Tottenham House

April 2016 | England | Renovated

There has been a house on the site of Tottenham House since the 15th century but the present Palladian mansion dates from 1812-1815 and was designed by architects Thomas Cundy Sr and Thomas Cundy Jr. The present house was built for Charles, 1st Marquess of Ailesbury, around the central core of a 17th century Classical house designed by Lord Burlington, a relation of the Ailesburys. The mansion is quite frankly vast, incorporating numerous beautifully decorated state rooms. The house is the ancestral home of David Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan, who recently lost a legal battle with the estate trustees after the Brudenell-Bruce family fell upon hard times. The trustees had wanted to sell Tottenham House and 200 acres of parkland and finally managed so in late 2014 via court of appeal.

Since 2004 the house has been unheated and unoccupied and quite literally left to decay. It was recently bought by the businessman Jamie Ritblat who is the CEO of the property developer Delancey. As of 2019, Ritblat sold the house – it was bought by a London billionaire banker to become his residence and has been renovated as of 2025. I say “renovated”… overhead imagery showed significant demolition work around the orangery and service wing. There are various derelict buildings in the grounds: Grade 2 Listed 51 Horse Stable Block (clock tower collapsed in Summer 2019), an old greenhouse, a collapsing chapel, various Georgian dwellings and a fantastic walled garden laid out by Capability Brown.

The Explore:

This was one of the first explores I ever did, way back in 2016. As such, at the time the photographs I took were absolute rubbish so quite frankly removing most them is for the best! I have kept some photos of the stables and such as those are halfway decent despite being shot on a Fujifilm bridge camera. I managed to revisit the site twice in 2021 with two friends – the first time I didn’t have my camera but the second time I did and my goodness was I glad. Considering my lack of photography skills in 2016, I was gutted in the years after that I would have lost out on this one. However, I am at least glad to have surviving photos of Tottenham.

Nota bene regarding the photos – some will be of lower quality than others. That is because I recovered them from direct messages. I lost most of the originals after a hard drive crash. Enjoy what remains…!

Stables and Walled Garden:

Mansion Exterior:

Entrance Hall and Stairwell:

Music Room:

Library:

Other Rooms: