The project at Clandon Park

2025

Project reaches milestones

January 2025

The wooden panelling from the Speakers Parlour is laid out by historic joinery consultants to see what is missing, and to assess the condition of each piece to inform the plans their repair.

Plaster conservators assess the condition of the plaster on lath and columns in the house, ahead of repair and stabilisation trials later this year.

 

March 2025

A project milestone is reached as Guildford Borough Council unanimously approve our applications for the Conservation and Re-presentation of Clandon Park Project. This paves the way for the Project to receive planning permission and listed building consent to renew Clandon as a welcoming, fully functioning building.

2024

Building to the next phase

January 2024

The replacement of the scaffold roof is completed.

Internal scaffolding is erected in the Saloon and State Bedroom ready for Pilot Works trialling masonry repairs to begin in February.

The specialist consultant leading on plaster stabilisation trials investigates a way of introducing structural physical support behind the surviving plaster where timber lathe and battens have burnt away.

February 2024

Work begins to dismantle a chimney to be rebuilt as a pilot for the conservation methods to be used on the remaining chimneys.

Cores are taken from basement ceiling timbers in a dendrochronology survey, which will enable us to date the construction of this part of the house more accurately.

Recruitment of new youth volunteering roles in partnership with local youth charity and roles in the Access Group is completed, ready for consulting on the Main Scheme design for RIBA Stage 3.

March 2024

Public exhibitions are held in Guildford and West Clandon where we share our plans for Clandon, followed by focus groups for engagement with specific audiences.

The curatorial team visit site to inform their ongoing work to develop the design of the visitor experience layout and displays.

Contractors carry out strength testing of the bricks and mortar to understand the need for future structural interventions during Conservation Package 3.

Work begins on the restoration and repair of the external brickwork.

Conservation of the State Bed textiles continue at the Trust’s Textile Conservation Studio at Blickling Hall.

The curatorial team visit the Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio at Knole to see the progress of a conservation trial of ceramic fragments.

May 2024

The Main Scheme design team review the dismantled balustrades at roof level to understand the fire damage.

A specialist timber consultant surveys the floorboards in the sole-surviving first floor room ahead of their removal and storage, allowing access to survey the back of the Speaker’s Parlour ceiling.

June 2024

The statues of Discophorus and Venus, strikingly visible in the Marble Hall for centuries, are removed from their niches for conservation. The conservator cleans the sculptures and carries out emergency consolidation in-situ from the scaffold platform before they are moved out of their niches into a bespoke crate with strapped support. The crates are moved onto a hoist and lowered from the scaffold platform to the ground floor, then down a set of steps at the entrance before being lifted into a lorry. Discophorus and Venus are in their temporary home at the collection store, before being sent to the Conservation Studio 

July 2024

Public exhibitions are held in Guildford and West Clandon where we share our plans for Clandon.

Work continues on the brick and masonry repairs included in Conservation Package 1.

The dying oak tree that stood for decades next to Hinemihi, the Māori meeting house, is felled. The hope is to use the timber in the house and for the new meeting house frame.

August 2024

Pilot Works trialing masonry repairs to the southeastern corner of the building, including a finished chimney with new pots, are completed.

Cleaning trials take place on the marble busts salvaged from the Marble Hall after the fire. The curatorial team are researching who they represent, who made them, and how they can be used as creative inspiration for future community art projects.

International plaster experts from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) visit to assess the condition of the Speakers’ Parlour ceiling.

The large twentieth-century steel truss at second-floor level in the Marble Hall is removed by specialist contractors.

September 2024

Conservation Package 1 covering small-scale like-for-like masonry repairs to external elevations and internal walls is completed.

Two public workshops are delivered led by heritage stonemasons as part of our heritage skills and training pilots.

Our free open days for Heritage Open Days attended by 400 people include talks, displays, art workshops, and handling collection items from the house.

Trials of ceramic conservation continue.

October 2024 

Conservation Package 2 covering structural masonry repairs and work to existing steel structures in the southern and central cells of the house starts on site. 

The exhibition ‘The Lounge’, our first creative commission from our partnership with the Lightbox Gallery in Woking, opens.

Twenty stonemasonry and joinery apprentices from our stonemasonry contractors, the National Trust, and Historic England, attended our heritage skills and training pilot focused on careers in the heritage sector. After seeing stonemasonry and joinery onsite, they took part in practical workshops.

November 2024

Listed Building Consent for Conservation Package 3 is granted. Work on CP3, which focuses on structural masonry repairs to the north end of the house, will start in the new year. 

Following years of meticulous research, much consultation, and a detailed design process following RIBA Stages 1 to 3, the Main Scheme Planning and Listed Building Consent applications are submitted to Guildford Borough Council. The applications we have submitted reflect our vision and plans for Clandon and have been shaped by the many conversations – with specialists, locals and the public – held since the fire.

2023

Essential works continue

May 2023

‘Essential works’ are the repairs and conservation which, as the name suggests, are essential to the survival of the core structure of the house. Some of the issues we’ve found have pre-dated the fire. Key work included making good headway through the repairs to the brick fabric of the external walls. Working with a brickmaker using the same seam of London Clay, and brickmaking techniques similar to those used to create our original bricks, our heritage bricklayer has replaced and repaired areas where the brickwork was damaged.  

When fire swept through the house several additional issues were created. The building is contaminated by the oxidised lead roof, for example. Research forms part of the essential works, including surveys to check the stability of the remaining structure, and to analyse the remains of wallpaper and paintwork discovered around the building. We’ve discovered tiny fragments of 18th century wallpaper hidden in one room under a picture rail, for example, along with the vibrant blue paint on the wooden wall panelling discovered hidden from view in the State Bedroom before the fire. A specialist in the conservation and restoration of historic building interior and exterior features is analysing the wallpaper and paint to identify what they are made of, when they were made and looking for clues for dating. 

July 2023 

The Speakers’ Parlour wall panelling is removed from its large protective pod at Clandon, where it had been recovering from dry rot, and moved to our off-site collection store. 

Archaeological excavations in the basement in preparation for geotechnical investigative drilling work reveal a previously unknown drainage system, helping us to understand the historic use of this space.

August 2023 

The State Bed valences are transported to the Textile Conservation Studio at Blickling Hall.

A Measured Survey of the house, required for the Main Scheme design, is completed. To do this, we had to temporarily remove the marble floor protection while the work was ongoing and had our first glimpse of the marble floor since the protection went down.

September 2023

Working with a textile conservator from the Trust’s Textile Conservation Studio at Blickling Hall and a furniture conservator, the curators identify and plan for the conservation of the State Bed.

We join the Hatchlands Park Heritage Open Day with a pop-up session on our plans for Clandon. A replica of the new chimney pot prototype inspires children and families to make their own clay designs.

New chimney pots thrown by a local heritage crafts person are delivered to site ready for the pilot of a chimney rebuild to begin.

October 2023

The Measured Survey report is produced, including a full 3D tour of the interior to inform the design of the Main Scheme.

November 2023

The Historic Houses Foundation fulfil their 2015 pledge of £25,000 to support the pilot masonry works.

A Members’ Resolution is brought to the Trust’s AGM resolution calling for the recreation of the Marble Hall and other state rooms at Clandon. The resolution was not carried, with 60% of the members’ voting in support of our plans. 

December 2023

The Volunteering, Participation and Inclusion team run a free community art workshop at St. Peter and St. Paul Church in West Clandon for families and children to make Christmas decorations.

2022

A new direction for Clandon Park

February 2022

The best way to care for something that’s damaged is to really understand how it was made. It would be fair to assume that the red brick exterior of Clandon was chosen simply because the right clay was available close to hand, but it is also furnished with stonework sourced from much further afield.

The team have been working with expert geologists and stonemasons to analyse what types of stone they can find at Clandon, when they may have been used, and how they were transported. So far, they have identified nine different stones which came from as far afield as Bath and Italy.

This research is also unlocking surprising new insights into how the construction of Clandon is linked with different modes of transportation. Specialist materials such timber and stone would have been transported on the Thames to a wharf in London and then down the Wey Navigation and on to Clandon by horse and cart. Many of the historical records that normally document the creation of houses of this kind don’t survive at Clandon to guide our curators, so this makes for a very complex multidisciplinary research project.

July 2022

We announced new plans for the house. We had originally hoped that some restoration at Clandon would be possible, and undertook years of careful investigation and consultation with multi-disciplinary experts from backgrounds like heritage, conservation, engineering, access, sustainability and design. With their advice, we came to realise that our original proposal was not feasible, and carefully developed a new approach which responded to our findings. 
  
The new approach to Clandon celebrates what survives of the 18th century building, and seeks to tell the stories of the many hands who created the house. We will embrace the house’s post-fire significance, sharing the untold stories of those who made it. 

September 2022

Since announcing our new plans in July, we have welcomed over 1000 local people to a series of open days and focus groups. We invited them to respond to our approach and take an active part in the development of future interpretation, events, activities and community partnerships.

2021

House repairs begin

March 2021

After a challenging year due to Covid-19, the project is able to restart in earnest. This year, subject to planning consents and coronavirus restrictions, essential repair and conservation work will start on the chimney stacks, stone balustrade and damaged brickwork.

To prepare for this, specialist surveys of the brick and stonework are being undertaken. Work is expected to begin in mid-2021 and last at least two years. It will include careful repairs to conserve the remaining brickwork and stonework throughout the house which, remarkably, almost entirely survived the fire.

This conservation work is essential to ensuring the house’s long-term protection and public access, and must take place before future construction work can begin.

August 2021

This month saw a crucial new phase begin, kickstarting a £15 million conservation programme to repair the beautiful red brick walls of the house. Thousands of new bricks will be made by traditional family brickmakers over two years to carefully match the colour and texture of those made by local brickmakers 300 years ago.

The brickwork conservation has to take place before anything else can happen to the house, as the external walls must be in the best possible condition. Wider design and planning for the house continues while this is happening and will be shared once it's ready.

Repairing this damage is a crucial step in the National Trust’s long-term project to bring the house back to life.

2020

The Covid-19 pandemic hits

March 2020

A rare clock from the 1600s is restored to working order with the help of a horologist. Whilst the clock mechanism was safe inside the visitor centre on the night of the fire, the pendulum was being stored inside the house for conservation work, but luckily was found during the year-long salvage process. The pendulum’s shape was altered during the fire and now features some small dents.

April 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic closes the house and pauses the project. With many staff on furlough, only essential care for the house is able to take place.

August 2020

Following an easing of coronavirus restrictions, the garden at Clandon opens for the local community to enjoy.

October 2020

Members of the Clandon Park project team are among the recipients of grant funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to explore how new digital technology can be used to give visitors a deeper insight into historic buildings and the craft skills that lie hidden beneath their surfaces.

2019

Work continues

May 2019

The assessment of Clandon’s collection is complete. Of an original collection of over 3,000 objects, just over a third were saved or salvaged from the fire. A team of eight experts looked at 1,200 objects over a three-month period to assess their condition and make plans for their future use.

November 2019

Whilst feasibility work continues, thousands of visitors have explored the house in what has been the busiest year since the fire. Many people have shared their responses to the ideas for Clandon’s future.

2018

Design team is appointed

May 2018

The basement spaces open for the first time since the fire and visitors can journey into the most damaged part of the building.

August 2018

To complement the skills of lead architects Allies and Morrison, a design team made up of Price & Myers Structural Engineers, Max Fordham Mechanical and Electrical engineers, Purcell conservation architects, David Bonnett Access Consultants, and Robert Myers Landscape Architects is appointed. Robert Myers is the winner of six gold medals and the People’s Choice Award at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and is now an RHS gardens show judge.

September 2018

Feasibility work starts on testing Clandon’s future design. The project is divided into workstreams focusing on different elements including architecture, engineering, sustainability, ecology, materials, archaeology, communications, commercial, engagement and landscape.

2017

Design ideas put forward

March 2017

An international design competition is launched, offering talented teams the opportunity to apply their expertise and creative thinking to the future of this important historic building. Malcolm Reading Consultants, specialists in running competitions for museums and arts, heritage and non-profit organisations, were appointed to manage the competition.

April 2017

This month marks two years since the fire. The house opens for a new season of welcoming visitors, with the walkway extended to take in more areas.

May 2017

A shortlist of six award-winning teams has been chosen from 60 entries to progress to the final stage of the Clandon Park International Design Competition. Finalists include established and more emerging architects, from UK and international practices. A jury from the worlds of heritage, architecture, the arts and the local area will judge the finalists.

August 2017

The six shortlisted teams produce designs showing their ideas for the future Clandon Park. The concepts are displayed for visitors to comment on.

December 2017

Allies and Morrison, a multi award-winning architecture and urban planning practice, are chosen to help restore, rebuild and reimagine Clandon Park. They were the unanimous choice of the jury following the design competition. The jury praised the winning team’s bold yet balanced approach, keeping continuity and cohesion whilst allowing for an appropriate level of drama and excitement.

2016

Rewarding rescues and visitors come back

January 2016

Initial proposals for Clandon’s future are announced, which honour its rich history alongside creating a vibrant and modern space to breathe new life into the house.

March 2016

The State Bed is finally rescued from the rubble – this has been a goal since the morning after the fire but impossible to achieve until now. Individual elements of the bed are laid out to air dry and work soon begins to clean and conserve this important object.

May 2016

Highly skilled and qualified abseilers use ropes to begin removing the remaining high-level debris, such as timber beams. They work 20m above the ground using hoists that can carry a tonne of weight.

July 2016

After a year of work the house is finally clear of debris.

September 2016

A walkway into the Saloon opens and visitors are welcomed back into the house for the first time since the fire.

2015

Everything changes

April 2015

A devastating fire broke out on Wednesday 29 April 2015. Everyone was evacuated safely but the fire ravaged the building, damaging all but one room. A well-rehearsed salvage operation was carried out and a proportion of the contents were saved.

May 2015

Clandon remains under the control of Surrey Fire and Rescue Service until 8 May. A project team of National Trust experts is put in place to plan the way forward. Initial surveys are made using 3D lasers and drones.

June 2015

The site is handed over to a contractor. They use two huge cranes to remove large debris and then stabilise the house, meaning the project team can safely enter what remains of the ground floor.

July 2015

After two months of working in any available space, from a caravan to an open gazebo, a salvage village opens. This includes cabins that will become conservation studios where porcelain and plaster finds can be assessed.

September 2015

Contractors arrive to construct an enormous scaffolding cocoon around the house to make it weathertight. Archaeologists begin the task of clearing the house of debris in the hopes of finding collection items buried. A tiny stoneware duck more than 600 years old is the first find – and it’s in remarkably good condition. Visitors are welcomed back for a series of garden open days and they see what remains of the house for the first time.

November 2015

Investigators release their report into the fire and conclude that it was accidental. It was most likely caused by a fault in an electrical distribution board.

December 2015

The massive free-standing scaffold structure around the house is complete. Instead of being tied to the building it’s weighed down with 400 tonnes of ballast. The special roof covering acts like a roller blind, allowing individual sections to be peeled back so that cranes can still access the inside of the house.

The footprint of the scaffold is similar in size to half a football pitch and the total volume is roughly equivalent to two Olympic-sized swimming pools. If all the tubes were taken out and placed end to end, they’d stretch for 32 miles.