Quebec House

A friend and I had planned on visiting Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill, but our best laid plans came undone. We had chosen the best day of the half-term holiday. Everyone was out! When we arrived, they had just shut the car park! ‘Try again in half an hour or an hour,’ we were advised.

Chartwell is close to the village of Westerham (there is a statue of Churchill on the green and a tea shop bearing his name). We headed into Westerham to have lunch. We had walked by Quebec House. My friend had been before, but I’d never heard of it. We shelved the information for later and set out again for Chartwell, only to find the car park still closed.

Back in Westerham we parked and walked to Quebec House, which we were told (on entering) was the first house ever bequeathed by Will to the National Trust. The house was saved by General James Wolfe, who grew up here.

Aged only 14, Wolfe received his first military commission and later went on to command the army sent to recapture Quebec from the French. Sadly, he died there, but he achieved the goal he was sent to carry out. He is buried in Greenwich, but there is a memorial and sculpture of him in Westminster Abbey.

On display are lots of military history – documents, paintings of ships, a model of the long boat they used to get from ship to shore, uniforms, pistols and other paraphernalia. I loved the kitchen with its bottles of stomach churning remedies for various ailments.

Outside there is good sized garden, and an outbuilding with a display about the battle. Of course, there is the usual NT shop and also a secondhand bookshop (rummage essential!).

Have an ailment? Find a cure here! The kitchen

Although I don’t have any real interest in military things, this was a pleasant house to wander around. It is only small (only the downstairs is open to the public), but our guide was very knowledgeable about both the house and James Wolfe’s military history. The house is now closed for winter and reopens in March 2022. Entrance is free.

The Bloomsbury Group and all that (Part 2)

Could the second day of our holiday be better than the first? Oh, yes it could! Our first stop was Charleston House where Vanessa Bell lived with her two children, Julian and Quentin, as well as Duncan Grant and his lover David Garnett. Vanessa was also in love with Duncan and later had a child by him, Angelica. The girl was brought up to think she was Clive Bell’s daughter and was only told she was Duncan’s when she was about eighteen. I told you relationships were rather complicated! It gets more so because when she was born (at the house), David Garnett said that he would marry her one day. He did! I’ve bought the book Angelica wrote about growing up at Charleston. I’m sure it will be mind blowing!

The house, when they first lived here, had no running water or electricity. It was rented, and as I said in my last post, the men were conscientious objectors and moved here so they were able to work on the land. Later, the house was used mainly as a holiday home. Gradually, the group put there own touch to it by painting walls, fireplaces, doors and furniture. A studio was built on and Vanessa moved her bedroom downstairs next door to the studio.

Dining room – walls decorated with paint and stencils

The house is beautiful. There is so much to take in. Everywhere you turn, every room, there is something to look at. To say I love this house is an understatement. Although I have been here before, it still astounds me. The last time I came people were not allowed to take photos. This time people could, so I went a little crazy, despite a rather rushed tour because everything has to be booked in advance (due to Covid restrictions) which mean a backlog and delayed tours if we lingered too long. But linger I so wanted to do!

Vanessa’s bedroom surrounded by paintings of her children

We were at leisure afterwards to view the garden and the galleries. I think the galleries and cafe are new additions, as I don’t remember them (there is a cafe too). There were two art exhibitions, but the one everyone wanted to see was Duncan Grant from the 1920’s. If you are interested, there is another exhibition of Duncan’s in London at the Philip Mould Gallery, and I’m going along to that next month.

I have heard that Charleston House is fully booked for the next six months. I may be wrong, but it shows how popular this house is. Enjoy the photos.

From Charleston we got back in the coach for the ten minute drive to Berwick Church. I’ve longed to go here. It was shut for some months while work was carried out, and then there was Covid. It opened again in the spring this year. Here are the murals painted by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Quentin Bell. Bishop Bell (no relation to Duncan) wanted to revive the art of murals in churches, most being lost during the Reformation. Duncan was approached and he put forward preparation studies for the project.

The Pulpit – Duncan Grant. The original paintings by Vanessa Bell of the saints were vandalised back in the 1960’s and Duncan repainted them.

He used local people as models, as well as themselves. Angelica Bell was the model for Mary. The church was still in the harvest season with a few fruits and veg on windowsills . A lot of the stained glass windows were lost during war bombing and never replaced in case the same thing happened. The result is a lovely light church.

The Victory at Calvary – Duncan Grant (I have a story to tell you about this one next time!)

Earlier in the year I watched a Zoom performance from here. Words by Virginia Woolf (I think from her book Orlando) and music. While the music played the camera moved around the walls and I saw for the first time the beautiful murals. It was a very moving performance. Seeing the murals in the flesh was stunning. I’d love to return sometime.

Plain glass windows and some stained glass

We had one more place to visit that day – Bateman’s, the home of Rudyard Kipling. Now what had he to do with the Bloomsbury Group? Nothing, other than he was accused by Virginia Woolf (I think it was) of being imperialistic and approved of war. The Bloomsbury Group were opposites to the Victorians, who they considered hypocrites. The Victorian carried on the same things as they did, but the Victorians hid it all!

The other reason for going to Bateman’s was that Monk’s House, the home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf is only open at the weekends, so we could not visit. I have been there before, and it is worth a visit (Virginia’s writing studio is in the garden). It is only a short drive from Charleston House.

Part 3 will be up shortly when I will talk about Bateman’s and the last day of our holiday when we visit another extraordinary house.

London at random (archive memories)

Over the years, I’ve taken hundreds of photos in London and been to many places. Today I’d like to share with you just a few photos randomly picked out of my photo folders. I hope you enjoy them.

The Cinema Museum is a private collection of memorabilia. It is housed in the former workhouse where Charlie Chaplin lived as a child. They offer talks and show films. There is a small shop and refreshments are offered.

One day my husband and I took the train from Liverpool Street station out to Harold Wood. This is as far as we could go using our 60+ Oyster card (this card gives us free travel on buses, trains and tubes in the London area – a perk of being over 60 years olds!) The Elizabeth Line is the new kid on the block. Formerly called CrossRail, when completed (it is years overdue and way over budget), the line will run from Reading in Berkshire through London to Shenfield in Essex, with branches to Abbey Wood and London Heathrow Airport.

This was our first experience of travelling in one of the new trains and it was quite exciting. I’d become obsessed with the line after watching several documentaries about the tunnelling, and what was found in the various soil layers (I’ve attended several exhibitions too!), and took a course on it! Bits of the line are now open, but I am still waiting for the whole line to be completed.

Harold Wood – part of the London Loop walks

The staircase, Sigmund Freud’s house, Hampstead

Osterley Park and house in Isleworth dates back to the 1570’s and is owned by The National Trust

Living Wall and Pocket Garden near Tower Hill station

Some unusual seating at the Brunel Museum, Rotherhithe

Crossrail Place Roof Gardens, Canary Wharf

The poet John Keats came to live at this house in 1818. The house was originally two dwellings and Keats lived in the smaller half with Charles Brown. Keats stayed for seventeen months before travelling to Italy where he died.

When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be

When I have fears that I may cease to be
   Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,
   Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,
   Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
   Their shadows with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
   That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
   Of unreflecting love—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

(https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44488/when-i-have-fears-that-i-may-cease-to-be)