Charleston Farmhouse East Sussex Home of The Bloomsbury Group
My visit to Charleston House was my second. The first time I visited, which was around seven years ago, the public were forbidden to take photographs. Although I was blown away by the house, which is the most inspirational house I've ever been in, it was hard to take it all in and remember the many small details that make this house so special. So visiting this time, with the photo ban lifted, was an amazing opportunity to really capture the details and decoration that I felt are so special without having to just rely on seeing images that are available online. The main rooms and pieces of decorated furniture have been well documented, but there are so many other features which haven't, such as Virginia Woolfs straw summer hat, sitting on top of one of the beds or the bath panel painted, in it's more recent history in 1969, by one of Duncan Grants friends Richard Shone.
Just to give a little context and history to the house and the people who lived there, if you haven't visited or are aware of it. Charleston Farm house is a 17th Century farmhouse in the village of Firle, just off the A27 outside of Lewes in East Sussex. It was found in 1916, by Virginia Woolf, who was at that time living in Monks House not far away, for her sister Vanessa Bell and her lover Duncan Grant to rent. Vanessa was escaping a marriage that had become platonic and both her and Duncan Bell and their wider circle of friends, who were arists, writers and historians, were conscientious objectors to the war and by renting the house, both Duncan Grant and his other lover Richard Garnett (bare with, all will be explained) were able to become employed as farm workers and escape going to war or prison for their objections to war.
During the first world war Charleston House became a haven for the menage a trois and their artistic friends to escape the constraints and strict morals of London life. They were experimental in both their art and their relationships. Although Duncan Grant stayed in a relationship with Vanessa Bell for many years, having a daughter together, he continued to also have male lovers, of which she was aware. The term often coined about the Bloomsbury group "They lived in squares, painted in cirlces and loved in triangles" perfectly conjures up their formal London life with their informal life in Firle.
When Roger Fry came into their lives, by forming a relationship with Duncan grant, the three of them, Vanessa, Grant and Fry, started their own furniture and design business Omega Workshops.
After the first world war ended, their many visiting friends left and went back to Europe and London, although the couple continued to rent the farmhouse for the next 20 years, inviting their many creative friends, such as E M Forster, T S Eliot & Benjamin Britten, back for the summer. Over this period, every surface within the house became a part of their art. Each piece of furniture, the walls and ceramics, were painted with flowers, circles, dancing nymphs, transforming the most basic utilitarian objects into something totally elevated and unrecognisable. The house is filled with paintings, books, inherited pieces of antique furniture brought down from the London house. There are sculptures, painted panels and doors, lamp shades and screens everywhere. Duncan Grants studio remains untouched with art supplies and bottles of alcohol scattered on the surfaces. The range of colours and patterns used is so uplifting and original and if you're ever in need of some creative inspiration, it is an unrivalled place to visit.
It remains the most enriching and individual house I've ever visited, without a hint of pretension and the atmosphere of the fascinating people who lived there remains as though they have just nipped into the garden to pick some flowers to place into one of their painted vases, before coming back in to start entertaining again.