The last of my posts about Cotesbach will not mean much to anybody but me – the family memorabilia laid out on the piano in the drawing room, which included a photograph of the wedding of Rhona Hanbury to Brigadier General Vigant de Falbe in the summer of 1911, just before the outbreak of war. It was at Poles in Hertfordshire. The house was sold two years later:-

And in a tiny little sketchbook was a watercolour of my father in 1918 at home in King Henry’s Road where he lived during the First World War:-

And my Aunt Margaret, studious as a child as ever afterwards:-

The stable yard at Cotesbach Hall is full of surprises, not least an excellent café within easy reach of the M1, much better as a pit stop than a motorway service station:-

In one of the barns is the remains of the Rolls Royce engine Merlin taken from the Spitfires which flew in the Battle of Britain:-

Above is the old Manor House, a sleeping beauty of an old house built in 1630 and awaiting restoration:-

There is a Blacksmith’s:-

Best of all is the room used as a pub, which looks as if it hasn’t been used much during lockdown:-

I have been to Cotesbach Hall before, but every time I go I am moved by the sense of the accretion of history – generation after generation of Marriotts adding to the history of the house in a way which is much more present than in houses which have been modernised.

The Queen Anne front, with later Georgian wings:-

Inside, there are portraits and photographs of Marriott ancestors:-

It feels faintly improper and intrusive to post pictures of the interiors, so will only post details of the shutters and curtains in the drawing room:-

And of the church from the garden:-

My final post in this series is a tableau vivante from the class of 1987. I have only the faintest recollection of this. It was performed in a park in Prague – I think in June 1988, much to the surprise of the locals, who apparently thought our behaviour unorthodox. The former Director of the Sainsbury Centre is lying down, stripped to the waist, bottom right and the President of the Society of Architectural Historians is extremely prominent centre left:-

Sophy Newton – de Falbe as was – who had organised the event to celebrate/commemorate the establishment of the V&A/RCA MA Course in the History of Design, must have been born with the instincts of an archivist because she has kept so much of the paperwork associated with the establishment of the Course, which I am taking the liberty of reproducing for the historical record.

The first brochure advertising it (note the original title):-

The letter about it sent by Chris Frayling to the Bristol Careers Advisory Service:-

The first team’s programme (rather art historical – I would have liked to hear the seminar ‘Panofsky on Cinema’):-

Part of the second team’s programme:-

The requirements for the second essay:-

And a picture from a study trip to Erddig in which I recognised nearly everyone except myself (I still had hair then):-

We held a small, informal, but very moving gathering of the first generation of students who started as students on the V&A/RCA MA Course in the History of Design (or, as it was then called, Design and Decorative Arts: History and Technique) in September 1982 – forty years ago, plus a small number of students from later generations.

Roy Strong came and spoke about his role in establishing the course in the teeth of implacable hostility from his Keepers; it was based on his experience of the interdisciplinarity of the Warburg Institute, crossing boundaries away from the material-based departments so deeply entrenched at the V&A.

Then, Chris Frayling spoke about his experience of establishing the Course at the Royal College of Art, from the time of his interview as Professor of Cultural History. There was a sense of rift between the two institutions: the Royal College totally modernist, hostile to history; the V&A very strongly antiquarian and not much interested in contemporary design.

The two of them met metaphorically half way up Exhibition Road. Gillian Nayor and Penny Sparke were hired as tutors. The Course was approved in early 1982. The first students arrived in September 1982, the month that I was offered a job as Assistant Keeper at the V&A. The rest is history – a complex history because everyone remembers it differently.

I hope their talks have been recorded, because it was invaluable oral history.

I have been sent a fascinating picture of the houses which occupied the site of Stepney City Farm, which (the caption doesn’t say) were presumably demolished as part of post-war slum clearance and reconstruction (the cars, particularly the further one, look to me to be c.1961). Although the reconstruction of Stepney still has a very mixed press – Nairn hated it – Stepney City Farm is a great asset and so is the adjacent park. And so is Cross Rail.

This is the official caption:-

A view of 152-184 Stepney Green, Stepney, taken from the junction with Garden Street. The remains of the Baptist College Chapel, which dates from 1810, and now a historical landmark, can be seen at the corner with Garden Street. Numbers 178-184 are three-story terraced houses with steps leading to the front doors. Numbers 166-176 form College Terrace. Advertising boards can be seen on the side of number 182. There are cars parked and a pedestrian in the background. With the exception of the College Chapel these building have all been demolished. Stepney City Farm, formerly Stepping Stones Farm, and works for the Cross Rail project now occupy the site.

And the image:-

https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=122499

I very much enjoyed listening to Norman Foster talk about his life on This Cultural Life. Some of it I knew: his time in Yale, travelling round the States with Richard Rogers; the projects beginning with the Sainsbury Centre, which he chooses as one of his two favourites; the influence of Buckminster Fuller. But I don’t think I had appreciated the Samuel Smiles aspects of his upbringing – leaving school after O levels, working in the town hall and then studying at the Manchester School of Architecture for a diploma because he didn’t have A levels. It’s impressive.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001bkp9?s=09

I have been looking forward to reading Otto’s obituary of Mark Girouard, which has now appeared online (see below) and catches his multi-faceted character, the quality and range of his writing and the way, having been born into the purple of country house life, spending Christmases at Hardwick Hall, he was able to write about them with deep expertise and, also, a certain cerebral detachment. I also particularly like the picture of him, bald and with glasses, staring through the gates, with Colin Amery, bald and with glasses, the gladiators who were responsible for saving Spitalfields:-

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/aug/26/mark-girouard-obituary?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I always enjoy going to see John Wonnacott in Chalkwell-on-Sea, particularly today having spent much of the early stages of lockdown studying – and writing about – his work based on what I thought was a comprehensive archive of his work online (https://johnwonnacott.co.uk).

But then, I hadn’t registered his powerful Portrait with Three Scars (2011-12), painted after he had been in hospital:-

There was another recent – and very strong – Self-portrait, painted, I presume, during lockdown:-

And here is John himself, painting in the garden:-