As the MP for Hythe Philip Sassoon commissioned Sir Herbert Baker to design the house in the Cape Dutch architecture style.

"Tilden's job was to enlarge Port Lympne and to make it, in his words, "no more of the modest weekend home, but rather the epitome of all things conductive to luxurious relaxation after the strenuousness of war.

Internally the ground floor of the passageway, from east to west is decorated with patterned black and white marble in varying concentric curves with a barrel-vaulted ceiling.

Tilden added a bachelor's wing with Moorish courtyard, which Lady Honor Channon, (wife of Henry Channon), unkindly described as a Spanish brothel[6] to accommodate young airmen from nearby Romney Marsh flying field – among his other enthusiasms, Sir Philip was himself an aviator – and Tilden's twin swimming pools and monumentally classical garden staircase, a grand flight of steps, crowned with temples (letter removed), led up the cliff at the side of the house were in much the same theatrical spirit.

The great border which is 135 yards (123 m) in all was dug over twice by hand and piled with 200 tons of Elephant dung and were redesigned and replanted with 2,500 herbs and shrubs with the advice of Russell Page.

[citation needed] The main drive to the mansion was from the east gate (opposite Otterpool Lane) so visitors could enjoy views towards the Romney Marsh.

Royalty Edward, Prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson, the Duke of York[13] Lord Louis Mountbatten, Lord Curzon, Lord Rocksavage, who was married to Sybil Sassoon, Philip's sister and a Romanian aristocrat, Princess Marthe Bibesco, a prolific author of novels and memoirs; another novelist, Alice Dudeney; George Bernard Shaw, and Osbert Sitwell[14] Giles Lytton Strachey, a British writer and critic; Sir Harold Nicolson KCVO CMG, an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician along with the writers Vita Sackville-West; Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes and Maurice Baring.