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Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Vanbrugh 300 is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to develop a nationwide project that aims to broaden the awareness of Vanbrugh through special displays, free education programmes and lectures, throughout his tercentenary year in 2026.
29th June 2026
Vanbrugh: Rockstar of the English Baroque is a new exhibition that introduces visitors to Sir John Vanbrugh – architect, playwright, soldier, spy. Each participating venue explores Vanbrugh’s life and work, as well as his relationship with his patron and the buildings he created at that site.
The exhibition begins with his time in India and inside French prisons, where he was imprisoned as a hostage for a leading French spy in England. He would see buildings in both countries that would influence his later architectural achievements. Before then, he was a controversial dramatist and built the Queen’s Theatre in London’s Haymarket. He was invited to join the exclusive Kit-Cat Club, who’s members were mainly Whig politicians, writers and artists. Most of his building commissions would come from his friends and other contacts he made in the club.
Visitors are then introduced to his influences and his work as an architect. His major commissions were Castle Howard, Blenheim Palace, Grimsthorpe and Kimbolton castles, Seaton Delaval Hall and Stowe House. His work would go on to influence architects of the Gothic Revival and landscape designers of the picturesque.
This part of the exhibition has been written by historian Rory Fraser. It is illustrated with newly commissioned photographs of the houses, original plans and contemporary paintings and portraits.
Each house has its unique part of the exhibition. Each display is illustrated with newly commissioned photographs of the house, original plans and contemporary paintings and portraits.
Vanbrugh was commissioned by fellow Kit-Cat Club member, Sir Richard Temple, to work on the house and gardens. The exhibition uses many contemporary illustrations to show Vanbrugh’s work, some of which has been replaced or moved. Four of Vanbrugh’s garden buildings and parts of his house survive. He transformed a country manor into one of the great aristocratic seats of the 1700s, while his naturalistic approach in the gardens influenced famous landscape designer ‘Capability’ Brown. The exhibition guides visitors to identify Vanbrugh-designed features in the famous gardens.
