See the Newly Renovated Castle Howard, Made Famous by ‘Bridgerton’ and ‘Brideshead Revisited’ After the house suffered extensive fire damage in 1940, generations of the Howard family have faithfully restored parts of the mansion to its 18th-century glory Castle Howard's restored tapestry drawing room  Tom Arber / Castle Howard In 1940, a devastating fire tore through Castle Howard, a historic home set on 1,000 wooded acres in North Yorkshire, England. The Baroque mansion was built by architects Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor around the turn of the 18th century. By the time of the fire, just after the beginning of World War II, it was serving as a girls’ school. The blaze left Castle Howard in a state of utter destruction, with its soaring dome crumbled inwards and many of its stately rooms hollowed out. Some of the trustees, who believed that restoration was a lost cause, sold off the castle’s artworks and were prepared to let the house languish. But the Howard family refused to let its castle crumble. After returning from the war, George Howard embarked on an ambitious reconstruction, opening the house to the public in 1952 and restoring its dome a decade later. By the 1980s, the splendor of Castle Howard beamed onto television sets across Britain as the setting of an 11-part adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited. Modern fans of historical dramas might recognize the halls of Castle Howard as the fictional Clyvedon Castle in “Bridgerton,” “Netflix’s pastel-hued, racy adaptation of contemporary author Julia Quinn’s romance novels,” as Lila Thulin wrote for Smithsonian magazine in 2022. Now, in the latest renovation to Castle Howard, caretakers have unveiled major repairs to some of the home’s most historic rooms, including a refurbished drawing room with tapestries woven in 1706, as well as a complete rehanging of the remaining paintings, artifacts and treasures throughout the mansion. The exterior of Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, England Nick Howard / Castle Howard “From its inception 325 years ago, it has been a vivacious house, demanding lively evolution,” Nicholas and Victoria Howard, the current generation of Castle Howard’s custodians, say in a statement. “During all that time, it has managed to achieve the duality of being both a family home and a place at which to marvel.” The centerpiece of this latest round of renovations is the tapestry drawing room, one of the 20 rooms fully gutted by the fire. In the past, tourists strolling through Castle Howard had to make detours around the room, making it a natural candidate for restoration. The Howards called on architect Francis Terry to build back the room from bare bricks. In addition to faithfully recreated ornamentation, the room has a new ceiling, floor, chimney and wall paneling. Soaked in rich colors and gilded detailing, the drawing room is now open to the public for the first time in its history.Terry tells the Sunday Times’ Eleanor Doughty that it’s “the dream commission,” adding: “I’m a huge Vanbrugh fan, and this was [a chance] to do a Vanbrugh room, to get into his shoes and keep walking.” As the name suggests, the tapestry drawing room’s walls are once again covered with tapestries of the four seasons created by John Vanderbank, a celebrated artist during the reign of George I. For the first time since the start of the 18th century, the tapestries are back in their original location, per Artnet’s Richard Whiddington. For the Howards, renovations are a chance to bring the house back to life—not just limit the damage wrought by the fire 85 years ago. “The evisceration of more than 20 rooms in the 1940 fire had the silver lining of once more allowing us to step into the creative process here,” they say in the statement. “Spreading out from the tapestry drawing room, we have repurposed, rehung and redecorated, revivifying the house that has refused to die.” The newly restored grand staircase, built in the 1870s Chris Horwood / Castle Howard Case in point are the house’s artworks, many of which are by Italian artists and reflect an aristocratic taste for the Grand Tour, a tradition in which elite young men traveled through Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries. But even as Castle Howard opens to the public, the work is far from over. Almost an entire wing of the house still needs restoration work, prompting difficult decisions, like the selling of the family’s collection of Fabergé animals at an upcoming auction. But the Howards—and their team of architects, artisans and designers—are committed to seeing it through. “It is more than just a family home. It is part of the history of England, and a work of art in its own right,” Nicholas Howard tells the Times. “If I can help people to see that, then I’ve done the right thing.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.