Kenwood House, south-side Façade

Kenwood is a masterpiece created by the famous 18th-century Scottish architect Robert Adam. He extended the house and designed many of the rooms – with the star attraction being the Great Library. This façade faces Hampstead Heath on the south side. Adam’s adaptation from 1764 to 1779 of an existing building for his client, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, led to the addition of the impressive colonnaded portico on the north front, and the celebrated south front (and terrace).
On the west side of the house is an orangery, probably built in the 1740s by Lord Bute. Adam’s addition of the library to the east of the south elevation, with the same volume as the orangery, was an ingenious way of providing a symmetrical façade.