John Simpson Architects were commissioned by Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan to extend and remodel a substantial house near Ascot, Berkshire, Buckhurst Park. Queen Noor is, of course, unusual amongst royal architectural patrons in that she studied architecture and planning at university, receiving a bachelor’s degree in the subject from Princeton in 1974.

Buckhurst Park is a stucco-fronted Italianate house that was much altered in a variety of styles during the later nineteenth century. Simpson added two large wings to the house: a two storey extension at the front which comes forward to frame an entrance court with a colonnaded loggia on the ground floor. This wing is terminated by an ashlar tower that houses a staircase running down to service areas at garden level. The second wing extends the whole width of the house on the other side. Towards the forecourt it presents a powerfully-modelled façade in a language indebted to C.R. Cockerell, featuring an arch rising up into the pediment above. At the rear it ends in a great curving bay with three windows that overlook the garden. Behind these are new reception rooms, including a drawing room in which the plasterwork of the ceiling cleverly combines classical and Islamic details in a single coherent design.