Contemporary Interior Design

• Posted on 11th November 2010 by Nicola Holden

In the mid to late 1700’s, when most other architects were partaking in the Grand Tour of Europe, and bringing back Neo-Classical architecture to England, the politician, writer and collector Horace Walpole (1717-1797) was creating his summer villa in the Gothic revival style!

Strawberry Hill is indeed a ‘little Gothic castle’, created to provide a theatrical experience for visitors.  And that it certainly does.  Although Strawberry Hill has re-opened to the public, its restoration is not quite complete, and there are still rooms that are not yet open for exploring.

My visit to Strawberry Hill started in the sm gloomy hall which is lit from above by two small windows, and by a Gothic lantern of tin japanned. On each corner of the balustrade is an antelope holding a shield.

Going up two flights of stairs takes you into the Library – a large room whose walls are almost entirely covered in pierced work Gothic arch bookshelves.  Unfortunately all of the books, along with most of Walpole’s other possessions, were sold in the great sale of 1842, and so one can only image this room full of books.  Other than the bookshelves there is an ornate chimney piece, a large window displaying fine painted glass, and of course the door into this room.  As you walk round Strawberry Hill it becomes apparent that Walpole ‘borrowed’ design from lots of different sources.  The design of the bookshelves is taken from a side door case to the choir in Dugdale’s St Paul’s.  The chimney piece design is a combination from the tomb of John of Eltham Earl of Cornwall, in Westminster Abbey, and the stonework from that of Thomas Duke of Clarence, at Canterbury.  The Library is also home to a grandly painted ceiling reflecting Walpole’s coat of arms, his ancestors and his links to the crusaders.

Back on the first floor, one of my favourite rooms is the Holbein Chamber – so named because it used to display Walpole’s collection of copies of Holbein drawings.  This room is painted a regal purple, and is first glimpsed through the pierced arches of a screen inspired by the gates of the choir at Rouen.  The walls contrast beautifully with the magnificent white ceiling, taken from the Queen’s dressing-room at Windsor, and the chimney piece, inspired by the tomb of Archbishop Warham at Canterbury.

From there you pass through the Trunk Ceiled Passage, known as ‘the dusky corridor’ as it is lit only by a sky-light window at the end of the passage. The light streaming through an open doorway on the left draws you forward through this space, and into the Gallery.

The Gallery is a truly magnificent room 17m long, 4m wide and 5m high.  The walls are hung with a bold crimson Norwich damask, and the room is lavishly gilded.  This Gallery was the first of Walpole’s great state rooms, and at the time would have been filled with paintings and other works of art.  Once again Walpole has taken inspiration for a variety of sources – the ceiling from one of the side aisles of Henry VIIth chapel at Westminster Abbey, the great door copied from the north door Saint Alban’s, and the side with the recesses from the tomb of Archbishop Bourchier at Canterbury.

From the Gallery you enter the Round Drawing Room, again hung with crimson Norwich damask.  After the grandeur of the Gallery, this room is fairly simple, but still boasts painted glass windows, a beautiful chimney-piece of white marble inlaid with scagliuola and a ceiling inspired from a round window in old Saint Paul’s with frieze designed by Robert Adams (who I wrote about in a previous blog).

The Great Parlour, the Tribune, the Great North Bedchamber and the Beauclerc Closet are still not open to the public, although I did manage to snatch a quick peek of the Tribune with its gilt-embellished ceiling leading up to a yellow glass star inspired by the chapter-house at York.

Horace Walpole has certainly done a wonderful job at pulling together all of the different elements of design that he admired, and combining them to form this magnificent Gothic castle that is Strawberry Hill.  His building evolved over time, with no fixed plan from the beginning, and features added as Walpole saw fit. As the man himself said, ‘I begin to be ashamed of my own magnificence.’!

I would definitely recommend a visit, although I would suggest that you wait until the summer of 2011 to ensure that you are not picking your way around the restoration works.

“Men are often capable of greater things than they perform – They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.”
Horace Walpole

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• Posted on 31st August 2010 by Nicola Holden

Seen from the outside, Leighton House Museum looks like a fairly ordinary, red Victorian house – built using red Suffolk bricks with Caen Stone dressings in a restrained classical style. But, as soon as you step through the front door you are transported to somewhere entirely different!

Leighton House was home to Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), one of the most famous British artists of the nineteenth century. He was President of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was ennobled in 1896, just before his death, becoming Frederic, Lord Leighton, Baron of Stretton – the only British artist to have been awarded this honour.

His home was designed by George Aitchison, and embellished to create a private palace of art. Now a museum, it was reopened in Apr 2010 after a £1.6 million refurbishment which has uncovered and restored many of the decorative schemes and features of the house. The interior of the house is a work of art in itself, with every inch decorated with classical treasures of artistic traditions from all over the world, as well as his own works and those of his contemporaries.

The first room you enter is the ‘Staircase Hall’, and then the ‘Narcissus Hall’, both spaces richly decorated with gilded ceilings and walls lined with peacock blue tiles by the ceramic artist William De Morgan.

These rooms lead to the most striking part of the house the opulent ‘Arab Hall’, a room dedicated for Leighton’s priceless collection of Middle Eastern art, including over a thousand Islamic tiles, many decorated with elaborate calligraphy, and brought back from Damascus in Syria as well as Iran, Southern Russia and Turkey. The carved wooden lattice-work windows are from Cairo. There are also Victoria elements in the stone columns and the mosaic frieze designed by Walter Crane. With its elaborately decorated domed ceiling and sunken fountain, this interior evokes a compelling vision of the Orient.

The ‘Drawing Room’ is a more sedate room, with brown patterned wallpaper to match the browns within the landscapes of four large painted panels by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. It is, however, crowned with a garish glass Victorian chandelier. According to lighting designers Sutton Vane Associates’, who have recreated the lighting conditions of 1896, “Electric lighting was Victorian bling. Far from hiding the lamps, Leighton wanted to show off this wonderful new technology”

The ‘Dining Room’ is an intensely red room with flock wallpaper and scarlet painted floorboards draped in woven rugs. The red acts as a backdrop for Leighton’s collection of precious ceramics, mostly from the Mediterranean and Middle East.

Upstairs is the ‘Silk Room’, named for its green silk wall-covering on which he displays some of his picture collection. The domed glass ceiling here has good light qualities for showing off these works, both old and new.

Leighton’s studio was the central feature of his home, and where he would have spent most of his time. This large room is flooded with light from a great north-facing window, and displays yet more art various members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and by Leighton himself, including a copy of what is considered to be Leighton’s magnum opus, ‘Flaming June’, painted in 1895.

“Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Posted in Architecture, Art, Culture, History, Interior Design, Museums, Travel | 2 Comments

• Posted on 24th June 2010 by Nicola Holden

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited, as part of the London Festival of Architecture, to have a look around the Residence of the Ambassador of Sweden, Ms Nicola Clase. The Residence, at 27 Portland Place, London, W1, was designed by Robert and James Adams, and built between 1776 and 1780.

The Adams brothers developed the ‘Adam style’ – an 18th century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture; with walls, ceilings, fireplaces, furniture, fixtures, fittings and carpets all being designed by the Adams as an integrated uniform scheme. Typical of the Adams’ treatment, the ground and first floors of the Residence are taken up with grand reception rooms, designed for fashionable entertaining.

27 Portland Place was acquired on behalf of Sweden in 1921, and has been used as the Ambassador’s Residence since then. During this time it has been extensively refurbished to renovate the historic Adam spaces, but also to achieve a Swedish atmosphere within a UK building. The floors have been over-boarded in pale timber imported from Sweden, and one of the ground floor reception rooms has been fitted out as a library with timber panelling, providing an alternative interior scheme to the painted Adam rooms.

Here are a few pictures I took of the house.

In between talks on Robert Adam and Sir William Chambers (another architect with Swedish connections) we were treated to royal wedding cake to celebrate the wedding between Swedish Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling that day!

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• Posted on 04th June 2010 by Nicola Holden

On bank holiday Monday I headed down to Brighton and the coast for the day – an urge to be beside the sea! I love Brighton for many reasons, but my favourite has to be the Royal Pavilion!

The Royal Pavilion was the play house of the Prince Regent (later King George IV). The exterior of the building is lovely enough – designed by the architect John Nash between 1815 and 1822. Its style is inspired by Indian architecture. Unfortunately the sun wasn’t lighting this building to its most spectacular, but here are a few pictures I snapped.

Inside, however, this building is magnificent. The interiors are decorated in the Chinese style. Unfortunately photography is prohibited inside the Pavilion, and so I was one frustrated person looking around. There is so much detail to photograph there, and so much inspiration for me to apply to my interiors!

The first room you enter is the Long Gallery – a reception room for King George’s famous dinner parties. It is richly furnished with a mixture of real and imitation bamboo, and the walls are painted with Chinoiserie compositions.

You are then led into the Banqueting Room, which is one of the most magnificent interiors in the Royal Pavilion. The interior of the Banqueting Room was designed with a shallow dome and canopies to the north and south. The walls were hung with large canvases painted with Chinese domestic scenes. In the centre of the room is a long table which seats around 30 guests. Above this hangs a magnificent chandelier, held in the claws of a silvered dragon and suspended from the apex of the ceiling. This chandelier in nine metres in height and weighs one ton!

Banqueting Room

Other than food, one of George IV’s great passions was music, and this is reflected in the lavishly decorated Music Room. In this extraordinary interior, lit by nine lotus-shaped chandeliers, the King’s own band entertained guests with selections from Handel or Italian opera. The walls are covered in rich red and gold wall paintings, and the domed ceiling is decorated with 26,000 gilded cockleshells.

Music Room

These images of the interior of the Pavilion do not come anywhere close to representing the ‘wow’ factor as you enter these rooms. And there is more – the opulent Saloon, the refined and dignified Galleries, the Great Kitchen (where menus of up to 60 dishes were prepared), and the King’s Apartments. I would definitely recommend a visit to the Royal Pavilion if you can!

• Posted in Architecture, Culture, History, Interior Design, Museums | 1 Comment

• Posted on 22nd February 2010 by Nicola Holden

Saturday dawned bright and sunny (although still very cold), and so I took my camera and headed out for a walk around the heart of the East End of London – Brick Lane and Spitalfields Market. This area of London has long been celebrated for its diversity of cultures, and serves as a ‘melting pot’ fusion of east and west.

Walking around this part of London I captured a few photographs of this rich tapestry that is the East End today.

As a personal touch, I try to incorporate some of my photographs into my interior design schemes, where possible.

• Posted in Art, Culture, History, Photography, Travel | Comments Off

• Posted on 15th February 2010 by Nicola Holden

On Saturday I felt the need for to delve into some art and culture, and so decided to visit Sir John Soane’s Museum, which is somewhere I should have visited ages ago!

Sir John Soane, (1753–1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by their clean lines, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources.  His best-known work is the Bank of England.  The Sir John Soane’s museum is located in Soane’s original house at 12 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, close to Holborn tube station.  Soane established the house as a Museum by means of an Act of Parliament in the conviction that ‘the study of classical principles of design should be the foundation of an architectural student’s education’.

Soane bought the house in 1792, and used it as his home and library, but also for the entertaining of potential clients.  He eventually extended the house into two neighbouring houses to enable him to experiment with different architectural ideas, and also to house his growing collection of antiquities and architectural salvage, many of which he acquired on his ‘grand tour’ of Europe.

His aim was to display his collection so as to educate and inspire ‘Amateurs and Students in Painting, Architecture and Sculpture’.  Some of the objects in Soane’s collection include the sarcophagus of the Egyptian King Seti I (carved out of a single piece of Egyptian alabaster), Roman bronzes from Pompeii, paintings by Canaletto, Hogarth and Turner and an ivory table and chair set of late 18th century origin, believed to have been seized from Tipu Sultan by the East India Company.  The small Picture Room has a total of more than one hundred pictures, additional wall space being provided by the use of hinged screens.  There are also 7,000 books and 30,000 drawings.

His interior designs include the ingenious use of mirrors to expand the apparent space.  In the small breakfast parlour, Soane has used over 100 pieces of mirror, together with stained glass windows in skylights, to create ‘a succession of those fanciful effects which constitute the poetry of architecture’.

This museum is well worth a visit!

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• Posted on 05th January 2010 by Nicola Holden

After a long telephone conversation with my mother, who still lives in Zimbabwe, I was inspired to start delving into my family history.  With the help of a very old book that she has, written half in English and half in Afrikaans, we managed to piece together some of my family tree, starting with James Murray and Sarah Armstrong, who, with their eight children, travelled from Cork to South Africa with the Parker party on the East India ship as part of the British Government 1820 Settler Scheme.  I then found this wonderful website dedicated to the genealogies of the 1820 Settlers.

James and Sarah’s daughter Martha married a French man by the name of Jean Pierre Pellissier, who had settled in South Africa as a French Huguenot missionary from the Paris Mission Society.  Jean Pierre eventually moved to an area north of the Orange River where he founded a mission station which he named Bethulie (meaning Eloah – house of God).  Besides his mission work, Jean Pierre made a contribution towards practical education and medicine among the local people that resulted in Bethulie being one of the best developed mission stations in southern Africa.  Today, Jean Pierre’s home is the oldest pioneer building north of the Orange River. It now houses Pellisier House Museum displaying items of the past and information on the life of Jean Pellissier and Chief Lephoi and his people.

Another of James and Sarah’s daughters, Mary, married John Norval who had sailed to South Africa from Scotland in 1817.

The Scottish Norvals were all comb-makers but there was no demand for their skills in the Cape area at this time.  John Norval eventually opened a hat factory in Colesberg and this village soon became famous for the wide-brimmed felt hats that were favoured by the farmers, hunters and traders.

Martha and Jean-Pierre’s daughter Emilie married her cousin George, Mary and John’s son.  Emilie and George Norval were my great great grandparents.

George’s brother, James Norval ran a pont (ferry) across the Orange River before the railway was laid: hence “Norval’s Pont” (Norvalspont in the Free State) now on the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam.

What a wonderful, exciting and rich heritage I have!  I am forever indebted to these brave people for the wonderful childhood that I had growing up in Africa.

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