There are apparently five tickets left for my talk next week about Vanbrugh’s reputation in the eighteenth century:-

I have a horrible feeling that I may not have signed up to John Sandoe’s invariably excellent, printed Christmas list.

How many people will thus miss the perfect Christmas present, so charmingly and succinctly described ?

https://johnsandoe.com/product/john-vanbrugh-the-drama-of-architecture/

Goldsmith’s Fair gives me an annual opportunity to explore unseen bits of the City.

This year, I walked through Postmen’s Park which idiotically I knew about, but had never seen: G.F. Watts’s idea of commemorating the unsung heroes and heroines who lose their lives in saving the lives of others.

It’s just next door to Little Britain, itself a good Victorian streetscape:-

I found the memorials both charming and moving, the unseen. 

It should surely be kept up-to-date:-

Goldsmith’s Fair is a bit of a marathon for the exhibitors and Romilly’s exhibition was made possible by Karolina Brodnicka, who is herself a very talented jeweller and was indefatigable in overseeing everything with charm and enthusiasm:-

Annette Rubery has now posted her recording of our discussion about Vanbrugh if you want something to listen to while cooking.  It’s quite a bit longer than the transcript:-

https://annetterubery.substack.com/p/q-and-a-with-charles-saumarez-smith-7fa?utm_source=podcast-email%2Csubstack&publication_id=2641061&post_id=171544020&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=play_card_show_title&r=izzy2&triedRedirect=true

Back in August, I had a very enjoyable and interesting conversation with Annette Rubery, a writer and literary scholar who is herself writing a book about Vanbrugh and his circle, provisionally entitled British Enchanters: John Vanbrugh, his friends and the theatre which changed a nation.

She has just published a record of our conversation on her Substack called The Lichfield Rambler:-

https://open.substack.com/pub/annetterubery/p/q-and-a-with-charles-saumarez-smith?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

I have just been set a copy of an excellent letter in today’s Times by Otto:-

One of the pleasures of visiting the Stephen Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities is that it enables a good view of the Radcliffe Observatory immediately to its north, a fine a neoclassical building, originally designed by Henry Keene in 1772, who was displaced by James Wyatt the following year who added a free version of the Tower of the Winds on top:-

I spent the morning touring Oxford’s new Stephen Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities which opened to the public a couple of days ago and is already surprisingly well inhabited, full of people making use of its generous ground-floor public space.

The building was designed and planned by Andrew Barnett of Hopkins Architects. 

From outside it is pretty reticent, as if it was a homage to Herbert Baker (ie gently classical, trying hard to sit comfortably in Oxford’s classical tradition).

From the south:-

From the north:-

And from the side which demonstrates the depth of the building from north to south:-

Inside is very different: comfortable and spacious, full of spaces to sit and work, including part of the Bodleian’s humanities collection and space for the Bates collection of musical instruments:-

In the basement is an amazing 500-seat concert hall:-

It’s the first public day of the second week of this year’s Goldsmiths’ Fair in which Romilly is showing her work in a small booth (Stand 66) at the top of the left-hand stairs:-