The exemplary restoration of one of John Fowler's last surviving interiors at Radbourne Hall
Lady Chichester has fond memories of sitting on John Fowler’s knee as a child. This is perhaps a rather different sort of memory to those who worked for or alongside this extraordinarily talented and influential, yet notoriously irascible and demanding decorator. In 1957, her parents, Major and Mrs John Chandos-Pole, commissioned Fowler to work on the interiors at 18th-century Radbourne Hall, her family house in Derbyshire, and today they are a rare surviving example of an almost complete John Fowler scheme. Annie’s mother Jill lived in the house until she died, aged 102, going to great lengths to preserve Fowler’s interiors. Shutters were kept closed and plastic covers made for upholstery and curtains.
Although Annie admits she found her mother’s fastidiousness very boring to live with as a child, she is now the grateful beneficiary of an extraordinary legacy. When she and her husband, Sir James Chichester, took over the house in 2014, the ceiling of the central hall was sagging alarmingly and the roof required attention, as did the plumbing and wiring. The house also needed to be updated in order to work better for 21st-century living with the addition of a family kitchen and more bathrooms. Despite this, Annie was absolutely committed to restoring Fowler’s work.
Years before, she had lined up Fiona Shelburne, an old school friend, now Marchioness of Lansdowne, to help her with the redecoration when the time came. Fiona had the perfect credentials, having worked for a decade or so for Imogen Taylor at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, who, in turn, had worked with Fowler on this house in the 1950s. Not only do Imogen’s drawings for the curtains for Radbourne still exist, but Fiona’s curtain maker – Andrew Christie – worked for John Mason, whose father had in fact worked for Fowler. Andrew has the original measuring books, which were an invaluable resource, as nearly all the curtains for the rooms survived but were in need of cleaning and relining.
Peregrine Bryant was the architect overseeing what was to be an award-winning restoration project (recognised by Historic Houses, The Georgian Group and Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust), ensuring that the biomass heating system and associated pipes – and also the rewiring – were as unobtrusive as possible. Asbestos removal alone took 16 weeks. Peregrine worked with structural engineers Hockley & Dawson to devise a remarkable new steel-beam system to support the ceiling in the hall without damaging the plasterwork. Amazingly, the ceiling did not require repainting and still bears the original Fowler colours. Peregrine also designed the new flight of steps at the rear of the house, which enable the Chichesters to walk out of the saloon onto a terrace, providing a new connection to the garden below and a place to eat outdoors. Planning permission was granted on the condition that the new stone steps could not touch the building, so the structure is cantilevered, with just a tiny gap between the terrace and the building itself.
Visitors enter via a grand hall on the piano nobile, which, with its coffered ceiling and Ionic screen, creates an impressive entrance. It is a room that, as Martin Wood writes in his book John Fowler: Prince of Decorators (Frances Lincoln, 2007), ‘shows John’s decoration at its very best – restrained and elegant’. His, and his client’s, aim – much like Annie’s – had been to have a house that ‘reflected the charm of the 18th century, but with the amenities of the 20th century’. In this room, Fowler had taken a coin from his pocket and scraped away at the paint to find the duck-egg blue several layers below. It is this that Annie and Fiona have in turn recreated today, the perfect foil to Fowler’s dark red mohair velvet curtains with their rope-trimmed bell and swag pelmets. The George II sofas were re-covered by Fowler in red gaufrage velvet and Fiona had these restored by Ridge Interiors from the underside, so as not to damage the fabric. Plastic covers banished, this room is now used regularly.
Either side of the hall are two rooms that the Chichesters use every day. To the right was what Annie describes as a ‘perfectly 1950s’ kitchen. This was one of the only rooms where Annie was not having to work to a scheme devised by Fowler. She and Fiona have turned this into a comfortable space for the family to eat and gather in. To the left of the hall is the library, their everyday sitting room. Here a frieze and chimneypiece, of a slightly later date than the house, provided the cue for Fowler’s colour scheme. The wonderful stripe-on-stripe green flock wallpaper from Cole & Son and wool curtains have thankfully survived, despite the ceiling having to be replaced after a flood.
Beyond the hall on the garden side is the saloon, perhaps the most magnificent room in the house with its series of paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby. Here, Fowler also scratched away at the paint with a coin to reveal the pale terracotta colour we see today. It was in rooms like this, where total redecoration could be avoided, that the skills of the specialist decorators of Colchester Lister Associates were vital, patching up where rewiring and new sockets had caused damage. To the right of this room is the panelled dining room, and to the left is the drawing room. The latter – with its silk-lined walls, pale green coved ceiling and exquisitely detailed curtains – is one of the prettiest of Fowler’s schemes, derived from the Aubusson carpet that Annie’s mother had bought for the room. Fiona used the lightest of touches here, adding the pink velvet-covered ottoman. Cleaning and rehanging the multi-layered curtain pelmets was a feat in itself.
Upstairs, the same philosophy prevailed. The silk curtains in what was Annie’s mother’s bedroom (now the main spare room) had disintegrated and no silk to match the pelmets could be found. So Fiona used a Colefax and Fowler fern print for the new curtains, similar to the one chosen by Fowler for the arm-chair. She turned to Claremont’s collection for the majority of the reupholstery projects, since Fowler had sourced many of the fabrics for Radbourne from there and several of them are still available. ‘It was wonderful to be able to use these, as it enabled us to keep to his original palette,’ Fiona explains.
In many ways, the works undertaken on this house were subtle. Decoratively, it was a footstool here, a slight change of fabric there, a polish to the panelling somewhere else. Unknowing visitors to Radbourne might not appreciate the immense amount of work involved, the details of which have been barely touched upon here. But this was precisely the aim. Through carefully considered tweaks, Annie and Fiona were able to bring the house alive for 21st-century living and preserve Fowler’s colour palette and decorative schemes for many years to come. This is surely make-do-and-mend at its most grand and glorious.
Peregrine Bryant Architects: peregrine-bryant.co.uk
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Christopher Horwood2/15‘String Light Cone’ pendants by Flos add a modern touch above an American walnut table from Herrenhaus. Cabinetry by Treemark is paired with Amtico flooring.
Christopher Horwood3/15Oak panelling, stripped and waxed by Fowler – and restored by Wheathills – is the backdrop for a Georgian mahogany table and chairs, and original curtains in yellow mohair velvet
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Christopher Horwood6/15Walls in a specialist paint finish by Colchester Lister Associates create a subtle background for family paintings
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Christopher Horwood8/15Walls in a striped flock wallpaper commissioned by Fowler from Cole & Son showcase his window treatments with their original green wool repp curtains in what is used as the family’s informal sitting room.
Christopher Horwood9/15A large sofa from Ridge Interiors, covered in Bennison Fabrics’ ‘Chinese Pheasant’, tones with an Amritsar carpet, c1890, restored by Marlborough Rug Company.
Christopher Horwood10/15For the George III mahogany tester bed in what was then the owner’s father’s bedroom, Fowler chose red and white ‘Grande Arbre’ printed linen with a bullion fringe.
Christopher Horwood11/15The bedside tables, headboard and bed corona are all original and were painted by George Oakes
Christopher Horwood12/15Colefax and Fowler’s ‘Kendal’ in leaf green – a fern print similar to that used by Fowler on an armchair – was chosen to replace the original silk curtains, which had disintegrated, and to re-cover a daybed.
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Christopher Horwood14/15Opening onto what were once her parents’ bedrooms, this Jack and Jill bathroom has new curtains that tone with Cole & Son’s original ‘Trellis’ wallpaper. This had been damaged, but was touched up by Colchester Lister Associates.
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