Visiting Strawberry Hill is a truly theatrical experience. Magically lit by a unique collection of renaissance glass, its gloomy castle-like hall and grey gothic staircase lead dramatically to the magnificence of the gallery.


The garden
In contrast to the fashion of the time, Walpole’s garden with its winding paths, grove of trees, lilacs, syringas and honeysuckles ‘hanging down in festoons’ was a riot of informality.


Restoration
The Strawberry Hill Trust, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has recently undertaken a £9 million repair and restoration of Walpole’s villa including painstaking conservation of the renaissance glass.


History
Created by Horace Walpole in the 18th century, Strawberry Hill is internationally famous as Britain’s finest example of Georgian Gothic revival architecture. It also inspired the first gothic novel The Castle of Otranto.