National Trust - Upton House:
A Fortune Well Spent
The Brief: To create interpretation that will convey the atmosphere of a Millionaire’s weekend house party and marrying this to the property’s theme of “A Fortune Well Spent?”
Our Response
Our first suggestion (and crucially, this was before Simon Jenkins suggested bringing properties to life) was that
visitors should be able to go into the house and touch things!
We wanted visitors to be able to experience a property that looked and felt as though it was being lived in.
They should be able to play snooker, read diaries, look through photo albums, inspect the contents of drawers, listen
to wireless broadcasts, use the telephone. The atmosphere would be enhanced by the replay of multiple soundtracks of
conversation pieces; scripts written and recorded of the people who were regularly invited to the house parties held
at Upton at that time.
To set the scene we created a “home movie” that was supposedly shot during one of those heady summer weekend soirees.
And all absolutely 100% consistent with history and facts unearthed during painstaking research of the Bearsted
family and their acquaintances.
Because there is so much to do and see, one visitor may get quite a different experience to another. This provokes
chatter and debate among families and groups, and also means visitors go back to find out more.
Upton has been hailed by the National Trust as a great success; It has been used an example for other properties managers.
And the work is on-going. Updates will keep the interpretation fresh and allow further repeat visits.
- Video
- Props
- Script Writing
- Dialogue
- Sound Effects
