Fairfax House, in York, wins the 2025 Historic Houses Collections Award

The annual award was introduced in 2022 to honour the owners, curators, and conservators who preserve, restore, and interpret the beautiful and significant objects on show inside historic houses, enabling the public to understand and enjoy them and the stories that they tell. 

Fairfax House is a Georgian townhouse museum in the city of York. It was built between 1759-1763 for the Hon. Ann Fairfax by leading architect John Carr. The house has had many incarnations: as a private residence, Gentleman’s club, Pentecostal church and, in the early 20th century, as a cinema and dancehall. After years of neglect the building was restored to by York Civic Trust and in 1984 opened to the public.  

In 2020 a new curatorial team took over the care and interpretation of Fairfax House and its collections. Whilst there was an established programme of small special interest exhibitions, understanding and interpretation of the house and its collections had changed little in 40 years. Between 2020-2024, they delivered several new exhibitions, which prioritised creative storytelling and utilised more of their collections than ever before: over 450 collection items never previously exhibited were showcased during this period.  

The townhouse museum is home to the nationally significant Noel Terry Collection of eighteenth-century furniture, clocks, paintings and porcelain, alongside objects acquired by York Civic Trust to complement the recreated mid-eighteenth-century interiors and residency of the Fairfax family. Highlights also include the King David Panel by Grinling Gibbons and the John Butler Collection of glass.

Fairfax House came out on top of a competitive shortlist, including Burton Constable Hall & Parkland in Yorkshire, Browsholme Hall in Lancashire, Chawton House in Hampshire, and Scone Palace in Perthshire – all of which were all featured in standalone episodes of the Country House Podcast, hosted by Geoffrey Heath-Taylor, a member of the judging panel. 

Curator at Fairfax House, Dr Sarah Burnage said: “We are deeply honoured to receive this award and thrilled that the creativity and dedication of the Fairfax team has been recognised. This award will make a meaningful contribution to the development of our ongoing work, and we are immensely grateful to the judges, Historic Houses, and Dreweatts for this generous acknowledgement.” 

Will Richards, Chairman of Dreweatts, said: “We are delighted to be giving this year’s award to Fairfax House. The preservation of this wonderful Georgian building housing the highly important Noel Terry collection has enabled access, enjoyment and education for generations thanks to the work that of the York Conservation Trust.” 

Watch the Collections Award winner video below.