Marble Hill House

Marble Hill House is a Neo-Palladian villa in Twickenham, London, built by Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, between 1724 and 1729. The compact design soon became famous and furnished a standard model for the Georgian English villa and for plantation houses in the American colonies. It was built under the designs of architects Roger Morris and Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, based on the designs of Andrea Palladio's 1553 Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese, Italy.

Marble Hill House came into ownership of the London County Council and was open to the public in 1903, making it the first eighteenth-century house in England to be preserved by a public body. The restoration of the house by the Greater London Council (GLC) began in 1965. After the dissolution of the GLC, the freehold of the house and estate passed to English Heritage.

But this villa was known not just for its design but for the power and passion that resided in its walls. In the late 18th century, the house was rented by the Prince Regent (the future George IV) for his mistress, Maria Fitzherbert, so the two could continue to meet in private. Their affair was scandalous at the time, with the Prince Regent eventually marrying his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, in order to keep his official mistress hidden away.

But it's not all scandal and secrecy. An archaeological investigation found evidence of a bowling area next to the house in 2017. However, the 'alley' (better described as a depression in the ground) does not resemble the modern concept of a bowling alley. The main evidence that the area was used for some sort of bowling rests on contemporary plans. It is likely that the game resembled boules as much as bowling.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons