An imperial cottage

Farnborough Hill, Hampshire The property of the Farnborough Hill Trust The Empress Eugénie of France died in exile 100 years ago in July 1920. In the first of two articles, Anthony Geraghty looks at the house she adapted as the final seat of the French Second Empire

- Anthony Geraghty

THE visitor who ventures beyond the roundabouts and dual carriageways of modern Farnborough will quickly encounter the remnants of an extraordinary 19th-century estate that played an important role in the history of Europe. Farnborough Hill (Fig 1) was the principal home of the Empress Eugénie, the Spanish widow of Napoleon III. She lived there from 1880 to 1920, and it was in Farnborough that she built a Mausoleum to receive the remains of her husband, the last Catholic sovereign of France, and her only child, the Prince Imperial, who was killed in 1879 when fighting with the British Army in the Zulu War. The Mausoleum—described in next week’s issue—remains the only official monument to the French Second Empire (1852–70).

The estate was sold after Eugénie’s death. The imperial collection was broken up, and the house became a school; it has since been much extended. Yet the historic interior that Eugénie created in the 1880s survives at its core, lovingly preserved by the school.

The house itself dates from 1860 and was originally built for Thomas Longman, a rich publisher. His architect was H. E. Kendall Jnr (1805–85), a specialist in country houses and lunatic asylums. It sits on the brow of a hill, with fine views to the east. The principal rooms are located in the main block, dominated by its tower, and the service areas (mostly rebuilt by the Empress) are located in an adjoining wing (Fig 2).