BBC radio 4’s documentary ‘The Grand House’ presented by the Director of the V&A, visits Clandon Park, among others, to discuss how it is important for such stately homes, under The National Trust, to highlight all aspects of their story, often dark, to engage with a British population of 21st century. Tim Price reports…

 

Clandon Park

Surrey’s Clandon Park was one of England’s most complete examples of a Palladian mansion. Designed by Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni in the 1730s for the Onslow family, the house was renowned for its original stucco ceilings and marble fireplaces. During World War I, it served as a military hospital, and in the 1960s, interior designer John Fowler helped display Hannah Gubbay’s collection of 18th-century furniture and ceramics.

 

The fire and the rebuild project 

On April 29, 2015, a catastrophic fire devastated the house, destroying nearly all of the interiors except for one room. Despite this tragedy, the National Trust launched the ambitious Clandon Park Project, one of its most complex undertakings.

Collaborating with award-winning architects Allies and Morrison, and conservation specialists Purcell, the project aims to carefully preserve and enhance the house.

The restoration plan includes stabilizing the brick and stone structure, conserving the surviving interior, and creating new public spaces, including a rooftop walkway with panoramic views. The Speakers’ Parlour ceiling, which survived the fire, will be restored as a focal point. Modern amenities will be installed, transforming Clandon Park into a site that honours all aspects of the historic legacy.

 

Clandon’s slavery links are part of the story.. and have modern day relevance 

Curator, Sophie Chessum talked to the BBC for their recent series on Radio 4 ‘The Grand House’ and explained how, once completed, it will be important for tours around to the National Trust House to include details of a darker side of its history.

“Scaffolding currently covers almost the entire building” she explains, “apart from the Victorian porch, which is mostly undamaged by fire. And then you go through to this massive marble hall”.

“You can’t escape slavery at Clandon Park, when visitors once came into this marble hall, and when they will again, they can see above the doors two beautiful sculptures of black men. And really those sculptures remind everybody that comes, that the house was built with the proceeds of slavery”.

Sophie says that it is important that the National Trust Volunteers, and in their guide books and website keep that story alive because they have relevance today. “We are now facing slavery in a way that perhaps we thought we never would maybe 20 years ago. It is a current and relevant topic”.

 

The Grand House – Boom or Blight?

The presenter of the Radio 4 programme, Tristram Hunt, current Director of the Victoria and Albert museum, believes that we are coming to an interesting moment in the history of the National Trust. Grand, palatial stately homes were originally built to promote the interest of the wealthy families that owned them, but we, as a nation, are now the owners, and so it is proper and fitting that the narrative of such properties shifts to address the concerns of the public at large.

The programme explains how 1500 houses were demolished in the years up to the 1970s, before Sir Roy Strong and others mounted a dramatic exhibition at the V&A which prompted a change in the tax regime and public opinion.

It goes on to illustrate how great houses have had to evolve to make their money, but how many are in danger once again. Tristram argues that their stories need reframing to attract a new and more diverse audience.

Neil MacGregor, Art Historian and former Director of The British Museum and The National Gallery explains that such grand houses could not have been furnished in the style in which they were without global trade. “Every country house in Britain is the result of centuries of global contact – commercial, military or of course Colonial and exploitative in the ways that we know through slavery” he says, “and because in the last 50 years our population in the UK has been transformed by immigration from precisely those countries with which few were in contact, everyone in the population can find their place in the story of the country house”.

The work going into Clandon Park’s restoration and the way in which the National Trust aims to educate about all aspects of it’s heritage, looks like it could become a prime example of how to make the story of the grand country house resonate with a modern day multi-ethnic audience.

‘The Grand House’ on BBC Radio 4 is available on BBC Sounds: Here

For details about National Trust’s Clandon Park – click here

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