A display by Charlotte Lloyd-Webber at Bamburgh Castle

The renowned theatrical designer Charlotte Lloyd Webber talks to JANE HALL about the magic of creating festive displays for some of the UK’s most iconic historic venues, including Bamburgh Castle, and her love for Northumberland

Charlotte Lloyd Webber is the first to admit she didn’t know much about England’s Border Country until a chance encounter five years ago with the current incumbents of Bamburgh Castle, Francis and Claire Watson-Armstrong, brought her to the rugged north Northumberland coast.

The theatrical designer was attending the prestigious UK Heritage Awards in early 2019, where the Twelve Days of Christmas extravaganza she had worked on with the international designer Bretta Gerecke for Castle Howard in 2018 was up for Best Event, Exhibition or Festival. The elaborate experience, which was seen by more than 51,000 visitors, included swans swimming across a rippling silver dining table, geese laying golden eggs, and a partridge in a pear tree. The sumptuous spectacle was duly crowned winner in its category.

The ceremony also saw Alnwick Garden’s Treehouse Restaurant take the top spot in Great Places to Eat, and Bamburgh Castle shortlisted for Best Wedding Venue. At some point during proceedings, Charlotte found herself chatting with Francis and Claire about the Castle Howard project. They duly visited that year’s festive offering from Charlotte and her team, which was inspired by the property’s theatrical roots (it was famously the setting for the iconic 1981 TV dramatisation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited).

Charlotte recalls: “They loved it, and basically said, ‘can you do something for us in 2020?’ Well, we all know what happened in 2020, but it was that combination of meeting them and the passion they have for this place that brought us together.”

And so it was that Charlotte’s association with Northumberland and one of the country’s most recognisable landmarks began. Thanks to the pandemic, it wasn’t until Christmas 2021 that visitors to Bamburgh could see why she is regarded as one of the UK’s foremost theatrical designers. That year’s Saints and Angels extravaganza, which weaved its way through 12 huge state rooms and drew on 3,000 years of local history and the castle’s place as the former seat of the kings of Northumbria, was a massive hit, with thousands flocking to see the North East’s largest indoor Christmas attraction.

This year, Bamburgh will host its fourth Charlotte Lloyd Webber-inspired experience, when A Christmas Through Time takes up residence from November 9-January 5. Extending over 14 state rooms, this is Charlotte’s most ambitious project yet for Bamburgh, a glittering journey through Christmases past, present and future, featuring elaborate sets, dazzling decorations, dynamic soundscapes, interactive displays, and a spectacular Viking longboat suspended from the ceiling the length of the massive King’s Hall.

It draws in part on Charlotte’s own growing awareness and love for this part of Northumberland with its expansive skies, wild seas, windswept beaches, and myriad myths and legends.

Bamburgh Castle’s Claire Watson-Armstrong with one of Charlotte’s displays

Looking back to her first encounter with Northumberland in 2020, she says: “I only knew Bamburgh as an iconic landmark.” Seeing the castle for the first time, she says: “It was incredibly imposing. I’ve worked in some extraordinary places, but Bamburgh and the area it stands in is the most dramatic and impactful. It has a powerful aura; you feel like you’ve dropped through the time continuum. You can almost see the horses, the soldiers, the Vikings all across the fields and the beaches. The area has such a deep sense of history.”

For a creative like Charlotte, working in some of the UK’s most illustrious stately homes is a gift from the gods. This Christmas the extraordinary installations and live events from her company, CLW Event Design, will be seen at Bamburgh, Castle Howard, and Polesden Lacey in Surrey. Each will draw on the local environment and community, because inspiration begins, Charlotte explains, with the immediate environment. She aims to complement, enhance and synchronise with the venues, so there is a sense that the designs belong. “At Bamburgh, we’re affected by the coastal aspect, the water and the shapes that throws up. It is stark yet majestic,” Charlotte says. “There are incredible open vistas of sea and sky, and then a sense of mystery. You look out to Lindisfarne and the Farne Islands and this ancient landscape that has played a vital part in defining not just the British Isles, but western civilisation. You really feel that presence.”

Charlotte is speaking about Bamburgh and Lindisfarne’s place as a cradle of early Christianity during Northumbria’s so-called Golden Age between the mid-7th and 8th centuries, before the Vikings’ invasion in 866 ended the area’s status as a centre of influence. This year’s ambitious event homes in on how Christmas has evolved both through Christian tradition, and Pagan custom such as the worship of nature.

“We’re going back to Pagan traditions; bringing greenery into the home and the belief that the spirit of nature and rebirth are held in it over the winter while the land lies dormant,” she says. “We move on to invasions of this part of Northumberland, particularly the Vikings, and how their gods and religions fused with early Christianity.

“The centrepiece is the arrival of the Vikings and the god Odin, who flew through the sky on an eight-legged horse, and the gradual transmogrification to Santa with his eight reindeer. We’ve had lots of fun researching. For instance, the little red toadstools with white dots that are often popular as decorations are rooted in Odin’s horse charging through the sky, foaming at the mouth and dropping blood onto the snow, which grew into magic toadstools.”

Charlotte confesses she fell into her work devising Christmas events by accident. A Lloyd Webber through marriage – her former husband, the late composer and record producer Nicholas, who died from cancer aged 43 in 2023, was eldest son of musicals supremo Sir Andrew. The couple, who had a daughter in 2008, were married for nine years before divorcing in 2016.

Charlotte Windmill as was studied English literature at Edinburgh University before drama school, then worked for an open-air theatre company in Oxford. It was, she recalls, the early days of site-specific and immersive theatre, which excited her, and after a couple of years, she founded the Oxford Shakespeare Company. It had residences in Oxford and London before Historic Royal Palaces invited it perform at palaces including Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London.

At the same time Charlotte was doing event styling, dramatic floristry and house renovations, and through this she met Castle Howard’s chatelaine, Victoria Howard, in 2016. “Victoria had recently taken over at Castle Howard (most recently seen in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton) and I recommended she host live events there, either commissioned pieces based on the history of the house or one of our full productions. She invited me up to look at the events they had there, which I did with the Canadian set and lighting designer Bretta Gerecke.

“I’ve always thought Castle Howard is the house that theatre built. You can see theatre, architecture and set design is embedded there. I said to Vicky, ‘Christmas is lovely, but what you’ve got is a series of Christmas trees, and perhaps you need to start thinking more about digging down into the roots of how this house came to be, who lived here, taking your cue from the interiors and paintings. At the end of this meeting she turned to me and said, ‘would you do it for me?’ I had always been interested in event theatre, using live performance to engage an audience with their surroundings and their environment, and this seemed an extension of that, and that’s how it began.”

The work of CLW Event Design – a collective of theatrical practitioners, designers, and artists – is now at the heart of Castle Howard’s festive offering. As Charlotte says: “Every year a heat map is done showing were people travel from in the UK and abroad, and every year that map has got broader and broader. The first Christmas we did there attracted 37,000 visitors. Last year there were 95,000.”

Work will soon begin on installing this year’s Christmas display at Bamburgh, a major operation demanding long hours to meet a tight schedule. And before Christmas 2024 has begun, Charlotte is already looking ahead to 2025. It seems that her association with the castle and this area of Northumberland is one that is set to continue. Does this mean she will find the time to explore more of Northumberland? Work permitting, yes. “It is an area steeped in stories and legends, and one I would very much like to spend more time getting to know. It really is a huge privilege working in such an incredible environment,” she says.
A Christmas Through Time is at Bamburgh Castle from Saturday November 9, 2024-Saturday January 5, 2025. Entry to the experience is free with a general admission ticket. You can also book in advance for the Father Christmas Experience or enjoy festive wreath-making workshops. For details, visit: www.bamburghcastle.com/whats-on

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