Spring 2010 Spring monumentum Strawberry Hill Forever Peter Inskip on the challenge of restoring Horace Walpole’s gothic pile 3 Making light work: St George’s adopts a classic chandelier 9 Project updates: from the Pella tombs to St Paul’s Cathedral Plus: Spring lecture: Kevin McCloud on new lives for old buildings WMF Britain Chairman James Hervey-Bathurst Peter Stormonth Darling has concluded an invaluable role as Acting Chairman of WMF Britain for which he Message from the Chief Executive deserves our enormous gratitude. His ultimate aim was to secure a Chair of the best calibre, which has 2010 is an auspicious year for World Monuments will be speaking for us at the RGS in October. Our been realized in James Hervey-Bathurst. Fund: it’s the organisation’s forty-fifth anniversary and fundraising for Stowe is yet to be completed, and James is heavily involved in the heritage the fifteenth year of WMF Britain’s mission to secure we would welcome any help. sector and was President of the Historic Houses a vital future for historic sites in, or related to, the UK. In July of this year, the Strawberry Hill House Association from 2003–2008. He is also a Vice We mark the occasion with the first annual summer project will be complete, presenting the restored President of European Historic Houses. party on 9 June thanks to the wonderful support Horace Walpole interiors six years after Watch James runs his family business in the Midlands, of Radisson Edwardian hotels; and we present an listing and with a WMF investment of a million centred on Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire: www. even better year of activities for WMF members, dollars. The Strawberry Hill Trust has achieved eastnorcastle.com. In his earlier career, he qualified generously sponsored by our friends Symm. I hope a remarkable success, which we celebrate in as a lawyer, after graduating with a degree in Law you’ll choose to join us – details are, as usual, listed at this issue with a fascinating article by the project from Trinity College, Cambridge. He worked in the the back of this copy of Monumentum. architect Peter Inskip and on 9 March with a Middle East Department for Kleinwort Benson and Our main activity – our practical conservation conference at the V&A followed by a site visit to then as a recruitment consultant. work – continues to deliver as great a public benefit view work in progress. Access and interpretation He was appointed a CBE in the 2009 New Year’s as possible. Nowhere is this more evident than at are key to this restoration, which will transform Honours List for services to the built heritage and cur- Stowe. This year, the excellent refurbishment of the our view of Walpole, and the importance of his rently serves on the DCMS Tourism Advisory Council. library and east wing offers skills training for young architecture, whilst revealing its clarity and beauty. We are delighted to welcome James and look masons. We have also teamed with Stowe School Meanwhile, the 2010 Watch list has forward to his long and prosperous governance. and Kidscape in creating a summer retreat to generated some excellent UK-related candidates encourage the talents of severely bullied children. across the British Isles and as far as Mexico, and At the same time, we’re looking forward to the we continue to explore ways of helping these, Save the date! first fruits of a yearly Stowe Scholarship with Yale and other, sites in need. But we do so in our WMF Britain announces its Summer Party on 9 University and the Paul Mellon Centre, which will, in fifteenth year without the help of a dear friend and June at The May Fair, Stratton Street (off Piccadilly). turn, provide the research to inform an imaginative supporter: Isabel King, who died on New Year’s The venue and canapés are generously provided interpretation scheme planned for the house. Day having served as a valued trustee of WMF by Radisson Edwardian. WMF Britain’s supporters, The National Trust is an excellent partner at the Britain. This issue and the work represented in it and International Council, Capital and Keystone site, responsible for Stowe’s unrivalled landscape are dedicated to the memory of Isabel. members plus a guest are all invited as an upper- garden which provides the setting for the house. In level membership benefit; Foundation members are 2011 the NT will present the gardens via a restored Jonathan Foyle equally welcome, and may purchase reserved tickets eighteenth-century visitor centre, and I’m delighted [email protected] at £30 per head. All members will receive more that the NT’s public-spirited Chair Simon Jenkins information in due course. Stowe school partners World Monuments Fund Britain Ltd Chairman: Mr James Hervey-Bathurst with kids charity A light for 2 Grosvenor Gardens Chairman Emeritus: The Viscount Norwich London, SW1W 0DH Chief Executive: Dr Jonathan Foyle Telephone: +44 (0)20 7730 5344 Trustees: Ms Linda Bennett, Mrs Charles Brocklebank, WMF Britain is delighted to have brokered a Fax: +44 (0)20 7730 5355 Dr Lois de Menil, Dame Vivien Duffield, partnership between Stowe School and Kidscape Email: [email protected] Dr Amin Jaffer, Mrs Mortimer Sackler, to provide an exciting and innovative anti-bullying Website: www.wmf.org.uk Mr James Sherwood, Dr Christopher Tadgell, St.George’s Charity number: 1126578 Mr Pierre Valentin, Mr Peter Stormonth Darling programme in June 2010. The weekend residential Registered company number: 6730565 programme based at our major project Stowe In December 2009, WMF and the St. George’s Restoration has brought renewal for St Designed and produced by: Staff: Cultureshock Media, www.cultureshockmedia.co.uk House will provide a unique environment for children Bloomsbury community celebrated the successful Georges. Its crypt has been leased to a theatre Projects Director: David Gundry who have been bullied to learn assertive skills and installation of a unique seventeenth-century group, whilst new Concerts Programmer, Mark Finance Director: Ewa Manias Cover image: develop confidence by the input provided by the chandelier, the centrepiece of a new lighting scheme Summerbell, has offered The Orsino Ensemble PA, Membership/Events & Office Manager: Sarah Meaker Strawberry Hill’s Long Gallery in process of restoration Development Consultant: Cathy Giangrande three partners. Peter Bradley, Deputy Director of the that will illuminate both the interior and exterior of a 2-year residency. Formed in 2008, the Orsino Photo credits: children’s charity Kidscape said, “This partnership the church, including the wonderful Lion and Unicorn Ensemble is a new and exciting group of London- Cover © Richard Houlttum/WMF Page 3 © Richard Houlttum/WMF project is an excellent example of how three diverse sculptures on the steeple. based musicians playing Romantic and early 20th Pages 4–7 Images 4, 6 and 9 courtesy of charities can work together to achieve a creative The brass chandelier was made in the Century chamber music, ideally suited to a church The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University response to working with vulnerable children.” If you Netherlands c.1690 and before arriving at the church setting. The group have one of London’s finest Page 7 Image 7 © Williams Jennings Page 9 Pella Tombs, © CICOP Hellas, 2009 like to help with modest transport costs for children on a long loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, it spaces for a venue: they are seeking a sponsor for © St Paul’s Foundation, 2009 and their families please let us know used to hang in their grand entrance. An entertaining their programme. Page 11 Kevin McCloud © Glenn Dearing [email protected] time lapse film of the installation can be seen at www. 2 wmf.org.uk/resources/films/installing_the_chandelier Peter Inskip is the principal The house Walpole architect of the project to acquired in 1747 restore Strawberry Hill Observations have proved that the small house House in Twickenham. Walpole leased in 1747 was more distinguished than Strawberry had previously been understood from a sketch that WMF Watch listed in 2004, he made in his old age. The external render hid a and recipient of $1 million late seventeenth-century house, possibly extended in about 1720, with a handsome elevation of dark of funding via the WMF bricks with bright red quoins, plat band and window Hill Forever Robert W. Wilson Challenge dressings. Inside, pre-Walpole panelling has survived behind later decorations, and in the best parlour to Conserve our Heritage, the ghostly outline of a set of pictures, perhaps 1 Strawberry Hill will open to Hogarth’s engravings of The Rake’s Progress, has indicated how the building was arranged in the early the public in September 2010. eighteenth century. It was this house that Walpole first made more This article marks the half-way point in the comfortable with minor alterations to the breakfast restoration of Horace Walpole’s villa at Strawberry room designed by William Robinson. Despite his Hill. The house turned out to be in as bad a state commenting later that the chimneypiece was as everybody had anticipated: Walpole built not “truly gothic,” it was perhaps the first gothic economically with timber-framed external walls element to be introduced to the house he renamed covered in render, and years of inappropriate Strawberry Hill and it survives in situ; its finials were cement-based repairs trapped water, causing removed to make way for a late nineteenth-century serious decay. The careful dismantling, repair and overmantle, but these have been found in a second reconstruction of the whole of his Great Tower is floor bathroom and can be reinstated. now behind us, as is the repair of the complex roof.