</ref>

Attached to the military hospital and within the grounds was established [[Cliveden War Cemetery]]. There are 42 Commonwealth war graves, 40 from World War I (mostly Canadians) and two from World War II, besides two American service war graves from the first war.<ref name="cwgc">{{Cite web |title=Cliveden War Cemetery {{!}} Cemetery Details |url=https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/36350/cliveden-war-cemetery/ |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=CWGC |language=en}}</ref>

==== National Trust ownership ====
In 1942 the Astors gave Cliveden to the [[National Trust]] with the proviso that the family could continue to live in the house for as long as they wished. Should they cease to do so, they expressed the wish that the house be used "for promoting friendship and understanding between the peoples of the United States and Canada and the other dominions."<ref name=":5" /> With the gift of Cliveden, the National Trust also received from the Astor family one of their largest endowments: £250,000 in 1942, {{Inflation|UK|250000|1942|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}.<ref name="NT10">{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1971|p=10}}</ref>

After the death of the 2nd Viscount in 1952, his son William (Bill) Astor, the [[William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor|3rd Viscount Astor]] took over the house until his death in 1966.<ref name="The Astors at Cliveden"/> Following the death of Bill Astor, the National Trust took over the management of the estate.<ref name=":0" />

Cliveden has become one of the National Trust's most popular pay-for-entry visitor attractions, hosting 524,807 visitors in 2019.<ref name="ALVA 2019 visitor numbers">{{cite web |title=ALVA – Association of Leading Visitor Attractions |url=https://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=423 |access-date=23 October 2020 |website=www.alva.org.uk}}</ref> National Trust visitors to Cliveden can visit the parkland, and there is occasional limited access to a select area of the house.<ref name=":1" /><sup>:32</sup>

====Cliveden House Hotel====
In 1984 Blakeney Hotels (later Cliveden Hotel Ltd) acquired the lease to the house. Led by chairman John Lewis and managing director [[John Tham]] they restored and refurbished the interior.<ref name=":5" /><sup>:202</sup>

[[File:Cliveden House Pavilion Spa-2735570282.jpg|thumb|left|The Pavilion Spa. The outdoor pool was a key location in the Profumo affair.]]

In 1990 they added the indoor swimming pool and spa treatment rooms in the walled garden, complementing the existing outdoor pool. Also in 1990, a new 100-year lease was granted to run from 1984.<ref name="NT46">{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=26}}</ref> In 1994 the conversion of the West wing from domestic offices to provide more bedrooms and two boardrooms (Churchill and Macmillan) was completed.<ref name=":5" /> There are 48 bedrooms and suites,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/plan-a-party/stay-over/ |title=Cliveden Hotel website Stay over|publisher=Clivedenhouse.co.uk |access-date=2 November 2018}}</ref> all of which are named after previous owners and guests (e.g. Buckingham, Westminster).<ref name="Cliveden">{{cite web |title=Cliveden Hotel website |url=https://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/ |access-date=2 November 2018 |publisher=Clivedenhouse.co.uk}}</ref> In addition to the Terrace Dining room, there are a further four private dining rooms. Three rooms are licensed for civil ceremonies and each year many couples are married at Cliveden.<ref name=Cliveden/> The hotel also leases Spring Cottage by the Thames, one of the key places in the [[Profumo affair]], and offer it as self-contained accommodation.<ref name=Cliveden/>

The hotel was listed on the [[London Stock Exchange]] for a period of time in the 1990s (as Cliveden Plc).<ref name=":5" /><sup>:202</sup> This company was bought in 1998 by Destination Europe, a consortium including [[Microsoft]] CEO [[Bill Gates]].<ref name="BBC1998">{{cite news | title=The Company File Gates' group seals Cliveden deal | date=27 July 1998 | publisher=[[BBC]] | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/139907.stm | work =BBC News | access-date = 2 March 2010 }}</ref> In the early years of the 21st century the lease was acquired by [[von Essen Hotels]]. 
In 2007, Cliveden House Hotel claimed to offer the "world's most expensive sandwich" at [[Pound sterling|£]]100. The von Essen Platinum Club Sandwich was confirmed by [[Guinness World Records]] in 2007 to be the most expensive sandwich commercially available.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/6669095.stm |title=World's most expensive sandwich|work= BBC News |date=18 May 2007 |access-date=11 March 2010}}</ref> Cliveden House was the "jewel in the crown" of Von Essen Hotels when the company collapsed in 2011.<ref name=Neate>{{cite news|last=Neate|first=Rupert|title=Property magnates poised to buy Profumo mansion Cliveden|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/sep/02/cliveden-mansion-sale-property-magnates|access-date=6 September 2011|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2 September 2011|location=London}}</ref>

The lease to Cliveden Hotel was then purchased in February 2012 by the property developers [[Richard Livingstone (businessman)|Richard]] and [[Ian Livingstone (property developer)|Ian Livingstone]], owners of [[London & Regional Properties]], (also the new owners of the next-door 220-acre estate called [[Dropmore Park]]) who placed it under the management of Andrew Stembridge from [[Chewton Glen]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Harmer |first=Janet |title=Cliveden sale to complete tomorrow as new owners promise to return property's sparkle |url=http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/30/01/2012/342098/Cliveden-sale-to-complete-tomorrow-as-new-owners-promise-to-return-property39s.htm |access-date=4 February 2012 |newspaper=Caterer & Hotelkeeper |date=30 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202080037/http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/30/01/2012/342098/Cliveden-sale-to-complete-tomorrow-as-new-owners-promise-to-return-property39s.htm |archive-date=2 February 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2015 Natalie Livingstone, the wife of Ian Livingstone, published ''The Mistresses of Cliveden'', a history of some of the female occupants of the house.<ref name="Livingstone2015">{{cite book|author=Natalie Livingstone|title=The Mistresses of Cliveden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HYwQCgAAQBAJ|date=2 July 2015|publisher=Random House UK Limited|isbn=978-0-09-195452-9}}</ref> In January 2015 the hotel closed for one month to carry out a refurbishment of the interior and for the National Trust to repair the roof.<ref>"Cliveden"</ref>

The hotel's insignia is that of the Sutherland family and consists of a [[coronet]] with interlaced "S"s and [[Acanthus (ornament)|acanthus]] leaves. Three-dimensional versions of this insignia can be found on panels and radiator grills in parts of the house.<ref name="NT85">{{Harvnb|NT Guide|1994|p=85}}</ref> The hotel's motto is "Nothing ordinary ever happened here, nor could it."<ref name=Cliveden/>

In October 2021 the building was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35-million injection into the government's [[Culture Recovery Fund]].<ref>[https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/heritage-and-craft-workers-across-england-given-a-helping-hand/ "Heritage and Craft Workers Across England Given a Helping Hand"] – [[Historic England]], 22 October 2021</ref>