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Harewood House in 2005, seen from the garden

Harewood House from A Complete History of the County of York by Thomas Allen (1828–30), showing the house before Barry altered the facades and added an extra storey to the pavilions.

Harewood House (pronounced /'hɑːwʊd̜/ as if written Harwood) is a country house near Harewood, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of Treasure Houses of England, a marketing consortium for the ten foremost stately homes in England. The house itself is a Grade I listed building, there are a number of features in the grounds and courtyard that have been listed as Grade II and II*.

The house was built from 1759 to 1771 for the Lascelles family, who had bought the estate after making their fortune in the West Indies through Customs positions, slave trading and lending money to planters. The house was designed by the architects John Carr and Robert Adam.

Much of the furniture is by the eighteenth century English furniture designer Thomas Chippendale, who came from nearby Otley.

Lancelot "Capability" Brown designed the grounds to which Sir Charles Barry added a grand terrace, in 1844.^[1]

Artist Thomas Girtin stayed at the house many times, painting the house itself and also the surrounding countryside and landmarks, such as the nearby Plumpton Rocks which at the time was owned by the Harewood Estate.^[2]

Harewood house has a long history of taking visitors interested in its imposing architecture, and collections of paintings. The first guidebook to Harewood House was published early in the nineteenth century.

The house served as a convalescent hospital during both World War I and World War II.

The house is still the family home of the Lascelles family. Lord Harewood, George Lascelles, is the seventh Earl. His mother was Mary, Princess Royal, daughter of King George V and Queen Mary.

The estate has been transferred into a trust ownership structure, and as a result is managed by Harewood House Trust and is open to the public most of the year. Harewood won a Large Visitor Attraction of the Year award in the 2003 national Excellence in England awards^[3]and remains a popular Yorkshire tourist attraction. As well as tours of the house and grounds, visitors can enjoy the Himalayan Garden and its stupa, an educational bird garden, an extensive adventure playground and catering facilities.

There is often debate as to the exact pronuciation of the word 'Harewood'. In the eighteenth century, the customary pronunciation (and spelling) was Harwood ^[1] and this pronunciation for both house and title is still used by Harewood House. Nevertheless, the typical pronunciation nowadays is Harewood.

1. ^ ^{a b} Mauchline,M. (1992) Harewood House. One of the Treasure Houses of Britain. Asbourne: Moorland Publishing Co Ltd.
2. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
3. ^ Harewood House website. Harewood Card Newsletter. Autumn/Winter 2003-04[1] retrieved 01 December 2006.

• Official site
• Harewood House weddings, Official site

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