Horace Walpole leased a seventeenth-century house at Twickenham in May 1747, renamed it Strawberry Hill and rebuilt it to his own specifications. John Chute designed most of the exterior, and James Essex completed the Beauclerk Tower in 1776. The article gives conflicting purchase years, 1748 and 1749. The article calls it the prototype of the Strawberry Hill Gothic style.
The exterior has battlements, towers, turrets and an irregular plan. Inside are gilded ceilings, large fireplaces and carved wooden screens, meant to create what Walpole called gloomth for his antiquarian collection. The house cost about £20,720.
The 1842 Great Sale stripped most of the contents. St Mary's University College bought the house in 1923. A two-year, £9 million restoration led to its reopening on October 2, 2010. It won the 2013 Europa Nostra award.
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