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Claremont Landscape Garden |
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Claremont Landscape Garden tel: 01372-467806 Area: Surrey |
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| Visitor Information | www.nationaltrust.org.uk | ||||||||||||
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| Claremont Landscape Garden Surrey All details updated* as of: 18/02/2008 |
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| Opening Days and Hours | |||||||||||||
1 Feb - 31 Mar 08, 10-5, Tues - Sun |
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| Parties
/ Coaches: Yes Parking at entrance |
Groups
/ Coaches need Appointment: Yes Coach parties must book; no coaches on Sun or BHols. |
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House
Open for Viewing: No |
National
Garden Scheme days: Yes |
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| Best
Times of Year to Visit: |
To
see: |
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| Admission Prices | |||||||||||||
| £5.20, child £2.60, family £13. Groups £4.90. £1 tea-room voucher given if arriving by public transport (please present valid ticket). No coaches on Sun or BHols. |
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| Onsite Facilities | |||||||||||||
| Parking:
Yes Lavatories: Yes Disabled Access: No |
Shop:
Yes Plants for Sale: Yes Lunches: No |
Teas:
Yes Light Refreshment: Yes Picnics: Yes |
Dogs
Allowed: Yes On Lead only: Yes Special Events: No |
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| Other
Facilities: Disabled Access: around lake safe and accessible, 2 wheelchairs (booking advisable), disabled lavatory. Dogs, on lead only, from Nov to end March. |
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| Garden Features | |||||||||||||
| One of the first and finest gardens of the English Landscape style; A tranquil oasis in urban Surrey; Parkland created by some of the great names in garden history; Unique 18th-century grass amphitheatre; Serpentine lake with a superb variety of waterfowl - 52 species to spot; Home to one of the finest Lebanese cedars in England; Lots of exciting children's trails | English Heritage Garden Grade: I | ||||||||||||
| National Collection: | |||||||||||||
| Description of Garden | Designer:
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| Claremont was once described as 'the noblest of any in Europe' and after the National Trust's successful renovation, it is possible to see why. From the starting point of the Belvedere, a vantage and viewing point built by Vanburgh in 1715 and containing a banqueting room below the viewing platform, the visitor can see over the bastions to the bowling green and the lime avenue. The next feature is the immense and probably unique grass amphitheatre extending over 3 acres designed to afford a view of the landscape spread out before it, which consists of the lake and woods. These replaced the original round pond and plantations. By the lake is a grotto built of sandstone and chalk probably by Joseph and Josiah Lane who built the famous one at Painswick. This is one of the few gardens on which almost all the best-known landscape gardeners worked and whose efforts did not generally obscure their predecessors'. A fascinating piece of landscape history in a beautiful setting. | |||||||||||||
| History of Garden | |||||||||||||
| The history of this garden is as varied and important as almost any in the country. It was first laid out by Lord Clare, later the 1st Duke of Newcastle, in 1715 around a castellated palace designed by Vanburgh. Charles Bridgeman, the leading landscape gardener at the time and who had co-operated with Vanburgh on Stowe, built the grass amphitheatre in about 1726. William Kent re-modelled the landscape in front of the amphitheatre in the early 1730s in the fashionable natural form. Lord Clive (of India) bought the estate in 1768 after the Duke of Newcastle's death and pulled down Vanburgh's palace, replacing it with a Neo-Classical house designed by 'Capability' Brown who also covered the amphitheatre in trees and shrubs to disguise it and otherwise altered the landscape to make it less formal, in the prevailing fashion. The estate was bought in 1816 by the Royal Family to be the home of Princess Charlotte, only daughter of the Prince Regent and her husband, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. Only one or two buildings survive from the period of royal ownership which ended in 1922. The National Trust purchased the property in 1975 with the help of a grant from the Slater Foundation, and began the stupendous task of restoration following the previous twenty years of neglect. | |||||||||||||
| Nearby Surrey Hotels, Facilities & Amenities | |||||||||||||
| Hotels
& Accommodation: |
Restaurants: |
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| Inns & Pubs: King William IV, Mickleham, S. of Leatherhead |
Villages / Towns
/ Sightseeing: |
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  - Surrey |
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*Information
Updates
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0406_claremont.jpg - Claremont Landscape Garden (Surrey)
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