Clandon Park: National Trust reveals 'laid-bare' design for fire-hit house

Plans have been revealed for the rebuild of a historic house which was gutted by a fire.

The National Trust said the new design of Clandon Park will offer visitors an X-ray view of how it was made.

The 18th Century stately home, in Surrey, was reduced to a charred shell during a blaze in April 2015.

Most of the interior will be conserved in its fire-damaged state, the trust said, with suspended walkways and platforms for visitors.

The design responds to the "evocative spaces created by the fire", the most devastating in its history, it added.

Architects Allies and Morrison developed the plans after they were selected in a competitive process in 2017.

The blaze completely destroyed the roof plus many internal walls and floors, leaving a brick shell.

However, the trust said it had moved on from a previous idea to restore some ground floor rooms.

The rooms will instead be conserved and curated in their "laid-bare" condition, except one space that survived, the Speakers' Parlour.

Senior curator Sophie Chessum said: "The fire at Clandon stripped most of the house completely bare, leaving only fragments of decoration.

"This makes restoration of the interior spaces extremely challenging.

"It would be less a case of restoration than of complete modern replication and we have concluded this wouldn't be the right approach."

The external walls and windows of the house are being restored however, with work underway, the trust said.

Meanwhile, a new roof with public terraces and lights will give views down into the house and across the countryside.

Project director Kent Rawlinson said: "Clandon Park remains a great house, laid bare and stripped back to its skeleton-like core."

The house will have a new lease of life with events and displays, including exhibitions of collections which were saved in the fire, the trust said.

Detailed designs will now be developed by Allies and Morrison for planning and statutory approvals, while conservation and repair of the brick and stone shell takes place.

The trust estimates work will be completed by late 2027-28.

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