Charleston & The Omega Workshops

Artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell were founders of the Bloomsbury Group. The group was radical for its time, with artists, writers and thinkers mingling together to exchange ideas.

In 1913 Duncan, Vanessa and their friend and artist Roger Fry established the Omega Workshops. This was a collective of avant-garde artists and designers who created bold domestic designs for textiles, furnishings, ceramics and clothing. They loved colourful geometic patterns with lots of expressive marks. Today the majority of the Omega collection is at the Courtauld Gallery and V&A in London but you can also find pieces in Charleston farmhouse in Sussex (UK).

From 1916, Duncan and Vanessa moved to Charleston farmhouse which became a meeting place for the Bloomsbury Group. The house came to embody their design aesthetic, with every surface covered with painting or pattern, textiles and wallpaper. Let's look at some of their surface pattern and textile designs.

Duncan and Vanessa were not a married couple and lived in different parts of the house. They each had other partners and experimented with unconventional forms of relationship (for the times in which they lived). They rejected society's expectations and preferred to explore new ideas.

After Duncan's death in 1978, a trust was set up to look after the Charleston house. Today you can visit to see their legacy. More info on how to visit here