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House, Gardens and Park
The Estate Office, Knebworth House, Knebworth, Hertfordshire SG3 6PY Tel: +44 1438 812661 Fax: +44 1438 811908 Email: info@knebworthhouse.com |
Conference & Banqueting
Knebworth Conference & Banqueting Centre, Knebworth Park, Knebworth, Hertfordshire SG3 6PY Tel: +44 1438 813825 Fax: +44 1438 813003 Email: sales@knebworthhouse.com |
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www.knebworthhousegiftshop.com © Knebworth Estates 2004 - All rights reserved |
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nebworth remained virtually unaltered until the nineteenth century; as late as 1805, the author of ‘Excursion from Camerton to London and thence into Herts’, was sufficiently impressed by Knebworth to place it after Haddon Hall as ‘the most perfect specimen of the hospitable habitations of our ancestors which I have seen in the country.‘ 
owever, the ‘perfect specimen’ was not destined to survive for long. In 1810, Mrs. Elizabeth Bulwer-Lytton, finding the building ‘old fashioned and too large’, demolished three sides of the quadrangle, including the medieval gatehouse, part of which she re-erected as a lodge in the park.
he principal changes to the remaining wing, put forward by her architect, John Biagio Rebecca, son of Biagio Rebecca, the painter, were the concealment of the red brick by stucco, the Gothicizing of the windows and the addition of eight towers, battlements and a porch.
n 1878, Robert, 1st Earl of Lytton, commissioned architect John Lee to add a third storey to part of the building and architect George Devey added a servants’ wing about the same time (demolished in 1950).
hen the 2nd Earl, Victor, and his wife Pamela came to live at Knebworth in 1908, changes in taste were again taking place in the realm of art and fashion. They decided to make extensive alterations to the interior of the house and were fortunate in being able to seek advice from a brother-in-law, later to become famous as