Mentmore Towers

A country house built 1852–54 by Sir Joseph Paxton and G.H. Stokes for Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild. It was the first of the grand Rothschild properties constructed in the Vale of Aylesbury. The building is in the Jacobethan style, much influenced by Wollaton Hall, and is constructed in Ancaster ashlar with flat lead roofs.

The main block is almost square in plan with two storeys, projecting three-storey corner towers, and single-storey wings flanking the entrance courtyard. The right wing masks a service court to the north. The main block is articulated by entablatures and pairs of lugged pilasters on plinths: the ground floor is Doric with triglyph entablature, whilst the first floor is Ionic with plinths adorned with cartouches. A balustraded parapet carries stone urns on plinths, and the north-east side features a central scrolled gable with broken segmental pediment, clock, and flanking obelisks.

The corner towers display Corinthian pilasters on plinths with cartouches, entablatures carved with heads, and scrolled gables with small pediments, central open roundels, heraldic lion finials, and corner obelisks. Groups of round stone chimney shafts with panelled capitals and linked cornice heads rise from the towers. Stone mullion windows with double transoms light the building. The north-east front has five-light windows in the outer bays and a slightly projecting centrepiece with two-light windows flanking a four-light window. The towers contain four-light windows or elaborate strapwork cartouches. Central double panelled doors with a large radiating fanlight form the main entrance.

A single-storey porch has semi-circular arches to each face with carved lion-head keystones, flanking pairs of lugged Doric columns, and a triglyph entablature with the central Rothschild crest. The flanking wings have rows of six arched niches, triglyph entablature and balustraded parapet, terminating in similar two-storey towers to the front. The south-east front carries central heraldic crests and cyphers dated 1851, with a keyblock dated AH1878. The service wing is of two storeys and a basement, employing a single Doric order with similar parapets, and is built around a small court with inner walls of white brick and an entrance arch to the north-west.

The interior is notable for its exceptional craftsmanship and imported decorative elements. The central two-storey hall is faced with Caen stone and features an arcaded first-floor gallery with marble balustrade. The ceiling is glazed with wooden ribs and plaster coving adorned with moulded strapwork cartouches. The ground floor hall contains large arched doors with early examples of plate glass, and a fireplace of black and white marble with a large projecting entablature hood on scrolled sheep herms, said to have come from Rubens' house in Antwerp.

Other ground-floor rooms feature heavy carved marble fireplaces with large mirrors above, carved skirting boards, and door surrounds with panelled doors. Rooms in the south-east range have plaster ceilings with gilt Rococo decoration, some of which are 18th-century pieces imported from France. The dining room contains very fine 18th-century boiseries and gilt ceiling from the Hotel de Villars, Paris, with 18th-century Genoese velvet in some panels and paintings by Van Loo over the mirrors. A small room to the right of the entrance front also contains 18th-century French panelling with overdoors by Boucher. The stairwell is of Caen stone with a Jacobethan plaster ceiling, featuring a single lower flight and double upper flights with marble balustrades. The first floor comprises suites of bedrooms, also with marble fireplaces and bathroom fittings adapted from 18th-century French commodes. His Lordship's Room has a plaster gilt Rococo ceiling.

Mentmore is notable as one of the earliest houses to have had a hot-water and central-heating system installed.

The success of Mentmore so impressed James de Rothschild, head of the Paris branch of the international Jewish banking dynasty, that he commissioned Paxton to design his own country property, the Château de Ferrières near Paris, constructed between 1855 and 1859.

The building is now the British seat of the World Government of the Age of Enlightenment.