Touring Exhibition at Nymans: Last Night For Ever

About

A touring sculpture by artist and curator Andrea Gregson and featuring a 6meter long sculpture in the garden in the ruins. The sculpture can be seen as part of a garden tour only and tours are subject to availability.

Booking not needed. This event is free, but normal admission charges apply for the venue.
Saturday 26 July to Sunday 30 November 2025, 11am to 12noon and 1:30pm to 2:30pm

The sculpture will reference fire as both a destructive and reconstructive force of nature. Sited inside the ruined great hall, which burned down in a fire in 1947, it will respond to histories of garden ruins, perspectives and optical illusions with the interior structure reminiscent of a model theatre.

The renowned set designer Oliver Messel formerly lived in the house. Last Night For Ever was originally exhibited at The Garden Museum, London in 2009, responding to lost green space and the spectacular Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, a once thriving public gardens between 1661-1859, sited by the Thames. The sculpture made connections between garden histories past and present, merging the visual trickery of the grotto first created in Renaissance Italy, with found objects and visual motifs from this location over time.

The sculpture, whose title was taken from the name of the closing event at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens on 25th June 1859, will be exhibited again at three National Trust historic buildings and landscape gardens located in the Southeast of England, including Leith Hill Place, Nymans and Winkworth Arboretum from 5 April 2025 until 26 March 2026. (Tours subject to availability).