A heated pool, tennis court and orangery: Inside Chequers, the country retreat for British prime ministers
Chequers was gifted to the British state in 1921 and has been the country escape for each prime minister ever since, reports Ellie Muir
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Your support makes all the difference.While the UK’s Prime Minister is automatically given the option to live in Number 10 Downing Street when they begin their tenure, there is a much larger, more lavish house that they are also entitled to stay at.
Chequers, the Prime Minister’s official holiday residence, is a 16th-century manor house outside of London. The countryside holiday retreat has come under the spotlight in recent weeks after it was reported that Boris and Carrie Johnson hosted a close friend at Chequers while some coronavirus restrictions were still in place.
The former prime minister and his then-pregnant wife are said to have invited corporate events organiser Dixie Maloney to the Buckinghamshire country mansion on 7 May 2021.
At the time, indoor gatherings between different households were banned except when “reasonably necessary” for reasons such as work or childcare or to provide care or assistance to a vulnerable person, including someone pregnant.
But what is Chequers, who owns it, and what is it like inside?
Chequers has been the official second home of serving prime ministers since 1921. It is a 16th-century, Grade I-listed, manor house near the village of Ellesborough in Buckinghamshire.
The house is surrounded by 1,500-acre lawns and has an impressive art collection that has been donated to by prime ministers over the years, as well as a huge collection of Oliver Cromwell memorabilia.
It has an indoor heated swimming pool, orangery, tennis courts and a large, regal-style walled garden.
Prime ministers are said to have to pay for personal entertaining at Chequers out of their own pocket, but they are free to use and stay at the estate, especially for state affairs.
During the coronavirus lockdown in 2020, Johnson spent time recouping from contracting the virus at Chequers. Now it has been claimed that he hosted a wedding planner at the residence when coronavirus restrictions prohibited mixing between households.
Johnson also hosted a baby shower for the then-pregnant Carrie at Chequers with more than a dozen of their friends, six weeks before the birth of their son Wilfred at the beginning of March 2020.
Then-prime minister David Cameron hosted a 40th birthday party for his wife Samantha at the residence in 2014, inviting 200 guests. Among the guests were Jeremy Clarkson and Helen Bonham Carter.
It has often been a place for state visits and for the prime minister to retreat to. Winston Churchill famously made his World War II radio speeches from the mansion’s Hawtrey Room during World War II, while later, Margaret Thatcher hosted US vice president George H W Bush and his wife, Barbara, at Chequers in 1984.
Queen Elizabeth II also visited the residence on several occasions.
The estate with built-in 1565 by the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, William Hawtrey, but is thought a manor house may have existed on the site before. It was handed over to future prime ministers by donation in 1917 by owner Sir Arthur Hamilton Lee, who reportedly said the house would help leaders relax after their “strenuous and responsible labours”.
In the 19th century, renovations to the house restored it to a neo-gothic style, with the Tudor panelling and windows ripped out, and battlements with pinnacles installed instead.
Toward the end of the 19th century, the house passed through marriage to the Astley family. Military lieutenant Bertram Astley restored the house to its Elizabethan origins, with the advice of Between 1892 and 1901, Bertram Astley restored the house to its Elizabethan origins, with advice from architect Sir Reginald Blomfield, and the design work was completed by another architect, John Birch.
In 1917 Viscount Lee of Fareham sought parliamentary approval for the house to become a weekend retreat and place for prime ministers to entertain guests. It was given full effect in the Chequers Estate Act 1917.
Since 1921, when Prime Minister David Lloyd George became the first prime minister occupant, his successors typically have spent time there during their terms of office, and working ministerial weekends at Chequers have become a part of British political life.
A stained glass window in the long gallery of the house commissioned by Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham, the home’s previous owners, reads with an inscription: “This house of peace and ancient memories was given to England as a thank-offering for her deliverance in the great war of 1914 to 1918 as a place of rest and recreation for her Prime Ministers for ever.”
The lavish house is thought to be named after the chequer trees that grow on the estate and is roughly 41 miles from 10 Downing Street.
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