Dive under the water as fish, turtles and water babies swim around you in the former kitchen larder of Lord Montagu’s father’s flat. Take a guided tour with Lord Montagu in the latest part of our blog series.
You may not expect to see bathrooms on a visit to a stately home but I am pleased that we have created some at Palace House which are worthy of a peek.
The aim with The Water Closet is to make you feel as though you are under the water with fish, turtles and water babies swimming around you. The design was inspired by classic children’s novel The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley, which Solent University interior design student Emma Martin has reimagined. The book, published in 1862, tells the story of Tom, a young chimney sweep who is transformed into a water baby. In a magical, mystical version of evolution, Tom is born again into a wonderful underwater world where he is given a second chance to develop into the man he should have been.
The window in this room only gives you a view of the wall opposite, so I felt this was an ideal place to put a translucent print of one of my mother’s early paintings.
The lines between the mirror tiles, set at 45 degrees, bring to mind a Seine net of the kind which has been used to catch fish on the Beaulieu River for centuries.
Continuing the underwater analogy, I like to think of the bath tub with its and its unusual shape as a giant mussel shell.
Enter the underwater world with Lord Montagu here: https://youtu.be/TkLzh6Epd4I