Fear new office may 'obliterate' Constable's view

A Grade I-listed building that featured in one of John Constable's masterpieces may be turned into offices by its owners, Salisbury Cathedral.

Painted at the end of a rainbow in the 1831 masterpiece Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, Leaden Hall has been empty since 2017, when the school using it merged with another.

A local preservation group, supported by a descendant of the 19th century artist, say they fear the site will be "obliterated" by the plans, which include building an archive centre in the hall's kitchen garden.

A Salisbury Cathedral spokesman said the plans had "taken into consideration many of the artist's works" and "won't adversely affect any of his most famous views".

Leaden hall was built in 1717 on the site of a 13th century house belonging to Elias de Dereham, who designed the cathedral.

It later became home to the Bishop of Salisbury, John Fisher, who was a close friend of Constable.

Liz Slater, a trustee of Salisbury Cathedral Close Preservation Society, has lived in the area for 25 years and walks past the empty hall daily.

She said she had seen the building become derelict in recent years and that it needed to be preserved.

"There are fine plaster ceilings on the floor, there is green and black slime inside on the walls and the staircases," she said.

Behind the hall's 19th century walled garden "you've got the view of the trees that were painted by Constable and that entire kitchen garden will be obliterated, as will the view because there will be a huge archive building towering above the wall, and the views across the water meadows will be lost," added Mrs Slater.

The preservation group would like to see the building turned into a John Constable art facility with studios and display of his works "because the [Salisbury] Museum part owns one of his very big works", said Ms Slater.

"[Constable] came here soon after he married," she explained.

"He painted at least 16 paintings either from, or of, Leaden Hall and the cathedral."

She added that it would give "public access to a very important cultural icon".

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows was bought by the Tate for £23.1m in 2013.

A planning application for Salisbury Cathedral's plans has been submitted for consultation by Wiltshire Council, supported by Salisbury City Council.

Objectors to the plans have included Sasha Constable, the artist's great-great-great granddaughter, and the Georgian Group, a statutory consultee on plans involving buildings dating from the Georgian period. They said the archive centre, solar panels and air source heat pump units would "irreversibly alter the setting of the former deaconry and have a wider impact on the "close and conservation area".

In a statement, the Salisbury Cathedral spokesman said: "The imaginative plans for a dedicated home for the Cathedral's important archive collections would see a building whose architecture is inspired by the shape and materials of the original canonry on the site.

He said: "Indeed, the proposed plans will remove modern classroom blocks from around Leaden Hall and open up the view of the west façade from the water meadows."