The Measuring of the fretwork begins!

With the house almost empty there is a clear view of all the painted surfaces and of course all the fretwork, so the measuring and cataloguing of this can start in earnest.

‘As much as one can learn of a man’s life, one can get it from the bookshelves.’

Stephen Massil, book cataloguer, describes 575 as a house in which we can sense ‘the overwhelming personality of one occupant’. All the books and records in the house belonged to its creator-owner, Khadambi Asalache, and Stephen has therefore gained unique insight into the artist’s cultural interests and possible influences on his work.

Stephen has been making his way through glossy art books, English and American literature, modern poetry and a collection of East African literature, of which he has catalogued more here than at any other property. Khadambi, a poet, kept copies of publications in which he was interviewed or his poetry was published. Stephen explains that one gets knowledge not only of his career but also of his contacts and friends, as, for example, there are books containing dedications from poets with whom Khadambi was clearly acquainted.

Stephen has also been cataloguing vinyl and 78 records, including a lot of jazz and African music, as well as Beethoven, Bach, Handel and Mozart. One item he recently came across that caught his interest was a vinyl record of Beethoven’s Mass in C, a record he owns himself, which contains inside the sleeve a Christmas concert programme of the choir of the Treasury, Khadambi’s employer, which one can assume he attended.

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Move It!

The pack-up process has left us with an almost empty house! The floorboards and ceilings are now accessible for the vital conservation work.

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Curtain Call

Packing curtains presents some interesting challenges. To get these ones down takes three people, ideally. Textiles are fragile, and when stored for a few months any creases will stay and possibly get worse, so the team must work to minimise damage. The curtains need to be laid flat, and finding the space to do so in a house like this can be a real problem! They must be put down on a clean surface, so protective sheets are laid out for them to be put onto.

The top part of the curtain is the most difficult to deal with and the team uses acid-free tissue puff ‘jellyfish’ around the top to minimise creases in the gathers. Any metal fixtures must also be isolated with tissue.

Ideally, textiles should not be folded, but sometimes they have to be because of space issues. When this is the case, every fold must be padded out. The team make ‘sausages’ using wadding or bubble wrap, which are themselves wrapped in conservation-friendly acid-free tissue paper, to make a smooth surface that won’t abrade the textile fabric.

The curtains are then wrapped as a ‘massive parcel’, in Project House Steward Fern’s words, using Tyvek, which is a conservation-grade material of polyethylene spun-bonded into a fabric, and is very strong and dust-proof. After being labelled, the curtains are carried as flat as possible out of the house, a task which again takes three people and is rather a challenge to take downstairs. Good luck, guys!

Woodwork Conservation with Adeline

Adeline is working to make all wood in the house stable and safe, fixing items at their current state without adding any new wood. She describes a previous job in which she had to conserve a table whose legs were facing every-which-way – so frustrating not to be able to put them straight, but to have to make the table stand firm in its dilapidated state! However, such is the nature of conservation: Adeline understands the importance of 575 and all its contents looking as they did when Khadambi Asalache left the house to the Trust.

During my visit, she was working on fixing this chair, which was losing paint. The wood was covered with several porous layers which gave the ‘weathered’ effect; they included animal glue and whiting, red clay, gilding and silver powder. After testing several possible fixing substances, she chose a very light ratio of fish glue to water.

Adeline has been working on just the furniture so far, which she describes as ‘not so scary’ in comparison with what is to come! She must also remove all the floorboards and replace them with plywood so that the ceilings can be easily accessed for their restoration. The fretwork on the walls will have to be protected, using polycarbonate sheets, while the conservation work is taking place. When the Perspex that is currently keeping parts of the ceiling in place is removed, some fretwork will come down with it, so Adeline must record exactly where each part was and test glues with which to put it back when the ceiling work is finished.

Packing Up

Over the past months, the house has filled up with crates ready to be stored off-site while building and conservation work takes place.

We would like to thank the National Trust employees from other properties in the region who have given a helping hand with the packing, including staff from The Vyne, Carlyle’s House, Polesden Lacey, Knole, Nymans, Smallhythe Place, Ham House and Tyntesfield.

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Meet Fern, Project House Steward

Having assisted with the inventory process, Fern has recently been working on the plan for the storage of items – where they will be put, how they are to be recorded, the materials needed and the organisation and practicalities of moving them. She has planned out on paper what will be going on each shelf in the store and facilitated the recent removal of furniture.

As Fern explains, working at 575 is unique and hard to compare with experiences at other properties. In her previous position at Tyntesfield, she was part of a very large team with hundreds of volunteers, whereas at 575, the team at the house has usually consisted of three people. She says that it is lucky that the team has got on so well, considering they have been working in such a confined space! Fern has had to get used to working in a house that is so much smaller, rather than properties with fifty or so bedrooms. Setting up a photography table for the inventory or finding a place for packing crates has been a challenge: ‘Every time you do a job, you take up space’, she comments ruefully.

Creative Writing ~ Summer School

575 Wandsworth Road ~ the beginning, transformation & conservation

8-12^th August 2011

Writers’ brief

• Are you a writer looking for an opportunity to take your work to the next level? 
• Is writing a hobby that you’d love to turn into a profession?
• Would you like to work with a group of writers who are also at the same crossroads in their writing development?
• Would you benefit from working with professional writers and world-class storytellers?
• Do you need to hear honest feedback on your writing?
• Would you like to be part of a unique project at this magical new National Trust acquisition?

 If you find yourself answering YES to any of the above questions then this might just be the project that helps you realize those dreams!

 The National Trust would like to offer a selected group of young writers (under 24 years of age) the opportunity to work with professional writers and storytellers, in order to develop their craft and increase their knowledge base of ways to make a living as a writer.

 ‘In the beginning, transformation and conservation’ is a summer writers project with a difference. The writing element of the project lasts for five days, but the work produced during those intense five days will have the opportunity to last for eternity. The stories produced that best fit the brief will be used to engage family groups visiting 575 Wandsworth Road.

 Details

• Programme curator: Adisa  http://www.adisaworld.com/
• 10.30am – 4pm Monday 8^th –Thursday 11th
• Friday 12^th 10.30am – 7pm (including evening celebration)
• Location: National Trust London Office, 32 Queen Annes Gate, London, SW1H 9AB
• There is no charge.
• Participation by application by 27th July to:  ruth.clarke@nationaltrust.org.uk
• Please include contact details followed by a brief description (max 250 words) describing what this opportunity would mean for you.

 This project has been made produced as part of Stories of the World, one of the major projects at the heart of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The Cultural Olympiad began in 2008, and used the power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially amongst young people.

A Bug’s Life

When I visited Geoff and Alex to see the conservation and inventory work in action, I was immediately greeted with a vivid description of the bugs and larvae one encounters doing such work and an offer to see an illustrated poster – not for the faint of heart!

Clothes webbing house moths seem to appreciate the house as much as we do. Unfortunately, they are not the ideal housemates as they destroy wool and other protein based materials (for example, horsehair upholstery, feathers and silk). To the right, you can see evidence of moth activity on one of the kilim cushions. The kilims will need to be deep-cleaned because of this issue and the sheep-skin rugs, particularly affected, will be frozen. Here Alex is sewing fabric inventory labels onto the kilims, being careful not to cause them any further damage.

 

The team is taking measures to stop the moths in their tracks in order to protect the vulnerable textiles. To the right is a blunder trap – a little folded card trap with a sticky adhesive inside. After identifying the insect species causing the problem, the conservators can add a pheromone vial to the blunder trap. This emits the attractant to all of the adult males in the vicinity, the moths get trapped onto the sticky adhesive and a generation is wiped out as they are unable to reproduce. Take that, bugs!

Meet Alex and Geoff

Alex Solomon and Geoff Lowsley, who have been working together on the inventory along with Project House Steward Fern Ryan, share some of their experiences. See the Team page for more information on their roles.

 

A Mountain of Work

 

Alex had high expectations of 575, and had lobbied to work on the property after hearing all about it from other Trust staff. Her expectations were exceeded upon entering the house, and she explains it was quite overwhelming, both in terms of its beauty and the sheer amount of work to be done.

Geoff explains that working on the inventory has been ‘like a hike – it has its false peaks, and you gain a better perspective as you go through’. He says his first impression was that ‘there really was not that much stuff’. However, on his second visit to the property, he opened a kitchen drawer and, finding it brim-full of cutlery, promptly asked for another batch of inventory tags!

Office Space

On a surreal note, Geoff describes sitting in the bathroom on a chair with his laptop perched on top of a boxed printer, in turn stacked on top of the toilet seat (his makeshift desk), while holding a painted ostrich egg, thinking, ‘How did I get here?’

Alex and Geoff agree that each time you enter the house, you notice something new. A moment neither will forget was finding a Victorian kaleidoscope in the living room and discovering the magical effect it has on the fretwork.

Alex is grateful for the privilege of gaining ‘such an intimate view of what one person worked so diligently at’, Geoff concluding that ‘it never leaves you, the feeling that this is my job, my office’.