In Profile: Sudley House
Emma Sumner visits a hidden gem from National Museums Liverpool; stately home and art gallery, Sudley House…
Sudley House rests on the suburban high ground of Mossley Hill, Aigburth. A house with a history, it was previously owned by George Holt, founder of the shipping line Lamport and Holt. An avid art collector, he was responsible for the family’s collection of paintings, but it was the decision of his daughter Emma to bequest the collection, the house and its grounds to the city of Liverpool following her death in 1944.
The house is now under the care of National Museums Liverpool, but the grounds remain public park land, as requested in Emma Holt’s bequest. A unique and important part of Liverpool’s historical painting collection; it is the only Victorian merchant’s picture collection to remain intact and in its original setting.
Visiting Sudley House for the first time I’m anticipating some sort of stately home National Trust type property complete with the family’s art collection, but this isn’t what I find. When Emma Holt bequest the house its grounds and paintings, she did not include any of the furniture. With careful research, curators at NML have matched historical pieces of furniture to the house in an attempt to recreate the family’s tastes and create a more realistic experience for the visitor.
Sudley House is a cross between a stately home and an art gallery; a quirky place with its own simple character, not quite grand enough to be a stately home yet not quite commercial enough to be a public art gallery.
The majority of the paintings on display are from Holt’s collection. Unlike other Victorian merchant’s collections, Holt’s is far from a demonstration of status or wealth and is simply a collection that reflects his personal taste. The family was of a Liberal and Utopian opinion, something heavily represented within the collection.
There is a clear passion for images with religious themes and that reflect the arduousness of country life, with anything representing the luxurious or immoral noticeably avoided. The collection was formed to delight, instruct and give pleasure to a small, comfortable and right-thinking household.
My particular favourite from the collection is a painting by John Phillip titled Gypsy Sisters of Seville (1854); its colourful portrayal of Spanish life standing out from the rest of the collection. To read up on the history of the painting, this was one not chosen by Holt, but commissioned from the artist by his father George Holt Senior. It was then given to Holt shortly after he moved to Sudley House by his younger brother, who said ‘there is no other picture in the old family collection more intimately associated with the brighter memories of Father and Mother’. There are a lot of family memories attached to the artworks Holt collected, but this painting is a reflection of how the aesthetic tastes of George Holt senior and junior differed.
Sudley, despite its stately home tendencies, has not shied away from the concept of museum interactive learning. In each room, there are touch screens inviting you to meet different members of the family — played by relatively cheesy actors, who act surprised to see you wandering round their house, but are happy to have you anyway! Great for children; a nightmare for grumpy traditionalists like myself.
Heading upstairs, the light floods in from the striking small glass dome in the ceiling which is perhaps one of the grandest features of the house. The rooms upstairs are a stark contrast to the spaces downstairs; all of the Victorian bedrooms have been destroyed and walls removed to make bigger spaces for public galleries.
The space now hosts a large education suite (complete with laminate flooring and disinfectant smell) as well as spaces for displays relating to aspects of life when the house was a home. Although the displays are interesting, the space feels so different to downstairs it’s like a completely different place, and doesn’t really feel like part of your visit to the house you entered.
Heading back downstairs and into the courtyard, which is now an outdoor Café, there is neat little conservatory tucked up next to the house. Unfortunately, you can only glimpse in from the windows as it isn’t open to the public for numerous health and safety related reasons. A real shame when considering that a local volunteer takes the time and effort to care for the space and its greenery.
Overlooking the courtyard is the tower, a simple but imposing feature. Out of bounds to the public, I’m assured by a Visitor Assistant that you get a 360 degree view across Merseyside and rumour has it George Holt had the tower built so he could watch his ships come in to port from his house.
Sudley House is one of Merseyside’s lesser known treasures, and isn’t the sort of place people are likely to stumble onto; you have to make the journey and discover it. For anyone who appreciates and loves the Walker Art Gallery and its collection, Sudley is a must. The paintings on display form part of the renowned collection of British paintings that Liverpool actually owns.
Make sure you visit this Wednesday, then, for a rare and unique opportunity to learn more about the house, its history and its paintings with Sudley’s very own human guidebook, Visitor Assistant and tour host Simon Breedan.
Emma Sumner
Heritage Open Month Tour, Wednesday 18 September 2013, 1-1:45pm, free, no booking required
Sudley House is open to the public daily 10am-5pm: liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/sudley/
More on Heritage Open Month at heritageopendays.org.uk, or through Twitter updates, hashtag #HeritageOpenDays
