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Country Houses Luxury People

Goodwood Revival 2018 + Richmond Lawn Marquee

Early Autumn

The War is over, the party’s begun. It’s a sepia tinted festival for the upper echelons. Goodwood Revival is all about the fashion dancing racing. Every September the West End comes to West Sussex as the Earl of March throws open his estate for a three day race meeting. Punters become actors as it’s staged in period costume to create the romance and glamour of Post War racing. Cutting lots of dashes in vintage threads, halcyon days have returned. The weather is glorious.

The dungarees and headscarves of Land Girls are everywhere – but wait – did Carmen Miranda just stride by? Pill box hats, poodle skirts, herringbone tweed, penny loafers: everyone has gone to town (and country). The War may be over but there are still plenty of military uniforms to be worn with panache. Five fashion shows a day compete with just as much dressing up off the catwalk. Shops along Fashion Parade offer the chance to update or rather backdate one’s wardrobe even more. Dressed to the Nines (teen Forties, Fifties and Sixties), it’s like wandering through the film set of Brideshead Revisited. Is that Aloysius in a pram?

After inspecting vintage cars being repaired in the Paddocks enclosure and watching a few races from the Grandstand, one can join in the action on the fairground rides Across the Road. One can get one’s skates on and join in more action at Butlin’s Ballroom Roller Rink. After all that action, there’s always pie + mash at the Spitfire Café followed by the movies at Revival Cinema.

Wait again – the best action is yet to come! Goodwood Revival doesn’t just reverberate to the howl of potent engines and the roar of RAF displays. Inside the Richmond Lawn Marquee, there’s the beat of Big Band sounds accompanied by synchronised boogying, twisting and turning to the Charleston, the Jitterbug, the Shim Sham. The band plays Tired of Being Tossed Around and everyone ups their moves. Suddenly the wild girls of St Trinian’s take the dancefloor by storm, led by their Vice Headmistress swigging from her hip flask. Screw lacrosse. She’s got the moves. Who needs a jasmine and rose G+T at the Bloom Gin Garden when you can BYO?

And now, a message from the Earl of March’s father, the ‘Station Master’, 11th Duke of Richmond: “Goodwood Motor Circuit was created immediately after World War II by my grandfather Freddie, the 9th Duke of Richmond, and the first race meeting was held here on 18 September 1948. I remember coming here as a boy to watch the likes of Graham Hill and Jack Brabham race. After the circuit was closed to racing in 1966 (due to my grandfather’s safety concerns), I grew up determined to bring it back, and we finally succeeded in that aim in 1998, when we staged the inaugural Revival. It is a particular delight for me, then, to welcome you to the 2018 Goodwood Revival: the 20th anniversary of our annual ‘step back in time’ and 70 years since motor racing at Goodwood first began.

Our celebration of the anniversary this weekend sees us host a parade of dozens of former Revival winners: from Ludovic Lindsay at the wheel of ‘Remus’ right up to victorious car and driver pairings from this year’s event, we will have a huge variety of winners on the circuit. We’ve also produced an anniversary book, Twenty Glorious Years, which you’ll find on sale in the Goodwood Shop.

Aside from our own anniversary celebrations, we’re also remembering Rob Walker – the most successful privateer team owner in Formula I history, and a regular entrant (and winner) at Goodwood. Look out for his distinctive Scots blue and white race livery around the Paddocks as well as in our special Rob Walker Racing Track Parades over the weekend. And, as many of you will know, this is the centenary year of the Royal Air Force, so we’re paying tribute with a special RAF themed Freddie March Spirit of Aviation. During the War, a fighter base, RAF Westhampnett, was built on the Goodwood Estate, and played a key role in the Battle of Britain. Later, the Motor Circuit itself was created using the base’s perimeter track. I’m very proud of the Estate’s historic links to the RAF and delighted to have the RAF Benevolent Fund as our official event charity.

It’s thrilling that the Revival has reached its 20th anniversary. The success of the event is a testament to the great support we’ve had over the years from our entrants, drivers, riders and mechanics; from our sponsors and partners; from the members of the Goodwood Road Racing Club, which is also celebrating its 20th anniversary; and of course, from you, our enthusiastic guests. I hope you all thoroughly enjoy the weekend.”

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Architecture Art People

Trevor Newton + Dartmouth House Mayfair London

The First September

The new year really starts each autumn. As the first golden leaves fall, where is it possible to see The Wallace Collection, Sir John Soane’s Museum and a swathe of Parisian hôtels particuliers in one room? In the Long Drawing Room of Marchmain Dartmouth House, on the same street where Oscar Wilde once resided in Mayfair, but only if you’re on the exclusive invitation list to the EV (Evening View). This house beautiful is not open to the public. Interior Impressions, a major exhibition of drawings by Trevor Newton is presented and curated by Anne Varick Lauder. It’s the first monographic exhibition of the accomplished artist in eight years.

New York born London based Dr Lauder, who has held curatorial positions in the J Paul Getty Museum, the Louvre and the National Portrait Gallery, announces, “We are delighted to be in the Long Drawing Room for the Private View of new drawings by the English topographical artist Trevor Newton. All 60 new works are of grand or highly individual British and European interiors from Versailles to The Ritz, to the Charleston of the Bloomsbury Group and the intimate Georgian houses of Spitalfields. It is therefore appropriate that this invitation only exhibition should take place in one of the finest private interiors in Britain.” She adds, “Interiors within interiors!” A 21st century – and for real – Charles Ryder.

Trevor studied History of Art at Cambridge, later becoming the first full time teacher of the subject at Eton. A present of The Observer’s Book of Architecture for his eighth birthday spurred a lifelong interest in buildings and their interiors. Rather than pursuing modish photorealism, he sets out to capture impressions of a place, often adding whimsical details imagined or transposed from other sources. His atmospheric renderings experiment with the interplay of light and reflection. Dense layers of mixed media – body colour, pen and ink, wash, watercolour and wax resist crayon – evoke a captivating sense of the aesthetic and nostalgic. His framing portrays a theatrical awareness of view: how the onlooker visually enters the room. There’s an enigmatic absence of people yet signs of habitation: a glass here; a magazine there. Trevor says, “My drawings are attempts to convey the emotions generated by art and architecture.” Emotional revisits. Anne considers, “It’s like he redecorates on page.”

Fellow alumnus Stephen Fry recalls, “While many of his contemporaries at Cambridge were Footlighting or rowing, Trevor seemed to spend much of his time drawing and painting. His specialities then were lavish invitations for May Week parties, illustrated menus for Club and Society dinners, posters and programmes for plays and concerts, along with a highly individual line in architectural fantasy drawn for its own sake and for the amusement of his friends. He managed to combine the frivolous and the baroque in a curious and most engaging manner: Osbert Lancaster meets Tiepolo. Trevor is still drawing and painting as passionately as ever and though the content of his work may be more serious, in style and execution it still has all the youthful energy and verve which characterised it over 30 years ago.”

Dartmouth House is something of a hôtel particulier itself. A château-worthy marble staircase and 18th century French panelling in the reception rooms add to the cunning deceit that just beyond the Louis Quinze style courtyard surely lies the Champs-Élysées. The Franglais appearance isn’t coincidental. In 1890 architect William Allright of Turner Lord knocked together two Georgian townhouses for his client, Edward Baring (of the collapsible bank fame) later Lord Revelstoke, to create a setting for his collection of French furniture and objets d’art. Ornament is prime. Dartmouth House is now the HQ of the English Speaking Union. Except for tonight. When it’s utterly-utterly Great Art Central.

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Luxury People Restaurants

Tate Britain London + Rex Whistler Restaurant Jazz Lunch

The Riding on the Wall

Tate Britain is the quieter relative of the extended family. Tate Modern has Herzog + de Meuron’s sexy ziggurat with its brilliant incidental installation (Watch Rich People In Their Apartments). Tate Britain has James Stirling’s paean to contextual irony. Lost on most, the less said the better. Thankfully, the Rex Whistler Restaurant is located in the basement of the original sturdily neoclassical gallery. Or is it? Entrances at varying degrees above ordnance data dictate an enjoyable disorientation. Lower ground floor? Garden level? Sub piano nobile?

Rex. The name conjures up a dilettantish dandyish raffish character. Definitely a Bright Young Thing. Julia Flyte’s American beau in Brideshead Revisited. Rex Bart Beaumont, chum of Charles Howard Bury, last owner of Belvedere House in Mullingar. Known to all and sundry as “Sexy Rexy”. The pair enjoyed jaunts to Tibet accompanied by a pet bear. No aggressive normalcy there, then.

Paintings are best seen from a seat. The Garrick Club gets that with its dining room wallpapered by in Zoffany. Before Carl Laubin (who completed a capriccio of Castle Howard estate buildings in 1996) and even before Felix Kelly (who painted the Garden Hall murals at Castle Howard in 1988) there was Rex Whistler. His 1937 murals can be admired traipsing through the National Trust dining room of Plas Newydd on the Isle of Anglesey but how much more relaxing to soak in his 1927 murals at the Tate lounging over lunch. At least that was the plan.

Gloriously out of sync with the modernist spirit of the age (more country house than Bauhaus), The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats is a whimsical adventure chronicling a party in search of epicurean delights. Follies and fortresses, temples and turrets… it’s an escapist setting, an ageless fantasy, Chinese wallpaper without the paper. Trompe l’œil gargoyle headed grotesques support the pedimented entrance doorcase. Half moon windows are treated as grottos. All the more remarkable given that Rex undertook this feat as a 23 year old Slade student. Tragically just 17 years later, the artist was killed on his first day of action in World War II. Rex Whistler’s legacy continues to inspire and enthral. His portraits of Lady Caroline Paget and her brother, later 7th Marquess of Anglesey, both recently sold for twice their estimates.

Lunch is served in the leafy garden along the Thames Embankment. Fresco to alfresco. A moveable feast. Fête champêtre. The meal is bookended by bubbly. Isn’t all hydration good for you? That’s a fair enough excuse for flutes of Coates + Seely Brut (£11.50). “Complex citrus infused fizz from one of the UK’s most impressive estates,” reassures the wine list. Hampshire’s finest fizz followed by Hampshire’s finest fish. Arriba! L’Abrunet 2015 (£27.00), “Made from organic white Grenache grapes grown in Catalonia,” adds to the bibulous nature of this indulgent Saturday afternoon. In honour of the founder of the gallery (Henry Tate was a sugar merchant) it would be rude not to have pudding. And it does result in a three course deal (£35.95). “Moderation is overrated,” agree the couple at the next table. The food’s wonderful – aptly British with a nod to the Continent. No buyers’ remorse.

The jazz ensemble strikes up. Maybe Tate Britain isn’t so quiet, after all.

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Architects Architecture Country Houses Developers

Roehampton House London + St James

Making the Grade

1 Roehampton House

Question. What are the only two Grade I listed buildings in London to be converted into apartments? Answer. St Pancras Hotel (the upper floors) and Roehampton House (all of it). They couldn’t be more different. Harry Potter v Brideshead. Northanger v Mansfield. Gothic v baroque. St Martin’s v Queen Mary’s. Gritty regeneration hotspot v leafy southwest suburbia. The one thing they do share, along with all fellow listed buildings, is the challenge of adapting to suit contemporary lifestyles. Dreaming up a bedroom out of a circular space for Apartment 15 was just one minor Roehampton House brainstorming success. An island of wardrobes backing onto a freestanding wall solved the what-about-storage and where-do-we-put-the-bed dilemma in one fell swoop.

1 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

City boy Thomas Cary seemingly built the original block in 1713. Thomas Archer was the architect. City boy Arthur Grenfell seamlessly added new wings in 1913. Edwin Lutyens was the architect. City developer St James seamlessly reimagined the enlarged house as 21 apartments in 2013. Nick Davies was the architect. This heritage asset has never looked hotter, set off by pristine landscaping. Not a leaf out of place. The twin gatehouses have been revived and six contemporary garden villas continue the fine building tradition. Now for more questions and answers with the latest architect to display his talent at Roehampton House.

2 Roehampton House copyrioght Stuart Blakley

Why did you choose to buy and develop this site considering the inevitable costs and constraints of retaining a Grade I listed building?

3 Roehampton House coproght Stuart Blakley

When Roehampton House and the former Queen Mary’s Hospital site came to the market, St James was the only organisation from the parties bidding who recognised that once restored the house could create real value. Plus it is a magnificent setting and centrepiece for the adjoining new development. All the other parties saw the house as too great a challenge. St James was the only party who was serious about taking on the restoration and conversion of the Grade I historic building.

4 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

What were the specific challenges relating to retention and conversion of the listed building?

5 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

Grade I listed buildings are comparatively rare. They comprise less than 3% of all listed properties and in law everything extant at the point of listing is protected. As with all older buildings, many changes and additions had been made over the years. The challenge of unravelling what should be retained and what can be changed is a long process of evaluation and discussion with English Heritage and the local borough conservation team. There was a desire to restore many of the original rooms that had been subdivided to their original proportions, particularly the panelled rooms that had survived in the Georgian part of the building. St James removed an intrusive steel frame which had been put into the building to strengthen it in the 1980s and had destroyed much of the historic structure. We also needed to put approximately 50 new bathrooms and nearly half as many kitchens into a building which had had very few services whilst preserving and conserving as much of the surviving historic fabric as we could. That was quite challenging.

6 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

Did you have to make any specific compromises to ensure compliance with the recognised heritage asset status of the listed building?

7 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

The surviving pleasure grounds and walled gardens have been restored to their former glory and provide both the setting for the house and the framework around which the masterplan for the new surrounding development was shaped. The houses and apartments are traditional in design but not direct copies either in style or materials of the house itself. They also provide the transition between the character of the historic house and the adjoining suburban roads of Roehampton village which were developed in the early 20th century.

Did the listed building context add value to the development as a whole?

Although the costs of restoring a building such as Roehampton House are very significant, the sales values per square foot generated for the apartments have exceeded new build values so there is a genuine cachet for living in this type of historic property. It is also hard to quantify how much uplift the setting of the house has given to the sales prices in all the adjoining new properties but clearly they have also benefited from the overall setting and sense of place… their values reflect this. As with all historic buildings many of the problems you will encounter remain hidden from view. Control of costs is very hard with these unknowns. Many however can be anticipated with proper research and investigation into the history of the building. Using the right professional consultants and sourcing craftsmen skilled in historic building construction techniques is vitally important in managing this process and winning the support of English Heritage and the conservation officers.

8 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

Why was such a contemporary style chosen specifically for the garden villas and how did the setting influence their final design?

9 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

The design of the garden villas evolved from the discussions with English Heritage. Firstly, the rebuilding of the boundary wall on the north side of the pleasure grounds to reinstate this feature at the rear of Roehampton House had left a small piece of land. This land is sandwiched between the site boundary and the new hospital to the north. The original hospital buildings had in fact encroached into the area of the historic pleasure grounds. A key part of our planning strategy was to reinstate the grounds to safeguard the future setting of the house. English Heritage was very keen for this too so that the original frontage of the house could be kept clear of vehicles. To finance the cost of underground car parking it was agreed that a suitable form of development could be designed for the area now occupied by the villas. English Heritage was keen not to confuse the history of the house. It felt that a very simple contemporary design solution which sits quite low behind the wall and is quite self effacing is therefore an appropriate architectural response to the setting of the building. This raises all sorts of views about whether buildings in close proximity to listed buildings should be in the manner of them or totally contrasting and of their time. These are the philosophical discussions you always get into in matters of conservation.

10 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

Are there any lessons that were learned from this project which St James will be applying to future projects?

11 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

In restoring the building we had to respect the original hierarchy of the rooms in the house and the level of decorative detail that would have been present in these which we could put back, even where this had entirely disappeared during subsequent alterations in its later history. This even extended to us undertaking a full historic paint analysis of the most historic panelled rooms to understand the original decorative schemes that had existed when the house was built. There were three centuries to inform our choice of colours for decoration. Many of our big cost items were still hidden from us behind historic construction that we could not disturb prior to acquisition. If it can be arranged, pre acquisition survey work is essential in minimising risk and cost overruns. Even with the best knowledge it is not possible to anticipate all the problems you may encounter as you peel back the layers of history.

12 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley

What type of purchaser has been attracted to this development and do they differ from other St James developments?

13 Roehmapton House copyright Stuart Blakley

So far we have experienced a particular interest from local residents looking to stay in the area but downgrade on size. This is noticeably different to other St James developments which attract a more international audience. Perhaps because of Roehampton House’s heritage and Grade I listed status it draws more British buyers. This could also explain the interest from retired couples who like the idea of living in a grand country home but don’t want the upkeep.

15 Roehampton House copyright Stuart Blakley