Jen and I attended a members evening at Harewood House back in late November to look at the house and State rooms which had been decorated for a Victorian Christmas, prior to the house being opened up to the public the following day.  The house looked absolutely beautiful at the time but as it was obviously dark at the time and lots of other visitors, I wanted to have another look around when it was a little quieter and in daylight.

Earlier in the week I had pencilled in my diary ‘return visit to Harewood House’. It was mid-morning when I arrived. It was a cold and overcast morning with wintery rain and sleet showers, it is only a short walk from the car park to the front entrance of the house and I was pleased to get inside. I was greeted at the door by one of the visitor guides and after exchanging pleasantries about the weather I made my way around the state rooms.

I cannot believe what I missed on my first visit, two of the things that struck me most today were the furniture and the stucco work on the ceilings. Much of the furniture was made for the house back in the late 1700’s by Thomas Chippendale. In 2018 the House will be celebrating the 300th anniversary of Chippendale’s birth by arranging several displays and exhibitions of this great craftsman’s work and is something I very much look forward to seeing. The second feature I missed were the ceilings in the State rooms, the workmanship that has gone into producing such fine work is quite remarkable. Robert Adams was the person responsible for the internal design of the house and his team of craftsmen were artists in their own right. One of the rooms that takes your breath away is the Long Gallery, I asked one of the visitor guides about the ceiling work and she was telling me that when the work on the ceiling was finished Adams did not want any paintings displayed on the walls, he wanted the eye to focus on the beautiful ceiling. I must return on another day to have another look.