TheDuke of Richmondis in a hurry. It’s a sunny spring afternoon at the historic Goodwood Estate, and his glossy black Mini Cooper is kicking up dust as it flies down the road between immaculately manicured emerald lawns. Awaiting his arrival, I watch the scene from a first-floor window in the Kennels, an 18th-century compound crafted specifically to house his ancestors’ foxhounds in ultimate luxury. Nowadays, it serves as a deluxe clubhouse for the members of various Goodwood associations, including their canine companions (who can join for £65).
“It’s a very grand building, you know – the most luxurious dog house in the world,” the Duke (also known as Charles Gordon-Lennox) proudly boasts when he arrives, plonking himself down in a lovingly battered leather armchair. Surrounding us, portraits of distinguished doggies adorn stone walls, and artfully designed kennels nestle seamlessly among tasteful furniture; the entire property is an upper-crust ode to the British obsession with dogs.
We are meeting to discuss Goodwoof, a lavish dog festival that is due to take place at the Kennels on May 16 and 17. “We’ve got pet masseurs flying in from LA to massage the dogs,” the Duke says in his distinguished vocal fry, clearly amused. “There’s dog yoga and pilates, a place to dance with your dog that we call Ministry of Hound, and instead of Norland nannies – the fancy nannies for your children – we have Gnawland Nannies for VIP guests. We’ll take your dog away for a bit and give you a rest.”
He laughs, well aware of how absurd this all sounds. “The puns are terrible and endless. We keep coming up with these potty things, but anyway, it’s fun.”
Since taking on the management of the family’s country pile in the 1990s, the enterprising Duke has turned it into a multimillion-pound events compound – an aristocratic playground of sorts, playing host to, among other things, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, a pulse-racing car rally, and Goodwood Revival, a classic car and vintage fashion showcase.
This is the fifth year of Goodwoof, and the Duke says they are expecting more than 13,000 canines. I suspect it will require a lot of doggy bags. There will also be a dog-and-owner fashion show, Chien Charmant, with prizes provided by Hermès for “the best six legs”.
“There’s no dress code at Goodwoof, it’s outdoors. But we’d rather people made a bit of an effort. I’ll definitely wear a suit,” he says. Known for his dapper tailoring, “casual” is not a word in the Duke’s sartorial vocabulary, though he apologises for being underdressed today (his crisp suit jacket, shiny cufflinks and the gleaming chunk of silverware on his wrist say otherwise).
The events list continues: there’s “Barkitecture”, a kennel design competition among world-renowned architects, co-curated byGrand Designs’Kevin McCloud. (The theme this year is “dogs in space”, in honour of the late photographerMartin Parr’s rather eccentric collection of Russian space dog memorabilia.)
Then there are tarot card readings,children’s book readings by Michael Morpurgo, and vets and trainers available to get Rover on his best behaviour. If you keep your eyes peeled, you might also spot the Princess of Wales’s brother,James Middleton, cycling round the grounds with a basket full of pups. He and his black spaniel Ella are regulars at the event.
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If it all sounds like circus pageantry, then so be it; the Duke is the Savile Row-suited ring leader. With human birth rates on the decline in Britain and dog ownership on the up, ourcanines have become like furry children, and it seems we’re content to spoil them accordingly; the UK pet care market is now a multi-billion-pound industry.
Despite the theatrics, Goodwoof continues a proud history. “We wouldn’t do anything at Goodwood that isn’t authentic,” says the Duke. “The house was started because of the fox hunt.” Up until now, he’s been leaning back and experiencing the full support of the chair, his legs loosely crossed, and I do get the sense I’m meeting him in the comfort of his own home. But as he switches gears from levity to legacy, he tents his fingers authoritatively: “Anyone serious in London society would have been hunting at Charlton, a mile away; the first Duke of Richmond bought Goodwood House because of that.”
But it was the third Duke who really started spoiling the hounds in 1787 when he built the Kennels. Famously, 100 years before the main house had central heating, he had it installed in the elaborate dog house to the tune of £6,000 – that’s approximately £1.2m today. Described as plates of iron heated by fire, the system was essentially an Aga for dogs. A “Daga”, if you will.
Today, instead of a warm bed and immortalisation in a grand oil painting, hounds get a custom water bowl that comes with membership to the Kennels and access to state-of-the-art beds like the one byrenowned architect Norman Foster, the brain behind the Gherkin and the Millennium bridge. “I think he spent a fortune making it,” the Duke tells me with a conspiratorial smile. We’re standing with our heads cocked, contemplating a geodesic tortoiseshell of a kennel crafted in the finest cherry wood. It was a runner-up in the Barkitecture competition of 2022.
The Duke himself grew up with lurchers (“fantastic for hare hunting”) and kept rescue dogs during his younger years in London. But these days, he continues the family history of keeping spaniels with eight-year-old cocker Lito: “She’s a working cocker, but poor thing, she hasn’t been trained at all. We feel bad about that.”
Her sidekick is Winston, a yappy dachshund. “He was bought in Covid and is actually my daughter’s dog, but now she’s away working in London, so we’ve got him. In Britain, we completely indulge our dogs. They’re like members of the family.”
His commitment to these words was put to the test recently, when Lito needed a life-saving operation. I ask how much it cost, and he puts his hand to his brow. “Thousands and thousands,” he sighs. “We thought we had pet insurance, and then didn’t. But there wasn’t a moment of hesitation.”
Even the aristocracy isn’t immune to the shock of unforeseen veterinary fees, it seems. The difference, of course, is that for some ordinary dog owners thebill can prove prohibitive, which might explain why shelters are now seeing a rise in pet abandonment. Arecent study, published in the journalAnimals, found that in the UK and Republic of Ireland, the number of stray dogs entering shelters jumped from 16,310 in 2021 to 23,287 in 2023, and the rate of euthanisation in that group rose from 1.9 per cent to 6.3 per cent.
Acknowledging this crisis, the Duke has made Battersea Dogs & Cats Home Goodwoof’s official charity partner. Money raised from the auction of the “Barkitecture” kennels will go directly to the group, while the Duke will also marshal a morning parade of rescue dogs, kicking off the festivities by journeying from Goodwood House to the Kennels.
Perhaps the image of the Duke leading an oompah band and a lineup of dachshunds through the woods – as he did at last year’s Goodwoof – is a slight evolution from the aristocrat thundering by on horseback, preceded by a pack of foxhounds. But if there’s one thing the British upper crust is willing to let its stiff upper lip relax into a smile for, it’s the dogs.
TheDuke of Richmondis in a hurry. It’s a sunny spring afternoon at the historic Goodwood Estate, and his glossy black Mini Cooper is ki...
