Controversial Plan for Fire-gutted Clandon House Approved Unanimously

Published on: 8 Mar, 2025
Updated on: 8 Mar, 2025

The Marble Hall looking towards the Saloon, during the post-fire salvage phase, Clandon Park House, Guildford. (National Trust Images/ James Dobbs)

By Emily Dalton

local democracy reporter

Plans to “bring Clandon Park back to life” have been given the go-ahead. The 18th century house will be transformed into a new “national attraction” with a major redevelopment including a new rooftop terrace at the top of the building.

The Grade I listed home in East Clandon, to the east of Guildford, was considered an architectural masterpiece when it was built 200 years ago. But Clandon Park House was tragically gutted by an accidental fire in 2015, destroying the roof and leaving most of the interior with blackened and scorched brickwork.

Clandon Park alight on April 29, 2015.

Restoring the inside of the mansion house, the scheme will refurbish and replace windows and doors, reinstating the stairs as well as providing a new accessible lift from the basement to the roof. Generous walkways will be carved out in the mansion house and the scheme promises to conserve historic collections, redisplaying them in creative ways.

Alterations to the basement will provide a cafe, toilets and other back-of-house facilities. The project will restore the exterior of the building to appear as it did before it was engulfed by the fire, planning documents state.

Guildford borough councillors unanimously approved the major conservation and representation project at a planning meeting on March 6. Members agreed the benefits of restoring the exterior of the house and making the historic mansion more accessible to visitors would outweigh the low level of harm to Clandon Park.

Cllr Vanessa King

“It’s natural to want to restore it to the grandeur that it was at one at one time,” said chair of the GBC Planning Committee Vanessa King (Lib Dem, Stoke).

“But the fire is part of the story. If we can incorporate that story sensitively and in collaboration then we are looking at a really good option for a much-loved home, part of our community and part of our national story.”

The decision marks an end to a core battle within the National Trust between bosses and traditionalists. Restore Trust, a conservative faction within the NT membership, has been most upset by the scheme’s failure to raise from the ashes Giacomo Leoni’s Marble Hall, which was one of the finest Palladian interiors in the country.

Although relatively little known, the Venetian architect Leoni was immensely important in the history of British architecture in the 18th century and has great artistic significance in Europe.

Clandon House before the fire

Slamming the proposals, objectors argued that the Grade I listed house should be and can be authentically restored and reconstructed to its former glory rather than the National Trust’s proposals to maintain it as the blackened shell from the fire.

“The preservation of this building as a fire damage room serves as a monument to incompetence and mediocrity,” said Chris Griffiths, on behalf of Restore Trust. Instead, he argued “faithful reconstruction” is entirely possible based on precise records. Surviving evidence and traditional techniques.

Well over 300 people objected to the plans, with many claiming council officers and Historic England had underplayed the potential harm the plans would cause to the Grade I listed building. Loss of original interior walls, removing authentic building materials and adding new staircases would “visibly, physically and culturally harm a significant heritage” site, spoke objectors argued.

The project director for Clandon Park, Dr Kent Rawlinson, argued that restoring the outside of the house will rescue the surviving experience of Clandon House. He said: “Conserving the exposed interiors as opened up and revealed by the fire will best preserve and celebrate the significance of the surviving house.”

More than one hundred people wrote in to support the applications, claiming the proposals offered a chance to “tell history differently”. Many said complete restoration is “essentially worthless” as the fire had ripped through the building but the “blend of conservation and modern design” would ensure “the site’s rich history is made accessible and engaging for a broad audience”.

The Clandon Park Project’s plans follow several years of considered design development by a multi-disciplinary design team led by Allies and Morrison, an award-winning architectural practice with expertise in designing in sensitive heritage settings.

The design development ran alongside engagement and consultation with over 75,000 people, including exhibitions and events involving the public, local groups, individuals and a wide range of organisations. Shaped and modified in response to feedback with input from National Trust specialists and heritage professionals, the approved plans are led by the character, history, and significance of the surviving Grade I listed house and its heritage setting.

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