In 1931, it was leased to Peter Mazzina, a friend of John Maundy Gregory, the political fixer who also claimed to be a spy. It has been suggested that Maundy Gregory was behind the venture, which would add a further layer of irony to Deepdene’s history. The Hopes of Deepdene had always wanted peerages. Here now was Maundy Gregory, the man who extracted thousands of pounds from those led to believe he could secure them honours from Lloyd George.

In 1939, the Directorate of Lands and Accommodation added Deepdene to its list of properties that could be requisitioned. Now connected by both rail and road to the capital, it was seized upon as a communications hub for the Southern Railway Company. 

“When Southern Rail came in 1940, they discovered this network of caves and tunnels and made them a lot larger,” says restoration project manager Alexander Bagnall, pointing at the newly-polished arches on the east side of Deepdene’s parterre. Charles Howard, who owned Deepdene in the 17th century, had used the caves as an “Elaboratory”, as John Evelyn called it, in which to conduct experiments. In one, he pioneered the growing of saffron.

Deepdene served its purpose during the war. A number of operations — including aspects of Dunkirk — and battles were planned from both the caves and the main house. Some would say that the damage the house endured in the process was worth it. Others would disagree, for by the end of the war the condition of the property had changed irreparably.

England, too, had changed. So many houses had been left to ruin, so many heirs to them had died. Death duties on estates over £200,000 had risen from 40 per cent in 1919 to more than 80 per cent. Many had little choice but to leave them to the asset-strippers. As at Deepdene, however, there were sometimes longer-term causes which contributed to the decline. Neglect and overreaching were not confined to the war. Shortly after Disraeli left office in 1880, having finally achieved his more enduring premiership in 1874, a series of Settled Land Acts was passed to assist landowners in the sale of entailed land, precipitating the end of many more country estates.

Having just about survived the 19th century and two world wars, Deepdene was auctioned off. Some of the surrounding territory went to the council, and some became a golf course. The house fell into the hands of developers who, in 1969, did their worst and demolished it.

Ralph Vaughan Williams was among those who stepped in and succeeded in saving some of the garden, including the Hope terrace, which has now been restored. The landscapes today are more alive than they have been for almost 100 years.

The two main buildings left at Deepdene serve as bookends to the story. One, standing on the site where Thomas Hope once kept his home, is a 1970s concrete office block, the headquarters of Kuoni Travel. The other, situated at the opposite end of the new trail, is the Hope mausoleum. The last member of the family to have been interred there was the eighth Duke of Newcastle, the man who frittered so much away.