Through this post I want to share my wonderful Harewood experience with all of you.  Harewood is pronounced ‘Haar’- ‘Wood’ and not ‘Hare’-‘ wood’…just letting you know and setting your expectation that this is not a post about a bunny and his life in the jungle (!), but one about my visit to the Harewood Estates in Leeds, UK.  J

Summer in the UK is by far the one of the most beautiful things in the world. The beautiful British country side is indescribably stunning in all its sunny & green grandeur. So when I was there one summer, a few friends and I decided to visit the Harewood Estates in Leeds.  A short bus ride (route 46) from the main coach stand, Harewood is a very close to Leeds City. We landed up in front of the large ancient stone & iron gates early one July morning.

Walking though the lovely shaded walkway, looking at the manicured gardens, we were delighted that it such a beautiful summer day. The sky was clear and a heavenly blue that I’ve only seen in the UK, and we would have walked the 1.2 kilometers to the castle happily, if it had not been for the kind old gentleman who showed up with a small motorized buggy. It would have been something if they had had the old style carriages for these rides around the estates….complete with horses with flowing manes and coachmen!

Ok, this would be a good time for a small history lesson. Harewood Estates was built by Earl Edwin Lascelles between 1759 and 1771.  Being related to the royal family does not apparently guarantee wealth and thus this family made their fortune (and thus this beautiful castle) by taking our sugar and selling it elsewhere (!).  It has been inherited down the long line of descendant of the Lascelles family. The Sixth Earl was also a cousin to the Queen Mary, who by the way also spent her last dying days here.  And I think the current descendant is the Earl of York and related to Queen Elizabeth II. The running history lesson that they give during the tours is sometimes difficult to keep up with and I hope I managed to get most of the history right. Anyways, since I was never really good at history or with the memory, you probably should not depend on these details. The historically inclined may please visit www.harewood.org for more details.

So back to the 21st Century and the historic (J) day we were there

The castle per say is a small part of the estate. It stands in the middle of widespread and manicured gardens. On the outside, it’s not really that much to look at. It holds a close resemblance to the Buckingham palace and the boxy look seems to have been the trend among royalty in England.  It’s probably a good thing that the façade outside is so deceptive, because when you step in, you are completely overwhelmed with the beauty and magnificence of the interiors. 

The entrance hall has, besides a few chairs near the walls, only one other occupant. This is a giant sculpture of some nude man-monster type thing called Adam. It stands over 8 feet tall and is actually quite ugly. Makes you wonder why they wasted all the efforts on the beautifully hand painted ceiling when they wanted everyone only to look at the monstrous naked man right in the center of the room. After we pretend ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ on artistic talent of some guy Jacob who made the monster and snickered on some not shareable in a public forum kind of jokes on the obvious flaws of the anatomy of the giant, we were happy to escape to the first of the many Libraries of the castle.

Called the state library, it was a sitting room with a beautiful view of the estate gardens and the various fountains. Books on books adorned the walls. Every little space clamoured for attention. Beautiful Paintings, stunning tapestries, ornate wallpapers, sculptures, intricate frescos on walls and ceilings, rich wood work, little nick nacks that warrant a closer inspection….there just wasn’t enough time to stop and appreciate everything!

Made by the famous Chip and Dale (who were by the way were brothers renowned for their artistry with furniture), the furniture really is worth a special mention. Exquisitely carved, it made me imagine little squirrels carving away with their teeth and creating these pieces of art.

The castle has some 3 libraries (such a pity that they don’t let people near the numerous books… it would have been interesting to see what people read in those times) and 4 dining rooms (named yellow, cinnamon – to go with the colour of the wall paper of the room and state and family to describe the use they probably got put to), 4 large bedrooms ( including one dedicated to Queen Mary and her large wardrobe!), multiple small ones, a few sitting rooms, a huge gallery, a music room, ante rooms in addition to random rooms called the china room, the portrait room and others that I can’t remember.  

There was even a special room (I can’t remember what it was called, but we thought it could be referred to as the ‘Adult’ room) that had a bunch of nude paintings. It was like the people back then just saw too much cloth on all the people around them ( you have to look at the amount of cloth that went into a lady’s gown to really know) that they just did not like their art wearing any! Sculptures and paintings were all preferred nude. It is intriguing, don’t you think?

The rooms used by the family were on the first floor and the ground floor (which was really more like a basement) is referred to as the ‘below stairs’ and in this section the kitchens, scullery, staff and help quarters were there.

Interestingly, for all the beauty and opulence of the castle, the below stairs is so starkly plain and depressing, it surprising you.  Plain white washed walls and hard cement block floors fill the space and there is little thought given to natural lighting. I could just imagine the cold foggy winter mornings where the maids had to heat the large tubs of water for the mistress of the house and haul it up through the water chute into the nearly modern washrooms upstairs. The kitchen is a large space and one can see the myriad utensils that were used to cooking in those times. We had an interesting time trying to figure some of them out and what they could possibly used for. One can see some of the uniforms that the scullery maids, cooks, help used to wear and even try them and take pictures!

One of the weirdest things I saw were the service corridors leading from the below stairs to each of the rooms upstairs! It was like a network of tunnels, about a 2.5 meters in width and lead to each of the rooms upstairs. The tunnel entrance to the rooms was hidden behind a tapestry or some item of furniture and one can go through the rooms without knowing that there is a tunnel entrance right behind the bed/ the sofa. Apparently, the royalty did not like to see their servants. Even in those days there was a sophisticated system of bells through which one could pull a cord in a room and at a switchboard kind of room down stairs a small bell would ring that would show from which room the command has come from and one of the servants would be dispatched through the tunnel to attend to the summons. The servants would be expected to enter through their tunnel, do their work and be gone! It made me feel sick… to think of the dark dunky tunnels and the servants scurrying like mice through them, at the bid and command of the people upstairs. Jeez… rich people could be real mean back then.

After the dingy below stairs we were happy to step back into bright sunny morning and see the gardens around the castle.

The estate also boasts of a rich bird garden with a wide array of exotic birds, such as the colourful parrot, Chilean flamingoes, ostriches, penguins and peacocks. We had an interesting time walking through the delightful garden and feeding the birds.

All in all, our harewood trip was wonderful and one I would recommend for all to experience.

Cheers!!