Clandon Park

 

Clandon Park

Following a disastrous fire at Clandon Park, we were appointed by the National Trust to produce a comprehensive Conservation Plan that would bring together an architectural and historical analysis of the building with ecology, archaeology, collections management and historic landscape expertise.

The Grade I Mansion at Clandon Park in Surrey was built for the second Lord Onslow in the early 1730s. Designed by Venetian-born architect Giacomo Leoni, the building is architecturally significant as a product of the Neo-Palladian movement, which sought to create a new English national style in the early 18th century.

The Conservation Plan has underpinned the development of architectural proposals for the Clandon’s future, and they formed an important element of the brief for a competition to select the design team, where we also advised the judging panel on the heritage and engineering impacts of the various short-listed entries and proposals.

Since then, we have continued to work with the Trust and winning architects Allies and Morrison and their team with Purcell in a process of ongoing review, both of the emerging proposals and of the relevance of the Conservation Plan. Rather than waiting a set period before revisiting the Plan, we have pioneered an approach with the Trust which allows for a continuous process of evaluation and testing of critical parts. Our most recent focus is has been on the assessment of the Post-fire significance of Clandon, as the distance in time from the catastrophic event allows a more nuanced appreciation of – for example – some of the dramatic spaces which now exist and of the sheer grandeur of the house’s brick carcass, shorn of its polite coverings and adornments.

Informed by our work, the National Trust sunsequently decided that the fire-gutted Clandon Park House would be conserved as a ruin, to allow visitors to see the ‘raw power and poetic beauty’ of the damaged building.

Client: National Trust
Photos courtesy of Jim Linwood, The Downland Partnership and The National Trust

 
ConservationGuest UserCountry Houses, Grade I Listed Buildings, Conservation Plan