A House & A Host: Althorp with Earl Spencer

[Music] foreign [Music] well it's two things it's one of the very few names in England that has two official pronunciations according to the BBC and all Thorpe is very much what I go with day to day because it's that's how it's how it looks and how it should sound alltrip is going back a few centuries it is a bit but I think with all thought what it is you've got a very historic house here that has weathered the generations and and actually has become a uh somewhere where things have accumulatedly you've got the fruits of the collection of one family over 500 years and then we're here in in the white Library designed by Henry Holland but I mean the thing about this room which makes it you always call it the heart of the house and and it really to my mind it's a very very cozy room but I mean maybe it is it the old leather bindings and the bookcases or is it just the Simplicity of the room that this white painted woodwork everything in this room is very subtle there are 11 shades of white and ivory and Gray in the paintwork you don't notice them until you look into the various Corners it looks like one color and everything in this room is an illusion you've got the two sets of pillars one either end that foreshorten a room and make it feel more intimate that the very ornate ceiling that adds a certain sort of grandness to the room without overpowering you because if it was gilded it would be too much so there's a lot of very subtle things going on here but the heart and soul of this room are of course lies in the books and these wonderful old leather bindings I mean we've got everything in this room from 20th century but it's going back to my family's Bible from the 17th century and every single member of my family who's been born since 1690 is in there so this is a I think the point of this house is it's still a living family collection no the wonderful thing about this house the way that you live in it and it's it's not a tool it feels like a straightforward family home and you can see you know every room has as new things that you've added but I also I feel a duty to add to the collection my particular angle is uh drawings and paintings and and particularly 20th century art and there are 650 paintings on the walls here of which I've collected 25 so I think it's interesting to leave your own stamp on a place like this and day in day out a lot of these rooms are uh not used but they are still loved and we have a a full team of curatorial Team looking after it housekeeping team who with a light touch just keep this place alive uh and I'm not criticizing you can go around great houses of Europe and they feel as though they've been sort of pickled in time they are preserved forever in one particular way and that's okay it's it's interesting in its own way but it's not as interesting as seeing a constant evolution of a house and collection which I think uh that there's a duty to do if if you're lucky enough to be able to absolutely it is a 500 year old house there's only one room that looks as it did in 1508 and I'd love to show you that that's the picture gallery it's a beautiful Tudor room long room 120 feet long with the best art in the house and some of the best furniture it is there and and and is being enjoyed today wonderful wonderful well let's go and have a look [Music] so this is the sort of dramatic center of the house it's the picture gallery also known as the long gallery and it's 120 feet of showing off it was put in you know when the house was built and in those days you'd had your finest tapestries on the wall and a few paintings but we we've got the main heart of the art collection here and then some of the finer Furniture but tonight actually tomorrow night we will be using this as a dining room and I think one of the ways of making this house live is by using the rooms we don't we can't do it every day but occasionally we just fill the house with friends and family and live in it properly I guess as you should and of course these were these rooms when they're originally built they were principally for exercise weren't they it was it was mainly because the English weather was so Dreadful and so people had to do their walking inside and and then on the end of all of course you've got the great star of your collection yes so that's War and Peace by Van Dyke the UK government see it as one of ten objects in private hands that if it ever came up for sale the nation must have it's Swagger it's the sort of British aristocracy uh looking less than humble I think it's got a certain uh Panache to it that is the star of the show and a very dramatic culmination of the collection that's a wonderful picture and then in in terms of the furniture in here the the very heavily gilded chairs around the edge it's very rare to see things are objects like this which still have that much gold in them but this actually is how they originally looked and of course it looks very very bright to us but if you imagine a non-electric age when these were made in the 1750s they were meant to look good in Candlelight which they would with a sort of Highly burnished gilding on them and we we've adapted these uh very formal pieces to Modern use in the author living history collection by making the upholstery but much more sort of cushioned and and the right size and so people can use them today and then these wonderful chairs they're afraid to be comfortable aren't they come on show us how the hell Spencer sits on this dining chair well I would say they are comfortable having sat on these for many many hours it's a joy that you've actually got a proper cushion here and the curve in the back because you're very comfortable at all times we've got this the the setup this when the dining room is at full extension we've got 42 of these chairs and I what I do I do what I love about them is they're not too flash they're just sort of perfect in there in their uncomfortable well this actually is one of my favorite pieces in the collection because it's just a to me it's a it's a piece of magic because Chippendale has taken the everyday design of a functional table and by bringing the legs out like this and giving them that very dramatic curve to me it brings this peace alive it's almost like you've got a the Full Sail of a ship uh coming out it gives the whole thing energy and every time I look at this it gives me a just a thrill really to see something so perfectly made this is wonderful and the carving on the legs is beautiful I think if you look at all the pieces in the collection the ones that have done very well in surviving the generational colors I see it you know when somebody takes over what are they going to keep the the Prime pieces in this collection are pure English because they are Timeless and that's why they still appeal today I think foreign [Music] so this is the what they say is the finest room in northamptonshire I'm not sure how much competition there is for that but uh it's the wooden Hall which is incredible hunting pictures by John Wooden yes so these were actually painted in London and the artist John Wootton measured up the panels and and so they look like they're paintings I mean of course they are paintings but they are actually embedded in the wall you can't take them out those are not wooden frames those are part of the actual masonry of the walls and also the ceiling is so dramatic it's from about 1730 and and it people always go no it can't be true but every single one of those flowers on the ceiling is a unique design there are no two the same and I I love all the trickery in this house you know you walk into a room and you think oh I get it but actually there's so many little subtle things going on in here and then I have to say the these are traditional uh whole chairs these come from the the Spencer house the big property in London and the reason they are Hall chairs you recognize them is because because they're they're not upholstered the British climate being so terrible people would arrive in your house covered in mud or just wet and you couldn't have them messing up the furniture so the compensation was to go for the family coat of arms at the back that's the Spencer coat of arms in the circle with a griffin there and then make the carving really beautiful so you were saying you're a welcome guest but please don't foul the furniture and then these beautiful uh tables with the the lion's head and the Lion's legs um which I I don't I think they're William Kent but they they're very dramatic design again this sort of early to mid 18th century look back at the classical era Marvel another aspect of this room is the the whole Lantern which is uh it's Roman originally obviously had candles in it so although it's a very English house when you walk in you've got all of these fashionable designs from the 18th century uh around you but these Hall chairs are something that people seem to enjoy today and and they're very functional and uh and sort of very handsome they're not beautiful they're sort of handsome pieces of English manager [Music] foreign here we are in the in the saloon yes which is the sort of the the core of the house which Once Upon a Time was a courtyard yes well this is I think this is the perfect place to end our look at all thought radio because uh here we are in a the absolute center of the house uh and originally yes this was open wherever you see the ceilings now uh there was nothing it was an open courtyard you'd arrive here imagine 500 years ago uh in your carriage or on Horseback and you were Dismount here and then around here we've got all these sort of family portraits the original Earl Spencer that little boy on the horse and various other members of the family there and members of the royal family and then generals from the past and all different themes and then a little collection of 20th century portraits at the top of the stairs um my late sister Diana my wife Karen and then I'm there too and all sorts and I I put them there on purpose because I want people to realize that this is still a collection that's evolving it's still alive so to have people from the recent past and now at the sort of top of the stairs it hopefully sends a message that this is a house that's still belonging to a family and one that cares passionately about it and and still very much at home it is a home in a sort of what I call a stately home because it's not somewhere you can sort of kick off your shoes and have a very relaxed time to be honest we're lucky enough to have somewhere else we can do that but it is a it is a monument to our family and the family is still very much connected to it wonderful thank you very much for having us it's a great pleasure thank you Ashley foreign [Music]

Channel: Cabana Magazine

Views: 288,566

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Id: p4XYHwP6H28

Length: 12min 35sec (755 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 31 2022