Help us raise £30,000 to bring back one of the most iconic features of Horace Walpole’s historic garden.
Strawberry Hill House & Garden is launching an appeal to recreate the Shell Seat, one of the most visually arresting and evocative features of Horace Walpole’s eighteenth-century garden. Designed as a place for rest, conversation and delight, the Shell Seat formed part of Walpole’s celebrated “land of beauties” — a landscape shaped by imagination, sociability and theatrical effect.
With your support, we can ensure this extraordinary garden feature endures for generations to come.
This ambitious project will employ cutting-edge digital mapping technology from Factum Arte to design and create a faithful, weather-resistant replica based on the original eighteenth-century drawings, ensuring the seat endures for future generations.
The Shell Seat was conceived around 1754–56 by Richard Bentley, Horace Walpole’s close collaborator and later a member of his celebrated “Committee of Taste”. Carved by William Robinson, it took the form of a monumental half-clam shell — a striking example of eighteenth-century fascination with natural forms transformed into architectural ornament.
Originally positioned on Walpole’s “sweet walk” in the south-west corner of the garden, the bench was carefully oriented to frame a breathtaking view of the River Thames. It was both a visual spectacle and a place of sociable retreat, designed to contrast the house’s Gothic “gloomth” with an enlivening garden experience.
Its impact was immediate. Writing after a visit to Strawberry Hill in 1759, Sir George Montagu recalled:
“There never was so pretty a sight as to see all three of them sitting in the shell.”
The original Shell Seat was lost following the dispersal of Walpole’s collection after the great sale of 1842. A full-scale replica, constructed in oak using laminated techniques, was installed during the major restoration of Strawberry Hill between 2007 and 2010.
After fifteen years exposed to the elements, this replica is now in a serious state of disrepair. Without intervention, the Shell Seat — once a centrepiece of Walpole’s garden design — risks being lost once again.
To secure the future of the Shell Seat, we are working with Factum Arte, internationally renowned specialists in digital heritage documentation and historically informed reconstruction.
Using advanced 3D digital mapping, they will create an exact digital record of Bentley’s original eighteenth-century design. This will allow us to produce a new seat that is: faithful to the original, constructed using durable, weather-resistant materials, and designed to endure in the garden for generations to come.
Strawberry Hill House has worked closely with Factum Arte and its sister organisation, the Factum Foundation, a not-for-profit dedicated to digital preservation, for over a decade. Over this time, they have created numerous facsimiles for Strawberry Hill, helping to restore Horace Walpole’s dispersed collection to the house.
These include major works such as Joshua Reynolds’s The Ladies Waldegrave, portraits of Horace Walpole and his family, and a wide range of miniatures, drawings, and decorative objects recorded from collections including the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale University, the Scottish National Gallery, and the British Museum.
The Shell Seat restoration builds naturally on this long-standing collaboration and shared commitment to research-led, imaginative reconstruction.
This restoration will also stand as a lasting memorial to Derek Purnell, who served as Director of Strawberry Hill House from 2020 to 2024, and tragically died last year.
Derek believed deeply that Strawberry Hill was not a static monument, but a living, imaginative place where house and garden work together to tell a story. He spoke often of the Shell Seat, recognising it as one of those rare objects that instantly captures the imagination and opens a doorway into Horace Walpole’s creative genius.
Restoring the Shell Seat is a fitting tribute to Derek’s vision: not a plaque or a monument, but a living, functional part of Strawberry Hill’s continuing story.
If you would like to find out more about the campaign please contact Charlotte Savery at Charlotte.Savery@strawberryhillhouse.org.uk
