Harewood House
Photo Courtesy of Sarah Swinney
John Carr was the first architect of HH, designing both the exterior and the layout. Robert Adam took over, providing the interior decorations. In many rooms you can still see his work in the ornate ceilings. Thomas Chippendale, then an unknown, was commissioned for the majority of the furniture, much of which remains in the house. Much of the furniture was also designed to coordinate with Adam’s designs, and you can see this in repeating patterns echoed from ceiling to chair to rug in certain rooms. HH is also home to Chippendale’s most famous piece, often referred to the Diane and Artemis Commode. Capability Brown designed the original landscape; however little of it remains.
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside, so I strongly encourage you to google the aforementioned people, especially Robert Adam, and the famous Chippendale Commode. If you can find pictures of the interior of HH, you will have a better idea of what I mean.
We met with the head house guide a few hours before they opened for a private tour. Unfortunately, the curator with whom we were supposed to meet was called away to a meeting at the last minute, and we were not told until our arrival. This was especially discouraging, as there were many questions the house guide simply could not answer.
Still, she was rather knowledgeable, and we learned many things about how HH is run during our tour. They receive about 200,000 visitors annually during their open season, a number they view as optimal: too many visitors and the house begins to show more wear, too few, and the house doesn’t make enough money. It would be interesting to know how they decided on 200K as the optimal number though.
They try to keep their tours groups to about 8 – 10 people, although the house is open at the same time for self-guided tours. For the latter type of visitor, there are tour sheets available in every room. Actually, I have seen a lot of laminated tour sheets in historic homes here, which is something I think more houses should practice in the US, as it’s more environmentally friendly. There are also audio tours available for purchase, and the voice over is actually Lord Harewood himself, and visitors seem to think this adds a little bit extra to the interpretation.
I think that it’s important that the guides acknowledge the role of slavery in the building of Harewood House, as it was largely funded by sugar plantations in the Barbados. At many historic homes this is often brushed aside and ignored.
We toured the entire house, but I would like to focus on two things, both involving restoration. The first is the Chinese wallpaper, originally in the Chintz bedroom. It was removed during the Victorian period as it fell out of fashion. (Please google it, it is amazing!) After being found in a barn (or some such building), in excellent condition, it was decided to put it back up, in order for the public to see. Unfortunately, as the Chintz bedroom is still part of the private quarters of the current Lord Harewood and his wife, the wallpaper could not go there. It was instead placed in one of the downstairs bedrooms. Of course, some changes had to be made, due to the differences in sizes and placements of fireplaces and doors. The piece of wallpaper they were forced to cut out was preserved, and where extra wallpaper was needed the conservators made digital photographs of pieces of the wallpaper and blended it quite seamlessly (no small feat, as the wallpaper is not repeating, but rather like one big picture). What was nice is that the guides make a point of explaining the conservation work, and its importance. We also saw the Chippendale bed in the stateroom, which was also found in storage and restored using a Heritage Lottery Fund Grant. I am sure you can google both of these objects to find out more (and for pictures).
A few of the other rooms have been made into exhibition rooms, currently showcasing some of the family’s fine porcelain. Another room is also changed periodically, with the theme this year being Australia. It was quite a contrast to see modern paintings and textiles juxtaposed with the Chippendale furniture, but it was nice to see the family branching out, and continuing to show their collection, which has not stopped growing.
The family was hit hard by Death Duties several times during the 20th century, and the Harewood Trust was subsequently formed in the 1980’s. So although the family still occupies quarters upstairs, they no longer technically own the house. This is the case with several of the great country houses now.
Their next conservation project will be the restoration of Adam, a Jacob Epstein statue in the entrance hall. It spent time in a traveling pornographic peepshow before the current Lord bought him and moved him to HH.
Here I am creating a circle of duck food around myself, hoping to attract some mallards.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Swinney
There were many other beautiful birds, quite a few of them from tropical regions, and I felt kind of sorry for them. They must have been freezing.
Actually, overall HH was very child-friendly. I am noticing that most of the museums here are, although I’m not sure why that is. I think in America we tend to see some of the finer arts museums as “adults only”, while allotting more space in places like discovery centers and natural history museums. Maybe this is because museum directors and boards do not think young children can appreciate fine art, or will detract from other viewers’ viewing pleasure….I don’t know. What do you think?
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