Strawberry Hill - Horace Walpole's Gothic Castle is now open
Published on:08/10/2010
Until now, Strawberry Hill House in leafy suburban Twickenham has been rather difficult to visit. Not any more: one of the most extraordinary houses in England, it has undergone a remarkable feat of painstaking conservation thanks to funding by the Heritage Lottery fund, English Heritage and the World Monuments Fund amongst many others. Members of BIID donned hard hats in June to see the work in progress on one of the most remarkable examples of Georgian Gothic revival architecture in Britain, being undertaken by Inskip and Jenkins, conservation architects.
Horace Walpole, son of England's first Prime Minister and man of letters, transformed a smaller existing building into this Gothic fantasy of towers, battlements and rooms of highly decorated ceilings, fireplaces, cabinetry and coloured glass windows. But it was in the details that even the more modernist could find inspiring. Pocketed internal shutters allowed the beauty of the ornate windows to be seen uncluttered during the day, hidden at night, sliding from their unseen recesses. Beautifully engineered brass latches invisibly recessed into the shutters' edge would delight the most minimalist designer today. Work had revealed elegant copperplate handwriting penned directly onto a wall by an early (and chilly) craftsman in January 1857 which showed the weather to be "cold but no fires allowed." We marveled at the ornate library, where books were concealed behind wide but delicate arched gothic joinery panels, which swung out, slightly alarmingly, across the room to allow access to the books, before swinging effortlessly back into place over the spines of Walpole's collection.
Everywhere earnest young people were wielding scalpels over more recent wallpapers and paints, revealing delights beneath. Paint sampling carried out by expert Catherine Hassall had revealed a fragment of grey paint on the walls to the staircase. How delicious to climb the stairs painted in this subdued hue and to then be surprised by explosions of colour and light at the next floor.
The wonderfully modest Peter Inskip gave an in depth explanation of the research which had gone into the conservation work before leading us around the house and up on to the roof. Everywhere workmen and women were still involved with the restoration work which is optimistically due for completion on Walpole's birthday, the 24th September. As Walpole is quoted to have said:
"I have carpenters to direct, plasterers to hurry, papermen to scold, and glaziers to help: this last is my greatest pleasure: I have amassed such quantities of painted glass, that every window in my castle will be illuminated with it: the adjusting and disposing it is vast amusement".
One hopes the specialist builders, Bowman & Sons found the same amusement in meeting this more recent deadline.
Our thanks are due to Christopher Vane Percy who meticulously organised the visit and persuaded the eloquent Peter Inskip to take time out to talk to us only hours before flying to America where he is working on Louis Khan’s gallery at Yale.
Diana Yakeley, President Elect, Education and Professional Practice Director