National Trust room guides - AIBU

[lucydogz]

Just once, I'd like to look round a National Trust property without someone telling me about it. You can avoid eye contact in properties with larger rooms, but I've just been to a small property , so just me in a series of tiny rooms with a very nice lady/man sitting in the corner, just waiting to tell me about it. I just don't need it and want to make my own mind about it.

I'm always grateful, since they're usually volunteers very interested in the period.

Couldn't you have said something polite 'I just want to look round myself thanks' ?

Oh you meanie. They're volunteers, it must be very boring if they can't talk to you! I'm sure you could say nicely tell them to 'back off' though.
'I'd love to have a look round on my own if you don't mind- it's such a lovely calm place. Thank you through!'

They are volunteers, donating their time to charity.... As said above just say you would like to look by yourself.
Lots of the houses/rooms simply wouldn't be open to the public without volunteers available.

Wear headphones? Nod and smile briefly as you enter the room and then listen intently to your 'commentary'.

I kind of know what you mean but often they are really interesting and have great anecdotes.

I agree with you OP - they ruin it for me. I usually stick to the gardens and grounds now when I go to a NT property.

One particular visit sticks out for me. I was feeling very anxious (I go through phases of anxiety and agoraphobia) and took myself to a NT on my own to relax and get some exercise in the countryside.

I had 13 different room guides try to engage me in unwanted conversation, culminating in a woman insisting on walking back with me through a tunnel (the way out of the house into the grounds) back to the carpark.

I had tried non-committal smiling rather than chatting back, answering with a single word, etc. Nothing would deter them.

By this point I was almost in tears and screaming inside.

I wrote to the NT explaining that I (and many other people) DO NOT want this! I suggested something like stickers for lapels - green for 'happy to be chatted to' and red for 'please respect my wishes to be left alone unless I speak to you first'. I had no reply from them at all.

Sometimes they are great, but often don't know when to stop - we take our class of SN students to museums and NT properties sometimes, and they can't cope with a long winded explanation, and don't understand the details. It would be lovely to just get an 'edited highlights' version

I've never had this problem. I like looking around on my own but I've found that the volunteers generally wait to be asked questions.

I've never had this problem. I like looking around on my own but I've found that the volunteers generally wait to be asked questions.

Oh Goooood, I hate it, hate it, HATE IT!

I have strong feelings on this matter.

I do NOT want to have to engage with a person when I'm looking at rooms or at art, unless they are a curator or some expert delivering a talk. Yet they leave you no alternative, if you want to learn anything about what you are seeing, than to ask the people in the rooms. Then you get stuck for sodding ages over stupid small talk "Where are you from" etc - Fuck off, I just want to know whether it's an early or a late Rembrandt and to be able to look at it in peace and quiet.

And no, I do not give a flying shit about who the person was who bought the Rembrandt. I do not want to hear them referred to in first person terms, as if they were just some fluffy bunny - and the history of their wealth (which usually involves enormous amounts of slavery/capitalist exploitation of children) loud in its omission. I particularly do not want to hear about the current family, who still have a stake in all this wealth acquired through primitive accumulation.

I know that these people are volunteers, and it's very good of them to give up their time - but really, some random person off the street is no substitute for proper interpretation done by expert curators.

You do realise they get extensive training, though?

A prime example of National Trust guides are my PIL. Basically bored retired people. They volunteer in a highly committed fashion at a local house that was owned by a writer. They know absolutely NOTHING about this writer. They have never even read one of his books. They know nothing, even, about his period apart from the obvious things anyone would know. They actually complain about academics who go and do conferences and talks there as "rather over-involved in their subject".

Yet there they are, giving the guided tour.

This has never happened to me. I go to NT properties at least twice a month. No one speaks to me unless I ask.

And I'm sorry, but the training isn't "extensive" and isn't any kind of substitute for a PhD in the subject! Which a curator would have!

My issue - to be clear - is not that guides speak to me. It's that I have no other way of finding out about the stuff in the rooms other than to ask them because in many NT places there is no other interpretation. So if I want to know whether that watercolour is a John Varley or a David Cox, I have to go ask someone.

(Apologies for my vehemence, as I said, this is a trigger issue for me! )

I love it when you say something that puts them off their track. Not sure if it's NT or not but when we went around Osbourne House , I noticed something odd, and when the lady came up to me to talk about the room I asked if she had noticed all the statues of nsked men, whilst the women were clothed. Cue silence filed by a laugh

I find the interpretation NT houses very poor. There's very little on the architecture and too much emphasis on "the people" - all very dumbed down stuff about "their stories". Of course, the NT has to provide for a wide range of ages and interests, but a lot of visitors are interested in the actual building, but that seems almost secondary now.

I have never had one approach me without me asking them something.

Ds loves them though. I am pretty sure I could leave him chatting to one for a few hours and he wouldn't realise I was gone!

I am a NT room guide ( probably not a typical one - late 30's, rather than retired) and I can see your point.

When I'm looking round a property I much prefer to read rather than be told about things by the guides. I always let visitors approach me if they are interested rather than grabbing them the second they walk through the door. Some of my fellow volunteers however will latch onto visitors and cannot seem to read either the body language or verbal cues of people who want to be left alone, drives me crazy!

I once went with my 2 year old he was very good I made sure he didn't touch anything. Anyway on the way out the volunteer saw another couple of ladies with children and said oh are you going to do the tour and they said god no not with children! The volunteer then said oh you would be surprised at the people that come in here with children you would think they would know better. This was in Nothern Ireland, it didn't even occur to me it would be unreasonable to bring my child inside for a look around! Talk about feeling like rubbish after that.

Yes lido I agree about dumbing down. It seems that every property has to be pinned onto a person (often with a fairly tenuous connection) and very little attention is given to the building. We were at Compton Castle this morning, a fascinating fortified manor house, but little actually about the building in the info. An information video in one of the rooms talked about 'good queen Bess' and 'bloody Mary', which is particularly unintelligent IMO. English Heritage is a lot better at intelligent information aimed at adults.

Often you can buy a brief guide (under £1), some properties have laminated cards with information on paintings etc. I find the NT stewards to be friendly and informative; I've never felt overwhelmed by them. I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

It's not just the NT dumbing down either, Lucydogsz. I've found the same in the York ARC, Eden Project, Liverpool Conservation Museum to name just three. It's all "put you hand in the box; what do you feel?" stuff, good for some children, rubbish for adults.

I went to a similar NT thing almost 20 years ago and was approached by the guide. We had a lovely chat and she showed us around.

I was heavily pregnant, and in due course she asked me how far along I was.

"I was due 2 weeks ago" I mutter...

That poor lady gently steered me off the expensive carpets and hoofed us round the tour very quickly!! 😊 It was like she thought my waters were going to go any second now over a priceless piece of carpet - bless her!