Lauderdale House is an arts and education centre based in Waterlow Park

Waterlow Park

Waterlow Park is a park in the south east of Highgate Village, in North London, England. It was given to the public by Sir Sydney Waterlow, as "a garden for the gardenless" in 1889....

, Highgate

Highgate

Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....

 in north London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. As an arts centre, it runs an extensive programme of performances, workshops, outreach projects and exhibitions.

Lauderdale House was one of the finest country houses in Highgate and was originally built in 1582 with a timber frame. In 1645 it was inherited by the Earl of Lauderdale

John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale

Sir John Maitland, 1st Duke and 2nd Earl of Lauderdale, 3rd Lord Thirlestane KG PC , was a Scottish politician, and leader within the Cabal Ministry.-Background:...

 (hence its name) and in 1666 it was visited by Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 and Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

, while Nell Gwyn

Nell Gwyn

Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn was a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England. Called "pretty, witty Nell" by Samuel Pepys, she has been regarded as a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of...

 is said to have lived there briefly in 1670.

It was converted to a neoclassical

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 style in 1760, and John Wesley

John Wesley

John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...

 preached here in 1782, and in 1882 the then owner, Sir Sydney Waterlow

Sydney Waterlow

Sir Sydney Hedley Waterlow, 1st Baronet, KCVO was an English philanthropist and politician, principally remembered for donating Waterlow Park to the public as "a garden for the gardenless"....

, the famous printer, donated it 'for the enjoyment of Londoners'.