National Trust aims to end ‘stuffy’ image

ARTS CORRESPONDENT IT MAY be best known for its stately homes and rolling countryside, but the National Trust is to overcome any accusations of “stuffiness” with a series of pop-up exhibitions aimed at the young, a director has said.

Ivo Dawnay, the London head of the charity, said the trust is planning a string of events that may prove “a little bit surprising”, to seem “a bit less old-fashioned a brand” in the eyes of new visitors.

Next weekend, it will invite guests behind the scenes at three London embassies for the first time.

The run of “pop-up” tours is due to expand across Britain next year.

Mr Dawnay, who has previously commissioned tours of the house and an East End council block, said the project could also help widen the debate about what heritage is.

“If one reason people don’t join the National Trust is that they think it’s a bit old-fashioned and stuffy, hopefully by doing these things we are undermining that perception.”

This Friday and Saturday, the trust will conduct sellout tours of the French ambassador’s residence in Kensington Palace Gardens, known as Billionaire’s Row, the palatial Portuguese embassy in Belgrave Square and the modernist Seventies Danish embassy designed by Arne Jacobsen.

They promise “an intimate glimpse into the inner sanctums of diplomacy”, with access the public has never been granted before.

“We’re building up a tradition of doing some slightly avant garde things to supplement rather than replace what you might call the mainstream work of the trust, ” he said.

He had even, he said, toyed with the idea of opening parts of the London sewers for tours, before deciding the logistics – and the number of hard hats needed – made it too difficult.