Shell Gallery Virtual Tour. Photo ©National Trust Images.

New A la Ronde digital offer opens up the house for online visitors

A key part of the A la Ronde: Conserving the Past, Creating the Future project, ‘The Compendium’ is a newly created digital space for online visitors to experience. A ‘one stop shop’ of all things A la Ronde-related, ‘The Compendium’ is a collection of stories to delight and surprise. For the first time, we have created a central place where in-depth information about the house, the grounds, the people who lived there and behind the scenes action can be found. Whether for local residents, visitors or specialist audiences, from school groups to online only visitors, our users can explore A la Ronde, its history, conservation, people and community connections on a deeper level of detail than ever before. A growing resource, the Compendium will be added to regularly for years to come, building a new digital audience and making connections with the wider world.

The Compendium can be found here:https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/devon/a-la-ronde/exhibition

Project funding of £300k has allowed the National Trust to carry out major conservation work to the Shell Gallery for the first time since it took on A la Ronde in 1991. Throughout the work, images and video have been carefully recorded in the Shell Gallery and Grotto Staircase, and this never-before-seen footage can now be viewed online via The Compendium, a new platform to give online visitors a behind the scenes look. This vital work means that the unusual 16-sided house is protected for future generations. The project has also enabled a new high-definition virtual tour of the Shell Gallery and Grotto Staircase following conservation, providing more detail and more information than ever before. Visitors to this new virtual tour can explore two different types of tour – either history or conservation – and look at the space from new perspectives, for the first time ever.

The new Shell Gallery Virtual 360 Tour can be found here: https://storage.viewit360.co.uk/national-trust/a-la-ronde-24/

A la Ronde was built by Jane Parminter and her second cousin and Ward, Mary Parminter in the last years of the 18th century, following several ‘Grand Tour’s’ of Europe. They decorated the unique Devon house with imaginative interiors, including natural but fragile materials such as feathers and shells. These are now so fragile that access is only permitted to specialist conservators, but access can now be given digitally to online visitors through ‘The Compendium’.

Emma Mee, Project Manager at A la Ronde said, “We're delighted to be launching this new way of experiencing the stories of A la Ronde. The Compendium is fully accessible, meaning online visitors can access never-before-seen photographs, videos and facts from our volunteers, staff, and more.”

She continues, “It’s a new way of sharing content online for the National Trust, and we are delighted it provides equity of access, so we can share this unique new offer at A la Ronde with as many people as possible.”

Emily Deal, Digital Curator at A la Ronde, said: "This has been a wonderful opportunity to showcase the incredible knowledge and research at A la Ronde, helping more people to connect with the site’s heritage. From the Parminter cousins’ intentions for A la Ronde to the unique features today which make this a very special place, we have been able to explore a new variety of exciting histories. We’re usually confined to what we can communicate on-site, but the Compendium gives us limitless opportunities to engage a wider audience and communicate A la Ronde’s incredible story. Our new digital offer will mean that people all over the world can share in the intriguing stories of A la Ronde.”

Project funding has seen A la Ronde re-imagined for visitors. New spaces across the house have recently opened, and community workshops and events are planned for September 2024 as the project culminates.

The project has been enabled thanks to generous funding from the Wolfson Foundation, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Trust – in addition to the generous support of visitors to A la Ronde.

A la Ronde is open every Tuesday to Sunday from 10:30am to 5:30pm until November 1 2024. Normal admission applies. Find out more at www.nationaltrust.org.uk.