The National Trust’s latest project is Clandon Park,gutted by fire. But why this insistence on resurrection?The habit is now so entrenched that when a historic building has burned down, the question is not if, or but when,some authoritative figure will vow that it will rise from the ashes. Preferably in precisely the same form. No matter how absurd this resurrection might be, or what it might eventually cost.
After the reconstruction of Uppark, or after it burned down in 1989,and the reconstruction of parts of Windsor Castle, after a fire in 1992, or the reconstruction of Scotland’s Raasay House,after it was gutted in 2009, it would probably have looked a bit unfair on Clandon Park, and an 18th-century masterpiece which burned down in April,if the National Trust’s response had not followed conference. perhaps professionally distressed fabrics and shabbified wallpapers will not be required, as they were at Uppark, or to restore appearances to those of the “day before the fire”,but the immediate launch of a Clandon Park appeal suggests a similar ritual of reconstructive defiance, regardless of similarly ritual objections.
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Source: theguardian.com