Designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam, it was built, between 1759 and 1771, for Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, a wealthy West Indian plantation and slave owner.

The combined estate was sold to the London merchant Sir John Cutler in 1696, after whose death it passed to the Boulter family.

Adam made a number of minor alterations to Carr's designs for the building's exterior including internal courtyards.

[4] The house remained largely untouched until the 1840s when Sir Charles Barry was employed by Henry Lascelles, 3rd Earl of Harewood, the father of thirteen children, to increase the accommodation.

Barry added second storeys to each of the flanking wings to provide extra bedrooms, removed the south portico and created formal parterres and terraces.

[17] The Leeds Country Way passes through the Harewood Estate, to the south of the house and lake, as does the route of The White Rose Way.

In a 2005 documentary, David Lascelles spoke about his ancestors' links with the slave trade,[18] and in 2007, as part of the BBC Look North programme, actor David Harewood visited the house and interviewed Lascelles, as his ancestors in Barbados had been enslaved by the Earls of Harewood.

[26] The popular ITV show Victoria starring Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes has filmed at Harewood House.

Birds that could be seen in the garden included Humboldt penguins, Chilean flamingos, Duyvenbode's lories and macaws.

The trustees said that the last inspection had "identified many problems with the site's physical infrastructure" which would require £4 million to be spent, and they "had to make the incredibly difficult decision to close this part of the Harewood experience".