Following a major expansion, the gallery reopens on 16 March 2019 with an exhibtion that aims to capture a visionary spirit of grand designs tempered by the realities of political expediency (on view until 26 May 2019).
Through a playful and provocative display The Lie of the Land charts how British landscape was radically transformed by changes in free time and leisure activities since hunting and shooting, the recreations of the aristocracy, were enjoyed on the rolling hills of their private estates. In part, tracing a line between Capability Brown’s aristocratic gardens at Stowe and the social, urban experiment at neighbouring Milton Keynes, the exhibition teases out the aspirations that underpin our built environments.
Image: Stephen Willats, Tower Block Portraits, 1984
