Bloomsbury in Sussex

We visited Charleston Farmhouse today.

It’s an artwork in its own right, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and others painted walls, fireplaces, window and door surrounds and much more. No photography allowed in the house, so I bought an excellent well illustrated book written by Quintin Bell and his daughter Virginia Nicholson. The farmhouse was an intellectual hub particularly in the 1920’s and 30’s, and was restored in the 1970’s through to the 1980’s.

We visited here 25 years ago. The Trust that runs it has added an excellent restaurant cum tearoom, a gallery space funded by the Woolfson foundation, and more. We enjoyed the two exhibitions, one on the use of colour by British artists and another by Philip Hughes. I loved looking at paintings, accompanied by the sounds of cows mooing in the adjoining dairy shed. It’s still a working farm as well as a museum and artistic hub.