Popular on LondonNet
Althorp (pronounced Altrup) is chiefly famous as the ancestral residence of the Spencer family, the most famous member of which is, of course, Princess Diana.
Diana’s body is buried on an island in the middle of a lake in Althorp’s grounds and the old stables area now features an exhibition on Diana’s life.
But there is more to Althorp than just Diana. The house, first home to the Spencers in 1508, contains a variety of paintings (including important works by the likes of Gainsborough, Reynolds, Rubens and Van Dyck), sculpture, furniture and ceramics, as well as boasting some fine interiors. The architect Henry Holland transformed the Elizabethan red brick house in the 1770s. The gardens have undergone much re-landscaping under Dan Pearson.
