Kingston Lacy was gifted to the National Trust in 1981, the largest ever bequest at the time. This ‘treasure trove’ of a house, fashioned into a grand Italian Palazzo in the 1830s, holds one of the UK’s finest private collections of paintings. Among other things to see are lavishly decorated interiors, magnificent sculptures, bespoke furniture, and Egyptian artefacts brought back by the intrepid traveller William John Bankes.
William John Bankes inherited Kingston Lacy in 1834; his passions and obsessions created the house we know today. Forced into exile in 1841 he lived in Venice and remotely remodelled the house. However, Kingston Lacy is much more than a house and art collection; it has a garden that was celebrated in the early 20th Century as a horticultural masterpiece.
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