Elegant and ornate, the Lady Violet room is an oasis of calm, with plenty of natural light, decorative corners and period features, its charming cruciform layout providing the ideal backdrop for all manner of events and special occasions.
The room was named in honour of Lady Violet Bonham Carter and celebrates the achievements of Liberal women; and as well as the main portrait of Lady Violet herself, it includes a portrait of another influential Liberal peer, Baroness Nancy Seear, and a 1988 centenary plaque for the Women’s Liberal Federation.
Lady Violet was a lifelong Liberal campaigner, and the daughter of H. H. Asquith. In an age when there were few women politicians, Lady Violet was a determined, uncompromising, outspoken figure, and later in life she came to be regarded as a feminist icon. She lived in Downing Street for over a decade while her father was Chancellor and then Prime Minister, and after an early infatuation with her lifelong friend Winston Churchill, Violet Asquith married Sir Maurice Bonham Carter.