The future of Strawberry Hill, the ‘little Gothic castle’ created by Horace Walpole in the 18th century, is looking decidedly brighter thanks to a £4.6million grant which has been earmarked by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The award[1], which has been made to the Strawberry Hill Trust along with £370,000 development funding, will help to finance an eagerly-awaited £8.2million restoration project.

Horace Walpole, son of Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first Prime Minister, was a politician, collector, author and style ‘guru’. He acquired the building, which he christened Strawberry Hill, in 1747 and set about transforming it over the next 40 years into a fashionable villa along the stretch of the Thames between Chiswick and Hampton.

The Grade One-listed house is now regarded as the most important and influential buildings of the early gothic revival, inspiring designs for the Palace of Westminster 100 years later. Its vulnerability and uncertain future were highlighted in 2003, when the World Monuments Fund included it on their list of ‘100 Most Endangered Sites in the World’ and, then again, when it featured in the second series of BBC2’s Restoration. It is also on English Heritage’s ‘Buildings at Risk Register’.

Walpole said of his creation: ‘My buildings are paper, like my writings, and both will blow away in ten years after I am dead.’ Although outliving Walpole’s prediction by two hundred years, Strawberry Hill’s pinnacles and traceries, constructed of wood, stucco and papier mâché (unlike the gothic cathedrals which inspired them), are now in a perilous state of disrepair.

Carole Souter, Director of HLF, said: “The importance of Strawberry Hill to our architectural heritage cannot be over-emphasised and without this project, its future was looking extremely bleak. The Heritage Lottery Fund is committed to investing in our historic buildings so that more people can enjoy them and we’re very much looking forward to seeing Strawberry Hill restored to its full splendour once again.”

Michael Snodin, Chairman of the Strawberry Hill Trust, also commented: “This is wonderful news for the future of Strawberry Hill. We will now be able to work towards the restoration of the building and garden, bringing Walpole’s ‘little gothic castle’ back to its former glory and making it a place everyone can visit and enjoy.”

As well as safeguarding the future of Strawberry Hill and its gardens, the HLF grant will enable the Trust to extend considerably the villa’s opening hours (currently just one afternoon a week in the summer) and create a far-reaching education programme. The house was a popular tourist site in Walpole’s time, when visitors were drawn by its magical interiors, fireplaces and gilded ceilings built to resemble mediaeval tombs and vaults, as well as Walpole’s extensive collection of curios.

The house went on to become the centre for great political receptions in the ownership of Lady Frances Waldegrave in the 19th century, and is now under the stewardship of St. Mary’s University College. Strawberry Hill receives considerable local support through it Friends Group and has a core of supporters in the US. The World Monuments Fund is backing the campaign to raise a further £3.5 million to ensure the project can go ahead. Completion is anticipated in 2010 to coincide with a major exhibition on Horace Walpole and his collections to be shown at the V&A Museum and the Yale Center for British Art at New Haven.

Arthur Naylor, Principal of St Mary's College, said: "We are delighted with the news. St Mary's has worked closely with the Strawberry Hill Trust to reach this stage and we are ourselves committing £1.4 million towards the project and its longer term sustainability".

John Julius Norwich, Chairman of the World Monuments Fund, commented: “I am delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has agreed to fund Strawberry Hill and that the World Monuments Fund has been able to play a key role as a catalyst for the lottery application as well as enabling all the parties to work together. WMF is committed to finding the extra money required in addition to the lottery grant, and will continue to be closely involved with the restoration at every stage."