Author: Emma Kelly
Directions: Exit via the door you came in and go into the room next door.
Transcript
Stepping into the guest bedroom, I’m drawn like a magpie to the elaborate mid-century porcelain mirror decorated with plump cherubs and a flurry of flowers, and yellow song birds. So fragile it must have been a nightmare for the housemaid to dust.
This room has one primary purpose, to impress. With its framed high-quality 16th Century lace hanging on the wall near the door, alongside adventurous paintings of boats and places Charles Thomas-Stanford possibly travelled to. If this opulent room could speak, it would say, ‘we have money, we have taste, and we travel’.
This charming chamber not just a vanity project; the Stanfords were also philanthropists. In 1910 Charles was elected Mayor of Brighton. Then in 1914 Charles was elected as the Conservative MP for Brighton. In his role as MP, Charles fought for better conditions for working children, employment of disabled soldiers and solutions to coal shortages in Brighton. The Stanfords most impressive gift was, of course, Preston Manor and all of its contents to the people of Brighton. This was done much to the horror of Ellen’s only son John, who wanted to slice it up for profit or turn it into a girl’s school. John coveted profit and not selfless acts.
Ellen and her second husband, Charles, were an Edwardian power couple. They had status and they would use it for the greater good. Preston Manor was the perfect place to lavish attention, food, and frivolity on people in high places as the Stanfords networked their way through Edwardian society. They entertained many illustrious people, such as Rudyard Kipling, the Crown Prince of Sweden, Princess Beatrice, and the original 007, Oswald Rayner.
Did Rayner admire the yellow song birds as he checked his bow tie? I wonder who else was drawn to the spellbinding porcelain mirror? Who else inspected their appearance before dining with Stanfords? If only we could’ve witnessed the conversations that took place…