Right. Another historical edifice requiring an explanation. Let's get this over with. Don't mistake this effort for enthusiasm; it's merely a correction of the universe's ambient mediocrity. And for the record, this is about the house in West Yorkshire. If you've stumbled here looking for the one in Cornwall, see Harewood House, Calstock, or the park in Herefordshire, see Harewood Park. Try to keep up.

Harewood House

Harewood House
Harewood House, viewed from the garden with all the imposing symmetry money can buy.
General information
Type
Stately home
Architectural style
Palladian
Location
Harewood, England
Coordinates
53°53′48″N 1°31′42″W / 53.89667°N 1.52833°W
Current tenants
Lascelles family
Construction started
1759
Completed
1771
Client
Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood
Owner
Harewood House Trust
Design and construction
Architects
* John Carr

• Robert Adam | | Designations | | Grade I listed | | Website | | harewood.org | | Listed Building – Grade I | | Official name: Harewood House | | Designated: 30 March 1960 | | Reference no.: 1225861 |

Harewood House (/ˈhɑːrwʊd/ HAR-wuud, /ˈhɛər-/ HAIR-) [n 1] [1] is a monumental country house located in Harewood, West Yorkshire, England. It stands as a testament to what immense wealth, questionable ethics, and brilliant design can achieve. The architectural vision was a collaboration, or perhaps a polite duel, between John Carr, a prominent Yorkshire architect, and the celebrated Robert Adam. Construction spanned from 1759 to 1771, a project bankrolled by Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood. His fortune was derived from his status as a profoundly wealthy West Indian plantation and slave owner, a fact that clings to the house's stones like ivy. The surrounding landscape, a sprawling 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of meticulously curated nature, was sculpted by the ubiquitous Lancelot "Capability" Brown.

Still occupied by the Lascelles family, a dynasty seemingly as permanent as the architecture, Harewood House is a key member of the Treasure Houses of England. This is a marketing consortium for ten of the country's most significant historic homes, a way of saying they are too expensive to maintain without turning a profit from tourists. The house itself is a Grade I listed building, and a litany of features across the grounds and courtyard have been similarly listed as Grade I, II*, and II, because when you have this much property, you might as well get every last stone catalogued and protected.

History

Early history

The Harewood estate, as it exists today, wasn't born but assembled, a real estate jigsaw puzzle played by the landed gentry. It was formed by merging two adjacent estates: the Harewood Castle estate, centered on the brooding ruin of Harewood Castle, and the Gawthorpe estate, which was based around the Gawthorpe Hall manor house. It's crucial not to confuse this with the other Gawthorpe Hall near Burnley in Lancashire; one must maintain standards, even in geography.

The fusion of these properties occurred when the Wentworths of Gawthorpe, who had inherited their land from the Gascoignes, decided to expand by purchasing the neighboring Harewood estate from the Ryther family. This consolidated estate was later sold to a London merchant, Sir John Cutler, in 1696. Upon his death, it passed to the Boulter family, who, in a final transaction that set the stage for the next three centuries, sold it to the Lascelles family in 1721. [2]

The Lascelles family

The story of the Lascelles and Harewood is inextricably linked to the British Empire's most profitable and morally bankrupt enterprise. In the late seventeenth century, members of the Lascelles family began acquiring sugar plantations in the West Indies. The staggering income generated from the forced labor of enslaved people allowed Henry Lascelles to purchase the estate in 1738. His son, Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, used this vast fortune, built on human suffering, [3] to construct the current house between 1759 and 1771. [4] It was intended to replace Gawthorpe Hall, the original, and presumably now inadequate, manor house.

Edwin hired John Carr, a respected architect with a portfolio of grand houses for Yorkshire's elite, to design his new power statement. The foundations were laid in 1759, and the main structure was largely finished by 1765. For the interiors, the more fashionable Robert Adam was brought in, submitting designs that were approved in 1765. Adam, never one to leave another's work untouched, implemented several minor changes to Carr's exterior plans, including the addition of internal courtyards. [4]

The house remained in this state of Palladian perfection until the 1840s. By then, Henry Lascelles, 3rd Earl of Harewood, was contending with the logistical challenge of having thirteen children. He employed the eminent Sir Charles Barry to expand the accommodations. In a move that prioritized practicality over pristine architectural theory, Barry grafted second storeys onto each of the flanking wings for more bedrooms, dismantled the south portico, and imposed formal parterres and terraces onto the landscape. [4]

20th century

In 1922, the family's social standing was cemented further when Henry Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles married Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George V. The couple initially resided at the nearby Goldsborough Hall but moved permanently into Harewood House following the death of Henry's father in 1929, making it a royal residence of sorts. [4]

During the Second World War, the house took a brief, noble hiatus from its life of aristocratic leisure to serve as a resident convalescent hospital. [5] By the late 1940s, however, the Princess Royal and her family had returned, and the house and its gardens were regularly opened to the public, [6] a necessity for a house of this scale in the post-war era. The Princess was a notable patron of the arts, and the estate became a venue for concerts associated with the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and the Leeds Musical Festival.

On 28 March 1965, the Princess suffered a fatal heart attack while walking in the grounds she had shaped. [7] Her elder son, George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, had already succeeded his father in 1947 and continued to reside at Harewood. He was a significant figure in the arts, serving as director of the Royal Opera House and later the English National Opera. Closer to home, he was active on the executive committee of the Leeds Music Festival and a patron of the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra's concerts, continuing his mother's legacy. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

Since 1947, the estate's dower house, located just outside the main estate boundaries, has been leased out for use as an independent school, a practical use for a building no longer needed for its original purpose. [13]

21st century

Today, the house remains the family seat of the Lascelles family, home to David Lascelles, the eighth Earl. [4] To manage the crushing financial burden of its upkeep, the house and grounds have been transferred into a trust ownership structure, managed by the Harewood House Trust. It remains open to the public for most of the year, winning a "Large Visitor Attraction of the Year" award in 2009, which I suppose is something. [14]

Harewood contains a formidable art collection, featuring works by masters of the Italian Renaissance, family portraits by titans like Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Hoppner, and Sir Thomas Lawrence, alongside modern art collected by the more forward-thinking 7th Earl and Countess. The Terrace Gallery hosts changing temporary exhibitions each season. The catering has also been elevated, with Michelin-starred fine dining available for those who find history more palatable with a wine pairing. [15]

Beyond the house, Harewood offers over 100 acres (40 ha) of gardens. These include a Himalayan garden complete with its own stupa, an adventure playground, and the historic All Saints' Church with its impressive alabaster tombs. There was also an educational bird garden, which was closed in February 2023. [16] For a brief period between May 2007 and October 2008, the grounds even hosted the Yorkshire Planetarium, a rather meteoric failure. [17] For the more ambulatory visitors, the Leeds Country Way and The White Rose Way walking trails cut through the estate.

The current Earl has not shied away from the family's dark history. In a 2005 documentary, David Lascelles confronted his ancestors' deep connections to the slave trade. [18] This was followed in 2007 by a BBC Look North program where actor David Harewood visited the house to interview Lascelles; Harewood's own ancestors had been enslaved on the Lascelles' plantations in Barbados. [19] In a powerful and ongoing act of reconciliation, it was announced in March 2023 that a portrait of David Harewood had been commissioned and would be hung in Harewood House, a complex and necessary acknowledgment of a shared, brutal history. [20] [21] [22] [23]

In popular culture

A building this photogenic is bound to have a screen career. The artist J. M. W. Turner visited the house around 1797–8, painting the landscape in watercolor, which is arguably its most high-brow appearance. [24] Since then, its roles have been somewhat more varied. The house was a filming location for the 1991 comedy King Ralph. [25] Since 1996, a section of the estate has been the permanent, purpose-built village for the long-running ITV soap opera Emmerdale. Rock musician Elton John performed two concerts in the grounds in 1999. [26] The house has also featured prominently in the ITV series Victoria, starring Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes. [27] On 1 July 2006, the Irish vocal pop band Westlife held a concert here for their Face to Face Tour, a cultural moment of some description. More recently, Harewood House stood in for part of Buckingham Palace in the 2019 Downton Abbey) film, filmed in November 2018. [28] It was also the setting for BBC's Mary Berry's Country House at Christmas with Mary Berry, broadcast on Christmas Day 2018. [29] And, in a moment of peak modernity, the house and grounds were used to film a television commercial for a Range Rover Sport automobile. [30]

Harewood Bird Garden & Farm Experience

Harewood Bird Garden & Farm Experience
An interactive map of the former Harewood Bird Garden & Farm Experience.
Date opened
March 1970
Date closed
2023
Location
Harewood House, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Memberships
BIAZA [31]
Major exhibits
Small collection of exotic birds and farm animals
Website
harewood.org/grounds/grounds-bird-garden

For over fifty years, the Bird Garden at Harewood House was a notable attraction, housing a small collection of exotic bird species. More than five of these were listed as vulnerable or endangered by the IUCN. It was a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA).

Among the species one could observe were Humboldt penguins, Chilean flamingos, Duyvenbode's lories, and various macaws.

In January 2023, however, the trustees of Harewood announced the difficult decision to close the Bird Garden permanently. The Farm Experience would remain open, but the birds would be rehomed. The closure was a matter of grim financial reality: a recent inspection had "identified many problems with the site's physical infrastructure" which would require a staggering £4 million to rectify. Faced with this cost, the trustees made the "incredibly difficult decision to close this part of the Harewood experience". The area is set to be redeveloped into a new woodland garden, which will include the reinstatement of some historic walks. A sensible, if less flamboyant, use of the space. [32] [33]

Gallery

A visual tour for those who prefer pictures to prose.

• The main entrance to the Park
• The entrance front
• The centre of the entrance front
• The Entrance Hall
• The Old Library
• The China Room (Originally Study)
• Princess Mary's Dressing Room
• The East Bedroom
• Lord Harewood's Sitting Room
• The State Bedroom
• The Spanish Library
• The Library
• The Yellow Drawing Room
• The Cinnamon Drawing Room
• The Gallery
• The Dining Room
• The Music Room
• The Main Staircase
• A bathroom
• The Kitchen
• The terrace and parterre in front of the south façade
• The Old Stables
• The lake
• Harewood House cascade
• Stepping stones below the cascade
• The recently preserved Harewood Castle, as seen from the northeast
• Exterior purpose-built village set built by ITV Studios in 1997, used for the production of Emmerdale since 1997.

See also

• Grade I listed buildings in West Yorkshire
• Listed buildings in Harewood, West Yorkshire

Notes

• ^ There is a tedious debate regarding the pronunciation of 'Harewood'. In the 18th century, the customary pronunciation (and spelling) was "Harwood." This pronunciation is still used by Harewood House itself and the Earl of Harewood for both the house and the title. The pronunciation "Hairwood" is generally used for the village. Choose your side.