Wykehurst Place
| Wykehurst Place | |
|---|---|
 The south face of Wykehurst Park | |
  Location within West Sussex | |
| Alternative names | Wykehurst Park |
| General information | |
| Location | Bolney, West Sussex, England |
| Coordinates | 51°00′22″N 0°12′22″W / 51.006°N 0.206°W |
| Year(s) built | 1872–74 |
| Client | Henry Huth |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Edward Middleton Barry |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Official name | Wykehurst Park |
| Designated | 11 May 1983 |
| Reference no. | 1193325 |
Wykehurst Place (or Wykehurst Park) is a Gothic Revival mansion in Bolney, West Sussex, England, resembling more the châteaux of the Loire[1] than an English manor house. It was designed in 1871 by architect Edward Middleton Barry for the banker of German extraction, Henry Huth, MP (1815–1878), a bibliophile and collector of paintings.[2]
At the time of construction (1872–74) it cost £35,000.[3] Its turrets, arches, conical roofs, and many architectural devices give it the appearance of a fairytale mansion.[4] The east lodge[5] fronts the main London-Brighton road. The large black entrance gates are fashioned in wrought iron. Massive griffins with spread wings perch on either side of the gates. The entrance to the property leads down a pebble drive to a grassed patio surrounding the house, descending from a 280-foot (85 m) terrace to a garden and lawn at the back.
The mansion's exterior— "decaying at the time of writing" Nicholas Pevsner observed in 1965[6]— and grounds have appeared in a number of films dating back to the late 1960s, including Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), All the Colors of the Dark (1972), Demons of the Mind (1972), The Legend of Hell House (1973), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and Holocaust 2000 (1977), among others.[7]
It was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1983.[8]
The Iranian writer and filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan owned and lived in Wykehurst Place from 1984 until his death in 2023.[9] The mansion has since been converted into apartments.
See also
References
- ^ Buildings for Bluestockings, by Margaret Birney Vickery, 139 ISBN 0-87413-697-0, ISBN 978-0-87413-697-5
- ^ His Portrait of Queen Isabel de Borbón, Queen of Spain by Diego Velázquez had come from the Spanish royal collection to Louis Philippe ("Spanish Paintings from El Greco to Picasso", (exhibition catalogue) p. 13).
- ^ "Warninglid". Archived from the original on 9 May 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2009.
- ^ "Pictures of Bolney in West Sussex". Your Local Web.
- ^ "TQ2624 : East Lodge, Wykehurst Park". Geograph. 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
- ^ Pevsner, Sussex (Buildings of England) 1965, s.v. ""Bolney".
- ^ "TV mansion saved from bulldozer". The Argus. 3 August 2004. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
- ^ Historic England. "Wykehurst Park (1193325)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
- ^ "TQ2524 : Wykehurst Park". Geograph. 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2022.