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

Not long before the Soane Museum generously agreed to do an exhibition of Vanbrugh drawings, I was asked to give a paper at the ‘New Insights on 16th and 17th Century Architecture’ conference in January 2024. This has now been published by Drawing Matter as a prelude (or supplement) to the Soane’s exhibition:-

There’s a lot going on what with the book, the exhibition opening on Tuesday, the book being launched in the US on Tuesday as well and a plethora of events planned for Vanbrugh 300.

I have been asked key questions about why Vanbrugh might be interesting/important to an American audience by Jarrett Fuller who has an American podcast:-

https://share.google/Nu39xajchZxcO2XYJ

I have always loved Worcester College, but like all Oxbridge colleges, particularly during term-time, it’s hard to explore.

So, I had arranged an escorted visit to see the Sultan Nazrin Shah building, designed by Níall McLaughlin, the winner of this year’s Royal Gold Medal.

This is the terrace on the north side of the Front Quad, assumed to have been designed by George Clarke, a Fellow of All Souls who left his collection of books and drawings to Worcester College:-

The Sultan Nazrin Shah building is impressive, helped by the beauty of its location and the amazing, impeccable quality of its stonework which gives it a very pure, abstract, geometric character.

The approach:-

From the grounds:-

The relationship of interior to exterior:-

In Oxford for the Howard Colvin Lecture, I thought I would try and see the new Spencer Building, designed by Wright and Wright, which has just received an RIBA South Award.

It has been fitted into a small space alongside the existing 16th. Century Old Library and the boundary with Christ Church, not an easy task, but compensating by a generosity of outlook and big windows as seen from the street.

The front quad is still essentially medieval:-

This is the view of the Spencer Building from the street:-

Nice reflections of the Radcliffe Camera in the distance:-