‘Downton Abbey’ exhibit in New York thrills fans
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
NEW YORK — When the drawing room curtains closed on the sixth and final season of “Downton Abbey,” die-hard fans here in the colonies feared they’d seen the last of the Crawley family and their hard-working staff. The ending proved happy enough — Edith (finally) got her man, and Anna and the long-suffering Bates welcomed a baby boy into the world. But there was real heartbreak, too. How could we say goodbye to the period PBS series, which brought so much joy to more than 26 million viewers in some 250 territories worldwide? By jove! How, indeed. While rumors of a reunion movie continue to buzz across the internet, they’re just that: rumors. Only by streaming the popular television show on Amazon could one get his or her Downton fix.
Until last November, that is. That’s when “Downton Abbey: The Exhibition” set up shop in a landmark Victorian-era building here near Columbus Circle. Staged across three floors in the former Society House of the American Society of Civil Engineers in the heart of billionaires’ row, the retrospective takes fans on a deep dive into the world of the upstairs Crawleys and the downstairs staff who served them.
A friendly bit of advice: If you’re not a Downtonian, your time and money may be better spent exploring the 40-plus varieties of vodka at the historic Russian Tea Room just down the block. Fans, on the other hand, will feel downright punch drunk after the tour, thanks to its many original props and artifacts and meticulously restored sets.
So much of the show’s downstairs action took place in Mrs. Patmore’s kitchen, and there it is in all its post-Edwardian glory just beyond the green baize door “below stairs.” It’s as big as you might imagine for a 300-room estate, and so well equipped with its collection of gleaming copper pans and ceramic bowls in which kitchen maid Daisy honed her cooking skills over six seasons. You can’t miss the wooden egg tray — it holds enough eggs to feed the Pittsburgh Steelers. What you might not notice is the height of the long wooden table. The actress who played the cook was so short, the production designer had to cut down its legs so she didn’t have to stand on her tippy toes during filming.
On display in the butler’s pantry, Mr. Carson’s leather-topped desk also holds its share of period props, even if you didn’t notice them on TV. Professionally scuffed just so to suggest years of heavy use, it holds age-old ledgers and correspondence, along with a hand-held magnifying glass the aging butler might have used to make reading them easier. In the adjoining servants’ hall, you’ll catch sight of the bell board that let out a jingle whenever someone upstairs summoned staff to answer the front door or attend to