Southill has been the home of the Whitbread family for over 200 years. The house was bought in 1795 by Samuel Whitbread I from Viscount Torrington, whose unfortunate uncle, Vice-Admiral the Hon John Byng, was shot at Portsmouth in 1757 for an error of judgement whilst in Command of the Fleet. The earliest known owner of Southill was Sir John Kelynge, “a violent Cavalier”, who succeeded Hyde as Lord Chief Justice in 1663. His son sold the property to Admiral Sir George Byng, later Viscount Torrington. Samuel Whitbread I died in 1796, a year after buying Southill and his son, Samuel Whitbread II, a prominent Whig politician, employed Henry Holland to rebuild the existing house. Holland was the fashionable architect of the day; he reconstructed Carlton House for The Prince of Wales (later George IV) and other examples of his work may be seen at Woburn, Ampthill, The Swan Hotel in Bedford, and at Althorp. 

Today, Southill stands very much as it did in 1806, the year of Holland’s death. Much of the decoration is as Holland left it and most of the furniture was designed by him for the rooms in which it stands.

Tickets £26 including tea/coffee and biscuits after the tour.

Please see our cancellation policy below:
If you cancel more than two weeks before the tour is scheduled to take place, we will fully refund your ticket money excluding any phone booking fees. If it’s less than 14 days before a tour, for any reason, we regret that we cannot refund your ticket money unless we can resell your ticket(s). If we cancel at any time, we will fully refund your ticket money. Although we make every effort to avoid it, sometimes a tour has to be cancelled at short notice due to circumstances beyond our control. In this case, we cannot accept responsibility for, or refund, any consequential losses, such as money spent on travel or accommodation.