White Drawing Room

We had a jolly good sing this morning at community choir and then set straight off to the southern Lakes for a few days. A lovely journey, daffodils everywhere and lots of lambs in the fields.

We arrived at Blackwell Arts and Crafts house with time to spare for a coffee and a bite before our time slot tickets to tour the house. Sadly the cafe wasn’t open due to staff shortage! We were ravenous. The good news was there was a talk on the house at 2.00 pm so we waited for that. We’ve been here before a couple of times but it is always good to hear someone talk who knows a lot about a place.

It’s a beautiful turn of century Arts and Crafts house built for a Manchester industrialist and designed by Architect Hugh Bailie Scott. It was used as a school for 20 years and then rented out. That history probably saved it as much of the original design features were found boarded up when it was bought for restoration by Lakeland arts in the 1990’s.

The hall and dining room, as well as the adjoining corridors are oak panelled which in themselves are beautiful but the contrast when you come to the White Drawing Room is striking. Bailie Scott features a lot of boxed seating in every room primarily around fireplaces but here in the bay window the seating overlooks the view of Lake Windermere.

As with all Arts and Crafts design nature is the main theme and Rowan berries feature strongly on the oak doors and the white bosses at the top of the pillars feature them too. They also feature, Hawthorne, Oak and wild roses as do the plaster ceiling tiles in the room.

So much to be seen here I will do a Flickr link when we get back.

We went down to the Jetty museum, also run by Lakeland arts to arrive just as they were closing the cafe early due to staff shortage, so, getting desperate, we headed into Bowness where we managed to get a coffee and cake. Everywhere we went there were notices saying staff required or hiring. It’s going to be a lean summer.

Now in our hotel having a drink before dinner. We’re pretty sure they have enough staff to supply our needs for the next few days!