Property Of The Week – The Balfour, Whittingehame House, Haddington

20.06.22

An exquisite apartment in one of the UK’s finest neoclassical mansions, once home to former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, has come to the market for offers over £2.4m.

Whittingehame House in East Lothian has played host to royals, aristocrats and famous writers from King Edward VII – who planted an oak tree in the grounds – William Gladstone, Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George to HG Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle.

The 1917 Balfour Declaration, outlining British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was reputedly signed in the lavish library which forms part of The Balfour, but Whittingehame House boasts an educational history as well as a political pedigree. At one point, it became the Whittingehame Farm School for Jewish refugee children fleeing Nazi Germany for Britain through the Kindertransport rescue programme at the start of World War Two and later served as Holt School for Boys which closed in 1980.

The A-listed mansion, which sits in over 16 acres of landscaped gardens and parkland, was completed around 1817 by architect Sir Robert Smirke, who was also responsible for the British Museum in London.

The four-bedroom Balfour is the largest apartment in the house, featuring 9,000sq ft of stunning architectural detail and fabulous state rooms including a lavish music room and a breathtaking library/billiard room that offers an incredible entertaining space. Also of note is a gorgeous conservatory bathroom with a luxurious rolltop bath from which you can watch the stars and a grand summer house with a Neoclassical temple-style veranda.

Mark Cullerton, managing director of estate agency Cullerton’s, said: “Whittingehame House is one of the finest of its kind, a truly special mansion house that is redolent with history. This, the principal apartment, is rich in period elegance, grandeur and stately detail, making it a very desirable property. Yet as luxurious as the Balfour is, it is also a warm and welcoming home and has few of the overheads associated with a house of this nature.”

Easily accessible from Edinburgh and close to Dunbar which is on the East Coast Main Line, Whittingehame House is also well placed for residents to enjoy the many things to do in East Lothian, from golf, sailing and other outdoorsy activities to the National Museum of Flight, the Scottish Seabird Centre and various festivals as well as many good restaurants and pubs.