The original South Hill Park mansion was built in 1760 for William Watts and his wife (better known as Begum Johnson) for his retirement from service as a senior official of the Bengal Government.

[1] The house was originally on two floors, built in the Italian manner, decorated with stucco, with a front entrance and tower in the baroque style.

Canning served under Foreign Secretary William Pitt, and both Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time of his death in 1827.

Lady Haversham was still in residence in 1920, when she erected a marble tablet in Easthampstead Parish Church as a memorial to 62 men who lost their lives in the 1914–18 war.

Due to a fire towards the end of the 19th century, the house is sometimes said to be haunted, especially the modern Studio Theatre area which is located on the site of the nursery.

[citation needed] During the Second World War (1939–45) the house was occupied by the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital, evacuated from Margate.

In 1972, a proposal to convert the house into an Arts Centre with an additional theatre was agreed, with the intention that the immediate surrounding gardens, lawns, trees and two lakes would be preserved.

Before being completed in 1984, the 330 seat Wilde Theatre was first proposed after South Hill Park became an arts centre, and has since drawn many people to the area.

[3] A new Dance Studio and Bar extension, along with additional dressing rooms, rehearsal and storage space, were added to the theatre in 1988 and 1989.

In 2011, Bracknell Forest Borough Council undertook a £4.4 million restoration of South Hill Park's historic grounds with funding from a National Lottery grant award.