We went to the Eileen Agar/Emma Witter exhibition at Bosse & Baum in Peckham: a good and appropriate juxtaposition:-

I went yesterday to the new Tony Cragg exhibition at Castle Howard: many of his sculptures beautifully placed in the landscape, enhancing the vistas in unexpected ways; particularly a beautiful work on the empty basin in the middle of Ray Wood:-

There is an amazing assembly of glass vessels in the Temple of the Four Winds:-

And in the Great Hall, the work echoes and encourages one to look carefully at Giovanni Bagutti’s plasterwork overmantel:-

It is not the first time that I have seen and admired Giovanni Bagutti’s beautiful plasterwork chimneypiece in the Great Hall at Castle Howard, but it still repays close attention for the fluidity of its decoration – the shell work and scrolls.  It’s astonishing, particularly for its date:-

I hope I am allowed to advertise the work that Romilly is showing in Hauser and Wirth from next Friday. I have been admiring it over recent months:-

https://mailchi.mp/9fb8b4950a50/objects-of-contemplation-hauser-wirth-savile-row-10-may-to-2-june?e=9dc0f9b85b

On Monday 20th. May, I am giving a talk on the work of Vanbrugh and particularly his influence on later architects, in case you are interested (not sure about the drawing !):-

https://templebar.london/temple-bar-talks

I know I am not supposed to like the display of armour at the Wallace Collection, but I do.  It preserves so perfectly the idea of arcane knowledge.  I noticed that yesterday there were plenty of other people enjoying somewhere trapped in the past:-

For reasons too complicated to explain, we now get our car serviced in Brentford, which entailed an early morning drive out west and then a walk to Boston Manor underground station through a curious and unexpected piece of woodland directly under the Chiswick Flyover.  A bit of urban pastoral:-

Some time ago, I spotted that there was a scheme in Birmingham which was conceptually similar to what is planned at Liverpool Street Station (ie using the space directly on top of a listed building to build a tower block).

I am pleased to see that the Birmingham Planning Committee have rejected the suggestion nem. con. and have correctly derided it as ‘bonkers’.  Maybe the planning committee in London could take a similarly robust approach.

https://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/bonkers-plans-to-build-42-storey-tower-above-listed-birmingham-building-flatly-refused/5129112.article?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Building%20Design%20%20Daily%20news&utm_content=Daily%20Building%20Design%20%20Daily%20news+CID_42b85880a91000a67a92735e8dc3c0c1&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor%20emails&utm_term=Bonkers%20plans%20to%20build%2042-storey%20tower%20above%20listed%20Birmingham%20building%20flatly%20refused

I have been waiting for my review of Gavin Stamp’s admirable and authoritative survey of 1920s and 1930s architecture, Interwar, to be posted online.  It has now been.  Meanwhile, I am pleased to see how many other people have reviewed it.

David Watkin thought that Stamp frittered his talents away on journalism and perhaps Stamp did too, but the book is a great, if posthumous, achievement:-

https://thecritic.co.uk/a-monumental-work-on-british-buildings/

I have been following the City’s plans to demolish the old Museum of London building with increasing concern.  When it was first proposed, there was a logic to it.  It was being sacrificed to build a new concert hall.  But when the concert hall collapsed, the City replaced it with plans for two massive, out-of-scale office blocks totally out of sympathy with the immediately adjacent Barbican, not to mention St. Paul’s.  Diller Scofidio + Renfro are in many ways interesting and creative architects.  They were partially responsible for the Highline.   But they have been made to flip their scheme into something entirely different which has zero legitimacy and is totally hostile to its location.

If Chris Hayward as chairman of the City’s Policy Committee is sensible, he will ask them to re-invent the project in such a way as to preserve the existing Powell & Moya buildings.  Times have changed since 2013 when the project was first proposed.

One way forward would be to create an Architecture Museum.

https://thecritic.co.uk/a-wilting-wallflower/