A Regency prospect

Belmont House, Kent The property of The Harris (Belmont) Trust

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A Georgian house rich in military associations is now run by a trust. Steven Brindle looks at its history and the remarkable architect responsible for its design

BELMONT is a Georgian creation. Its name, relating to its elevated position and extensive views, was coined by the first builder of a house on the site, Edward Wilks, the storekeeper at the Royal Powder Mills in Faversham, Kent. Successive owners thereafter, including five generations of the Harris family, were soldiers and colonial administrators, so its history is bound up with that of Britain as a military and Imperial power. Outwardly, however, the character of the house—which was built in its present form by Samuel Wyatt (1737–1807)—belies this martial connection, for it is gentle, bucolic and domestic, with not a battlement in sight. It is two storeys high and a soft yellow colour, with broad, relaxed proportions, exuding the elegant, precise modernity of the 1790s. There is no domineering portico or giant order of pilasters (Fig 1).

"Belmont is the best place to study the work of this underappreciated Georgian"