One of a number of streets in the Honicknowle area named after well-known English country houses, Stowe Gardens is named after a the former seat of the dukes of Buckingham and has impressive parks and gardens that were successively fashioned by Bridgeman, Kent and Capability Brown. The house sits three miles north-west of Buckingham itself and was one of the largest English country houses of its day. In 1923 however the late-eighteenth century building was saved from demolition when the house and landscape gardens were purchased for the newly-established Stowe School. The first phase of classrooms and accommodation were designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect who built Portmeirion.
Past pupils include David Niven, Lord Cheshire, Lord Boyd-Carpenter, Christopher Robin Milne (of Winnie the Pooh fame) and, more recently Richard Branson. Since 1989 the National Trust has looked after the gardens, the school retaining full access.The name itself – Stowe – generally means an inhabited place or a holy place and appears in many combinations, both as a suffix and a prefix; eg. Chepstow, Felixstowe and Stowford, Stowmarket.
