Charleston House

A few weeks ago I visited Charleston House with my mum and Julie. I love nosing around old houses seeing how other people used to live and sometimes imagining living there myself. I've been wanting to visit Charleston House for a while, I knew that it was painted by artists in the Bloomsbury group who weren't conventional to art or tradition in the 1920's.

On the outside the house looks like any other old farm house but inside was a different story. The artist Vanessa Bell lived there with her husband and their lovers along with many visiters. They hand painted walls and decorated all surfaces to create a unquie home. Sadly photography isn't allowed inside the house. Just to give you an idea of what it's like inside I found the next five images on the Internet. 

All three of us were feeling hungry so we headed to the cafe for lunch before our tour started. Everything looked homemade and wasn't too badly priced. I had sweet potato, coconut and chilli soup which was delicious. I washed it down with a bottle of Dandilion and Burdock - a childhood favouite that my dear Granddad used to buy me, but now seems to be rare.

 After filling up we headed over to meet our tour guide who showed us around the house and told us many interesting and crazy facts about the people that lived at Charleston. We finished the tour in the amazing studio (I so wish I had an art studio at home!) that opened out onto the fantastic garden which I took loads of photos in. It's hard to believe this was only a few weeks ago now, with all the autumn leaves and colours that are around.

 

 

 

 

 It was an achievement for me to finally find a day that I felt well enough to travel and visit a place like this. I did suffer after but it was worth seeing the house and to be out with people I care about.

Emma Xx

All photography copyright Emma Anderson apart from the set of indoor shots and ones that I feature in.