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THE future of Strawberry Hill, the 18th century home of Horace Walpole, has been safeguarded with the announcement of a £4.6million grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund today.

The award, plus £370,000 development funding, will help finance an eagerly-awaited £8.2 million restoration project.

The announcement was met with delight from the house's friends who have been working to restore the 'little Gothic castle' back to its former glory.

Before he died in 1797, Horace Walpole had transformed the Twickenham building into a celebrated Gothic masterpiece. He said of his creation: 'My buildings are paper, like my writings and both will blow away in ten years after I am dead.' Although it survived 200 years beyond his prediction, Strawberry Hill's pinnacles and traceries, constructed of wood, stucco and papier mch, are now in a perilous state of disrepair.

Its vulnerability was recognised in 2003 when the World Monuments Fund included it on their list of '100 Most Endangered Sites in the World.' It featured in the second series of BBC2's Restoration and is on English Heritage's 'Buildings at Risk Register'.

Michael Snodin, chairman of the Strawberry Hill Trust said: "This is wonderful news for the future of Strawberry Hill. We will now be able to work towards the restoration of the building and garden, bringing Walpole's 'little gothic castle' back to its former glory and making it a place everyone can visit and enjoy."

Sue Bowers, the Heritage Lottery Fund's (HLF) manager in London added: "The importance of Strawberry Hill to our architectural heritage cannot be over-emphasised and without this project, its future was looking extremely bleak.

"The Heritage Lottery Fund is committed to investing in our historic buildings so that more people can enjoy them and we're very much looking forward to seeing Strawberry Hill restored to its full splendour."

As well as safeguarding the future of Strawberry Hill and its gardens, the HLF grant will enable the Trust to extend considerably the villa's opening hours and develop an education programme.

The house was a popular tourist site in Walpole's time, when visitors were drawn by its magical interiors, fireplaces and gilded ceilings built to resemble mediaeval tombs and vaults, as well as Walpole's extensive collection of curios.

It then became a centre for great political receptions in the ownership of Lady Frances Waldegrave in the 19th century and is now under the stewardship of St Mary's University College.

Strawberry Hill receives considerable local support through its Friends Group and has a core of supporters in the US. The World Monuments Fund is backing the campaign to raise a further £3.5 million to ensure the project can go ahead.

It is hoped the work will be completed in 2010, to coincide with a major exhibition on Horace Walpole and his collections to be shown at the V&A Museum and the Yale Center for British Art at New Haven.

Twickenham MP Vincent Cable said: "I am absolutely delighted that this magnificent piece of British and Twickenham heritage has received the support it deserves.

Local campaigners have done a magnificent job in putting Strawberry Hill house on the map and I hope, as a result of the support, it will now receive the public interest it deserves."

Arthur Naylor, principal of St Mary's College, added: "We are delighted with the news. St Mary's has worked closely with the Strawberry Hill Trust to reach this stage and we are ourselves committing £1.4 million towards the project and its longer term sustainability".

10:36am Friday 30th September 2005

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