Discover the facinating Harewood House Harewood House is a stunning house designed by John Carr, completed in 1772, with exquisite interiors by Robert Adam. The furniture throughout is by Thomas Chippendale together with art collections that include Renaissance masterpieces, Turner watercolours and family portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds. HRH Princess Mary, the Princess Royal, lived here until her death in 1965 and a collection of items from her lifetime are on display. Set in magnificent Capability Brown landscape and gardens, including a Himalayan garden, walled garden and restored Parterre terrace. The lakeside Bird Garden has over a 100 species of threatened and exotic birds.
What is the history of Harewood House to the present day?
Harewood House Trust is now an independent charitable educational trust set up to maintain and develop Harewood, its collections and grounds, for the public benefit.
When Edwin Lascelles started building Harewood House in 1759 he wanted nothing but the best for his new home. He employed the finest craftsmen of the time: York-born architect John Carr, fashionable interior designer Robert Adam, England’s greatest furniture maker Thomas Chippendale and visionary landscape gardener Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. As you walk around the House, you can see Renaissance masterpieces, exquisite family portraits by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence and Richmond, as well as a fine collection of Sèvres china, among many other delights.
The Trust and the Lascelles family have been at the forefront of acknowledging the estate’s colonial past for over 25 years. Being transparent about colonial history and ensuring the Trust hosts much-needed, and sometimes difficult conversations is vital to calling out racism, and to forging new connections with visitors and the communities of the cities and countryside around.
Harewood’s Open History programme engages audiences with the urgent issues over time, engendering empathy and understanding of these issues in order to celebrate diversity, whilst bringing Harewood’s colonial past into greater focus.
What is there to see and do at Harewood House?
Harewood is one of the Treasure Houses of England, set in the heart of rural Yorkshire. With rolling ‘Capability’ Brown landscapes, an impressive art collection including works by JMW Turner & El Greco, renaissance masterpieces, exquisite Thomas Chippendale furniture and fabulous Robert Adam interiors, all combined with 100 acres of award-winning Gardens, Harewood really does offer something for everyone.
Other Information
Farm Experience
Young farmers can meet friendly alpacas, learn about the family of pygmy goats and see the pot-bellied pigs enjoy a spot of lunch.
Woodland Wonderland
As part of the new circular walk, this year families can enjoy the new woodland pop-up play, created with willow weaver Leilah Vyner. With winding willow mazes, twisting and turning between the trees, there is plenty to discover in this new outdoor play space.
Sylvascope
British designer Sebastian Cox has created a treehouse in the grounds of Harewood House in West Yorkshire, in a strategy to make a woodland grove more useful and biodiverse.
