House & Family History: Ambrose Phillipps, who inherited Garendon in 1729, was an amateur architect and passionate connoisseur of all things classical. Famed for his exceptionally good looks (during his Grand Tour the Italians called him "The Handsome Englishman"), Ambrose filled the park at Garendon with Greek and Roman style follies and redesigned his family's ancestral home. Though he died at 30 and didn't live to see his architectural plans carried out, Ambrose's great hall, based on the vestibule of the Doge's Palace in Venice, was later built. Before and during World War I the Territorial Army held training camps at Garendon; during World War II the British Army was billeted in the house and left it in a bad state of repair, a state from which it never recovered. After its demolition in 1964, the rubble from the demolished Garendon Park was used for the building of the M1 motorway, which cut through the estate's park.

House Replaced By: Garendon Abbey, a 12th century Cistercian abbey that was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536 (as part of the Dissolution of the Abbeys), was on the site of the great house. The abbey was sold to Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, who probably used elements of the abbey buildings to construct Garendon House, which formed the core of the the later Garendon Park.

Collections: Garendon housed an fine collection of paintings that included a series of family portraits by Peter Lely and important Italian and Dutch Old Masters, including three of Salvator Rosa's largest and finest landscapes.

Garden & Outbuildings: The 80-foot-tall obelisk, the Grade I-listed triumphal arch (built in 1735 and based on the Arch of Titus in Rome; see "Images" section), and the Grade II*-listed Temple of Venus (inspired by the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli; see "Images" section), all designed by Ambrose Phillips in the 1730s, are extant. Also standing is the Grade II-listed 1830s red brick Gothic-Tudor style gatehouse. All of this is set in an estate of 1,100 acres.

John Bernard (J.B.) Burke, published under the title of A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, among other titles: Vol. I, p. 2, 1852.

House Listed: Demolished

Park Listed: Destroyed

Past Seat / Home of: Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, until 1543; Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, 1543-63; Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland, 1563-87; John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland, 1587-88; Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland, 1588-1612; Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, 1612-32. George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 1632-83. Sir Ambrose Phillipps, 1683-1706; William Phillipps, 1706-29; Ambrose Phillipps, 1729-37; Samuel Phillipps, 1737-96; Thomas March-Phillipps, 1796-1817; Charles March-Phillipps, 1817-62; Ambrose Charles Lisle March-Phillips-de Lisle, 1862-78; Ambrose Charles Lisle March-Phillipps-de Lisle, 1878-83; Everard March-Phillips-de Lisle, 1883-85; Lt.-Col. Everard March-Phillipps-de Lisle, until 1947; Ambrose Paul Jordan March-Phillips-de Lisle, 1947-63.

Current Ownership Type: Demolished

Primary Current Ownership Use: Demolished

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No