I arrived in the central courtyard on a crisp November morning.  It’s a remarkably successful set of buildings, so coherent, all in brick, by de Blacam & Meagher.  Finished in 2004:-

This is the library building, a bit earlier, but also exceptionally impressive:-

I apologise to those readers who have not received images with my posts.  This is bad news.  WordPress, the platform on which the blog is published, must in some way have made changes to the way posts are transmitted because my readership has understandably plummeted. 

But unfortunately I don’t know how to rectify it.  I will investigate.

St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral is quite wonderful, so surprising, not enormous, but full of restrained power.  You approach along the river and there it is, at the side of a minor street, almost like a toy:-

The interior is wonderful too, so well preserved, full of rich detail, all of it designed by William Burges:-

This is a slightly surprising church to find on a small suburban shopping street driving in from Kinsale to Cork.  Commissioned in 1927 by the Bishop of Cork, it was designed by Barry Byrne who was based in Chicago and had worked for Frank Lloyd Wright:-

Another piece of pure form, not just a way of showing off the stonemasons’ art:-

Sketched by Tuomey + O’Donnell and then constructed in a free way by local craftsman, it is a building without a purpose, a primitive hut:-

I have come on a slightly mad trip to Cork to see two buildings which John Tuomey and Sheila O’Donnell showed in this year’s Robert Maxwell Lecture.  They are in the grounds of the Joseph Walsh Studio, so first I saw the work of the Studio:-

If you happen to have a subscription to the FT, you can read an article about Old Town’s sad demise – actually, a well-deserved retirement after a life well lived, making clothes to last.

I lament the fact that nobody has been able to take it on: all that loyalty; such consistent devotion to high quality; it’s hard, apparently impossible, to replicate.

I am one of those people who hopes I have enough corduroy trousers to last me out, plus I can always go back to the green moleskin suit in the cupboard.

The end of cult British brand Old Town – https://on.ft.com/3OodV1r via @FT

My review of Simon Jenkins’s recent architectural history has just gone online: a very enjoyable book, but not if you want to find out about any pleasures of post-war architecture:-

https://thecritic.co.uk/a-passionate-battler-for-buildings/#

For my architectural article in The Critic this month (see below), I have written about the newly refurbished Warburg Institute which I think is a model of good practice in the renovation of a recent building. Please note Marks & Spencer (and, indeed, hundreds of other buildings of the recent past). It can be done. What Haworth Tompkins have done in a totally admirable way is to immerse themselves in the building’s and the institution’s history and then have done everything to restore it, but in the spirit of the original, so that it is now more like what it was planned to be than it had become owing to changes over the years: a great achievement.

It also feels more welcoming.

The story used to be told of how Kenneth Clark arrived one day to use the photo library and was turned away because he didn’t have a library card. It may be apocryphal, but represented an ethos of wilful high-mindedness which was in some ways admirable, but not necessarily in the Institute’s long-term best interests.

https://thecritic.co.uk/the-warburg-refurbished/