Breathless Beauty, Broken Beauty - Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Forty years ago, architectural historians John Harris, Marcus Binney, Peter Thornton curated the exhibition 'Destruction of the Country House' at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The aim of the exhibition was to raise awareness of the significant architectural losses that had and were rapidly taking place. In twentieth century Britain, the country estate, lost much of its relevance and the financial costs required to maintain such sites made it increasingly difficult to preserve them. While this troubled the owners, this was of little concern in post war Britain. The 1974 exhibition, 'Destruction of the Country House', painted a bleak future but fortunately these expectations have not been fully realised and there is still hope for what survives. Today, Country Houses are popular destinations and regarded as national treasures. The phenomenon of productions such as Brideshead Revisted and more recently, Downton Abbey represent a new era of heritage television, which create a romantic nostalgia for an idealised past.

It is important to reconsider historical interpretation. Much too often a visit to a country house fails to communicate how these spaces were used and the implications of the ownership of such sites. Even the label we apply, is misleading - these structures were far from the notion of home that we understand today. The use of the term 'country seat', is perhaps more appropriate, considering that these places were temporary sites of residence, built purely for the purpose of display and public engagement.

I believe there is much more to be challenged about how we understand these spaces and their role in British history. If approached critically, these houses can unlock knowledge of architectural, design and landscape history as well as social, political and economic history. In a country which somewhat lagged behind its European counterparts, these estates remain one the finest examples of British design and art.

A display of the houses exhibited in the 1974 exhibition which have been rescued and preserved.

This year, as part of the London Design Festival, the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibited a display entitled Breathless Beauty, Broken Beauty. This exhibit celebrated how far conservation for these estates has come, how this has been done and how our attitudes towards them has changed over the past forty years. I was ashamedly late in visiting this display and am grateful I managed to see it before it was taken down. So if you did miss it, you can find more about the project and the artist here.

Vanessa Jane Hall's sculptural installation in the British Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Breathless Beauty, Broken Beauty is a 4k film video art installation by artist film maker Vanessa Jane Hall. Viewers are invited inside the Palladian like structure (echoing so many eighteenth century country seats) to view Hall's film as it is played out on three surrounding walls. The three walls work as a triptych, depicting stills of the various houses she visited across the country. The houses which feature in this film and remain intact are Chatsworth House, Castle Howard, Houghton Hall and Holkham.

The film is narrated by Catherine McGoohan and Neil Dickson and takes the viewer on a journey. It begins with images of neglect and decay and gradually transports the viewer into the restored interiors of today's surviving estates. Where previously forlorn and empty, in the revitalised house we see fantastical apparitions who embody our new love affair with an exotic and imagined past.

Houghton Hall, Norfolk 

The ceiling of Castle Howard's stone hall.

Castle Howard, Yorkshire 

The use of the triptych in the film helps to create a feeling of movement through the houses and gives the viewer a sense of being enclosed within all four walls. When describing her experience of filming in these locations, Hall writes;

'The country houses of faded grandeur were shot in varying ways, sometimes fully lit, sometimes with little lighting. The quirks of working in faded grandeur environments are many, there isn’t always be a piece of floor where you need to put a light,  so you have to take each house as it comes, and work with it.'

As the film draws to a close, we are taken away from these glittering interiors and into the broken, neglected spaces of country houses which have not been as fortunate to have been saved by heritage funding and restoration.

Among the lost houses Hall filmed, only Poltimore House in Devon is named. You can find out more about their restoration work and how to get involved here. The images depicting 'Broken Beauty' were of great interest and a poignant reminder of the current state of some of these significant sites.

Interior scene, Image by Vanessa Jane Hall, Breathless Beauty, Broken Beauty

Interior scene, Image by Vanessa Jane Hall, Breathless Beauty, Broken Beauty

Interior scene, Image by Vanessa Jane Hall, Breathless Beauty, Broken Beauty

Of course it is not possible to save every building that once stood. These estates demand enormous financial support. What to save and why is a matter of debate. I enjoyed Hall's installation and was left wondering whether the film was a plea for further restoration of other country estates or whether it was more concerned with dramatising how country houses can be cherished or neglected depending on the time and context. 

Interior scene, Image by Vanessa Jane Hall, Breathless Beauty, Broken Beauty

Further Reading:

R. Strong, M.Binney, J.Harris ed., Destruction of the Country House: 1875-1975, (London: Thames & Hudson, 1974). 

G. Worsley, England's Lost Houses: From the Archives of Country Life, (Arum Press Ltd, 2011).

J. Harris, Moving Rooms: The Trade in Architectural Salvages, (London & New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007). 

www.breathlessbeauty.co.uk