The Reality of a Story: Talliston House and Gardens

Edith Cushing in The Watch Tower of Talliston House and Gardens

There is a part of all of us that wishes that we could open a door in the most ordinary house you could imagine and suddenly be transported into the magical and mystical. We want our own wardrobe to Narnia or rabbit-hole to Wonderland; just to spend a day living those dreams of childhood adventure, but it could never happen…right? Well, it turns out, maybe it can.

Walking around the green in Great Dunmow and you’ll see a circle of 1930s council houses. They could be anywhere in the UK, and you’d recognise them, ordinary, normal, the truly usual but look a little harder and you’ll see one that stands apart. A hedge you have to crane your neck to see the top of, and carved wooden gate that gives you little more than a tantalising glimpse of what is beyond, and you have found Talliston.

Even the locals don’t know what lies beyond that gate – as we found out from several very confused taxi drivers – but open the front gate to Talliston House and Gardens and you will find yourself in a place that beckons you to explore every inch of itself and disappear into its world.

Talliston House and Gardens is the brainchild and passion project of writer John Tarrow, who back in the 1990s, in his own words, “bought the house he could afford and set about turning it into the house he wanted to own”. Each room in on the property, and the gardens are included in that term of room, is a place and time utterly unique to itself and separate from any other room in the house. That being said, the flow and follow through of the spaces feels organic in a way that can only be magical and somehow natural at the same time.

John’s idea started with one room, a writing office for himself, and then it couldn’t be stopped. Over 30 years he travelled the world, learnt about and explored different cultures, living in places for months at a time to talk with experts and gain some understanding the place he was in, before bringing back his ideas and knowledge to Talliston and place it within his home. Most of us would bring back souvenirs, John brought back whole worlds.

The level of work is obvious from the first moment you step through that gate and yet, it is not the effort or the labour of construction that you feel, but a strange sense of a reality more real than the one you left. This place is real, it is not a film set or a fantasy to be imagined; it is a story made flesh and you are becoming part of that.  

The first room John worked on, The Office

The first of its many rooms, though this one is outside, is the Old Rectory where we were greeted by John, arms open ready to show us the wonders. In this neat, ordered garden that leads up to the great standing stone and the entrance to the house itself, John welcomed us and began our tour of the maze that he has created inside this semi-detached in Essex.

Oh and it is a maze, one through history. On the standing stone is carved a map, a curving labyrinth, quite literally, that represents the path through the house and gardens with each point marked so that travellers who come across it might find their way.

As we move into the house, John begins to tell us the story, not only of the way he made Talliston, but the story of the magic in the house. He takes you along, room by room weaving the tale of the the characters who lived in these spaces, and those who come and go through the magic of Talliston and its labyrinth. It is an experience it is hard to quantify.

As each door was opened it was like holding your breath to know what was beyond. And it never disappointed. Every room was a surprise and a delight, holding so many secrets and easter eggs that one could have spent hours searching for every secret in a single room and never have found all that it held. Nothing here is surface value. Nothing here is misplaced or not thought through, and yet again, it does not feel forced or overdone. It is simply being in those places, each one perfectly frozen in a moment in time. The Watch Tower, forever in a late Victorian Christmas; the kitchen, always a January morning in 1950s New Orleans; the cabin, waiting for the return of a trapper in 1948; and the haunted bedroom, holding onto the memory of a dead child at the turn of the century.

Slices in time held in a house that you would pass by and maybe never glance at.

Every room holds something unique and different from the last

When I sat down to write this review, I intended to give an account of our time there and the wonderful people who own and maintain it – John and Marcus both made us feel more at home than if it was our own – but I feel as if in this review I do not want to give anything away. I don’t want to try and over explain about what Talliston is like. This is partially due to being unable to describe what it feels like to be there, but mostly because I do not want to spoil it. It would be like giving away the ending of a book, you need to experience it for yourselves to truly understand it.

A stay at Talliston is a must. For anyone who loves stories, this is a place that you must experience in some way. They run tours, as well as events of all types and you can even hold a murder mystery or Dungeons and Dragons evening there. But nothing quite compares to staying there. You get the house to yourselves and can explore to your hearts content. Every part of the house works as what it is; the kitchen is a working kitchen, the bathroom, despite transporting you to a lighthouse in Norway the moment you step into it, is a real bathroom. As I said this is not a set.

John has understanding of storytelling that you very rarely come across. He draws you into the world of Talliston, his world, and takes you on a journey that you never want to end. It is an innate creativity that has spilled into this project and built something singular. And when you leave you feel like you have gained something by being in that world for whatever small time it was.

By staying in the house, you live in its reality, and that is an experience I guarantee you will never forget.

If you wish to look into Talliston House and Gardens, please head over to their website, www.talliston.com, but also take a look at their online shop which sells gift vouchers for stays, tours; perfect Christmas gifts since that time is fast approaching, but also the best thing you could ever give to a nerd. I promise.

You can find Talliston on social media:

@tallistonhouseandgardens on Instagram

@sotalliston on Twitter

Talliston House and Gardens on Facebook