Tucked behind high flint walls on the edge of the Old Town stands one of Eastbourne’s best-kept secrets. Compton Place is a Grade I listed mansion that has been home to a Prime Minister and the Dukes of Devonshire, hosted kings and queens — and, remarkably, is the very estate on which modern Eastbourne was built. Here’s the story of the great house hiding in plain sight.
Bourne Place: Tudor origins
There has been a great house on this spot for centuries. The story usually begins in 1544, when James Burton acquired the manor, renamed it Bourne Place, and is believed to have built the E-shaped Elizabethan house of brick and flint that still forms the core of the mansion today. In 1644 the estate passed by marriage to the Wilson family, staunch Royalists in a Parliamentarian corner of Sussex, who made it their seat and farmed the surrounding land for generations — a working manor at the heart of what was then a scatter of quiet hamlets called Bourne.
A Prime Minister’s seaside mansion
The house’s golden age began in the early 18th century, when the Wilsons leased — and in 1724 sold — the estate to Spencer Compton, a rising politician and treasurer to the future King George II. Compton renamed it Compton Place and, in 1726, commissioned one of the most celebrated architects of the age, Colen Campbell — the pioneer of English Palladianism — to transform the old house. Campbell kept the Tudor E-shaped plan but remade the interiors in spectacular fashion, with some of the most opulent plasterwork ceilings in England; the famous stucco ceiling of the state bedroom, depicting Venus and Adonis, is a particular treasure. Campbell died before the work was finished, and it was completed in the years that followed, with William Kent among the names associated with it.
Compton himself rose to the very top: created Earl of Wilmington, he became Prime Minister in 1742 — only the second person ever to hold the office — though he died barely a year later. It’s a remarkable thought that quiet Eastbourne has a Prime Minister’s country seat at its heart.
Did you know? A small stucco portrait bust of Colen Campbell, set into the ceiling of the gallery’s bay window, is said to be the only surviving contemporary likeness of the great architect anywhere.
The Devonshire years: the estate that built Eastbourne
In 1782 the house passed by marriage into one of England’s grandest dynasties, when Lady Elizabeth Compton wed Lord George Cavendish of the Devonshire family. The house was smartened up in the Regency style around 1800, its red brick and flint faced in stucco — giving it the elegant blend of Tudor, Georgian and Regency it wears today. Landscape royalty left fingerprints on the grounds too: Charles Bridgeman worked here in the 1720s and 30s, a payment to Lancelot “Capability” Brown is recorded in 1766, and Humphry Repton produced one of his famous Red Books of proposals in 1803.
Then came the transformation that changed everything. The estate descended to William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire — and from 1859 he laid out his great planned resort on the southern part of the Compton Place estate. The elegant squares, terraces and seafront of modern Eastbourne quite literally grew out of this estate’s fields, directed from the estate office here. The parkland north of the house became the links of the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club, founded in 1887 with the Duke as its first president.
Royal guests by the sea
As the Devonshires’ seaside home, Compton Place welcomed some illustrious visitors. King George V and Queen Mary stayed at the house in 1935, bringing the town out in celebration, and Princess Margaret was a guest in 1949. A sadder royal-adjacent moment came in 1950, when the 10th Duke of Devonshire died suddenly at the house. After his death the family’s use of Compton Place came to an end — but the house’s story wasn’t over.
Compton Place today
Since 1954 the mansion has been leased as a language school, and generations of international students have had the surreal privilege of studying beneath Prime Ministerial plasterwork. The house remains part of the Duke of Devonshire’s estate and is one of only a tiny handful of Grade I listed buildings in Eastbourne — its stables and coach houses share the listing, and its parkland is registered in its own right. It sits just south of the Old Town, behind its long flint wall on Compton Place Road, beside the Saffrons sports grounds.
Please note: Compton Place is a private, working school and is not generally open to the public, though occasional guided visits have been arranged through local heritage groups. Please admire the house respectfully from Compton Place Road and the surrounding public paths.
Compton Place: FAQs
What is Compton Place in Eastbourne?
A Grade I listed mansion on the western edge of Eastbourne, near the Old Town. Rebuilt from 1726 for Spencer Compton, later Prime Minister, it became the Eastbourne seat of the Dukes of Devonshire — the family who created the modern resort on its estate.
Can you visit Compton Place?
Not generally — it’s been a private language school since 1954, though occasional heritage tours have been arranged. You can glimpse the house and its parkland from Compton Place Road.
Who owns Compton Place?
It remains part of the Duke of Devonshire’s estate, leased for use as a language school.
Did royalty stay at Compton Place?
Yes — King George V and Queen Mary stayed in 1935, and Princess Margaret visited in 1949, during the house’s years as the Devonshires’ seaside retreat.
Discover more: the Dukes of Devonshire who built Eastbourne, a walk through the historic Old Town, and the full history of Eastbourne.