As I sat down in the pew for Norman Ackroyd’s memorial service, I was told by my neighbour that the photograph reproduced in the programme (by Paul Tozer) told one everything one needed to know about him:-

A big smoker, years of nicotine had dried out his skin.  When I arrived at the RA in 2007, meetings of Council would have a cigarette break.

The odd thing was that I had known him a bit in the 1970s as near neighbours in Southwark – he was already installed in Morocco Street.

What I hadn’t known was his rich frame of cultural reference, his deep knowledge of poetry, alongside his passion for the west coast of Ireland and his extraordinary and inspirational skill as a printmaker.  I only knew him later as the committed guardian of the RA Laws which he knew far better than I ever could or did.

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/april-2025/a-cathedral-in-the-classical-tradition/

The last stop on my west London tour was Bedford Park.  I wasn’t expecting the grandiosity of the interior of St. Michael and all Angels, Norman Shaw’s 1880 parish church, which looks as if it might be the parish hall outside, but is surprisingly gothic – and beautifully preserved – inside:-

I have got interested in Edward Maufe, partly because I have fond memories of Guildford Cathedral.  So, I went to have a look at St. Thomas’, Hanwell whose foundation stone was laid in 1933, the year after Maufe had won the competition to design a new Cathedral at Guildford.  Nairn wrote that he was ‘a man with genuine spatial gifts but out of sympathy with the style of his time’.  But the truth is that this was very much the style of the time – an abstracted form of gothic with strong Scandinavian influences, bringing a stately form of Christianity to the outer suburbs:-

I am beginning to enjoy the fact that the nearest place for our car to be serviced is in Brentford because it gives me an opportunity to explore a part of London I know so little.  This morning I walked along a stretch of the Grand Junction Canal, within sight of the M4 but surreally unspoilt, with locks and an elegant ironwork passenger bridge dated 1820, a bit after the canal was opened:-

More on Sadler’s Wells East:-

https://www.architectureclub.co.uk/blog/view/tour-sadlers-wells-east

In case you get the impression that it is always a nightmare going round London with a wheelchair, I should say that yesterday we went to Sadler’s Wells East and everything was perfect.  Big lifts.  Wide doors.  Lots of space.  The architects had obviously been very attentive to wheelchair access.  It was a lovely experience:-

Because it was sunny and Mother’s Day, we thought we would go on an expedition to Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing to see Alison Watt’s exhibition.

In theory, it’s easy to get from Whitechapel to Ealing Broadway.  I looked up to check that Ealing Broadway station is wheelchair accessible and failed to spot that the station is, but the trains are not.  You have to arrange for someone to meet you with a ramp.  Just before Bond Street, I got anxious, but the announcement was unclear what to do.  A big mistake.  There is no way for a wheelchair to get off the train between Paddington and Reading.  So, it looked as if we would have a day out in Maidenhead instead.

At Iver, we were encouraged to ring the driver to explain our dilemma.  Some one came to extricate us and put us on the train back to Ealing Broadway.  But at Ealing Broadway, there was no-one with a ramp to help us off.  Eventually, another very helpful person arrived to help us off and we set off to see Pitzhanger Manor.

But at Pitzhanger Manor, the lift was bust.  There is only one lift. 

So we sat in the sun in the park instead.

Each year I study the long lists for the RIBA Awards looking for interesting projects which might otherwise have escaped my attention.

This year, I was intrigued to see 8, Bleeding Heart Yard, a project by Groupwork which you might easily walk past without noticing – in a way that’s its point that it should mesh well with its warehouse surroundings:-

I never know when the articles I write for The Critic are going to go online.  Anyway, I have just spotted that my piece for March is now available, as below:-

https://thecritic.co.uk/bricks-and-mortarboards/