The Tapestry Drawing Room at Castle Howard, a historic stately home in Yorkshire, England, has been meticulously restored after being gutted by a fire in 1940. The room, originally adorned with early 18th-century tapestries woven by John Vanderbank and based on scenes by David Teniers, was reduced to a scorched shell. Nick Howard, whose family has lived in the house for three centuries, oversaw the restoration, which involved reinstalling the original tapestries—found rolled up in the attic—after conservation by Alison Stanton. The centerpiece, a painting by Marco Ricci titled *Judgment of Paris*, and a newly built fireplace based on archival photographs complete the revival.
The restoration matters because it resolves a long-standing debate over how to treat historic fire damage. While the Georgian Group and the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings objected, arguing the gutted room preserved the story of the fire, Castle Howard’s head curator Chris Ridgway countered that the house has ample fire-damaged interiors elsewhere and that the tapestries, specially woven for the room, justified its recreation. The project demonstrates the tension between preservation and restoration in heritage management, and highlights the importance of archival evidence in reconstructing lost interiors. It also underscores the enduring legacy of Castle Howard as a masterpiece of English Baroque architecture, designed by John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor.