‘Keep the momentum going’
KNEBWORTH HOUSE presents an architectural conundrum. The building is Tudor, yet bats and gargoyles stare from a stucco façade crowned with turrets and battlements. The additions were made in about 1813 by Elizabeth Bulmer-Lytton, with further alterations by her son, Edward, the novelist, of ‘It was a dark and stormy night’ fame. Inside, the house is deceptively shallow, belying the grand exterior. ‘There used to be four wings,’ explains the Hon Martha Lytton Cobbold, ‘but Elizabeth demolished three sides, to simplify the house and make it more manageable. It was a survival thing.’
