58 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 It was important for the Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust to tell the story through the preservation of the grotto. A towering figure of 18th-century England, it is less known that Pope suffered from a spinal deformity, either due to tuberculosis, trauma or congenital weakness, which shaped his career. The trust commissioned Giles Abbott, an award-winning storyteller, to write and perform a piece called ‘Alexander Pope: a search for perfection’. His storytelling vividly describes Pope’s life, with his difficulties of illness, deformity and religious exclusion, and his genius. Abbott continues to perform it. Paul Richens’ interactive digital reconstruction has also been presented in various venues in the UK. During the pandemic, the trust initiated and teamed up with neighbouring heritage groups such as Marble Hill House and Strawberry Hill House and started the Twickenham Luminaries in 2020. The luminaries have produced a series of online lectures which engaged audiences beyond physical reach. Topics include heritage buildings, art, historic gardens and landscapes. The success of the Twickenham Luminaries led to the formation of the London Luminaries, supported by Heritage Lottery Fund. The works incorporated a comprehensive lighting scheme by the late Jonathan Howard of DHA Designs. Howard carefully placed each light fixing to bring the chambers to life and limited fixtures to return the space to how Pope may have seen it originally with candles and natural light. Howard’s Georgian-style, portable, silver-backed LED candle sconces are extremely effective. To the central chamber and entrance lobby area, blue ripple-effect feature lights create the effect of light reflecting from water, which Pope’s sketches show him to have been keen on achieving. Some areas were left exposed to show where historic construction was consolidated, serving as windows to display that construction. For example, two previously obscured areas of the original cellar construction that were revealed during the works have been left exposed. Evidence of a possible rill as well as a waterfall, as suggested in Pope’s drawing of 1740, was discovered in the central chamber. The rill was formed in a brick-lined trench, capped by stone slabs. This was recorded by Thames Valley Archaeology and carefully covered in self-binding gravel. The alterations to the lobby area were one of the key aspects of the restoration project. The grotto lobby is a heavily used passage for the school, whose art room is right in front of the grotto’s entrance. It was challenging to make the entrance as appealing as possible when the lobby functions as school corridor. In order to regain the lost connection between the grotto and the Thames, the trust wanted to project the video of the reconstructed 1740s Thames on the art room wall. A double door system can now be opened up to receive projected images during open days, with exhibition panels installed on the insides of both door leaves. We hoped to re-establish the poet’s sparkling vision through the grotto’s restoration. It was important that the works were informed by and incorporated the grotto’s rich history, which has been partially preserved through Pope’s surviving letters, sketches by William Kent and the physical fabric on site. Acknowledgements Thanks to Angela Kidner, whose passion and rigour as a Pope’s Grotto trustee has been fundamental to the project over two decades. Ayaka Takaki is associate director of Donald Insall Associates. A conservator at work (Photo: Donald Insall Associates)
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