The house that refused to die: Castle Howard's spectacular 21st-century renaissance

It's hard not to be moved, on visiting Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, by the row of gutted state rooms along the South Front, destroyed by fire in 1940. At the time, the building housed the evacuated Queen Margaret’s School and the 100 or so girls sleeping on the premises were integral in removing works by Lely, Tintoretto and Rubens and other valuables from danger. It took local fire brigades eight hours to control the blaze and Sir John Vanbrugh’s famous dome was destroyed, not to be restored until 1962, but the east and west wings were saved. The Yorkshire Post reported at the time: ‘The dome blazed like a beacon. Molten lead cascaded from the roof into the centre hall, and then the dome crashed to the ground, leaving the interior an inferno of blazing timber and shattered stonework. The roof covering the large dining-room and the six state rooms, which have been used as class rooms, fell in.’

Restoration has been ongoing for decades—income from the filming of Brideshead Revisited in the 1980s helped—and present custodians the Hon Nicholas and Victoria Howard have been working with architect Francis Terry and designers Remy Renzullo and Alec Cobbe. On April 25, the restored 18th-century Tapestry Drawing Room will be unveiled in an exhibit incorporating John Vanderbank’s original 1706 tapestries of the four seasons, dubbed ‘Castle Howard’s 21st-century Renaissance’.

A re-hang of the Grand Staircase and Long Gallery, including capricci of Rome by Panini commissioned by the 4th Earl of Carlisle, will also be revealed in anticipation of the 300th anniversary of Vanbrugh’s death next year. ‘The scale and ambition of this project is inspiring, embracing not only the representation of the collection, but turning to advantage the damage inflicted by the fire to create an entirely new room in the spirit of the Baroque,’ comments Country Life Architectural Editor — and fellow Yorkshireman — John Goodall.

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‘Every one of the nine generations who has lived in Castle Howard has enjoyed dancing with its particular aesthetic. We are no exception,’ say Mr and Mrs Howard.

‘From its inception 325 years ago, it has been a vivacious house, demanding lively evolution. During all that time, it has managed to achieve the duality of being both a family home and a place at which to marvel. The re-creation of the Tapestry Drawing Room is at the centre of our contemporary evolution. The evisceration of more than 20 rooms in the 1940 fire had the silver lining of once more allowing us to step into the creative process here. Spreading out from the Tapestry Drawing Room, we have re-purposed, re-hung and re-decorated, re-vivifying the house that has refused to die.’

Simon Thurley, historian and former chief executive of English Heritage, calls Castle Howard ‘magical, romantic, monumental… every few generations a wave of the wand of taste has renewed and revived its charms’. He praises the restoration of the state rooms as ‘a remarkable achievement, worthy of the ambitions of Castle Howard’s first builder and designers some 350 years ago’. Visit www.castlehoward.co.uk for opening hours.