Charleston

About the museum

Charleston is a farmhouse at the foot of the South Downs in East Sussex. In 1916, during the First World War, the painter Vanessa Bell moved in with her children, her friend and fellow painter Duncan Grant, and Grant's friend David Garnett. Grant and Garnett were conscientious objectors who needed farm work to avoid being called up, and the house offered a quiet home within reach of London.

Bell and Grant began almost at once to paint walls, doors, furniture and fireplaces, and over the following decades they made the house into a work of art. Charleston became a meeting place for the writers, artists and thinkers known as the Bloomsbury group, who lived out progressive ideas about art, love and society there.

Today the house is run by an independent charity, the Charleston Trust. Visitors see the decorated rooms and the studio, the walled garden and grounds, and exhibitions in the galleries and barns. The Trust also stages a year-round programme of events and festivals, and runs a second site, Charleston in Lewes, which holds further exhibitions.

Highlights

• Rooms painted by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, including the studio
• Walled garden and pond, with free children's trails
• Galleries with changing exhibitions on modern British art and Bloomsbury
• Digital guide with audio on the Bloomberg Connects app
• Second gallery site in Lewes, served by the Sussex Art Shuttle bus

Permanent exhibition

• The house – The farmhouse home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, whose rooms they covered with paintings, patterned walls and furniture.

Operated by

The Charleston Trust

Admission & discounts

Free admission: Pay What You Can days on the last Sunday of the month during the exhibition seasons.

One ticket covers the house, galleries and exhibitions at Charleston in Firle this season. A time slot is chosen for the house; the exhibitions can be visited at any time that day. Standard admission is shown; a Gift Aid admission with a small donation (adult £32) is offered at the till. Friends, Festival Friends, Super Friends, Patrons and Benefactors enter free. Tickets are valid for one day only, and a reduced-rate ticket for the garden and ground floor of the house is offered to visitors with restricted mobility.

Accessibility

• Partially wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking
• Service dogs welcome
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The café, pottery workshop, shop, galleries and toilets are accessible, some by ramped entrances. The ground floor of the house is accessible; the first floor is reached by 13 steep steps with a turn. The house is a domestic farmhouse and can admit only wheelchairs smaller than about 115 cm by 65 cm. Mobility scooters can be used in the garden, shop and café but are usually too large for the house. The grounds are rural, with uneven and gravel paths, and the garden is only partly accessible. Two visitor wheelchairs can be reserved by email. Two Blue Badge spaces are close to the site. The shop counter has a hearing loop, and neck loops and receivers are available for guided tours. Guide and assistance dogs are welcome everywhere. Accessible toilets are opposite the house and by the galleries; gender-neutral toilets are by the galleries. Chairs are available in every room of the house and shooting sticks can be borrowed.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide
• Stroller-friendly: not available

Visitors under 18 enter the house and galleries for free. Two free house and garden trails are available for children. Pushchairs are not allowed in the house because of its size. The garden has open water without barriers, and parents are asked to supervise children closely.

Getting there & parking

Some sat navs misplace the site, so follow the road signs from the A27. Visitors arriving by bus, bike or on foot get a green traveller concession on event tickets. Charleston lies in the South Downs National Park.

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Restaurant: not available
• Museum shop
• Coat check
• Lockers

A café serves cakes, pastries and light lunches, with hot and cold drinks, from 10:00 to 17:00. Free lockers are available for bags, which are not allowed in the house or galleries. Picnic tables are in the Centenary Garden, and picnics are also allowed on the grass by the pond. The site is cashless. Dogs on leads are welcome in the walled garden, shop and café, but only assistance dogs may enter the house and galleries.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent
• Private parties
• Corporate events
• Weddings / ceremonies

Up to 200 guests.

The restored Hay Barn and Threshing Barn hold 20 to 200 guests, or up to 80 for a wedding. Hire can include a house visit or guided tour.

Plan your visit