Ickworth House – Dining Room

This is the decadent dining room at Ickworth House, one of the major state rooms in the property which was used for grand dining and located next to the library.

The room is located on the ground floor of the imposing Rotunda and occupies a central position in the property. The whole Rotunda arrangement was initially conceived by its progenitor, Frederick Hervey, the Earl Bishop, as a magnificent gallery, a ‘kunsthaus’ designed primarily to showcase the vast collection of art and antiquities he amassed during his extensive European travels. However, much of this collection was confiscated by Napoleonic troops which was a bit sub-optimal for the whole arrangement. His son, Frederick William, the 5th Earl and later 1st Marquess, inherited the unfinished project and he decided to mostly live in the East Wing, turning this room into one used only for formal entertaining to surprise and delight visitors.

Until 1910, the food was brought up from the East Wing kitchens which were located around 300 feet away, so meals turned up on trolleys rather colder than ideal, so a new kitchen was built underneath this room when the property was reworked and a dumb waiter installed to link them. The family were still living in the East Wing, so these kitchens remained the day to day ones, meaning the new one was designed to just be a Finishing Kitchen used occasionally when these big formal entertaining dinners were needed.