The Houses of Nancy Lancaster

“I’m more than a fan of Nancy Lancaster's,” admits Birmingham architect James F. Carter, who recently made a pilgrimage of sorts to her former homes in England. “Technically, I think I would be considered a groupie. Lancaster made an imprint on all the houses where she lived.”

A wealthy Virginian who moved to England in the 1920s, Lancaster inhabited grand estates and redid their interiors, establishing the landmark style known as English Country. Ironically, it took an American to develop the disheveled yet gentrified look so associated with England. Relaxed chintzes. Casual elegance. A respect for the past tempered by the latest conveniences. A comfortable collision of design periods under one grand roof. These elements sum up Lancaster’s signature look, evoked by memories of her beloved home, Mirador, where she grew up in Virginia. “She brought a Southerner’s love of home and hospitality to England,” Carter explains.

She performed her interior renovations with an uncanny natural ability. Having no formal training, she learned from those she hired to make her vision happen. “She was basically a client very much involved in the project,” Carter explains. “When she had draperies made, she learned a lot from the drapery person, for example. She was an enormously talented amateur.”

The novice decorator, who died in 1994, eventually became an owner of the design firm Colefax and Fowler. “The company was a distraction for her, and it allowed her access to the trades,” says Carter. She teamed with John Fowler, a partner and designer in the firm, now considered an elder statesman of interior designers in England. Though they collaborated on many projects, the pair often clashed.

“Fowler and Lancaster were both strong-willed and not afraid to argue. In fact, they were famous for their rows,” says Carter. “Lancaster was not your average well-behaved Southern girl. She could be spiteful. She could be difficult. She was a full-blown character. And yet, over the years, she enjoyed long relationships with many friends and admirers of her talents.”

The niece of England’s famed politician Nancy Astor, Lancaster made the most of her social connections when she married Anglo-American Ronald Tree and moved to England in the late ’20s. She and Tree rented the grand estate Kelmarsh Hall before moving to Ditchley Park. After her marriage to Tree ended in divorce, Lancaster returned to Kelmarsh when she married Col. Claude Granville Lancaster, owner of the estate. “She was probably more in love with his home than with the man himself,” says Carter.

On his Classical Excursions tour, sponsored by The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, Carter visited Kelmarsh and Ditchley, along with Lancaster’s last residence, now privately held. “I saw houses that she had lovingly brought back to life and gardens that she created or enhanced,” says Carter, who also toured homes designed by Fowler, whom he also reveres. “Several of the houses were still owned by the people who lived there when the pair decorated them. It was exciting to see their work as it was originally designed.”

As he went from house to house, Carter couldn’t help but envision the feisty Lancaster fussing about a wall color or conducting her “research.”
“If she wanted to see a house, she’d find a way,” he says. “She would ride around the countryside with friends in her chauffeured Rolls, knock on the door of an estate she wanted to explore, pretending to be lost, and ask the butler if she could see the house before resuming her journey. Eventually she was found out. After she had recited her story to a butler at what she thought was an unexplored house, she was informed that she had been ‘lost’ at the same house the previous week when she had arrived at a different entrance. For once, the Southerner backed down.”


LEARNING FROM LANCASTER

Touring the homes that Nancy Lancaster and John Fowler decorated was a rite of passage for Birmingham architect James F. Carter. Here’s what he took away from the tour.

• Start with strong architecture. Carter admits that, as an architect, he likes rooms that have not only great decoration but also good architectural bones. “In most of the houses we visited, the bookcases, the paneling or moldings, and the interior architecture made the rooms,” he says. “The furniture was selected or designed to comple¬ment the architecture, not make up for a lack of it.”
• Resurrect and reinvent the past.“I like to reinterpret classic designs from the past, and you can’t do that without learning and understanding the work of the past,” he says. “Lancaster and Fowler did that. They would take an idea from the past, play around with it, and make it their own -- not trying to replicate it, but to reintroduce an old idea as a relevant new aspect of their work.”
• Do the unexpected. Lancaster always found a way to shake up the elements of classic design and create visual excitement. She used bold color and contrasting forms to enliven her surroundings. “In classical architecture, there are rules. But you need to know them in order to break them,” says Carter.
• Be bold.“Lancaster had enough personality and style for several people,” Carter says. “The dramatic and the unexpected came easily for her. She always created wonderful houses and gardens that showcased her love of history, sense of humor, and desire for comfort and style.”

TOURING THE HOUSES

Ditchley Park: Open to the public by appointment. 011-44-1608-677¬346, www.ditchley.co.uk.

Kelmarsh Hall & Gardens: Open to the public on a limited basis; call or visit the Web site for specific dates and more information. 011-44-1604-686-543, www.kelmarsh.com.