Summary

A National Trust Italianate mansion on a Thames terrace in Berkshire, now operating as a hotel, with a major film record spanning six decades including Cinderella (2015), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Chaplin (1992), Help! (1965), and the Beatles film.

About this location

Cliveden stands on a 376-acre estate above a bend in the River Thames at Taplow, near Maidenhead in Berkshire. The present house — the third on the site — was built in 1851 by Sir Charles Barry for the Duke of Sutherland, in an Italianate style with a long south-facing terrace overlooking formal gardens and the river below. The site was first built upon in 1666 for the 2nd Duke of Buckingham; two earlier houses burned down before Barry’s building was completed. A clock tower to the north of the house, topped with a gilded reproduction of a 19th-century Dumont allegorical figure, is one of the estate’s most visible features from the Thames.

The estate passed to the Astor family in 1893 and was the social centre of British political life through the Edwardian era and into the 1930s. Cliveden is now owned by the National Trust and leased as a luxury hotel, making it one of the few National Trust properties offering residential accommodation. Filming on the estate is managed through the National Trust’s commercial arm.

The house has accumulated a substantial film record. Help! (1965, Beatles film, directed by Richard Lester) used the . Chaplin (1992, starring Robert Downey Jr.) filmed here. Carrington (1995) and Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) are among the more recent features. Sherlock Holmes (2009, Guy Ritchie) used the estate’s exterior. Cinderella (2015, Disney live action, Kenneth Branagh) filmed on the . A Little Chaos (2014, Alan Rickman, about Versailles’ landscape gardeners) also filmed at Cliveden. Television credits include Mr Selfridge (2016) and Dead Man’s Folly (1986, Agatha Christie Poirot adaptation). Bollywood productions include Yaadein (2001).