Not only are there the clothes, but display cases of ephemera from the old days of Old Town.  They were always good on the graphics – a playful use of type forms to match the utility ware, mostly thirties.  And a reprint of their newspaper.  The clothes are now produced in Tottenham, but to their original high standard.

I had the linen suit, but eventually the trousers perished.  Most of the rest is still going strong:-

The exhibition about Chinese Limehouse opened in St. Anne’s, Limehouse today (see below).

It’s a fascinating story, starting in the eighteenth century when the boats of the East India Company docked in Poplar and brought back examples of porcelain.

In the nineteenth century, China was both romanticised and demonised, as was Limehouse, written about by Sax Rohmer just before the First World War who popularised the idea of Limehouse as a haunt of opium dens.

The only thing I didn’t spot was any reference to Peter Ackroyd’s wonderful novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem which is a re-re-romanticisation of the Limehouse myth.

The exhibition is open Thursday to Saturday till July.  And it’s an opportunity to see a great Hawksmoor church.

In Chinese Limehouse | Spitalfields Life https://share.google/LYwEMP5J1VQF1Rdgf

I have only been to Lichfield Cathedral once, but remembered it as unspoilt and in a beautiful close, so revisited:-

The carvings on the west front are Victorian, carved locally:-

I can’t figure out the extent to which the interior is thirteenth century or Gilbert Scott.  I guess mostly Scott, but beautiful nonetheless:-

You will recollect my mourning the closure of  Old Town in Holt, a lovely and excellent shop run by Marie Willey (Miss. Willey) and Will Brown. 

I knew that some of their garments were still available at Labour and Wait, but hadn’t realised this is a more permanent arrangement (see below).  They are holding an open day this weekend in Labour and Wait’s new Covent Garden emporium.

https://broadsheet.com/london/articles/labour-and-wait-old-town-collaboration?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=london&utm_campaign=editors_picks_newsletter&lid=yasxtpxtqyru

More about the Townhouse Bicycle in this month’s House and Garden.

It is, indeed, a pleasure to ride.

https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/considered-things-bicycle?_kx=91rxTAkG8ktn4MziNJ3eW1DlEf6fO7dxT8g5UFS4ZdGR4bqdgWd67RNg5-COqw10.Ux7JNC

I am posting a link to Anthony Geraghty’s very brilliant and profound lecture on the differences between the work of Wren, Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh.

There will be no more illuminating contribution to Vanbrugh300, based as it is on a life-time of reading, thought and research:-

Rowan Moore has done Vanbrugh proud with a long and thoughtful review of his work and personality in today’s Observer Review.  He is particularly good in describing the architectural character of Seaton Delaval and Grimsthorpe – how Vanbrugh achieves such dynamic effects through manipulating contrasts of scale.  ‘A creature of entitlement and privilege’.  I guess so.

You may need a subscription:-

https://observer.co.uk/culture/architecture/article/how-john-vanbrugh-became-the-shakespeare-of-architects

A lovely, thoughtful review of the Soane’s exhibition by Edwin Heathcote, with reference to the book and other exhibitions, too.

Not sure you will be able to read it without a subscription, but it will presumably be in the print edition tomorrow.

Good for the US:-

https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/cbc1c9d2-d824-4433-a564-046bf6217285 via @FT

I didn’t write about the exhibition opening. 

Not sure why not as it was a big event ! Roz Barr and Mark Thomson have done such a good job with the design and installation that I feel the credit is really theirs.

If you go, please don’t miss the film in the ground floor Foyle Exhibition Space.  It is of Bob Venturi and Denise Scott Brown visiting Blenheim and is, I think, a small masterpiece.

https://www.culturalwednesday.co.uk/wednesday-wishes/

We were sent a link to John Tusa’s new podcast, which he has established for his fellow nonagenarians.

In the first episode, he is interviewed by Rory Stewart, his godson, who calls him Johnnie.

It’s a remarkable life.  He arrived in England in 1939 aged 3 from Zlin, Bata’s company town in Moravia.  His father was managing director and they lived in Horndon-on-the-Hill, overlooking the plains of Tilbury where Bataville had been established.  Aged 6, he was sent to a Cambridge prep school, St. Faith’s, which during the war had moved to Devon.  Then Gresham’s (unmentioned), national service and Trinity College, Cambridge.

It’s his 90th. birthday today.  He remains as sharp, acute and articulate as he probably was aged three.

Happy Birthday !

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/fleeing-the-nazis-and-founding-bbc-newsnight-rory-stewart/id1878481074?i=1000752323048