South Hill Park is a English country house and its grounds, now run as an arts centre. It lies in the Birch Hill estate to the south of Bracknell town centre, in Berkshire. History Construction by Watts The original South Hill Park mansion was built in 1760 for William Watts and his wife (better known as Begum Johnson) for his retirement from service as a senior official of the Bengal Government. The house was originally on two floors, built in the Italian manner, decorated with stucco, with a front entrance and tower in the baroque style. The grounds included of common land, which William Watts enclosed. In return he built almshouses on a site opposite Easthampstead Parish Church about half a mile away. The almshouses were eventually demolished by order of the Marquess of Downshire in 1826. Other private owners After the death of Watts, the Honourable Henry Bouverie lived in the house until 1787. He was followed by Sir Stephen Lushington until 1807, when George Canning, the celebrated statesman, acquired the property. Canning served under Foreign Secretary William Pitt, and both Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time of his death in 1827. Sir John Soane modified the house during this time. The Earls of Limerick were the next owners, around the time of the Easthampstead Enclosure Award of 1827. Kelly's Post Office Directory shows that Sir James Matheson, who made his fortune trading in China as Jardine, Matheson, was in residence in 1847. In 1853 he sold the estate to Sir William Goodenough Hayter, the Judge Advocate General. In 1868, South Hill Park was referred to in Cassey's Directory as "one of the principal mansions in the neighbourhood of Easthampstead". Hayter lived there until his death in 1878, when he drowned in one of the ponds. Kelly's Directory of 1883 contains a description of South Hill Park, referring to it as the seat of Lady Hayter, "a compact residence of brick faced with cement, standing in a park of in which there are four lakes; the private gardens are very beautiful, being laid out in terraces". Sir William Hayter's son, Sir Arthur Divett Hayter, later Baron Haversham, rebuilt most of the mansion towards the end of the 19th century, in brick and Bath stone, incorporating one wing of the original house. Architect Temple Moore (1856–1920) was commissioned to remodel the house in 1891 and the