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Charleston

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Charleston

Community | Art | Ideas
Charleston in Firle: BN8 6LL
Charleston in Lewes: BN7 1AB
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The modernist home and studio of the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Charleston was a gathering point for some of the 20th century’s most radical artists, writers and thinkers known collectively as the Bloomsbury group. It is where they came together to imagine society differently, and has always been a place where art and experimental thinking are at the centre of everyday life. Today, we

present a dynamic year-round programme of exhibitions, events and festivals. We believe in the power of art, in all its forms, to provoke new ways of thinking and living.

05/09/2026

Happy International Charity Day!

Charleston was established as a charity over 40 years ago. Unlike many arts organisations, we receive no regular government funding, so your support is vital to everything we do — from conserving the house and garden to hosting our festivals, exhibitions and educational work.

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Want to support us further? Become a Friend for just £66 a year, with unlimited free entry to the house and galleries all year round. Or sign up as a Festival Friend for priority booking to our year-round events, including Charleston Festival.

🔗Find out more via the link in our bio.

01/09/2026

‘He is tight and shiny as a wood louse. But there is well water in him, cold and pure.’ — Virginia Woolf wrote of T.S. Eliot in her diaries.

Virginia Woolf was the first to publish Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ in the UK through the Hogarth Press, which she founded with Leonard Woolf from their dining room table.

reviews ‘Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press’ for Hyperallergic, describing the story of a press that began with inky fingers and ‘in time grew into something far from small.’

Don’t miss your last chance to see the first edition of Eliot’s poem alongside 200 other rare and original books in ‘Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press’ at Charleston in Firle.

Also closing Sunday: ‘Guerrilla Girls’, whose bold graphic posters have been asking uncomfortable questions about whose art gets shown, collected and remembered since 1985.

📍Read the full review and book your tickets via the link in our bio.

📸’The Waste Land’ by T. S. Eliot, Hogarth Press, Private Collection, Brussels

29/08/2026

This week is your last chance to see Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant’s studio at Charleston in Firle.

On Monday 7 September, the studio will close its doors to prepare for a once-in-a-lifetime journey to Tate where it will be restaged for a landmark exhibition opening this November before returning to Charleston in Spring 2027.

During this time, we will undergo vital conservation work to safeguard this extraordinary space for future generations – you may have already spotted scaffolding up around the house earlier this year as we began repairs to the roof and windows.

The studio has been part of Charleston for over 100 years. Built on the site of the old chicken run, it is as rooted here as the walled garden or the pond. Don’t miss your last chance to see it in situ!

While the studio is away, there’s still plenty more to discover at Firle this autumn:

💫From 19 September, new exhibitions dedicated to Quentin Bell and Olivia Sterling open.

💫 A new house display exploring the Bloomsbury childhood through rarely seen photographs, paintings and drawings from our archive.

💫A packed programme of autumn events including David Shrigley, Nigel Slater, Kate Mosse and many more!

🎟️ Book your tickets via the link in our bio.

19/08/2026

🎂Happy birthday, Quentin Bell, born in 1910!

On 12 July 1919, eight year old Quentin wrote to his aunt Virginia Woolf from Charleston in Firle. Addressing her as ‘Aunt Gina’, he fills her in on a summer of newt catching, rat poisoning and his siblings’ various adventures.

He signs off with a list of ‘Berth day prfsents’ that include a ‘magniffying galass, paints, a paint brush, a ball and bricks’ – a list that shows how early his creative practice began.

This September, discover how those early instincts for making, exploring and play took shape across a lifetime of work. Bringing together over 100 works for the first exhibition dedicated to him in almost thirty years, ‘Quentin Bell’ explores his life and work as a potter, sculptor and illustrator whose artistic career began here at Charleston.

Sending his love to ‘Uncle Lenod’, he signs the letter:
‘From your loving Quntin.’

🎟️ Book your tickets for ‘Quentin Bell’ via the link in our bio

📸 Quentin Bell crowning Virginia Woolf with laurels, photographed by Vanessa Bell. Copyright The Charleston Trust.
📸 Letter from Quentin Bell to Virginia Woolf, 12 July 1919. Private Collection.

Full transcript:

‘Dear Aunt Gina,
Thank you very much for sending my black book. It is raining very hard today. We’ve caught a lot of newts. We went to Lewes on Wednesday and saw your house, but we could not get in. A rat jumped upon the window. The rats have being poisoned[?] mostly. I will send you a list of Berth day prfsents. Bunny caught a fish and an eue[?]. Angelica has being vaccinated. Julian is doing a remarkable picture of a battle. Julian has passed. I send my love to Uncle Lenod
from your loving Quntin.
PTO’

Full transcript:

‘A magnifying glass,
paints
a paint Brush
a Ball
brick.’

16/08/2026

☀️In the summer of 1921, a drought left Charleston’s pond looking, in Angelica Garnett’s words, like ‘an expanse of clay, cracked like the craters of the moon.’

Like many historic gardens and landscapes across England, Charleston is feeling the effects of what has become the third drought in five years. We are following hosepipe restrictions and our team is working hard to care for our site.

With the pond at its lowest level since 1921, the fish have been temporarily relocated to a nearby pond by our farmer until the rain returns.

Our walled gardens at Charleston in Firle remain beautiful and well worth a visit. And our galleries are kept cool with air conditioning at both sites.

🎟️ Come and find some respite from the heat. Book your tickets via the link in our bio.

EastSussex HistoricGardens

14/08/2026

In 1989, the Guerrilla Girls posed a question that the art world has never quite been able to shake: ‘Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?’ The infamous poster reported that less than 5% of artists in the modern art sections of the Met Museum were women, but 85% of the nudes were female.

Thirty-six years later, in 2025, they reviewed the statistics. Although the numbers have improved, they haven’t improved much. The percentage of women artists had risen to 8%, and the proportion of female nudes had fallen to 67%. With marginal progress on representation but more meaningful change on objectification, the question remains.

The Guerrilla Girls have been asking uncomfortable questions like this since 1985, using bold graphic art, statistics and humour to expose the inequalities shaping our cultural institutions.

‘Guerrilla Girls’ is open at Charleston in Firle.

🎟️ Book your tickets via the link in our bio.

Feminism

06/08/2026

🎉 What a way to celebrate National Play Day! 🎉

Yesterday we opened our new FREE play space Wobble Tumble, created by artist and playworker India Harvey .

Wobble Tumble is an inclusive space for children and their grown-ups to come together to play, meet new friends, build, experiment, imagine and discover together through open-ended making.

Our Learning Studio is filled with loose parts and unusual materials, and is a space for curiosity, creativity, and collaboration.

📍 Charleston in Lewes
📆 Wednesdays-Fridays in August, 10-1pm and 2-5pm
😌 Relaxed sessions on Thursdays, 10-1pm

🔗 Book your tickets FREE tickets via the link in bio

20/07/2026

☀️ Summer holidays on a shoestring at Charleston

💡Looking for free activities to keep your family inspired this summer? We’ve got you covered! From exploring our gardens to diving into squishy worlds, there are lots of free activities at Charleston to keep little artists busy during the holidays.

✨️ Drawing in the Garden
Charleston in Firle
Daily, 22 July – 6 September, 10am-5pm

✨️Clay Characters
Charleston in Lewes
Sunday 26 July, 1-3.30pm

✨️ India Harvey: Wobble Tumble
Charleston in Lewes
Wednesdays-Fridays in August, 10-1pm and 2-5pm
Relaxed sessions on Thursdays, 10-1pm

✨️ Print Your Dream Space
Charleston in Lewes
Sunday 30 August, 1-3.30pm

🔗 To find out more, plan your visit or book tickets, head to the link in bio.

07/07/2026

Join Afri.Co.Lab for Breathe Play Laugh, a day of restorative play at Charleston in Firle.

An act of community care for Global Majority folks, whose work or life means they are often holding space, taking responsibility for others and struggling to find space for themselves.

Whether in your professional life as an artist, creative, organiser, activist, therapist, carer, facilitator or you have caring responsibilities outside of your work (this list is not exhaustive), this is a day for you to fill your cup.

The team will look after you from start to finish, all you need to do is book and get to their designated meeting point, where travel is provided. There will be drinks and snacks available throughout the day, including a nourishing meal at lunch time, and a printmaking workshop lead by Morokoth

📅 Monday 20 July
🎟 Book free tickets via link in bio Afri.Co.Lab

Address

Off A27
Lewes
BN86LL

Opening Hours

Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	10am - 5pm

Telephone

+441323811626

Website

http://www.charleston.org.uk/

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