Sometimes you walk into a building that is so much more than the sum of its parts. There are bricks, walls and a roof, signifiers of normality, but just now and again there is also an unidentifiable sensation, an atmosphere of otherness, a feeling within those stones and beams that simply takes your breath away and transports you into another dimension. The Monastery in Rye is just one of those very special places. Now for the first time it is being made available by owner Alex MacArthur, as a truly unique event space.

Antiques and interior specialist MacArthur felt something of this ‘otherness’ when he first stumbled across the building in 2015, hidden away on a cobbled side street in Rye. The Cinque Port coastal town, known for its picturesque chocolate box style cottages, the monastery, with its high walls and soaring roofline, offered something completely and utterly different. The fact that it was also in a total state of crumbling disrepair was just part of the magic that Alex felt he had stumbled across.

Tracing the steps of the 14th century Austin Friar monks who had once called the building home, Alex knew that a new chapter was waiting for him. “I had a list of requirements when I began looking to move from Brighton: I wanted a church or an ecclesiastical building, in East Sussex/Kent, I wanted industrial scale, for it to be of architectural interest, a lateral space with a walled garden for my dogs and several points of access. Imagine…”
Just like the transformation of the building, Alex has also been on a physical and emotional journey.

Relocating Alex MacArthur Interiors, an established business selling art and antiques from the 17th century right up to the contemporary, from a smart Regency townhouse in Brighton, the move to Rye and the following decade of blood, sweat and (undoubtedly) tears, has not only provided Alex with a new life, but also opened up unknown levels of self-belief and faith in ‘the process.’

Alex, who had been working in furniture restoration and then antiques for several decades, first in London and then in Brighton, had been looking for a change. Having studied Psychosynthesis, Alex was keen to unlock his own potential, identity and self-realisation. The Monastery appeared at just the right time.

“I have always had a weird fascination with religion and religious iconography – something to do with going to school in a convent, maybe. This building is part of my obsession with both buildings and with religion, and with transformation. It has also pushed me, it has challenged me to my maximum potential and I just felt that I needed to express myself and this building is like a calling for me.

It was certainly a high-risk decision to buy this place, financially, but I did it simply based on intuition, synchronicity and serendipity and a huge leap of faith. This whole journey has been a practice of faith over fear, but I do feel like I belong here in my soul and that this place will look after me. It’s very special.”

Despite pigeon infestations, water, rot, planning issues related to a Grade II building and piles and piles of decades of debris, The Monastery was waiting. What was once a retreat for monks and then latterly a pottery warehouse, has, under Alex’s unwavering focus and unbelievably hard work and trust, transformed into his very own escapist cocoon.

“I feel like I have dug up the past of this building, I have released the trauma and let in the light again. I opened up the space and created a place that really is a fantasy of my personal and aesthetic expression.” The Monastery defies a single vision or explanation, and just like Alex, is a mille-feuille of ideas, feelings and experiences all constantly adapting, changing and evolving.

“This place is like an external canvas for me, it gives my work meaning and purpose, it feels like a representation of who I am. I hope people who come here want to experience that, to celebrate the beauty, the love and the optimism of this space.”
The sense of other worldliness at The Monastery is instant, as though you have walked into another dimension. Alex takes me up the dramatically lit stairs, the smell of deep smoky incense hits you, as the music of Erik Satie dances around the building.

A Caravaggio style oil painting sits atop a series of antlers and skulls, dark grey wood panelling, the original riveted steel beams (part of the 1907 interventions when the monastery became a factory) and rough plastered walls envelop you as you climb upwards. There are pops of gilding in the framed mirrors and a splash of pale grey that bounces light from an industrial fitting overhead. Corical lime paint which contains marble dust gives off a light reflecting, almost internal, glow to the walls.

The ecclesiastical-meets-industrial juxtaposition of the building’s history is immediately apparent as the darkness of the stairway opens up to the majestic light-filled first floor gallery.
“It’s so romantic,” says Alex. “And spiritual, if I was getting married then I think this place would be ideal…or maybe Venice!” he laughs.

With the need for a more modern approach to the tradition of marriage, The Monastery, with its unique history, rooted in ecclesiastical tradition yet now transformed into an entirely contemporary space, would seem to be the perfect answer. With Alex’s incredible eye, the flowers, the food and the styling would be guaranteed perfection. It feels cinematic. It feels monumental. It also feels very romantic and intimate.

Wooden floorboards and the same pale grey marble dusted paint of the gallery floor have been used across all the roughly hewn, original exterior walls and lets the drama of the space and Alex’s unique interior design, play out. A soaring wooden pitched roof and supporting beams (which Alex has painstakingly re-coloured to oak with many coats of lye & oil) crisscross above your head.

A panelled facade wall and balustrade, in the same dark grey as the stairs, offers a theatrical division of the space. Conservation skylights sit above the bricked up original 14th century tracery windows on one side of the space, added to allow the south light back in to the space. Warehouse windows from the factory era of the building run down the other side of the space.

Again, the interplay and juxtaposition of the building’s complex past, from a place of sanctuary to a place of enterprise, has been fully embraced by Alex.
The soaring 8.7m high gallery is the perfect venue for Alex’s new events venture. Offering a select group of guests access to The Monastery for exclusive weddings, parties and launches, for anyone looking for a truly special, totally glamorous and entirely unique venue, there can really be none better.

As an art and antique dealer, Alex has been able to create a space that perfectly shows off his eclectic collection of upholstery, lighting, tables, rugs, art and objets that bounce from style to style, period to period. A vintage French Maison Jansen circa 1970 Italian gold palm leaf floor lamp sits next to a 17th century classical nude marble sculpture, a 1950s French chair paired with a 19th century gilt sofa, an 18th century pair of Rococo gilt mirrors close by. This aesthetic could only have been created by Alex, with an eye and a sense of drama that is embodied everywhere you look.

Behind a small door, hidden away amidst the drama of the main gallery, Alex has not forgotten to add an equally glamorous bathroom – or should I say powder room, as this is really how it feels. Soft chalky pink walls, round silk rugs, brass detailing in legs and mirrors and taps, gilt edged, bevel edged and rounded mirrors that bounce light and a pair of the most stunning Art Deco style Carrara mona marble sinks, designed by Alex, make this a most spectacular space to wash your hands! Luckily there are 18th century boudoir chairs in which to sit and relax and take in your surroundings.

Up some stairs, down some more stairs and Alex takes me to see the suite – an area where the host or hostess, bride or groom, can get ready for their big day. Decorated in similar soft dusty pinks and greys as the powder room on the opposite side of the building, a vast antique marble free-standing bath sits under a gold 18th century Italian icon in a stunning 17th century carved gilt frame , brass handrails and 18th century lanterns from Florence create a vignette of luxuriating fabulousness.

Through a door, the same Carrara mona marble is repeated in the shower area. A heavy pink fabric curtain and brass taps and huge 18inch wide rainwater showerheads (have all been made bespoke) and are old school glamour by Thomas Crapper. Aesop beauty products complete the experience for guests.
Downstairs the ‘monastery chapter’ gives way to the more recent ‘industrial chapter’ of the building, when it was turned into a pottery warehouse (and before that a barracks) a utilitarian space in 1907.

Used by Alex as a ground floor showroom, this area is transformed into an event space for cocktails, dining or dancing for events. With a colour palette of soft aquamarine and taupe, the feel is very different and yet Alex’s taste for the eclectic is everywhere: the pairing of a vast (1960s) bespoke Italian capiz chandelier with a vast 19th century distressed public clock face, a 1970s leather Italian corner sofa and a series of contemporary abstract paintings, donated to the monastery by Brighton based artist Mark Charlton, that would not look out of place in a New York penthouse.

The huge industrial windows offer glimpses of the palazzo-style garden outside that Alex has created, hidden away from the surroundings of Rye, by a high brick wall, a series of Cypress trees and ancient olive trees.

Transported to a Medici courtyard in the heart of Tuscany, the scale of the outside space is yet another treasure for a town that is traditionally built cheek-by-jowl, houses jostling with each other for space on the edge of what was the ancient Kent coastline.

Another magical element to this completely other worldly space.
We are lucky that people like Alex MacArthur are here to pour their love, their sweat and their hard work into saving buildings like the Monastery, bringing them back to life, allowing them to have their next chapter.

We are also lucky that The Monastery is now available for us to celebrate our own life goals.

The Monastery is the manifestation of a unique vision, a love letter to Rye and an essay in the self-realisation of the life of Alex MacArthur.

Address Book:

For more details on events and Alex MacArthur Interiors visit themonasteryinrye.com and alexmacarthur.co.uk
or call 07931 765488