We finally made it to the William Nicholson exhibition at Pallant House – a beautiful exhibition, larger and more comprehensive than I was expecting, showing the full range of his work, including his luscious and beautifully observed still lives which, along with his portraits, are what one remembers.

I was intrigued that he never became an RA. The answer is, not surprisingly, that he was asked in 1926, but turned it down on the grounds that ‘the idea of a label of any sort scares me away from all desire to paint’. Maybe he was a bit less conformist than he appears.

We went to see St. Twrog’s, a recent acquisition of the Friends of Friendless Churches, after Christmas, but it was shut.  Today it was open and well worth a visit: a completely unspoilt, late Georgian interior – box pews, pulpit and reading desk and two wall monuments with beautiful, simple lettering:-

I’m very sad to hear news of the death of Alec Cobbe, quite a remarkable figure: a man of taste; trained as a conservator at the Tate; then worked at Birmingham and the Hamilton Kerr; took over Hatchlands as a tenant of the National Trust to show his collection of musical instruments.

I went to Hatchlands in September to see his Titian exhibition.  No photographs.

But most impressive is his rehang at Castle Howard, including the display of casts in the visitors’ entrance in the West Wing:-

Reading Rowan Moore’s review of the renovated Theatr Clwyd in last Sunday’s Observer encouraged us to call in for what was meant to be a late lunch, but was more like tea.  It’s an impressive, very civic theatre, but in a park on the edge of Mold overlooking the Clwydian Hills.

It’s been renovated by Haworth Tompkins who are good at retaining the character of existing buildings/institutions, but making them more upbeat, as they have at the London Library and Warburg Institute.

The restaurant which is huge was booked out…

Theatr Clwyd – Architecture Today https://architecturetoday.co.uk/theatr-clwyd-haworth-tompkins/

Bishop’s House in Woodstock is described as a ‘gauche’ imitation of the Vanbrugh/Hawksmoor style, but looks not bad to me, quite like some of the outbuildings at King’s Weston:-

I had previously planned to walk from Hanborough Station to Blenheim to get a better feel for the layout of Woodstock Park, which must have included bits of steep and varied topography in Vanbrugh’s day. 

Today, I managed it:

I was looking for breakfast at Downing College when I came across William Wilkins.  I’m not sure I had seen him before: the scholarly grandson of a Norwich builder, son of another William Wilkins who designed the Master’s Lodge at Caius, he travelled widely in Greece and Asia Minor between 1801 and 1804.  Downing was nearly his first commission on his return.

I assume it’s a version of the E.H. Bailey bust in the Fitzwilliam, but is more powerful:-