Paxton House loses its Picture Gallery
Music at Paxton celebrates its 20th Birthday this year. Sadly, those arriving on Sunday April 12th for the launch of this year’s excellent programme, (details in an earlier article) found that its usual venue, the Picture Gallery, is no more: it is being transformed into the Ballroom. What follows is my personal view of the loss of the Picture Gallery. The Music at Paxton Director has worked with the change, inviting several musicians to include dance pieces in their programmes, and the other staff when questioned speak positively about it.
All the paintings have been removed, as well as the carpet and the period décor. The inhospitable feel of this soulless room on a blustery day was depressing. The floor was sanded pine with a clear varnish, like a 1980’s new flat-owners’ pet DIY project, and the walls painted that Inoffensive Aqua that’s “brightened up” many a kitchen. Further research reveals that what we saw was the finished article – the transformation to a Ballroom which is meant to recapture the period feel of the 1920s.
The photo gives an idea of the change and you can see it as it was online and in EMR reviews. I’ve been attending concerts here for twelve years with my partner, David Byrne, who lives in Swinton, nine miles away. We’re Friends of the festival. Brian Bannatyne-Scott and I have been writing reviews since 2021. Both of us regularly express appreciation of the venue, and we’ve heard many musicians praise its unique intimate atmosphere, its warm acoustic and the ease of communication with the audience.
Why, I wonder would anyone want to lose that? Here’s what I’ve found out. Paxton’s Picture Gallery was built in the late 18th century to house a collection of paintings brought back from Europe. 200 years later when John Home Robertson inherited Paxton House from his mother, he set up a Trust to run the estate, and he still serves as one of the 12 Trustees, a talented group currently with expertise in art, architecture, music, history, law and business, some of whom also live locally. The Trustees’ Mission is ‘to preserve, protect and enhance for public benefit Paxton House, its collection and the estate on which it stands.’ In one of their first acts, they worked with the National Gallery of Scotland to restore the Picture Gallery to the original colour scheme, and to borrow a collection of paintings, many of whose subjects and artists were linked to the Borders.
The Picture Gallery seemed to me to be an ideal venue for small-scale classical music. It had a warm ambience, a sense (albeit a clever pastiche) of a period room, it was comfortable (not something which is always true about the church venues in the East Neuk or Lammermuir Festivals!) and the painting-covered walls and floor carpet helped provide that fine acoustic.
However the Trustees have other concerns than an organisation, however prestigious, which is in situ for only 10 days a year. Like other country houses, Paxton provides tours, a gift-shop, a cafe, plant sales, accommodation (in a caravan site) , and, more recently, art, antiques and “artisanal” fairs, and the big money-spinner these days – weddings. All of these are acceptable ways of earning money,, except perhaps when the building itself is changed for the worse, which I believe is happening here.
The wedding events industry is, I suggest, the reason for the bland Ballroom. Anyone looking back at old family photos, will notice how wedding participants have long prioritised how good they look in photographs. 2020s social media have taken this a stage further, with wedding clothes and venues chosen simply because they are “Instagrammable”. Hence the pristine photos with the camera looking up at the cupola on Paxton House’s Facebook and Instagram pages. The Ballroom is a blank canvas for flowers and frocks. The Estate’s finances will benefit too.
What irks me about the change is the sense of gloating and celebration in the accounts of the renovation. “Wow” crows the Instagram feed, “every piece of artwork is now down!” Paintings, carpets and black painted floors are regarded as grubby excesses. And somehow a narrative about the “fresh” appearance of the 1920s Ballroom, based on some faded photos, has become the look to aim for.
Of course, keeping the estate financially viable is the Trustees’ raison d’etre. And I heard a suggestion that the insurance on the National Gallery’s paintings wouldn’t cover the change of use. We’re unlikely to get an explanation. But it’s a great pity.
