Buildings in use - Clandon Park

Design
Clandon Park was built in the early 1720's by the second Lord Onslow and his wife to celebrate his elevation to the peerage in 1716 with a suitably impressive and fashionable new house.
His architect was the Venetian Giacomo Leoni who had brought to England a first hand knowledge of the Palladian villa style. In Venice a 150 years before, Palladio's villas used the forms of Roman architecture such as columned porticos in classically proportioned symmetrical structures. Leoni adapted these principles to designs for country houses for his British clients. The exterior of Clandon is a relatively plain rectangle  constructed in brick with relatively little decoration apart from Corinthian pilasters on the south front.

Clandon Park - west front

The Marble Hall is an entrance hall where illustrious guests would have been received. In contrast to the rather austere exterior it is richly decorated in a classical style:-

• The windows and doorways are decorated with pediments, there are classical style reliefs over the fireplaces and Corinthian columns around the walls. The elaborate stucco ceiling also derives from Italian villa architecture. 
• It is a double height cubic space totally white with natural lighting from five large windows facing east. 
• The doors, windows, fireplaces are symmetrically arranged. Double doors lead into the Saloon, with other doorways leading to the other rooms and staircases. 

These days, the Marble Hall is still the room where visitors are received, but the visitors are not members of the elite. Clandon Park is now a National Trust Property and the house is open to the general public. A volunteer room steward greets the visitors and offers them a brief guide to their visit around the rooms and will answer questions about the room.
Sources:
Clandon Park published by National Trust published in 2002
Wikipedia article on Giacomi Leoni (at current date)
The Architecture Pack by Ron van der Meer & Deyan Sudjic published in 1997
Rices Architectural Primer by Mathew Rice published in 2009
Photography
Whilst I was aware that visitors are permitted to take photographs in the Marble Hall, I decided to inform the House Manager beforehand of my plan to take some photographs for this project and also to check that it was OK to use a tripod. I decided that I should use a tripod as interior light levels can be quite low. A tripod is also helpful when taking photographs of symmetrical spaces to make sure the horizon and verticals etc are not at an angle.
The windows of the Marble Hall are on the east side of the house, and the windows should therefore catch the morning light. The house opens to visitors at 11 am and I decided to go there at opening time on a sunny day last week when the light levels should be reasonably high. If this had not worked out, I could have returned later in the afternoon. I was however happy with the photos that I took in the morning light.
Image 1

Visitors in the Marble Hall at the start of their visit to Clandon Park

Nikon 18-200mm at 18mm (tripod mounted): Iso 400 f8 for 1/20th second
This viewpoint shows the symmetry and proportion of the Marble Hall. There were a number of people arriving and moving through the Hall and this one had the best placement of figures. I wanted to include figures in the hall as I wanted to show the building as it is used today.
There were a number of technical issues in relation to this photograph:-

• I deliberately chose an eye-level viewpoint as I was happy to leave the ceiling out of the frame. 
• In order to retain some detail in the windows, I underexposed by a full stop. I have adjusted and balanced the exposure levels in Lightroom.  
• The verticals have been corrected in Lightroom as the wide angle zoom setting causes the verticals to converge towards the top  of the frame.  
• There was a distinct blue colour cast around the windows, and I desaturated these areas to match the neutral decor of the room. 

There is a slight  amount of barrel distortion which I have not corrected for as I felt this was not particularly noticeable for a general viewer.
Image 2

Marble Hall with view through to Salon

Nikon 18-200mm at 20mm (tripod mounted): Iso 400 f8 for 1/20th second
This viewpoint illustrates the decoration of the space. I chose this particular version of the photo as some visitors are visible through the double doors into the Salon. Although relatively small, this area of darker tones seems to be the point of initial attention for the viewer. The viewer's eye can then roam around the room noting the decorative elements of columns, a painting of an ostrich, the decorated frieze and, on the left hand side, one of the enormous fireplaces.
I did take some photographs that featured the fireplaces more prominently (see comments below on guidebook illustrations), but these were not visually as interesting as this version.
As in the previous image, I underexposed by one stop so that the highlight of the far window was not totally  washed out and subsequently adjusted the exposure levels in Lightroom. I also used Lightroom to moderate some colour casts in the room due to the mix of natural and artificial light.
Contrast with guidebook photographs
The National Trust guidebook "Clandon Park" has two photographs of the Marble Hall:-

• A wide angle view taken from the same camera position as Image 2, but looking towards the opposite corner of the room using a vertical frame. This provides a good overall view of the Hall, as it shows the the lower floor, upper floor and a part of the ceiling in one view.
• A view of one of the chimney pieces square on in a vertical frame to show the fireplace, overmantel relief and pediment in more detail.

These photographs are successful in showing the architectural features of interest in the room. My intention, on the other hand, was to show the character of the space for a visitor. I therefore decided that imitating the photographs in the guidebook would not suit my purpose.