Chatsworth, the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s stately home, has been undergoing a £14m revamp resulting in new interiors, artefacts and displays.
The historic building is geographically and metaphorically marooned from the hustle and bustle of urban life. Getting to its Derbyshire location is challenging, but the journey through winding roads is crucial to the impact that Chatsworth house makes on visitors.
The approach to the stately home is carefully orchestrated to build up from the overture of pastoral idyll to the climax of the magnificent stately pile itself. As baroque architecture, cascading water and picturesque gardens reveal themselves, this is a heritage moment par excellence.
Steeped in Englishness, class, status and tradition, Chatsworth house is the quintessential luxury brand.
Peregrine Cavendish, the 12th Duke of Devonshire, would not dispute that Chatsworth is a commercial enterprise reliant on making money. The property has been in his family since the 16th century, and subject to the vagaries of changing economic fortunes.
In 1981, the duke’s father set up a charitable foundation, the Chatsworth House Trust, to run 1,822 acres of the estate including the house and contents, the garden, park and some woods.
Having been forced to pay death duties of 80% on all land and possessions when he inherited Chatsworth, Andrew Cavendish wanted to protect the property from swingeing taxation and guarantee its long-term survival for the public.
Most of the trust’s annual expenditure is from the income generated by visitors, with the rest from an endowment fund built up from the sale of works of art and other family resources. This means that creating innovative revenue streams is a priority, including the exploitation of opportunities in retail, catering, hospitality and events.
Business sense
It was Deborah, the youngest of the Mitford sisters and wife of the 11th duke, whose entrepreneurial activities provided the forerunner for many of the commercial ventures currently in operation.
She opened the Chatsworth farm shop, renovated buildings as holiday cottages, licensed designs for use by retailers such as Laura Ashley, and set up Chatsworth Carpenters, specialists in outdoor furniture. Today, the farmyard and adventure playground attract a third of paying visitors.
The contribution of Deborah Devonshire to the legacy of Chatsworth has been celebrated in an exhibition to mark her 90th birthday. This display, which has just closed, is part of a programme of events that has followed the reopening of the house earlier this year, following its renovation.
The £14m Chatsworth masterplan, a multi-phased project of restoration, conservation and renewal initiated by the current duke and duchess, includes an overhaul of the buildings’ services and lifts; the repair and cleaning of external stonework and joinery; and the creation of new spaces to improve the visitor route and associated redecoration.
Earlier projects completed include the re-presentation of the state apartments and the sculpture gallery. Funded by the trust, the masterplan incorporates the most significant alterations to the house since the sixth duke built the north wing in the 1830s.
The need to preserve the historic environment, while improving access and creating a popular visitor attraction, can prove problematic.
But at Chatsworth, these goals do not appear to be in conflict. Teams of architects, craftsmen, furniture conservators, lighting designers, silk weavers, curators, educators and others have collaborated on the complex reconstruction project.
This temporary alliance of specialists and experts legitimises Chatsworth’s significance as a site of national importance and underlines the validity of its designation as a place worthy of maintaining for future generations.
Smartened up
From the visitors’ perspective, the most noticeable changes are the clean stonework, re-gilded joinery in the inner courtyard, new North Gallery and an exhibition of treasures from the vaults featuring diamonds, jewels and other precious objects. The North Gallery also has a selection of 20th-century paintings, including family portraits by Lucian Freud.
There is a permanent display highlighting the lifestyle and tastes of Georgiana, the avid gambler and society hostess played by Keira Knightley in The Duchess, which was filmed at the house in 2007.
Another permanent display looks at the third Earl of Burlington, a renowned architect who introduced the Palladian style into English architecture.
At Chatsworth, the focus is on the cult of personality, and this extends from exhibits to the shop, where products are grouped according to “the Duchess’s Choice”, “the Duke’s Choice” or “Lady Burlington’s Choice”.
The Chatsworth brand weaves personal narrative into the fabric of the building and its surrounding landscape. Implicit within the individual stories told is the assumption that characters such as Georgiana and the Dowager Duchess represents “good” taste, something to which the visitors can aspire.
Auction stations
Similarly, the preferences of the present duke are communicated through the display of his collection of contemporary sculpture and craft. As deputy chairman of Sotheby’s, the duke came in for some criticism when he allowed the auction house to display work for sale in the historic gardens of Chatsworth.
However, the patronage and endorsement of artists by aristocrats has a long history, and augments the family art collection at the same time as injecting the sensation of newness into a traditional context.
The duke and duchess held a sale of their own through Sotheby’s last month, More than 20,000 objects from Chatsworth went under the hammer, raising nearly £6.5m.
In the current economic downturn, marketing experts have predicted that the most important brand attribute in terms of ensuring sustainable competitive advantage is heritage.
With its elegant logo and effective mix of high culture and tasteful populism, Chatsworth has only just begun to tap into its full branding potential. According to cultural theorist Stuart Hall, “heritage is a powerful mirror” that reflects contemporary social and cultural values and aspirations.
In an age of austerity with rising unemployment, the threat of terrorism and the gradual dismantling of familiar social structures and institutions, Chatsworth provides a comforting atmosphere and reassurance about national identity and class.
With its strong sense of family, community bonds, connection to the land and craft traditions, the Chatsworth brand offers continuity and stability in the face of change.
Nicky Ryan is principal lecturer, cultural and critical studies at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London
- Cost £14m
- Main funder Chatsworth House Trust
- Architect Peter Inskip
- Interiors David Mlinaric
- Art historian Jonathan Bourne
- Project management Sarah Montgomery, Sean Doxey (Chatsworth House), Fanshawe
- Structural engineer Mann Williams
- Historic building analysis University of Sheffield’s Archaeological Research and Consultancy
