Upton House House

Upton was built on the site of an earlier house in the reign of James II for Sir Rushout Cullen a wealthy London merchant.

The Restoration house was constructed from orange-gold local stone and the long entrance facade has a baroque broken pediment. Two rainwater heads have the inscription 'RC1695' marking the year the house was completed.

Over the years Upton House passed through many hands without notable incident until it was bought in 1927 by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted. He had inherited the fortune amassed by his father, who built up the Shell Organisation from its small beginnings in the late 19th century to a large international corporation.

Lord Bearsted, a great philanthropist, employed Percy Morley Horder to completely remodel the interior of Upton House to display his exceptionally fine collection of paintings and porcelain. Only the staircase remains from the 17th century house and Horder's reworking transformed Upton into one of the most luxurious houses of the 1920s. However, his alteration to the exterior of Upton House was sympathetic to its 17th century origins.

Lord Bearsted's art collection provides the principal interest in Upton House.

The paintings include examples from the British, French, Dutch, Flemish, German, Spanish and Italian schools. There are works by such notable artists as Stubbs, Hogarth, Brueghel, Fouquet, Bosch, El Greco and Canaletto . The collection of china and porcelain is also comprehensive. There are many rare Chelsea figures and a number of excellent Sevres pieces.

Upton also has a set of Brussels tapestries depicting the 'The Hunts of Maximilian' and the furniture includes a fine mahogany suite.

In 1948 Lord Bearsted gave his collections together with the house and gardens to the National Trust.

The 31 acres of gardens are full of character.

Terraces linked by an Italianate balustraded stairway added in the 1930s overlook a formal lake. There is a wilderness-like bog garden in a natural amphitheatre ringed by woods to the west of the house. A classical temple by Sanderson Miller is built above a larger lake. The mellow brick wall of the 17th century kitchen garden still has carries espaliered fruit trees