In 1916 the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant moved to 'Charleston' in Sussex with their unconventional household. Inspired by Italian fresco painting and the Post-Impressionists, the artists decorated the walls, doors and furniture in the 18th Century house.

The walled garden was redesigned in a southern European style, with mosaics, box hedges, gravel pathways and ponds, but with a touch of Bloomsbury humour in the placing of the statuary.

The rooms on show form a complete example of the decorative art of the Bloomsbury artists: murals, painted furniture, ceramics, objects from the Omega Workshops, paintings and textiles. The collection includes works by Renoir, Picasso, Derain, Matthew Smith, Walter Sickert, Tomlin and Delacroix.

Vanessa Bell and Marjorie Strachey ran an arts summer school for children at Charleston, aiming to arouse their interest in the arts without the formality and stiffness of a traditional school. Drama productions were presented to the children's parents and friends, and amateur dramatics continued to be a popular form of entertainment at Charleston in the period between the wars.