Strawberry Hill House

An extravagant fairy castle

A great chance to make a free visit to Strawberry Hill House this weekend with London Open House, a temple to all things gothic. For years visiting was elusive, the kind of place you could only book when there was a Z in the month, as rare as yeti spotting. Now, newly restored, visiting is a whole lot easier, it’s doors flung open, it’s gone positively mainstream.

Gets better and better

A few years ago it was Miss Haversham crumbly, decadent, there was no escape from the feeling that if you so much as sneezed, the flimsy papier mache rooms would be torn into a million papery pieces of confetti raining down over you, just like the pack of cards in Alice in Wonderland.

Ever practical, at the top of the shelves, the gothic detail swings open to access the upper book shelves.

Horace Walpole an incredible collector, imagine him, someone who even had Cardinal Wolseys red hat with silk acorn toggles, designed his ground breaking gothic work of art, with the help of two friends, together they were The Committee of Taste.

The gothic detail has a light touch, so much less laboured than the later, nineteenth century take

Am really loving this blue, look at the detail of the stair ballustrade

The detail is staggering, indulge yourself, and if you don’t have time to go around the house visit the café, open to non visitors, you still get the outside of the house to delight in and there’s never an excuse not to make a day less ordinary.