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Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Vanbrugh 300 is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to develop a nationwide project that aims to broaden the awareness of Vanbrugh through special displays, free education programmes and lectures, throughout his tercentenary year in 2026.
Stowe is a truly remarkable place in the county of Buckinghamshire, steeped in history and brimming with stories.
Its creation follows the fortunes of the Temple-Grenville family, from the political highs of the eighteenth century to the financial lows of the nineteenth, through to the rediscovery and restoration of the twentieth century. The core of the building was built by the third baron, Sir Richard Temple, in the 1670s. Many additions were made over the following decades until it became one of Britain’ earliest tourist attractions, complete with the very first printed guidebook in 1744.
The fourth baron was made Viscount Cobham in 1718 and he soon set about making changes. He brought together many well-known architects in the 1720s and 1740s with the hope of creating ‘the largest temple’ in the gardens and John Vanbrugh was one of these. But it was Cobham's nephew, Richard Temple-Grenville, Earl Temple, who dramatically developed the gardens and grounds in the 1760s. Forty temples and monuments, each with its own political meaning, were set into the landscape, providing stunning, picturesque views from the house.
The family was given the new title of the Dukedom of Buckingham and Chandos in 1822 but the first and second dukes were great spendthrifts and the family fortune drained away. With debts equivalent to around £100 million today, most of the contents of the house and garden were auctioned at Christies in 1848.
The third duke’s eldest daughter, Lady Baroness Kinloss (1852-1944) eventually sold Stowe House in 1921 and Stowe School was founded two years later, saving it from destruction. The National Trust took over responsibility for the gardens and parkland in 1989, and the Stow House Preservation Trust was set up in 1997 to restore the building and open it to the public. All of this ensures that Stowe continues to be a vibrant, living community full of visitors, which Earl Temple would no doubt still recognise today.
As with many of his clients, Vanbrugh met Viscount Cobham through their joint membership of the Kit-Cat Club, an early 18th-century club with strong political and literary associations centred around Whig liberalism. After a visit in the summer of 1719 Vanbrugh wrote a letter saying that he had recently visited Stowe and spoken with the Viscount about ‘the Improvements of his House and Gardens, in which he Spends all he has to spare’. While Vanbrugh’s involvement in the evolution of the house is unclear, it is generally thought that he advised on Cobham's expansion plans. These perhaps included designing the 'office' wings at either end, an orangery on the West side, and the North front portico. If any additions were made on the South front façade, they were swept away by Earl Temple forty years later.
Vanbrugh's most notable surviving work at Stowe is in the gardens. Viscount Cobham asked him to design many politically inspired temples and monuments including classical pavilions next to the lake, temples of Bacchus and Venus, and a giant commemorative pyramid which bears the classical inscription: ‘You have played, eaten enough and drunk enough, Now it is time to leave the stage for younger men’. The Viscount later added words which translate as, ‘among many buildings designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in these gardens, Cobham wished this Pyramid to be sacred to his memory'. All these examples of Vanbrugh’s later stylistic influence attracted many artists, architects, writers, politicians and the nobility to gather, talk, and no doubt admire his work.
(Vanbrugh's Secrets)
More than just a hired architect, Vanbrugh became close friends with Lord Cobham and fell in love with the estate, saying in 1725 that it was ‘a place now so agreeable’ that he ‘had much ado to leave it at all’.
Don't Miss
The North front portico and colonnades − Vanbrugh’ most visible legacy standing proudly where every visitor begins their journey into the house.
