Tuesday, August 12, 2008

attingham: the houses: calke abbey

Week 2 favorites ~ Calke Abbey ~ speaking of gothic! This house is quite a departure from the others ~ full of decay, obsessive collections of taxidermy, stuffed birds and rusty watercans (etc., etc.), and dark, moody rooms. There were many in the group who found the place rather disturbing, but I loved the brooding, rather theatrical nature of it all. And gosh, it made for some fantastic photographic opportunities.



8 comments:

Anonymous said...

These images remind me of Palazzo Fortuny! What an amazingly strange place Calke Abbey seems.

ArchitectDesign™ said...

it sounds lovely! Just how an english country house SHOULD be!

Pigtown*Design said...

WOW! I love old places like this... what a great, evocative look!

i can't wait to sit down with you and see your slideshow.

Gretchen said...

bedding in the bathtub, how fantastic! can't wait to see/hear more.

Anonymous said...

I wish that more American historic sites would be brave enough to show the historic relic - even if tarted up a bit for visitors - I get so bored walking through pristinely restored historic sites replete with scholarship but lacking in magic. KDM

Janet said...

I am so excited to read all of your comments on this post. A lot of people really, really objected to this house, so I am glad it caught your imagination.

Michelle said...

whoa what's funny is that the placement of everything in the house seems like it has a decorator (does it?). it all looks like a spread from anthropologie or something!

Anonymous said...

how interesting! thank you for leaving that comment, janet!