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Marshcourt

Series exploring Britain's private country houses. Dan Cruickshank visits Marshcourt, an Edwardian pleasure palace considered by many to be Lutyens' masterpiece.

Marshcourt is one of the most extraordinary buildings in Britain - a white chalk Lutyens masterpiece, possibly his greatest, perched above the flowing waters of Britain's best and most exclusive fishing river - the Test. Built as an Edwardian pleasure palace, with its interior still miraculously intact, it evokes the decadence and frivolity of that vanished age, as no other.

However, Marshcourt stands for something more: a Britain dominated by finance. It was Herbert Johnson, a broker, that paid for this opulence. The first great houses were built by robber barons, and 500 years later it was the bankers' turn. Marshcourt's narrow escape from the wrecking ball, as Johnson repeatedly teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, is testament to what that transformation has meant for this country.

1 hour

Last on

Sun 1 Apr 2012 19:00

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Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Dan Cruickshank
Writer Dan Cruickshank
Producer Ian MacMillan
Director Ian MacMillan

Broadcasts

  • Tue 14 Jun 2011 21:00
  • Wed 22 Jun 2011 01:00
  • Wed 20 Jul 2011 01:55
  • Sun 1 Apr 2012 19:00