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Clandon House Repair Bill: A Call for Restoration and Leadership from the National Trust
31/03/2024
By: Cornelia van der Poll
In a letter to the Times, Cornelia van der Poll questions the National Trust’s approach to Clandon House’s restoration, urging for a more authentic reconstruction and greater public support.
Restoring Clandon: The Challenges and Public Sentiment Behind the Debate
29/03/2025
A discussion on the feasibility of restoring Clandon House and the public’s divided opinion on its future.
Step in to restore splendour of Clandon Park, ministers urged
25/03/2025
Jack Blackburn, History Correspondent
In a letter to The Times, heritage experts say something is ‘badly wrong’ with the National Trust and its wish to keep the Palladian mansion as a ruin
Hal Bagot writes about his own experience of owning an historic house in response to the planning application:
22/01/2025
Hal Bagot
I have myself owned and maintained a Grade 1 Listed historic house in Cumbria for 39 years (Levens Hall). It has been open to visitors for many years before that, too, and is now open from Easter to October seven days a week.
Beauty is the key to our heritage
Athena Cultural Crusader
08/01/2025
Country Life
THE idea of historic buildings as documents of history is not new. Indeed, it was voiced more than a century ago by Lord Curzon, when he spoke in 1913 in support of the Ancient Monuments Act in Parliament. ‘We regard the national monuments to which this Bill refers,’ he said, ‘as part of the heritage and history of the nation.
The magnificent interiors of Clandon Park can and must be restored.
17/12/2024
By Philip Gaches, plasterer
In 1992 prior to the fire which destroyed a large section of Windsor Castle there were only a handful of plasterers in the country capable of carrying out authentic in situ plasterwork such as that found at Clandon.
We scratched a living from a few scarce projects here and there where traditional work was still required over the more modern fibrous casting system.
We scratched a living from a few scarce projects here and there where traditional work was still required over the more modern fibrous casting system.
Clandon must be restored: A letter from an architect to the National Trust
17/10/2023
Recently published restoration plans for Clandon Park
The National Trust is making a grave mistake in failing to recognise the relevance and importance of the original interiors. As a Chartered Architect who has spent many years living locally, I write to inform you of this and set out my reasoning below.
“Sterile and fake” or “Let’s not be bothered”? The National Trust’s approach to Clandon
16/10/2022
The National Trust’s approach to the ‘restoration’ of Clandon House contrasts dramatically with the one adopted towards Uppark following its gutting by fire in 1989, so much so that in fact the term ‘restoration’ is completely inappropriate. In 1989 the Trust considered three basic options: to retain the shell as a controlled ruin; restore the exterior but give it a modern interior that was ‘of our own time’; or restore the whole house as nearly as possible to its appearance before the fire.
The importance of the restoration of Leoni’s Marble Hall at Clandon Park
08/09/2023
Some notes by a member of the National Trust
Clandon Park has been called Leoni’s masterpiece. Its most significant feature is its Marble Hall. The design of his interior Marble Hall and its relationship to the exterior of his house make it important and perhaps unique in English architectural history as the first of its kind.
Why does the National Trust tell us that the ceiling of Clandon’s Marble Hall cannot rise from the ashes?
22/10/2022
Kilboy in County Tipperary is a great house, originally built in the 1760s, burnt in 1922, demolished in 1952 and then re-created by Quinlan and Francis Terry. The late Prof. David Watkin told of their extraordinary project in his book The Practice of Classical Architecture: The Architecture of Quinlan and Francis Terry 2005-2015. Here he describes the process of creating richly moulded new plasterwork in the Rococo style for the drawing room and dining room.
Questions for the National Trust about Clandon Park
11/09/2022
• The Fire Investigation Report (FIR) published in November 2015 noted that the fire would not
have spread with the extreme speed that it did had the electrical distributor (ED) been
sufficiently compartmentalised so as to prevent further spread in the event of a fire.1
• The report noted that the National Trust (NT) had been informed of the need to
compartmentalise the ED in an electrical contractor’s report of 2010.2
Let’s make Clandon Park beautiful again
25/09/2023
Jeffrey Haworth explains why the state rooms of Clandon should be restored
Dame Helen Ghosh assured me several months after the fire at Clandon Park, when we met at Croome, that Clandon’s Fine Rooms would be restored. Years have elapsed since then and changes in Senior Staff. Architecture, Buildings and Country House assemblages have become de trop, enthusiasms have switched to interpretation of individual objects. Indeed, it has been said that the National Trust is now a national museum (of objects).
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