Charleston Farmhouse

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Map sources for Charleston Farmhouse at grid reference TQ490069

Charleston Farmhouse, near Lewes, East Sussex, UK

Charleston, often called Charleston Farmhouse is a farmhouse located between Lewes and Polegate in Sussex, England.

The artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant moved there in 1916 and there they entertained other members of the Bloomsbury Group. As part of the Bohemian movement their social standards were revolutionary for the time leading them to lead lives that were ostensibly extremely free with an emphasis on breaking down traditional social constrants.

The house was lived in by Vanessa Bell and her husband Clive Bell and also Duncan Grant. They had many friends who stayed with them, the more notable of whom included Vanessa's sister Virginia Woolf and the economist John Maynard Keynes. The interior of the house and its furniture was painted by Vanessa and Duncan and it is for this reason that subsequently it became valued as artwork in its own right. This led to the acquisition of the house by the Charleston Trust in 1985. The house is now run as a small museum and gardens with a shop.

[edit] Events and exhibitions

The Charleston Festival takes place around May each year in a marquee in the gardens of the house and lasts about a week and a half. It is a predominantly literary festival that has hosted such figures as Peter Bazalgette, Jung Chang, Michael Frayn, Patrick Garland, Stephen Poliakoff, Patti Smith, Sarah Waters, Polly Toynbee and Simon Schama.

It also holds an exhibition programme that has included: Norman Ackroyd, Stephen Finer, Derek Jarman, Desmond Morris, Tom Phillips, photographs by Patti Smith, Sir John Tenniel and others.

There is also another single night event, The Quentin Follies named after Quentin Bell the son of Vanessa Bell that raises money to buy back works of art by the Bloomsbury Set that are privately owned. It takes the form of a silent auction of donated works of art and an evening variety show with a number of acts from opera singing to music hall to stand-up comedy.