You don’t have to be an admirer of the Bloomsbury Group to appreciate the allure of Charleston Farmhouse, the literary circle’s outpost in East Sussex. On a late afternoon its garden shimmers for us:
Photography by Kendra Wilson.
The lawn gently slopes down from Vanessa’s ground floor bedroom (past which the head gardener rushes, Above). It was converted from a storeroom after her ex-husband Clive moved into Charleston just before World War II and requisitioned the best rooms for himself. A charming house guide tells us by way of explanation that Clive Bell paid most of the rent, introduced heating, and kept a very fine cellar.
Charleston was only ever rented over the years, from the Firle estate. This did not stop its artist-tenants from covering the walls in their own way, nor its only wealthy tenant (Clive Bell) from putting in extensive changes, including new bathrooms. When Duncan Grant died in 1978, the farmhouse was down for a white wash and general overhaul. It was the art historian Deborah Gage (who had family connections with Firle) who appreciated the value of Charleston and saved it from oblivion.
For more of the Bloomsbury effect, see:
- Hotel Visit: Rent a Wing of Wiveton Hall in Norfolk.
- Required Reading: Virginia Woolf’s Garden.
- Steal This Look: A Spartan Writing Shed.
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