About — The Great British Tour

Oliver at home in Derbyshire. Photograph by Elisabeth Stoppard

Oliver Gerrish

Oliver is a Cambridge University educated architectural historian and building design consultant. He also attended Harrow School and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Aside from his architectural work, he is a professional countertenor and impresario. He has been passionate about country houses for as long as he can remember! He has led over two hundred tours to many architectural treasures over the last fifteen years. He was one of the youngest feature writers for Country Life magazine, and has written for a number of periodicals both in the United Kingdom and the United States. He re-founded the youth chapter of the Georgian Group, the Young Georgians, which he led from 2001 to 2016. Oliver is a trustee of the Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust and founder of their Architecture Awards. In 2016 he co-founded Historic Decoration, a series of study days based at Robert Adam’s Syon House exploring all aspects of the history of British interior design, with the interior designer Caroline Percy. Oliver has planned dozens of special tours for private clients, as well as major charities and societies, including the the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA), the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Winterthur Museum, the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the Georgian Group, The Cultivist, CEO, ACE and more. He lectures internationally on stately homes and their history.

For more about Oliver please click here

Oliver meeting HRH Prince of Wales at The Ritz

Oliver meeting HRH Duke of Edinburgh at Guards' Chapel — Oliver meeting HRH Duke of Edinburgh at The Guards' Chapel

Zuleika with one of her cakes on her photoshoot for Country Life magazine 2016

Zuleika Gerrish

Zuleika Parkin was educated at Gresham’s School, Oxford Brookes and Wimbledon School of Art. She has managed a number of high profile and successful galleries, as well as running her family business, Michael Parkin Fine Art. She is a professional cake-maker, and specialises in the unique ‘Cakely Homes’. For five years she was Operations Manager and a director of the Mayfair-based Antique Jewellery Company. She holds a FGA and DGA from the Gemmological Association of Great Britian. She runs her own fine jewellery business - Parkin & Gerrish.

With one of her 'Cakely Homes' in front of the house!

At a charity auction with Sotheby's Richard Fattorini, raising funds for pangolins, at Patrick Mavros

Tixall

Tixall is Oliver and Zuleika's very friendly patterdale terrier and favourite wedding present. She loves country houses and their parks!

How it started..

Oliver and Zuleika at the Georgian Group Ball, December 2014.

Oliver Gerrish and Zuleika met through historic buildings. They were both brought up around historic places – Zuleika in Norfolk in the midst of Charles Bridgeman’s famous park at Gunton, and Oliver close to John Nash’s palatial Regent’s Park terraces in London. One of Oliver’s grandfathers moved a ‘Capability’ Brown temple stone by stone to his garden in the 1960s and, along with his parents (a painting restorer and gilder), encouraged him to always look at the extraordinary architecture we can sometimes take for granted - in fact, aged nine, Oliver discovered he was short-sighted after his mother asked him to tell her about the cornice on top of the now forlorn Clandon Park!

Both Oliver and Zuleika, despite being relatively young, have moved in the world of architecture and art for many years – Oliver as chairman of The Young Georgians (the youth chapter of the Georgian Group, which he re-founded in 2001 and led until retiring from the position in 2016), and Zuleika as part of her father’s well-known art business, Michael Parkin Fine Art.

Oliver and Zuleika on their wedding day at St Andrew's Church, Gunton Park, Norfolk, 24th September 2016

Oliver and Zuleika have a detailed and encyclopedic knowledge of the great houses and art collections of Britain – it seemed natural to make a business out of something they both enjoy so much.

Zuleika and Oliver met in 2010 when the former joined the Young Georgians. They bonded over their shared passion for historic houses. They were married on 24th September 2016.