ONE OF THE WORLD’S LUXURIOUS HOMES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 154, 26 March 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

ONE OF THE WORLD’S LUXURIOUS HOMES

The Woolworth Heiress’s London House

Barbara Hutton. Woolworth heiress, and now Countess Haugwitz-Revent-low, has had built for her in London one of the most wonderful and luxurious homes in the world. It is Winfield House, Regent’s Park, and it is built on the site of famous St. Dunstan’s home for war-blinded exservice men. Built In Georgian style, it stands in 12| acres of glorious gardens, as secluded as if it were in the heart of the country. All the principal bedrooms have private bathrooms adjoining, with the most exquisite appointments, including gold-plated taps. Countess Barbara’s own bathroom

has five long windows facing on to a 4 beautiful lily pool set in the terrace below. It contains £2OOO worth of green and ivory marble, and has a chromiumlined Turkish bath.

Two steam and heat-proof cosmetic cupboards have mirror glass walls, crystal shelves and gold fitments. Three doors leading from the room are inlaid with mirrors. Another pair of doors, when opened, unfold a series of mirrors lining a wall. These are automatically flood-lit. The world-famous collection of Chinese jade will be dispayed in glass-panel-led recesses in the. walls of her bedroom. Priceless Eastern embroideries are to be encased behind glass panels fitted into the walls of‘the wide corridors of the house. Other Eastern treasures include the entrance salon furniture, which is elaborately hand-carved Chinese Suchow lacquer, the smallest chair of which takes 200 years to carve, and is handed down from one generation to another before It is completed. Her baby son Lance will be accommodated with his nurses in a self-con-tained six-roomed flat with two bathrooms and its own kitchen, gibe walls

of his night nursery are .being padded with soft pink kid. Every reception room in this wonder house contains timber panelling which is either hand carved or painted by modern craftsmen. One of the largest and most exquisite glass chandeliers in London will hang in the centre of the great sevenwindowed dining-room.

. Venetian glass table-ware, delicate as paper and valued at thousands of pounds, will be stored in long marbletopped cupboards set round the room. The staff wing of the mansion is the most thoughtfully and comfortably planned in London.. Fourteen employees’ bedrooms will have weathered oak furniture, and each room will have an individual colour scheme, a washbasin with hot and cold water, writing desk, armchair, bedside table and light, and ’built-in wardrobes with sliding doors. A staff recreation room, tastefully decorated with glazed chintz curtains and red hide chairs, and provided with radio and table tennis equipment, is also included. For two years twenty-eight, gardeners have been working to complete the alterations on the gardens. Five thousand privets have been planted in high bank formation round the edges of the grounds, which are bounded by the public road. These, with ten feet high spiked iron railings, are to guard the privacy of the great mansion. To gain admittance at the gates callers have to press a bell which rings in the house. Members of the staff are instructed to ascertain full particulars of callers’ business before admitting them even so far as the grounds. Over seven thousand extra trees and shrubs have been planted. Twenty-five thousand bulbs will be in bloom the week the countess takes up residence.

With the exception of those at Buckingham Palace, the gardens of Winfield House are the largest private gardens in London.