At Artichoke, a significant number of the bespoke period kitchens we are commissioned to design are in English country houses, many dating back many hundreds of years. When designing for these clients, we find referencing from kitchens from the past a particularly useful way to gain inspiration. Here are a few of the period kitchens that have inspired our work:
The scullery at Dunham Massey, Cheshire
The kitchen, Avebury Manor, Wiltshire (prior to its redecoration)
The Kitchen in the Basement at Ickworth, Suffolk.
The Kitchen at Attingham Park, Shropshire. The elm-topped table and dresser are filled with the copper batterie de cuisine.
The range and surrounding stonework with carved inscription in the Kitchen at Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire.
The Kitchen at Dunham Massey, Cheshire.
The Kitchen with the Philip Webb dresser at Standen, West Sussex.
The Scullery at Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales. The wooden draining boards and sinks and plate rack are a modern replacement for the original fittings.
The Great Kitchen at Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales. The walls are partly tiled with 1880s Maw and Company tiles, with the upper parts painted blue which was a colour believed to repel flies.
Old kitchen equipment including graters, a corkscrew, a toasting fork and a sieve at Sunnycroft, Shropshire.
Old kitchen utensils used as display at Polesden Lacey restaurant, Surrey.
Part of the copper batterie de cuisine on the dresser shelves in the Kitchen at Attingham Park, Shropshire.
The Kitchen with wooden table, and range, at Osterley Park, Middlesex. The room has been a kitchen since the 1760s and is in the opposite corner of the house to the Eating Room, so that no noise or cooking odours should disturb the diners.
The sixteenth century kitchen built by Sir Richard Grenville at Buckland Abbey, Yelverton, Devon. The kitchen was re-sited to be near to the Great Hall and the room is dominated by two open hearths used for cooking. The walls are painted in a traditional pink limewash.
The Kitchen at Castle Drogo, Devon, with the circular beechwood table designed by the architect of the house, Edwin Lutyens. The only natural light in the room comes from the circular lantern window above the table, echoing its shape.
Partial view of the oak table designed by Lutyens and made by Dart & Francis in 1927 in the Butler’s Pantry at Castle Drogo, Devon.
Three large oak-framed sinks and the long rows of plate racks above partially lit in the Scullery at Castle Drogo.
The Larder with a food safe at Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton, West Midlands.
