Information on our major restoration and development, completed February 2009
The house reopened this spring after a major programme of restoration and development. The project has been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the London Borough of Bexley, and other trusts and foundations notably the Cory Environmental Trust in Britain, the City Bridge Trust, the Garfield Weston Foundation, Biffaward, the Clothworkers' Foundation, the Foyle Foundation, the Foundation for Sport and the Arts, the Pilgrim Trust and the Wolfson Foundation. We are grateful to all those who have enabled this transformation, including our visitors and friends who have supported our on-site fund-raising.
The major restoration and development project is finally complete and we are looking forward to welcoming old and new friends back to Hall Place. The house has already been open for functions, school groups and pre-booked group tours, but there is much that will be new and exciting for the individual visitor.
First of all there is a new approach to the house, through the stone portal in the nursery wall and past our glasshouses and nursery. Then a formal border leads to the arrivals court and the converted stable block and new visitor centre. Here you will find our new riverside tea room, our much expanded shop and ever popular tourist information centre, and our marvellous new education room. In the ground floor of the stable block adjoining are toilets and the airy new Stables gallery, which currently has the an exhibition showcasing the work of wildlife artists based in Kent: see exhibitions for more details of our programme.
Through the visitor centre, you will come to the new south terrace garden, a wonderful formal approach to the historic house. Entering by the south door, you will find a welcome at reception, and then come to the new introductory gallery, where the fascinating history of Hall Place is told, illustrated by objects from the building's past and from the lives of those who have lived here. In the Tudor part of the house the Great Hall and Tudor Kitchen have been refurbished and have new interpretation, and the old shop is now a splendid Tudor Parlour, with furniture on kind loan from Sussex Past. The Chapel Gallery, opening in the spring, will have a whole series of interactive exhibits, for schools and individual visitors alike, bringing every aspect of Tudor times vividly to life.
Throughout the house you will find authentic Tudor furniture - chests and chairs, fire dogs and fire backs. Some of this is on loan from Sussex Past, some generously loaned by the National Trust, but some, very excitingly, has been transferred to us from the National Maritime Museum, because it was bought by them in the sale of Lady Limerick's furniture in the 1940s. Home at last.
On the first floor the North West Wing has been refurbished and offers wonderful views over the topiary. In the Austen Gallery the works have revealed two stone fireplaces.
In the south wing on the first floor what were the offices, the Dashwood Gallery and the upstairs conference room have been opened up and offer a wonderful exhibition of the riches of the Bexley museum collection. Three small galleries showcase particular periods in history: Early Settlers and Invaders, covering the earliest times to the middle ages, the Victorians and World War II. The three larger spaces will have changing displays focussing on the different themes in the borough's wide ranging collections.
