Strawberry Hill House

Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is a Gothic Revival villa in Twickenham, London, built by Horace Walpole from 1749 onward. It is the prototypical example of the "Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of architecture, and it prefigured the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival. Walpole rebuilt the existing house in stages starting in 1749, 1760, 1772 and 1776. These additions introduced Gothic features such as towers and battlements outside and elaborate decoration inside to create "gloomth" to suit Walpole's collection of antiquarian objects, contrasting with the more cheerful or "riant " (lit. 'laughing') garden. The interior included gilded ceilings and intentionally grand fireplaces—with one by Robert Adam, along with small details like enamelled door handles, carved wooden screens, and ancestral-looking coats of arms; parts of the exterior were designed by James Essex. The garden contained a large seat shaped like a Rococo sea shell, which was recreated during the garden's 2012 restoration, one of the many examples of historic garden conservation in the UK. Later owners included Anne Seymour Damer and John Waldegrave and his descendants, followed by Hermann de Stern. In 1923 it was bought by the Roman Catholic St Mary's University College. The Strawberry Hill Gothic architectural style became briefly popular, though its definition is disputed. Examples include Priory Hospital in Roehampton.