Henrietta Howard’s historic Georgian villa to open to public after restoration

Decades of disrepair reversed at Marble Hill, home built on the Thames for king's mistress and court society figure

There is a greater court now at Marble Hill than at Kensington," the poet Alexander Pope wrote in 1735. Now, the historic Georgian villa in west London belonging to Henrietta Howard, the Countess of Sussex, is to reopen following decades of ruin.

Though mainly known as King George II's mistress, Howard was a remarkable woman in her own right, overcoming personal adversity to become a looming figure in Georgian court society and a member of a dynamic circle of writers and wits.