Like many castles in Britain, Sissinghurst has had a rocky history until, in derelict condition, the castle and farm was put on the market in 1928 for the grand sum of £12,000, with alas no offers of interest for two years. Fortunately, by one of those pieces of serendipity, Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson […]
Did past generations anticipate future restrictions such as social distancing? Certainly, they were aware of sensible health precautions, including covering faces, from the various epidemics that seem to be a characteristic of human civilisation through the centuries. The various designers who have contributed to the layout of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew knew a […]
The beautiful 17th century mansion of Ham House situated next to the River Thames near Richmond is a house with Scottish connections. Closed due to the restrictions for the current health situation, it is slowly and carefully re-awakening into the new ‘normal’. The bringing together of the house and the adjacent manors is a PhD […]
One of the benefits of the current pandemic situation is that we are all appreciating the value of local green spaces, parklands and nature far more than perhaps we did. Hopefully this will be reflected in future planning and land-use policies to avoid concentrated urban developments with minimal outdoor space such as in Vauxhall where […]
Todays walk for exercise during the pandemic was through the first phase of the Ram Quarter development on the site of the old Young’s Brewery where beer has been brewed since at least 1533, continuing after the closure of the brewery in 2006 with a micro-brewery on site. The brewery and pub was located on […]
Why do we so dislike, or are fearful of, spiders – poor creatures that have a bad press? Is it because their webs are used to trap and ensnare their prey, while some can evil venom from their fangs? In some cultures, spiders are considered creative, through their ability to weave and create delicate tapestries […]
Sometimes modern art defeats me. Recently on show at the White Cube Gallery in St James’s were abstract sculptural paintings by the Belgian Artist Bram Bogart (1921-2012), almost an exact contemporary of my mother, but she would have not understood Bogart’s art at all. Seen previously at the Saatchi Gallery in 2017 with a theme […]
British artists Vicken Parsons and Paul Noble, born six years apart (1957 and 1963), presented different views of architectural interiors at Christea Roberts Gallery. in ‘Breath’, Vicken Parsons brought us subtle spring yellow sunshine, along with red and blue, incorporated with a subtle array of shadowy shades of grey, white and black, much needed after […]
In the last decades of the 1890′s, Shoreditch, as now, was an area of change. The railways brought new connections and new opportunities for warehouses, which together displaced great swathes of housing in the area. In 1890, the Lipton family built a storage warehouse and distribution centre adjacent to Shoreditch Station, then part of the […]
The exterior as you approach from King’s Cross Station is a little austere, its horizontal cladding perhaps having a link back to the former Daily Express Building in Fleet Street, which would be appropriate as this is the headquarters of the Guardian and Observer newspapers. The street façade could, however, be considered to be […]
"The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul."
(Thomas Moore)
To be an architect means having a wide range of interests - architecture, art and creativity in all its variety of forms, sustainability, science and innovation. The greatest interest is often where these different worlds overlap and collide - that is when something imaginative often occurs that pushes us all forward to another place
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