Charleston

Watching the BBC's mini series 'Life in Squares' has taken us back to some of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant's textile designs that help to make up the beautiful interiors of the home they created together at Charleston. 'Life in Squares' follows the lives and relationships of the Bloomsbury set. Along with the group's bohemian lifestyles, the program also makes a point of focusing on the often overlooked Vanessa Bell. Virginia Woolf's artist sister is portrayed as the only human anchor in the group, seemingly holding everything and everyone together, whilst raising a family and working on her, very good, paintings. As the show depicts, when the First World War began, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant left London to live in the countryside - Charleston in Sussex. Over the years the pair decorated the house with their art, making it into a kind of neo classical, post impressionist idyll, with a garden to match. The house and its decor hardly look out of date today. It is littered with Bell and Grant's decorative art and textiles. Well worth a visit. www.charleston.org.uk Photo Credit: Penelope Fewster on behalf of Charleston Trust. The complete mini series is still available to watch on iplayer. www.bbc.co.uk