A Design Pilgrimage – Charleston House & The Exhibition – Post Impressionist Living: The Omega Workshops
First Impressions – Resplendent on a grey day
The fabled Charleston House is more than just a beautiful historic building, with a fascinating past. Charleston is the most complete Bloomsbury Interior left standing, and portrays beautifully the interiors of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, two key members of the Bloomsbury Group, who lived at the property from 1916 and was occupied by various friends and family for another 64 years. Charleston has remained as it was in the 1950’s, a place in which the beautiful surroundings are breath-taking, a simple way of life was lived, with art taking precedence over comfort.
We visited Charleston on a very grey Thursday in October, we drove from London In uninspiring drizzle and hours of traffic on the M23, hoping to be inspired, and for a bit of Bloomsbury eccentricity and fabulousness to draw us in and shake us up. We rounded the path from the car park and it suddenly came into sight, the most picture-perfect Georgian house in front of a lily pond, unaltered and unmodernised looking absolutely resplendent, even in the October gloom. We found out as we joined the house tour, that our visit coincided with the exact time of year that Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant first visited the house and took on the lease in October 1916, so we were seeing it similarly to how they would have, in the misty, grey autumn light, but still falling for it’s charms.
Downstairs at Charleston
We entered the house, accompanied by our guide and were ushered into the first room of our tour, Clive Bell’s study after he moved to the property in 1939. We took in the beautiful colours on the walls and the beautiful painted details, most notably on the door and shutters. There is a rather grand desk in this room, one of the finer pieces of furniture in the property which contrasts beautifully with the more hand hewn and looser artistic feel of the rest of the space. The room is piled with books and paintings and one could spend hours looking at these alone.
We moved into the next, and perhaps most memorable room of the house, the dining room. Unbelievably, the room seemed to glow, even in the grey weather and very low light, the inky dark walls with simple geometric stencilled design absolutely sung. Our guide explained that the stencilling was no afterthought, Duncan Grant meticulously planned it so that all the pattern matched exactly, it could almost be mistaken for a wallpaper. The very matt finish and the ‘glow’ is attributed to the chalk paint used. There is a fabulous round dining table sat right in the centre of the room, which had a charming scalloped pattern stencilled on it in cheerful colours and worn by the usage of the many notable guests that sat around the table over the years. The table was accompanied by simple caned chairs in a rich rust colour. The design was completely timeless and something that would work well in so many interiors today.
The Bedrooms (and a bathroom)
We made our way upstairs to have a look at the bedrooms. First visiting Vanessa Bell’s one-time bedroom with it’s very charming painting of her Lurcher, painted by Duncan Grant. Next was a rather sweet bathroom with an elaborately decorated bath panel and walls painted a strong arsenic green. It really looked all quite comfortable, it’s nice to see how bathrooms once were, not all floor to ceiling tiles and sanitised, but feeling more like a decorated room, definitely food for thought when designing.
We visited Clive Bell’s then Maynard Keynes Bedroom, both with beautiful notable pieces. Clive Bell’s room sported a hand decorated corner wardrobe and bed adorned with a colourful mural which contrasted with the muted walls. Keynes’ room included the most wonderful table, painted with almost a camouflage pattern on it but in bolder colours. The bedrooms were certainly less showy than the downstairs spaces, and despite the huge amount of decoration definitely felt restful.
Duncan Grant’s room was spectacular, with a beautifully restored carpet in front of the fireplace which our guide had worked on herself. She explained in detail the long process they went through, sampling, getting the colours right and gaining approval from the family as to exactly what was done, truly showing the efforts and rigour in preserving the unique work and interiors of Charleston House. The murals on the doors in this room felt almost summery, even in the fading light at this time of year and brought a real warmth to the space. Downstairs again we were shown the space which became Vanessa Bell’s latter bedroom, converted from a cold larder in use before the house gained electricity, but with spectacular views over the painterly garden.
The Garden Room and Studio
The last of the domestic rooms we saw was the garden room. It felt much fuller than the other spaces, and interestingly would have been lit only by table lamps, the fireplace and candles with no overhead lighting, which I can imagine worked very well in the space. The walls were painted an unusual drab grey with pretty stencilled paisleys. Not being a fan of grey tones, it was interesting to see how this colour was used with such vibrant accents on the screen and the murals. It made the room feel shadowed, but atmospheric.
We moved into the final space, the studio, and were greeted with the most magnificent light after the cool atmosphere of the Garden Room. The space is truly a spectacle, full of the ephemera of all the artists who used this space to paint and create. We could have spent hours in this space alone looking at all the details and bits and bobs left behind. The bright but flat north facing light was quite clearly perfect for painting in. As with most rooms in the house, it features a fireplace, very elaborately decorated by Duncan Grant. It is quite easy to see how any number of artists could have spent hours painting and creating in here, it felt really very inspiring, and although highly decorated it wasn’t distracting. This space felt the most alive, as if Duncan or Vanessa had just walked out the room a moment ago and would be returning shortly to paint.
The Exhibition – Post Impressionist Living: The Omega Workshops
As well as the wonderful house itself there was also an exhibition on the Omega Workshops which were founded by members of the Bloomsbury Group in 1913. Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant were the directors of this enterprise that sought to remove the ‘false divisions between the decorative and fine arts’. From their base in Fitzroy Square the Omega workshops created an incredibly wide body of work including murals, mosaics, stained glass, furniture and textiles.
The influence of Modern art, specifically the Post Impressionist, Cubist and Fauvist movements are keenly felt in the bright colours and simplified forms used in the designs. Each piece produced was sold anonymously – they were never signed by the particular artists that made them only the Omega symbol, the intention being that they were bought solely for the quality of the work.
The exhibition includes vibrant textiles, rugs, hand painted furniture and artworks. The textiles and rugs in particular feel incredibly ‘modern’ in their use of abstract forms and bold colours. That being said our favourite pieces have to be the incredible cane dining chairs made for the group by the Dryad Company of Leicester. Their simple lacquered pine frames and delicate cane work would feel at home in any design led 21st Century interior and will certainly inspire bespoke pieces we design for future projects.
The work of the group was never intended for the masses who took an original approach to promotion;
‘We should get all your disreputable and some of your aristocratic friends to come – and after dinner we should repair to Fitzroy Sq. where would be decorated furniture, painted walls etc. Then we should all get drunk and dance and kiss. Orders would flow in and the aristocrats would feel sure they were really in the thick of things’.
Despite the support of an exclusive circle of friends the workshops closed in 1919 with a dejected Fry commenting somewhat dramatically that ‘The utter indifference … of the public to what we have attempted has brought Omega to disaster’. Hopefully Fry would take some comfort in the knowledge that 100 years later the ethos and works of the Omega Group continue to be source of inspiration and joy for people all over the world.
We aren’t quite the Bloomsbury Group, but Howark Design offers high quality, professional design services for projects throughout the UK and Europe (and even further afield if required!). Please get in touch with us should you wish to discuss your project or find out more about our services.