LOO-tun hoo

England

Bedfordshire

Luton Hoo

51.85457

-0.39769

1767

1775 w/significant later additions and alterations

Fully Extant

Grade I

Unknown

No

CVII, 1282 plans. 1950. 16-23 Jan. 1992.

Vol.I. 1818.

By Appointment

01582-734-437

01582-485-438

Corporation

Hotel

Phillips family; here since 1903. The mansion house was sold in 1999 and converted into the Luton Hoo Hotel & Country Estate, part of the Elite Hotel Group. The Phillips family retained part of the historic estate and make their home there.

de Hoo family, circa 13th century to 1454. Sir Robert Napier, Bt., 17th century. Earl of Bute and Marquess of Bute, 18th and 19th centuries. Leigh family, 19th century. Wernher family, 20th century.

There has been a house here since the 13th century.

The de Hoo family probably took their name from the land they owned (Hoo is a Saxon word meaning the spur of a hill). The last de Hoo was created Lord Hoo and Hastings in 1448. James I visited Luton Hoo in 1611 and knighted Robert Napier, whose seat the House then was. John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute and Prime Minister to George III, bought the Estate for £94,700 in 1762 (equivalent to approximately £13 million in 2008 values using the retail price index). Robert Adam was engaged by the 3rd Earl to rebuild the old House (Adam considered the Library his chef d’oeuvre). Dr. Johnson, visiting with Boswell in 1781, was particularly complimentary about the House. After a severe fire in 1843 the Butes sold Luton to John Shaw Leigh. Sir Julius Wernher purchased the Estate from the Leigh family in 1903. Wernher made a fortune in South African diamond mines, was a friend of Cecil Rhodes, and was at the time of the purchase of Luton Hoo one of the richest men in the world. The interiors were remodeled in Edwardian style for Sir Julius by Mewes and Davis, the designers of the Ritz Hotel in London. In 1891 Mary of Teck, later Queen Mary, consort of George V, accepted, at the age of 24, an offer of marriage at Luton from Prince Albert, Duke of Clarence, the heir to the British throne (a mere six weeks after the engagement was announced the Duke of Clarence died of pneumonia and the following year Mary became engaged to the new heir, the Duke’s brother, George). During the First World War Luton Hoo was used as a military convalescent home for officers, while World War II saw the House serving as Eastern Command Headquarters. When Harold Wernher's wife, Anastasia Romanov (Lady Zia), died in 1977, the Estate passed to her grandson, Nicholas Phillips, a godson and nephew of the Duke of Edinburgh (the Queen and Prince Philip spent their wedding night here). Mr. Phillips died at age 43 on Mar 1, 1991; in 1997 Luton Hoo was put on the market by his widow with an asking price of £25 million. The mansion house and part of the Estate sold in 1999 for approximately £10 million to a Canadian-backed group, Elite Hotels. Elite spent years obtaining planning permission to convert the house and stables into a five-star hotel, and to build ancillary buildings, all of which opened in 2007, after a £60 million transformation.

Luton Hoo once contained a large collection of possessions of the Russian Imperial Family, including a significant collection of the works of Carl Faberge. The collection of Faberge came to Luton Hoo through Lady Zia Wernher, who inherited it from her parents, Grand Duke Michael of Russia and the Countess Torby. One of the most important pieces of Faberge in the collection was a Freedom Box in nephrite with red and green gold mounts and the lid surmounted by the Russian Eagle in matte and polished gold; this piece was given to the 14th Earl of Pembroke by Tsar Nicholas II in 1896 during a visit to Balmoral to visit Queen Victoria. Luton Hoo was the home of the Wernher Collection (largely accumulated by Sir Julius Wernher), once one of the finest collections of art in Britain. (The collection was given to the Nation, and, since Jun 2002, has been housed at Ranger's House, London, a property of English Heritage). The Wernher Collection includes world-class collections of medieval ivories, German silver gilt, Italian majolica, Renaissance jewels, and Limoges enamels. Outstanding individual pieces from the collection include "Lady Caroline Price" by Joshua Reynolds, the Sevres service of Catherine the Great, and the altarpiece of St. Michael by Bartholomew Bermejo, considered the finest example of Spanish 15th century painting in Britain. Albrecht Altdorfer’s "Christ Taking Leave of His Mother" was sold to the National Gallery in 1981 for £825,000. John Constable’s "Harnham Bridge Looking Towards Salisbury Cathedral" was sold on Nov 18, 1992 for £850,000. Bernard van Risamburgh’s ebonized kingwood and Chinese black lacquer commode was sold on Jun 11, 1992 for £660,000. “Winter Landscape of 1650” by Aert van der Neer sold at auction in 1996 for £2.3 million. The 15th century “St. Michael Triumphant Over the Devil” by Bartolomeo Bermejo was sold to the National Gallery, London for £10 million.

At the time of the 1999 sale to Elite Hotels, the Luton Hoo Estate stood at 1,545 acres and included a pheasant shoot, a 50-acre lake, and an Italian garden. The famous landscape was laid out by Capability Brown in the 1770s; the Adam family probably designed the Stables in the 18th century. The Luton Hoo hotel sits in 1,000 acres of parkland and features an 18-hole golf course.

The Chapel was restored in the late 20th century and consecrated in 1991 in the Russian Orthodox Church in memory of Tsar Nicholas II and the Imperial Family.

"A Shot In The Dark" (1964). "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1967). "Never Say Never Again" (1983 - as the health clinic). "Inspector Morse" (1987 - TV series). "The Secret Garden" (1993). "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994). "The Buccaneers" (1995 - TV mini series, interiors only). "The Wings of the Dove" (1997). "Wilde" (1997). "A Dance to the Music of Time" (1997 - as the setting for the embassy reception). "Mrs. Brown" (1997). “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999). "Quills" (2000 - as the exterior of Charenton Asylum). "The Way We Live Now" (2001). "Enigma" (2001). "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" (2001 - TV movie). "The Importance of Being Earnest" (2002). "The Lost Prince" (2003 - TV movie, as interiors of Sandringham; Stables used as house where the Russian Imperial family were executed). "De-Lovely" (2004). "Bleak House" (2005 - TV series).