[1] It stands in the south east corner of Clandon Park, a 220-hectare (540-acre) agricultural parkland estate which has been the seat of the Earls of Onslow for over two centuries.

[4] Construction of the house, designed by Italian architect Giacomo Leoni, began about 1730, and the interiors were finished by continental sculptors and plasterers in the 1740s.

After being transferred to the National Trust, the house underwent restoration before it was opened to the public, and later became a wedding venue and filming location for period dramas.

Clandon Park House was badly damaged by fire in April 2015, probably caused by an electrical fault in the basement, leaving it "essentially a shell", with only one room, the Speaker's Parlour, intact.

However, the Trust has since announced in 2022 its intention to restore only the Speaker's Parlour, the external walls, the roof and the windows and conserve the rest of the house in its ruined state while making it accessible to the public.

[11] Clandon Park was landscaped by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in 1776–81, replacing a French garden and transforming part of a disused canal into an ornamental lake.

In 1895, the house was investigated for paranormal activity by John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute and Ada Goodrich Freer on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research.

Elizabeth inherited a plantation called Whitehall in St Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica, and the enslaved workers who worked there, producing sugar and rum.

[17] It was extensively restored and redecorated between 1968 and 1970 by the interior designer John Fowler, who set out to "capture the spirit of the rooms and its period rather than to replicate exact historical detail".

Other pieces were acquired from the National Trust's extensive collections, and notable antiques that had a long-standing association with the property were also bought for display in the house.

[18] By the 2000s, the house contained, among other things, the Ivo Forde Meissen collection of Italian comedy figures,[19] Mortlake tapestries, and other rich textiles and carpets.

Due to its extensive costs of upkeep, the National Trust gained a marriage licence for the property, and it had become a popular local wedding venue.

[20] In their 2012 At Risk Register, English Heritage described the park still owned by the Earl of Onslow as highly vulnerable, with extensive significant problems, and "unsympathetically managed thus affecting the overall integrity of the design and the setting of the house".

[21][23][22] A significant number of items were salvaged, but the house was left "essentially a shell" according to Dame Helen Ghosh, director general of the National Trust,[24] with the roof, ceilings and floors having fallen into the basement, leaving just one room intact.

[30] In January 2016, the National Trust announced that a number of the principal rooms were going to be restored to the original 18th-century designs, and the "less architecturally significant" upper floors were to be fully modernised for holding exhibitions, events and performances.

[33] In December 2017, architects Allies and Morrison were unanimously chosen as the winner of an international design competition to restore Clandon Park House.

[34] In 2022, the Trust announced its intention to drop the previously announced restoration project, on account of few original features surviving, in favour of only restoring the Speaker's Parlour (the only room to survive the fire intact), the external walls and the windows and conserve the rest of the house in its ruined state and make it accessible to the public with new walkways to provide a unique insight into the construction of an 18th century stately home.

[38] The nature of Hinemihi and its meaning for the local and expatriate Maori community in London was explored by Cecilie Gravesen in her experimental film Between Humans and Other Things (2010).

[40] Colonel JW Sewell reached agreement with the National Trust to re-establish the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment Museum at Clandon House.