It's not the first time the Miss Elaineous has been to Valentines Mansion- it's fairly local to me so I've popped in to visit art exhibitions before, including climbing up to the (generally out of bounds) top floor of the building when the artists-in-residence had their open studio day.
They've also held vintage fairs at this historical yet contemporary venue, which included stalls of antiques, jewellery, games, books, alternative clothing and locally made cakes and pastries so, as you would expect, I had to come and have a butcher's.
Here's a gorgeous diamante necklace I own, purchased at one of those fairs for the pretty decent sum of £3.
Weddings also take place here, and some of the early series of The Great British Bake Off were filmed in a marquee outside.
I have also created three YouTube vlogs:
Mansion:-
Park, Part 1:-
Park, Part 2:-
Here's Valentines Mansion's historical timeline...
Circa 1696- The house was built for Elizabeth Tillotson and her family, after her husband, the Archbishop of Canterbury, died. The house has changed hands many times since then.
1720s- Robert Surman, a City merchant and banker, bought the estate. It was during this time that the dovecote, grottoes and gardens were created.
1760s- Owner Sir Charles Raymond renovated the house, giving it its Georgian appearance and spending part of his fortune in doing so.
1906- The last private resident of the house, Sarah Ingleby, dies.
1912- The council acquired the house. The house was then used as a home for wartime refugees, a hospital, a public health centre and a council housing department.
2009- After standing empty for 15 years, the house and gardens were restored, following Redbridge council and Heritage Lottery funding.
This is not going to be a massive blog as I've posted about Valentines Mansion and Valentines Park before, link:-http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2018/04/miss-elaineous-visits-valentines-mansion.html
My main purpose on this day was to peruse the two exhibitions being held here.
This display is in the Gallery, which was once believed to be the house's reception area. It's called Art in Lockdown, and features work by the aforementioned artists-in-residence.
Artist Amada Seljubac's work features around this mantlepiece.
These ceramic leaves were made using leaves from an oak tree outside in the park.
Artist Lou Moore printed images onto clay, and they're designed to be evocative of places visited.
These were probably my favourite artworks, and reminded us that memories of favourite places are all we had during lockdown.
These are book illustrations by artist Jason Rose.
By Lisa Atkin: using dyed esparto grass, cotton twine and clay pipe mudlarked from the river Thames. This one reminds me of a beard...😄
I loved this mirror as it reminds me of my hair (only lighter!)😄
I've seen artist Julian Walker's work before and, to be honest, these photographs do not do it justice. You have to get up close and hone in to really appreciate it.
Oh, You Beautiful Dolls, You Great Big Beautiful Dolls! is a collection of dolls owned by local resident, Angela Ryder. The display will be rotating bi-monthly, as there's a lot to show, and not a lot of spare room in which to show them.
It's in a room known as the Bird Room which, around 1854, was used as a billiard room. It was fashionable during the 1800s to display birds in cabinets, and the birds once on display here- which included woodpeckers, herons, magpies and rooks- would have been shot on the estate (probably by Charles Holcombe, the owner at the time).
These are Eastern European dolls, in traditional dress.
I loved the Finnish dolls as they reminded me of little Eskimos- well, I suppose in that part of the world you'd need to dress up warmly!
Russian dolls, and the presentation reminded me of a paying job I undertook, blogging and promoting the International Dolls House Museum in Ealing. It's a very small museum, consisting of only one room full of doll paraphenalia.
This room was once the original entrance to the house, and these artefacts are part of their regular historical exhibition.
...As is this dress. Edwardian, I am thinking?
I took a close-up of the multi-coloured facets of this brooch purely because I loved it...
...It reminded me of the colourful brooch left as a tribute on the grave of Italian heiress Marchesa Luisa Casati (1881-1957) at Brompton Cemetery. Something of a gay icon and extravagant dresser, Luisa was considered to be the Lady Gaga of her day.
This photograph of her grave was taken when I visited the cemetery in 2019.
A dress a Victorian widow may have worn, accessorised with a ring of massive keys...
Let your eyes drift our of focus on the staircase landing, and this dress appears to be floating!
I then took a random walk through the rooms on display, and here's a grand piano in the Gallery...
Table in the Drawing Room- the upstairs wedding ceremony room...
A long shot of this room and I love the Perspex chairs. There's a balcony to the right, which I should imagine is good to pose on for wedding photographs.
I actually prefer the Morning Room, which is the downstairs wedding ceremony room, as it's smaller and more intimate and elegant, with subdued natural lighting.
A bookcase in the Raymond Room. The room is named for Sir Charles Raymond, who owned Valentines Mansion from 1754 to his death in 1788. As a ship's captain for the East India Company he was allowed to engage in private trade, and his endeavours enabled him to be able to afford this house.
Inviting, understated fireplace in the Raymond Room. Less is sometimes more.
The bedroom, with its four poster. This room was closed the last time I visited. I believe it's because they were renovating the floorboards.
Pitcher and bed...
Glamorous dress, and the wallpaper features parrots; a homage to the original wooden wall panels, which exposed carvings with outlines of birds.
SuperDean corrupting my dressing table photograph...
An uninterrupted view, with just a Vain Old Tart sneaking into the mirror...
Vain Old Tart posing in front of the long mirror, and getting obliterated by the flash...
Would I sleep in this four poster? Hell, yeah!
This looks like its a gentleman's Regency outfit (or a copy of). The screen in the corner used to show some sort of interactive information regarding the house, but it wasn't switched on on this day.
I took this picture of the mangle in the Scullery as my nan had one just like it, and it wasn't in the house the last time I visited. Look at my previously posted kitchen/ scullery photographs and you will get some idea of what this room was about...
Venturing outside into Valentines Gardens, looking towards Gardener's Cottage, where you can get an excellent cream tea. I love the wooden owl sculpture standing sentinel.
Twit-twoo!
Here's a closer view of matey, carved from a diseased sycamore tree by Marshall Lambert, a chainsaw artist from Natural Garden Sculptures. Mr Owl has been here since 2019, and represents ten years since the restoration of Valentines Gardens.
In the background you can see the Dovecote, which dates from c.1740-1760. It would have originally housed domesticated pigeons and doves.
Valentines Park is 130 acres (52 hectares) with a large boating lake and many species of wildlife.
Beautiful pink blooms peeking out between, and framed by, two trees.
The end of the lake, and Valentines Park is one of the parks which may have been the inspiration for the Small Faces 1967 hit song, Itchycoo Park, although it could also have been about Little Ilford Park or Wanstead Flats, which are both nearer to me (I learnt to walk on the latter).
As Valentines Park is local to me, I'm sure I'll soon return.
Until then,
TTFN
The Miss Elaineous
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