We went on a trip to Purfleet to see High House – originally an Elizabethan house – where the Royal Opera House has a large production workshop designed by Nicholas Hare and other accompanying storage facilities, alongside live/work artists’ studios run by Acme and designed by Hat Projects. Purfleet itself is an old garrison town, the original home of the Royal Gunpowder Magazine and the fictional home of one of Count Dracula’s estates.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
My 14 year old daughter and I went to High House last month to take place on what the Royal Opera House call an ‘Inspiration Day’. In the morning we had a tour of the wonderful facilities at the Purfleet site. In the afternoon we took part in a workshop designing costumes for Orphee et Eurydice (having earlier seen the scenery being painted for this September’s production of the opera). Generally speaking they run inspiration days for schools but this was open to the general public and happened to be on a day when my daughter’s school was closed for staff training. A really excellent experience and made us think that we might even go to the Opera House to see something sometime. Text book outreach in fact.
Joan