Philip Hill bought the Victorian home and grounds in a state of disrepair in 1942 for £40,000 (equivalent to £1,560,000 in 2023). Later the Royal Family bought the renovated Sunninghill Park house and park from Hill. He renovated the house in 1944. It was rented furnished from his widow, Mrs. Warwick Bryant, for Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh between 1947 and 4 July 1949.[2]
The house has by design four reception rooms including a reception hall, dining room, a 50-foot (15 m) drawing room, and a Chinese room. Other room names during the royal tenure included a study, games room, and loggia and five main bedrooms. The nursery comprised two guest rooms joined.
The house bore with it 58 acres (0.23 km2), largely of light woodland in the acidic heath of Surrey Heath on the elevated Bagshot Formation (Bagshot sands).
To the north and west is (in Berkshire) part of Swinley Forest lying in the Crown Estate, separated by the Ascot to Guildford Line from its heart. To the south is Erl Wood Manor European research laboratory established in 1967 for Eli Lilly and Company, a USA-based pharmaceutical company.[3] To the south-west corner across the minor train line is a private racecourse and to the east are smallholdings and gardens of detached homes such as Windlesham Hill Farm which is divided into three. A 21st-century care home has been established on part of the former farm.
