Cumbria
The Young Georgians
and The One Show

                     Dalemain

Last Saturday 29th March was the day of The Young Georgian's northern excursion to Dalemain and Mirehouse, two of Cumbria's best loved historic houses. Twenty eight people convened from all over the country, some having left London on a 6.05 train (such is the devotion of Georgian enthusiasts and aficionados), and the sun shone bright on the perfect Georgian facade of Dalemain. This house is now almost as famous for marmalade as anything else but we were here to explore the venerable old pile, but also ended up buying half the shop in conserves at the end of the visit!

Dalemain has been home to the Hasell family (now Hasell-McCosh) since 1679 when an Sir Edward Hasell bought the estate. Long before the present elegant Georgian facade of 1744 looked over the park this was an 'E' Shaped manor house with a pele tower in one corner and was a safe port for the formidable Lady Anne Clifford…she even had her own key to the house and could come and go as she pleased. Various remnants remain from the time of this mighty lady including a state bed, said key and an exquisite gold and pearl brooch. Sir Edward was her Steward and Lady Anne somehow seems to inhabit the atmosphere of the old house as much as the Hasells.

The tour started in the startlingly pink staircase hall. Its walls are quite shockingly modern on arrival and are painted in the original Georgian hues…this must have been a hell of a shock after arriving at Dalemain out of the grey, rainy and mist filled Cumbria of the Eighteenth century. The staircase visibly leans to one side and has a column underneath to strengthen it…this was apparently done to secure this marvellous Georgian set piece when the buxom Mrs Hasell of the late Nineteenth century came down the stairs in all her finery. Thank God they did strengthen it and ensure its survival for it is a wonderful design, with three balusters per tread and the balusters themselves being of a most original and attractive design looking a little like floppy palm trees.

Next door is an exquisite Chinoiserie room, replete with a Chinese Chippendale wooden chimney piece. The final room of the enfilade along the Georgian front is the dark and richly panelled Dining Room. George Hasell-McCosh's brilliant Cumbrian Yeomanry and Great War exhibition comes next and then we are in the Dalemain of ancient times. A tiny stone spiral stair leads to a panelled bedroom with numerous relics from the time of lady Anne Clifford, many of which belonged to her. The room next door is as cold as a bedroom could be and then comes a large haunted bedroom and finally the nursery, housekeeper's room and the Marmalade Museum. This is a house of many parts, not the least culinary excellence, for we had a super lunch with Shepherds pie and Dalemain apple and flapjack crumble…a masterpiece!

Young Georgian and soprano Meeta Raval with Georgian Mascot, She-ra

After lunch we got back in our cars and journeyed towards Keswick and to the literary stronghold of Mirehouse. We were greeted by John Fryer-Spedding, whose family have lived at Mirehouse since 1802 and have cherished this extraordinary place. The setting of Mirehouse is unrivaled…the great bulk of Skiddaw towers up behind it and Bassenthwaite forms an almost impossibly idyllic backdrop to the ancient church of St Bega

                       A view to St Bega's Church at Bassenthwaite

                   Mr John Fryer-Spedding welcoming the Group to Mirehouse

Oliver Gerrish and John Fryer-Spedding

The Library

She-ra meets Mr Fox

The interior of Mirehouse is richly colourful, both in its architecture and its close associations with many of our greatest literary men; Wordsworth, Southey, Tennyson…to name but a few. Marvellous books and relics are everywhere. The Dining Room is a serene Georgian apartment with Gothick detailing. The largest room is the Red Drawing Room, or Music Room, where the colours for the walls are taken from the portrait above the chimney piece. Everything in this house is beautifully planned and it would be hard to find such a perfect setting. 

Young Georgians in the saddle

Young Georgian up the chimney

Young Georgian sitting soft

We enjoyed a fine tea at the end of the day, after which we walked down to St Bega's and Bassenthwaite, said farewell to various people heading back to the Metropolis and our party went back to my Grandparent's house in Newlands Valley for dinner dressed as'Withnail and I'. Somehow I think my Grandmother, Cumbrian writer and Coleridge expert, Molly Lefebure would have approved of this day in the Lakes.

                   St Bega's Church

On return to London I was, yet again, thrown back into the Eighteenth Century as I arrived at Handel House to record Handel's 'Hallelujah' Chorus from 'Messiah'. This was for The One Show and Gyles Brandreth seemed to enjoy it!

                  Oliver Gerrish

                   The singers with Gyles Brandreth

I got changed into the funny old clothes at the top of the house and mused on the wonderful weekend just passed in Cumbria, five and a half hours up the motorway and a million miles away in the mountains.







For information on the houses in this blog please go to:-

Dalemain: http://www.dalemain.com/index.php
Mirehouse: http://mirehouse.com
Handel House: http://www.handelhouse.org


All images and material in this blog is copyright of Oliver Gerrish. Please ask permission before using

New Georgian Opera

The perfect joining of great architecture and sublime song...

                   Oliver Gerrish and Meeta Raval

New Georgian Opera launches on saturday May 3rd 2014 at The Grand Pavilion Matlock Bath, one of England's great Edwardian concert venues. NGO's directors, lyric spinto soprano Meeta Raval and I met in 1999 at an Eton Choral Course. Meeta was far more studious than me, so she did not notice me! I was far to busy larking about with the other singers, including brilliant tenor and now World famous actor Eddie Redmayne. At any rate, Meeta and I were destined to be in the same year at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and have been best friends ever since. She was also one of the first members of The Young Georgians, the under 35 wing of The Georgian Group I set up in 2002. Meeta was brought up in Staffordshire, which was another key part of founding NGO as I too spent a lot of my childhood growing up in Staffordshire, so it was decided by us both that we would like our new opera to be primarily Midlands based.

    Meeta at Hardwick Hall - Bess of Hardwick's house with 'more glass than wall'

Our dual interests in music and the plight of Britain's historic buildings lead to the foundation of New Georgian Opera. It is our passionate belief that the finest music should be spread throughout Britain and, in doing this, regenerate and raise much needed attention for historic buildings on the verge of disaster.

Meeta Raval and Oliver Gerrish at Sutton Scarsdale Hall - once the finest Baroque house in Derbyshire


Meeta and I are both from the Midlands so it was decided that our first venue would be The Grand Pavilion Matlock Bath as our cause, along with The Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust. The Grand Pavilion (or 'The Pav' as it is fondly known, partly from when it was a nightclub) is a huge concert hall and was originally a veritable pleasure palace. Even in the hall's present state of restoration it has been host to a multitude of acts. We are the first opera act to have taken to the stage in decades and all profits of this concert with go straight back to The Grand Pavilion and the DHBT.

                              Oliver Gerrish and Meeta Raval

                               Meeta Raval

Meeta and NGO's mascot 'Shira'

Vassalli and Atari's exquisite plasterwork hanging from the brick walls of Sutton Scarsdale

                        The ghostly enfilade at Sutton Scarsdale

             Oliver Gerrish, Sarah Beeny and Graham Swift at Sutton Scarsdale

                          Oliver Gerrish and Meeta Raval at Hardwick Hall

For our main photo shoot Meeta and I choose Sutton Scarsdale, a ruined Baroque palace high up above the M1 Motorway. Elisabeth Stoppard and Zuleika Parkin were our photographers. Sutton Scarsdale, even in its present state is utterly beautiful. Historic architecture enriches us with its beauty and helps to inspire us for the future. Nowadays we like to think we know better than those before us, but at NGO we believe that great opera and great historic buildings should be celebrated and made as approachable and accessible as possible. This will form a partnership that will inspire and help to protect what we are lucky enough to have in our national heritage for many years to come.

www.newgeorgianopera.co.uk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxg3M6vHwu4

For tickets please go to:-

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/256010#.UyTVpP2ufak

derbyshire historic buildings trust

All images in this blog are the copyright of Oliver Gerrish - please ask before reproducing them, many thanks

Georgian Valentine's Ball at The British Library

Valentine's Day 2014

with

The British Library, Edmonds and Gerrish, Peyton & Byrne, The Georgian Group and The Young Georgians

2014 is the Tercentenary of the Hanoverian Succession and the Georgians, a peoples who shaped so much of what we treasure so many years later. This is a bumper year for all things Georgian!!

Sophie Edmonds and I arrived at the Library armed with a dozen full Georgian costumes, umpteen bunches of flowers, petals, silverware, table centrepieces and all the other trappings of a party…all to sort out in under two hours! I always think the adrenalin rush from not having quite enough time to do something makes doing that thing well even more of a thrill, and I hope people enjoyed the Ball, hosted by us, The British Library, Peyton & Byrne and in conjunction with The Georgian Group and The Young Georgians. 

Drinks commenced by The King's Library and there guests drank Eighteenth-Century-style cocktails and were serenaded by music by Mozart, Haydn, Vivaldi and more.

From The King's Library guests were beckoned to the Ballroom by the Master of Ceremonies resplendent in his L'Ordre du Saint-Esprit.

Miss Zuleika Parkin and The Master of Ceremonies

Air on the G String…music for Valentine's Eve

The Ballroom was adorned in flowers, red and gold and, after guests had sat, the parade of the Pig's Head to herald dinner being served.

Homage to Lady Hamilton

Guests dined on three huge hog roasts, expertly cooked by Peyton & Byrne. During dinner there were tableau, poetry, ballet and opera…this was me singing from the balcony hoping not to put people off their food!

Quadrilles commenced and people forgot the threat of indigestion and danced with much gusto and energy! Outside the Ballroom, by The King's Library, the Georgian Speed Dating began. This was interesting to see and more so to take part in; one poor chap was put on the spot as a finely dressed diamond festooned lady enquired as to the length of his drive, as she had heard he had a large acreage, and would it be too rough for her to ride down…!!

During all of this a great Meringue Dome arrived in the Ballroom to sustain the revellers.

Speed Dating

All in all the Ball was a marvellously fun start to this momentous year, and there is much more to come from us at The Georgian Group and The Young Georgians!

The Gorgeous Georgians!!

www.georgiangroup.org.uk

The Georgian Group 

Architectural Awards

2013

Part Two

The variety of buildings entered for the Awards was, as in the past, huge and vibrant. I visited a handful of the entries, mostly those in London, near to London and in my home county, Derbyshire.

Bentley Priory is one of a small group of surviving grand country houses on the periphery of London. It is dramatically situated and looks across at my alma mater, Harrow School. 

The building has elements by Sir John Soane, most of which have been drowned in a grand Italianate veneer. The restoration of Bentley and the creation of the Battle of Britain Museum and shrine to Lord Dowding has been exemplary; Soane's entrance hall is back to its colourful best, lanterns restored, cornices recreated and intricate verandas installed on the garden front.

Soane's newly restored entrance Hall at Bentley

Robert Bargery (Secretary of The Georgian Group) and I were at Bentley for the opening of the museum by HRH The Prince of wales.

HRH The Prince of Wales and Robert Bargery

Oliver Pepys of Spink & Son and Oliver Gerrish at Bentley Priory

After the country grandeur of Benley Priory it was interesting to see a private house in Aubrey Row, Holland Park, were a nondescript garage had been rebuilt as a Soanian lodge and an extraordinary miniature room in the style of the great architect in the link beside. This sort of project, and the imagination required, were so refreshing to see despite all the red tape and hurdles in today's quest for planning permission.

       Study in the new Soane-style lodge in a private house in Holland Park


From Holland Park to Kennington and The Kia Oval to see Hugh Petter's marvellous reordering and redesigning of the entrance front. This is modern classical architecture at its best - Lutyens, Raymond Erith and E.S Prior all sprung to mind when I first saw it. The facade is sturdy and grand and makes, at last, a fitting entrance to the ground. A great portico opens from the rather dingy internal bar. The columns are unique with their capitals modelled on the Prince of Wales feathers. The brickwork is exquisite and the whole project has given The Oval a facade to rival any sports stadium in Britain. On the parapet wall are urns modelled on the Ashes Urn. These references add to the tremendous history of the place. Plans are now afoot for a great Colosseum like range of terraced houses around the ground.

The new entrance front of The Kia Oval

Under the portico with the unique Prince of Wales capitals

Hugh Petter, Oliver Gerrish, John Martin Robinson, Diane Nutting, David Watkin and the Manager of the Kia Oval

Trinity Church Terrace is an example of a clever, smart and beautifully built modern development. The survival of this precious enclave of late Georgian London is a marvel in itself and the new terraces are a worthy addition. The elements of the facades have been expertly copied from the originals opposite and a whole new mews-like street has been created. The architecture here is exciting and monumental, such a relief to see these days when so many  nondescript and dull attempts at Georgian revival are springing up all around.  

Trinity Terrace

The new mews behind Trinity Terrace

Marcus Williams of London Realty explaining his project to us

The Cornhill Pump is something that one would have, until recently, walked past quite without noticing. Now it has been restored and looks splendid in its original attention-grabbing colours which also deter the absent minded bypassed on his iPhone from banging himself.

The Cornhill Pump

Number 4 Brabant Court crouches beneath the bulbous hulk of the 'Walkie Talkie'. Luckily for this early Georgian townhouse there is a forecourt which stops the dreadful looming skyscraper throwing scorching rays at it, thus escaping the fate of many of the burnt cars in the vicinity. It is a great rarity to find a four storey grand Georgian townhouse in the midst of the City. Number 4 has been restored to a high standard and is in fine fettle. Nothing has been made too fussy and the plain, sensible Georgian interiors must form the perfect antidote to the crazy toolbox of buildings the city dweller now has to live among in day to day life. 

Brabant Court with the Walkie Talkie looming

The Theatre Royal Drury Lane is a palace of the arts. it must have helped the cause of the Actor no end when it was built, giving to the thespian the social cache often denied to those who trod the boards - either this or it made the theatre more palatable to the aristocracy?! A gift, in the form of a great Neo-Classical statue,  from perhaps our greatest living theatrical aristocrat, Lord Lloyd-Webber gazes down on this palatial scene. The building has been given a much needed face lift and is now far more like a St Petersburg Palace than a West End playhouse. The bar must surely be the most stately theatre bar in London. Gone is the Barbara Cartland-like gaudiness, replaced by cool Neo-Classical hues and gilding just the right side of too shiny. I can't wait to see what the next series of rooms intended for restoration look like. One of the judges enquired whether it was safe to have such a valuable piece of statuary in full public view. I have little doubt that we all respond favourably to beautiful surroundings and that the newly restored theatre Royal will delight and inspire respect from those luckily enough to enter its portals.

The Dome at the Theatre Royal

The Bar

The last building I viewed as a judge for the Awards was on home turf in the Midlands, St Helen's house, Derby. This has been saved by architectural crusader Richard Blunt. I had driven past the sad wreck of St Helen's House for years and pondered on its uncertain and worrying future. I need not have for it has been reborn and will, it is hoped, regenerate this part of Derby so cruelly sliced through by the ring road. 

St Helen's is one of the very grandest Georgian townhouses. It was really both a town and country house as it had to its rear a large landscape park and a surrounding estate. Inside the scholastic clutter has been cleared away, water damaged ceilings mended and masses of woodwork, plasterwork and stonework restored. It is now home to a solicitors firm. I asked one or two of the people working there what it was like to spend so much time in such a building, each said it was a delight and a privilege. 

The Awards themselves were a fascinating time and many projects were given very well-deserved recognition. Lord Salisbury presented the prizes. I hugely enjoyed my time as a judge and do hope to be asked again!

The Georgian Group Architectural Awards 2013 - Charles Cator, Crispin Holborow, David Watkin, John Martin Robinson, Oliver Gerrish, Diane Nutting and the Marquess of Salisbury

For more information on the work of The Georgian Group please go to our website:-

www.georgiangroup.org.uk

All images in this blog are the copyright of Oliver Gerrish. Please ask permission before using them