The importance of the restoration of Leoni’s Marble Hall at Clandon Park

Some notes by a member of the National Trust

1. Leoni’s masterpiece

Clandon Park has been called Leoni’s masterpiece. Its most significant feature is its Marble Hall. The design of his interior Marble Hall and its relationship to the exterior of his house make it important and perhaps unique in English architectural history as the first of its kind.

Leoni’s masterpiece cannot be appreciated if it is preserved as a ruin. Without the restoration of the Marble Hall’s lost architectural details, visitors cannot appreciate its architectural importance, aesthetic magnificence, and its role as the vital core element in Leoni’s masterpiece.

Visitors should be able to experience its cubic spatial volume as they move through it, absorbing the dynamic of its carefully located vertical and horizontal lines, before appreciating its superb ceiling with its rich iconography centred on its celestial oculus. Some of these architectural details survive and the rest are well documented. Therefore, it could be a relatively straightforward task to restore one of the most important entrance halls of the period, architecturally and aesthetically, in an authentic relationship to Leoni’s exterior.

Marble Hall, Clandon Park

Visitors should be able to experience its cubic spatial volume as they move through it, absorbing the dynamic of its carefully located vertical and horizontal lines, before appreciating its superb ceiling with its rich iconography centred on its celestial oculus.

2. Preservation of Leoni’s masterpiece and not of a ruin

The role of the National Trust is widely considered to be that of a preservation charity, to conserve for future generations what it has received on trust. The preservation of a building, unlike a living landscape which constantly rejuvenates itself, depends on constantly maintaining, repairing and restoring the building’s structure and decoration.

The National Trust’s restoration of Uppark from 1989 was a magnificent success. It allows visitors to experience the volumes, spaces and interior decorations of the house as intended by the architect. In contrast, Coleshill, an architecturally more important building, was burnt in 1952 before it was passed to the National Trust and was not restored at all. Seaton Delaval was burnt in 1822, long before it passed to the National Trust, but the hall at Seaton Delaval appears forlorn and derelict, an unattractive blight on the presentation of the house. Clandon need not be so. Moreover, the halls at Seaton Delaval and even Coleshill were of far less importance in terms of architectural history than that at Clandon. The National Trust, on an online page dated May 2023, argued anonymously against restoration on the grounds that ‘it would be less a case of restoration than of complete modern replication.’

Seaton Delaval Hall

Seaton Delaval was burnt in 1822, long before it passed to the National Trust, but the hall at Seaton Delaval appears forlorn and derelict, an unattractive blight on the presentation of the house.

However, restoration of a building has always involved replication, which, by definition, is modern and, if done effectively, is complete. Since the architectural framework of the house survives, unlike that of the Crooked House Pub, the replication would be within its historic space. Since much detail survives, the restoration or replication would include important and original architectural and decorative features. The National Trust also stated, again anonymously, that restoration would mean that ‘we would lose the layers of the building and the history which we have discovered since the fire, and which are unique and important.’ However, the layers of the building would, like its history, remain and not be destroyed by appropriate restoration. Moreover, buildings are not designed to be seen as layers but as holistic and coherent unified entities. This is especially true of classical buildings and those from the eighteenth century, where exposing layers would be against the principles and aesthetics of classical architecture.

In its 2023 AGM booklet, p.29, the National Trust states anonymously that ‘A facsimile ceiling, using modern techniques and materials, would not do justice to the lost original.’ However, it is not obvious why ‘justice’ could not be done when seen from forty feet below, especially when viewing the skilled achievements of the best Italian or other plasterers who are used to working in this tradition. In fact, they might improve on the original, especially Omphale’s awkwardly-angled left leg and Herackles’ reduced left foot. Clandon Park should be restored and preserved as Leoni’s masterpiece with his unequalled and spectacular Marble Hall, not as a drab ruin with inappropriate modern interventions.