IN SUSSEX WITH THE BLOOMSBURY GROUP

• Explore the world of Virginia Woolf, from Bloomsbury’s squares to Alfriston village and Monk’s House

• Enjoy a before-hours tour of the glorious gardens of Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst

• Discover the art made in situ by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, in the Berwick church murals and their home at Charleston Farmhouse

• View landscapes that inspired writing and artworks: chalk cliffs, the South Downs and charming villages

• See London from a new perspective, including ‘the walkers in Mrs Dalloway’, the historic British Museum Reading Room, and the Battle of Britain

• Deepen your understanding of Bloomsbury art, literature and context, with talks and on-site commentary by Prof. Penny Gay

TUESDAY 08 JUNE 2027 – ARRIVE LONDON (D)

Our tour commences at 2.00pm in the lobby of our hotel in London, as we meet for a Bloomsbury orientation stroll with tour leader Prof. Penny Gay. The writer Dorothy Parker famously said of the Bloomsbury Group, “They lived in squares, painted in circles, and loved in triangles.” On our walk we familiarise ourselves with the haunts of the Group’s writers, artists and public intellectuals. The Bloomsbury district was largely developed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by the Russell family, dukes of Bedford. The many squares showcased elegant and harmonious facades of three-storey residential buildings around curated private gardens. Gordon Square, now part of the University of London, became in the early twentieth century the residence of “Bloomsberries” Virginia Woolf and her artist sister Vanessa Bell, and of writer Lytton Strachey, painter Duncan Grant and economist Maynard Keynes. In nearby Tavistock Square, Virginia and her husband Leonard Woolf ran the pioneering Hogarth Press from 1924 to 1939. World War II bombing destroyed some of the Georgian buildings, but the gardens – now open to the public – remain beautiful havens featuring many ancient trees. A short walk, via busy Russell Square, takes us to the British Museum and its famous Reading Room, where Virginia Woolf – amongst many influential writers including Karl Marx and George Bernard Shaw – was a registered reader; she comments satirically on the solemn masculine ambience of the Library in A Room of One’s Own. Returning to the hotel, there is time to enjoy the literary allusions of our hotel: perfectly located in Bloomsbury for our touring program, it has also been chosen for its reference to a literary gathering, The Memoir Club, formed in 1920 by Woolf, Keynes, EM Forster and others. We enjoy a drink over an early evening talk by Penny, before walking to a nearby restaurant for our welcome dinner. Overnight London.

WEDNESDAY 09 JUNE 2027 – KNOLE (B, D)

We check out and travel to Alfriston this morning by private coach, calling in first at Knole, outside the Kent town of Sevenoaks. This massive country house and park, built between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, was the adored family home of Vita Sackville-West, a close friend and (briefly) lover of Virginia Woolf. Vita’s Sackville ancestors filled important roles at court in the Tudor, Elizabethan, and Stuart periods. Virginia Woolf knew the history of Knole and of its family intimately, and the house becomes a symbol of an alternative version of British history in Woolf’s fantastical fiction Orlando. We visit the Knole Showrooms, with their collections of paintings, Stuart furniture and textiles, and the Gatehouse Tower, the private quarters of Vita’s cousin Eddy Sackville-West. He would eventually take over Knole, due to ancient legal prohibitions on female inheritance, much to Vita’s disdain. NB: Knole is a Listed Property and there are no elevators to access the upper Showrooms or Gatehouse Tower (where entry is via a narrow, spiral staircase). Lunch today is at leisure in the on-site café, and there is time to stroll in the surrounding deer park or browse the National Trust gift shop before we continue to Alfriston. After checking in, we enjoy a light dinner in the hotel restaurant. First of five nights in Alfriston.

Please note: The Star in Alfriston is a sensitively restored medieval pilgrims’ hostel with a generous modern extension. It is a Grade II Listed Property, with low flights of stairs, but there is a wheelchair accessible room. Please contact us if you anticipate any accessibility issues.

THURSDAY 10 JUNE 2027 – MONK’S HOUSE (B, afternoon tea)

After a hearty late breakfast, we meet for a talk by Penny in our hotel. We then travel by coach to Monk’s House for a guided tour. The association of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell with East Sussex dates to 1911, when Virginia moved to a ‘haunted house’ near Firle. There were numerous attractions for the Bloomsbury Group in the countryside: peace and space to write, read and make art; the inspirational landscapes of the South Downs; lower expenses for the precarious incomes of creative artists; a refuge for conscientious objectors during wartime; and from 1934, easy access to high-quality opera performances at Glyndebourne. Monk’s House in Rodmell, a simple weatherboard cottage of the seventeenth century, was not the first Sussex residence of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, but they were particularly drawn to live here due to its gardens. A number of Virginia’s most important works were written in her Writing Lodge and it was nearby, in 1941, that she drowned in the River Ouse. After our visit, and in lieu of lunch, we have a substantial afternoon tea in a nearby village, followed by a talk by Penny back at our hotel. Dinner is at leisure.

FRIDAY 11 JUNE 2027 – SISSINGHURST (B, L)

Virginia Woolf’s friend Vita Sackville-West was an intrepid traveller, visiting her diplomat husband Sir Harold Nicolson on the Continent in France, Spain and Germany, but also in far-flung Persia; much of this travel is mined for ‘historical’ events in Orlando. Today, Sackville-West is remembered principally for her extraordinary work on the garden at Sissinghurst Castle. The property was purchased by Sackville-West in 1930, and over time the gardens grew to include a significant plant collection and a suite of “garden rooms”, including the iconic White Garden. We enjoy a before-hours private guided tour of Sissinghurst gardens, followed by time at leisure. There is a light lunch together before we continue by coach to the village of Berwick. Here, in the church of St Michael and All Angels – parts of which date back to the twelfth century – the Bishop of Chichester commissioned painter Vanessa Bell and her partner and fellow artist Duncan Grant to decorate the interior. The cycle, to which Vanessa’s grandson Julian would also later contribute, is strongly influenced by the early Renaissance art of Fra Angelico and other Italian painters, and blends contemporary local touches and family portraits with traditional biblical stories. We return to the hotel for an evening at leisure.

SATURDAY 12 JUNE 2027 – ALFRISTON & THE SOUTH DOWNS (B)

This morning is at leisure for you to explore the historic heritage of Alfriston village and the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside. Alfriston sits near the eastern end of the South Downs Way, a 100-mile National Trail. It crosses the river in Alfriston, and then continues up onto the Downs. Overlooking the village from the east is the Litlington White Horse, a chalk hill figure cut into the turf in 1924. Take a walk along the paths beside the Cuckmere River, passing St Andrew’s parish church, the “Cathedral of the South Downs”, built in the 1370s. Next to it, you can visit Alfriston’s ancient Clergy House, the National Trust’s first purchased property, surrounded by a beautiful set of “garden rooms” developed in the early twentieth century. There are galleries, cafés, pubs and independent shops around the charming High Street, including Much Ado Books, with its special concentration of material about the Bloomsbury Group. After lunch at leisure in the village, we travel by coach to Ditchling. It lies at the foot of the South Downs and offers an easy opportunity for a walk to enjoy panoramic views over a landscape that inspired successive generations of English writers and artists, from Turner to Woolf. Virginia regularly crossed the Downs on foot to visit Vanessa at Charleston Farmhouse. When we return to the hotel, there is a talk by Penny on the effect of the two World Wars on the life and work of the Bloomsbury artists – Sussex gave them little refuge, particularly from the Battle of Britain.

SUNDAY 13 JUNE 2027 – CHARLESTON FARMHOUSE & THE SEVEN SISTERS (B, D)

We travel by coach this morning to Charleston Farmhouse, for a guided tour of the residence of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Two of Britain’s most important modernist artists, they engaged in their work here and in London across various media, from painting to ceramics and the furniture and furnishings they designed for Omega Workshops. Charleston Farmhouse, where they moved in 1916, offered a place to execute their ideas – not only in the studio, but also on the walls, furniture and furnishings, and garden. There is hardly an inch of the house that was not decorated by Vanessa and Duncan, and restoration of its many unique rooms is an ongoing task. After time for lunch at the on-site café, we continue to nearby Firle. Here, in the cemetery of St Peter’s Church, we see the graves of Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa’s son, the art historian and Virginia Woolf biographer Quentin Bell. The artist Angelica Garnett, Bell and Grant’s daughter, is also buried here. We then travel towards Eastbourne, where we undertake an easy scenic walk alongside the Seven Sisters Cliffs. These spectacular chalk sea cliffs form part of the South Downs National Park, offering an iconic panorama of grassy slopes that sweep up alongside the English Channel. After our walk, we enjoy an early dinner in Eastbourne.

MONDAY 14 JUNE 2027 – THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (B, L, canapés)

We check out this morning and travel from Alfriston towards London, calling in at the Royal Air Force Museum Hendon. The RAF station at Hendon was an early civilian airfield, requisitioned for use during WWI and briefly a fighter station during WWII’s Battle of Britain. The Bloomsbury Group was deeply affected by WWII, from the anxiety it provoked in Virginia Woolf to the pacifist stance of many “Bloomsberries” and the devastation wrought by the Blitz on a number of their residences and commercial and intellectual activities in London. Our guided tour of RAF Hendon focuses on the Battle of Britain and gives us a context for understanding the activities of the Bloomsbury Group in this period. Lunch today is in the simple on-site café. We continue to The Memoir Club and check in for our second stay. There is time in our rooms before drinks and finger food in the bar, after which we plan to attend (schedules permitting) a musical performance in Wigmore Hall, the small but gorgeous 1901 Fitzrovia concert hall often attended by Bloomsbury music lovers. Overnight London.

TUESDAY 15 JUNE – WALKING WITH THE OTHER CHARACTERS IN MRS DALLOWAY (B, afternoon tea, D)

The morning is at leisure, with ample opportunities for independent exploration in the Bloomsbury neighbourhood. During our stay in Bloomsbury, the Bayeux Tapestry will be on loan to the British Museum, and we recommend a visit to take advantage of this exciting opportunity; contact us if you would like to be part of an organised visit. After lunch, we meet at our hotel to commence a walk inspired by Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway, following the steps of some of the novel’s other characters. We begin by taking the Tube to Bond St, the scene of Clarissa’s “buying the flowers herself”, then walk with Lucrezia and Septimus up Harley St and Wimpole St to Regent’s Park Broadwalk, finishing with afternoon tea on Marylebone High Street. We return, like Peter Walsh, to our Bloomsbury hotel by taxi for time to pack, before discussing our experiences over a farewell dinner in a nearby restaurant. Overnight London.

WEDNESDAY 16 JUNE – DEPARTURE (B)

Our tour arrangements conclude after breakfast in the hotel. No departure transfers are included in the tour price; contact us for more information about post-tour accommodation or travelling to one of London’s airports by public transport or private transfer.

The Memoir Club 4* London (Bloomsbury), 3 nights

https://www.memoirclublondon.com/

This beautifully-restored nineteenth-century hotel has an excellent location in Bloomsbury. It also has a charming connection to the themes of our tour, as the location of a “memoir club” established by Bloomsbury Group members that included Virginia Woolf! We have reserved Club Double rooms for our group, which are tastefully decorated and well-organised. These rooms are a typical size for central London (15sqm).

The Star 5* Alfriston, 5 nights

https://thepolizzicollection.com/the-star/  

This 29-room boutique hotel in the village of Alfriston occupies the site of a medieval pilgrims’ hostel, but has been recently refurbished and generously extended into a 5* property by The Polizzi Collection. The sensitive restoration takes into account the Bloomsbury history of this locale, with the decoration of common areas including works by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. There is a well-regarded on-site restaurant and informal drinks and snacks are available in the courtyard. Please let us know if you require a ground-floor room, as the hotel is in a Grade II-listed building.

NB: hotels of a similar standard may be substituted.

• 8 nights’ accommodation at a lovingly restored 4* hotel in London’s Bloomsbury and a 5* boutique hotel in Sussex

• All breakfasts, 6 lunches or dinners and 2 afternoon teas

• All ground transport, guided tours and entrance fees to sites as mentioned in the itinerary, and tipping

• Talks by and expertise of two Australian tour leaders throughout

A $1,500pp deposit is required at the time of booking to hold your place on tour.

A second deposit of $1,500pp is due on 08 February 2027.

We will invoice you for final payment for the tour, due on 25 March 2027.

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