More private rooms in Palace House are to open for visits to Beaulieu this Easter for the start of the 2025 season.
Work is currently being completed and visitors will be able look around a number of themed rooms which were once part of Edward, Lord Montagu’s private apartment.
Ten years after his passing, his son will open rooms which were refurbished as part of a project with the interior design department at Solent University in Southampton.
Lord Montagu said: “The design of these bedrooms and bathrooms comes from a very fruitful collaboration with students who came up with some wonderful ideas to ensure that each room has a distinctly different theme. They took their inspiration from the gardens of Palace House, Montagu family history and the Solent which borders the estate.”
Take a walk through the rooms . . .
Heraldry Room
The first of the rooms commemorates some of Lord Montagu’s ancestors. The heraldic shields of 70 of his forbears were photographed from an ancient hand-painted scroll, then reworked and arranged chronologically for a frieze around the top of the walls. The design by Lola-Mia Gurr and Sara Riofrio continues below with a lattice pattern echoing the Montagu heraldic device, three lozenges.
At the centre of the room, the four-poster bed features an embroidered griffin crest on the headboard, the work of Jenny Adin-Christie who made lace panels for the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress. She also produced an intricate satin bedspread featuring a gold braided ‘M’ surmounted by a baron’s coronet. In the canopy of the bed, a canvas work moon by Sarah de Rousset-Hall looks down from the centre of the midnight blue lining. In the adjoining bathroom, students used griffins, stags and eagles from the Montagu coat of arms for a bespoke wallpaper design.
Meadow Room
Students Bethan Humphries, Rosie Rowe and Amy Shepherd brought the outside into Palace House for the Meadow Room, where painted rose trees fill the arched recesses on each side of the bed and birds ‘fly’ around blue skies at the top of the walls. The theme continues on the ceiling, where a faux opening to an imaginary sky frames a stylised golden sun shining from its centre.
For the bathroom, flowers were picked from Palace House gardens, pressed and photographed to form the components of a custom-made wallpaper. The shower cubicle incorporates tiles by Lord Montagu’s mother, Belinda, depicting the view she enjoyed of, and from, her home at Longdown. Other references to the garden theme include a planter’s dibber light pull, metal leaved chandelier and pair of garden ‘gates’ above the basin which open to reveal the mirror.
Motor Room
The Motor Room has been created by Lord Montagu as a personal tribute to his father, the founder of the National Motor Museum. The walls are lined with a special wallpaper with two vintage tyre tread patterns forming vertical stripes, over which various items of motoring art are hung. A bookcase contains many of the motoring books authored by the late Lord Montagu and others which reflect his interests such as history, good food and travel. The room has other transport relics, notably an art deco Zeppelin styled lantern, a variety of model cars and pair of lamp stands made from old brass car horns. The rubber bulbs from the horns have been redeployed as finials at each end of the curtain pole.
The tribute continues in the corridor, where a selection of family photos not exhibited before will give visitors glimpses of the very active life lived by the late Lord Montagu.
Water Babies Bathroom
The adjacent bathroom adopts the Water Babies as its theme, inspired by the classic children’s novel by Charles Kingsley. The fantasy tale has been re-imaged by Emma Martin as an underwater room in which fish, turtles and water babies are swimming around you.
Throne Room
Before reaching the largest of the bedrooms, visitors will find the Throne Room. Its ‘throne’ lavatory was made by antique restorer Alex Webster from TV’s The Woodland Workshop which was filmed on the Beaulieu Estate. Assembled mainly from pieces of old furniture, the back is emblazoned with a specially carved Montagu coat of arms, over which there is an ornate gothic canopy which hides the cistern.
The room has a large gold coloured bath tub and the tiles in the shower cubicle continue the royal theme with an illustration of a medieval King and Queen by Belinda, Lady Montagu.
Lord Montagu said: “It’s all just a bit of fun really. This used to be the laundry room and cleaners’ store, so it’s given me great pleasure to make it into something which looks positively regal.”
Oak Room
This room has been open to visitors for many years but has also been given a makeover. The theme here is the European Grand Tour which was taken by Lord Montagu’s ancestor, the Marquess of Monthermer, between 1754 and 1760. Some of the paintings he commissioned whilst on his tour, by artist Antoni Joli, are hung on the walls, showing visitors views of Avignon, Tarascon, Venice, Florence and Naples. The ceiling, which is decorated with a specially adapted map of 18th century Italy, will give guests something to gaze at if they can’t sleep!
A stately challenge at Beaulieu
In his original design brief, Lord Montagu inspired students by saying: “The challenge is to create some remarkable rooms which our visitors are still talking about long after they’ve left!”
The challenge was taken up by third-year students, who have used their designs and experience as part of their coursework.
Furnishings from Palace House were restored and upcycled where possible, while local craftspeople contributed to the project.
Work is underway on another further bedroom which will open for visits, with more details to be announced later.
See the new bedrooms and bathrooms as part of a ticket to Beaulieu, which also includes entry to the National Motor Museum with its collection of more than 285 vehicles, fun adventure playground Little Beaulieu, 13th century Beaulieu Abbey, the Secret Army Exhibition, unlimited rides on the tree-top monorail and beautiful grounds and gardens. New exhibition We Had One Of Those is also opening at Easter, featuring some of the most popular cars from the 1960s through to the noughties and beyond in a blast from your past. For tickets and details see www.beaulieu.co.uk or call 01590 612345.