William Waldorf Astor

William Waldorf Astor, the owner and commissioning mind that created Two Temple Place, brought many influences to this extraordinary building.  Despite its Tudor-Renaissance look, Two Temple Place was built as the epitome of Victorian notions of progress and science with central heating, alarm systems and electric lighting. The bronze lamps at the main entrance look historical and were clearly designed to gain their green, aged patina. Yet look at the imagery he uses. The putti are on the telephone, holding a lightbulb and using the telegram machine that would have been the essential tool of Astor’s long-distance management of his business in the US.

Astor’s business interests meant that he would always have been aware of cutting-edge technology and would have had the means to purchase it. Yet so much of his energy was directed at his historic properties and collections. Two Temple Place was merely the beginning. He took his team of architects and craftsmen on a 20-year programme: from Two Temple Place to Cliveden to Hever combining all mod cons with historical renovation, recreation and sometimes outright invention. His own children saw his schemes for his properties as central to his happiness and sense of self: “depending on his powers of creative imagination rather than on personal contacts and companionship for his real interests in life” (his daughter Pauline Astor).