When Pevsner visited Welbeck in 1950 for one of the early volumes of his guides, he assumed that the age of great estates was over. The house was occupied by the army who remained until 2005. He wrote, ‘What will happen then ? Will Welbeck have the same fate as the grander Worksop Manor and Clumber ? Will a public use be found ? Electricity Board, Coal Board, Lunatic Asylum, Convent, School, Sanatorium, Museum ?’ Pevsner maybe underestimated the ability of estates to adapt to new circumstances and the whole place is now in the process of being brought back to life with farm shop, brewery, School of Artisan Food, and the Harley Gallery, designed by Hugh Broughton, whose other major work is the British Antarctic Research Station in the South Pole. He has built a sophisticated new gallery space, faced in white brick and based in its design on the galleries of Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
I’m intrigued by the influence of Louis Kahn in the galleries. At one point in my life I lived near Ft. Worth Texas and visited the Kimbell Museum often. Kahn’s elegant galleries poured the most beautiful filtered light down into the galleries and rarely has art been so perfectly lit by natural light, both plenty to see by yet gentle.
Yes, I assume that that’s why Broughton adopted the same system of top lighting, which is very effective. Charles
The Kimbell is often thought of as the perfect picture gallery. I was lucky to get to the opening of the Harley Gallery which is exquisite and so fit for purpose and bought far too much in the farm shop.
Yes, jolly good farm shop, too. So did we. Charles
My error in the name – I meant the Kimbell.
I’ve corrected it. Charles