Charleston in Sussex, England, home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant
Charleston is not a dance. Actually, it is. But it is much more. Every day it refers to Charleston in Sussex, England, also known as “Bloomsbury in the country.” And this weekend, the Weekend of Bloomsbury in Antwerp, Charleston is the theme for the second Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury Festival, which begins today and runs through Sunday.
Hosted by the Gordon Square Society, the festival includes prestigious events based at historic sites around Antwerp. They include:
a concert by Pierre Fontenelle & Max Charue
Virginia Nicholson on ‘My Childhood at Charleston’
Darren Clarke on ‘Is Craft Art?’
Gert Voorjans on ‘Sense of Place’
a Bloomsbury-themed banquet
and an exhibition of all the books hand-printed by Virginia and Leonard Woolf at the Hogarth Press.
Conference goers enjoy the fine weather at Charleston before the banquet for the 34th Annual Virginia Woolf Conference, held July 4-8 at King’s College London and the University of Sussex.
Not in the home’s dining room, where every surface is decorated and everyone from Virginia and Leonard Woolf to Roger Fry to Maynard Keynes to Desmond and Molly MacCarthy to T.S. Eliot to Jean Renoir once shared meals and drinks.
That room, with a large round table painted by Vanessa Bell, seats six and would be exceedingly small for the 150 of us who attended the traditional banquet celebrating the 34th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf: Woolf and Dissidence.
Gathering in the Hay Barn
Instead, on July 7 we gathered at long tables, beautifully set, in the nearby Hay Barn. I could hardly imagine a more magical, charming site for a meal with so many Woolfians.
We had piled onto buses and rode the 11 miles from the University of Sussex conference site to Charleston, the longtime home of Vanessa and Clive Bell that hosted frequent guests from the Bloomsbury group and beyond.
Our tour of the house and the garden ended with a cocktail reception in the garden before a dinner of boeuf en daube or a vegetarian option in the Hay Barn, located across a short gravel path from the house.
I was also curious about her memories. As the daughter of Quentin Bell, the granddaughter of Vanessa Bell, and the great-niece of Virginia Woolf, who died 14 years before she was born — she had many to share.
Nicholson recalled that the children slept in the attic (now off limits to visitors) when they stayed at Charleston, and she described the atmosphere of the home as “uninhibited and sort of liberated.”
She remembered wearing a mauve dress at the age of five as Vanessa and Duncan Grant painted her portrait, earning a six-pence bribe to sit for them. She owns the painting by Grant but laments the fact that Vanessa’s portrait has never been located.
Nicholson spoke of visiting Monk’s House while Leonard Woolf was alive, and she emphasized his thoughtfulness. When talking to him, “he stopped to think of what he’d say, then he would say it.”
Over the years, Charleston fell into disrepair, and when an effort was made to save it, the Charleston Trust was formed. That work began at Nicholson’s kitchen table, with notes taken on the backs of envelopes. Since 2018, she has served as the president of the Charleston Trust, and Charleston is an internationally renowned museum.
Today, she said, she is “thrilled, amazed and delighted” that the Bloomsbury summer home survives.
It even smells the same. The treasure I grew up with hasn’t changed. I think Vanessa would also recognize that her spirit is still alive here.
Here are some photos from our once-in-a-lifetime evening at Charleston.
Gathering in the Charleston garden for cocktails before dinner.
Long tables, beautifully set, filled the Hay Barn for the conference banquet at Charleston as Vara Neverow, one of the traditional Woolf Players, reads a passage from Woolf’s work.
Banquet goers filled the Hay Barn at Charleston
Jane Goldman of Scotland and Davi Pino of Brazil are engrossed in conversation at the banquet.
Artists Kabe Wilson of England and Ane Thon Knutsen of Norway
Cecilia Servatius of Austria and AnneMarie Bantzinger of the Netherlands
Conference organizers Anna Snaith, Helen Tyson, and Clara Jones react with surprise and glee as they open their thank you gifts presented by Amy Smith, vice president of the International Virginia Woolf Society.
Conference organizers Anna Snaith, Helen Tyson, and Clara Jones happily show off their thank you gifts presented by Amy Smith, vice president of the International Virginia Woolf Society. They received first American editions of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, The Years, and The Captain’s Death Bed, and Other Essays.
Read more posts about the 34th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf: Woolf and Dissidence
The Charleston Trust has raised £20,000 of the £60,000 it needs to help save “Lessons in the Orchard,” from sale at auction.
“Lessons in the Orchard” (1917) by Duncan Grant. (C) The Charleston Trust
Duncan Grant’s 1917 painting is considered one of the most important paintings of early life at Charleston, as Grant painted it the summer after he and Vanessa Bell first arrived at the Sussex home in 1916. It was also one of Vanessa Bell’s favorite paintings and has hung by her bedside since that time.
According to Charleston, “The much loved painting serves as a poignant reflection of Grant’s experiences as a conscientious objector during the First World War, depicting a scene of domestic tranquillity amidst the chaos of the era. The painting captures a different kind of family structure, offering a lens into themes of social privilege and chosen kinship that have always been present here at Charleston.”
The family who has loaned Charleston the painting since the 1980s has given Charleston the opportunity to secure its permanent place within its collection.
With the support of the Trustees of the ArtFund, Charleston has secured a grant of £40,000 towards the purchase price. However, it must raise a further £60,000 to ensure that “Lessons in the Orchard” remains in the care of Charleston’s collections team and is returned to public display for generations to enjoy.
In September, the venerable location of Bloomsbury in the country will open a new venue in the former district council offices in Southover Road in Lewes that will feature a shop, a pop-up café pop-up café operated by Lewes-based Caccia & Tails, and a free program of co-produced community projects, artist-led workshops, gallery activities, and a learning program.
Charleston, 2019
The effort is the first step in bringing 100 of the most important Bloomsbury works back to Sussex and providing a growing Bloomsbury archive in a central location that is accessible to researchers and visitors.
Two free exhibitions will be featured during the venue’s first season, which will run Sept. 13 through Jan. 7, 2024:
“Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and Fashion,” which will feature catwalk fashion by the likes of Dior, Fendi and Burberry alongside never-before-seen Bloomsbury portraits and personal items including Virginia Woolf’s handbag, embroidered by Vanessa Bell, and
Here is what Nathaniel Hepburn, director of Charleston, has to say about the project:
“Since Charleston reopened after the pandemic, we have been working in partnership with the council and community groups in Lewes to develop a bold and ambitious vision which could transform the cultural life of Lewes and replicate the ‘Rodin effect’ from 1999 when Tate lent the famous Kiss sculpture to the town.
“It is exciting to be able to announce plans to launch this space in time for a major cultural season happening across Sussex to coincide with the largest contemporary art prize in the world – Turner Prize – being hosted in Eastbourne. It’s a great moment to put Lewes on the map as an important part of the region’s cultural offer.”
According to the Charleston website:
It is not a new idea for the Bloomsbury group to explore creating a cultural centre in Lewes. During the Second World War, the economist John Maynard Keynes, alongside Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, worked on a project for the precursor of the Arts Council, making designs for a theatre and art gallery – with a café – for small towns across the country, using Lewes as a model.
The Charleston Festival is back — in person — beginning yesterday and running through May 29 at Charleston in Firle, Sussex.
The festival is the main fundraising event for the longtime home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and the country refuge for the Bloomsbury group.
Of particular interest to Bloomsbury scholars is Sunday’s program with Alex Jennings and Jonathon Pryce. At 5:30 p.m., the actors will do a live reading of “The Love Lives of Lytton Strachey,” revealing “a playful and uncensored portrait of a queer universe, shared in glorious candid detail with trusted friends,” according to the website.
