We spent the day in Saffron Walden, a treat as it’s so remarkably unspoilt apart from far too much traffic.

We were encouraged to start at the church, close to the centre and light and airy:-

It’s surrounded by good old buildings:-

But the point of the visit was to see the Fry Art Gallery, which, to my shame, I have never seen in spite of the fact that it opened in 1985, 41 years ago, and shows the work of lots of artists whose work I admire, including Edward Bawden, John Aldridge and Eric Ravilious.

I was particularly intrigued to see a very early work by Grayson Perry, showing his origins in folk art traditions (I mean this as a compliment – it’s an Essex aesthetic, born in Great Bardfield, and fostered by Barbara Jones and Olive Cook in the 1950s):-

If you go, which I strongly recommend, then we were told – correctly – that the best place for lunch is Chater’s, worth going to just for lunch.

It’s hard to keep up with all things Vanbrugh: a mere four events this week, including Roz Barr talking this morning as part of a curatorial talk at the Soane about the experience of working at Castle Howard, staying there, and thinking about the relationship of the house to the landscape.

Also, the Chalke History Festival has just posted its event in June;-

I’m at risk of always posting the same photographs of Castle Howard because whenever I go, which has recently been quite often, I enjoy the same things.

1. The magic of the walk out to the Temple of the Four Winds, which I particularly enjoyed this time having just read Wendy Bishop’s excellent PhD thesis on eighteenth-century lakes, which documents Vanbrugh’s early – indeed, pioneering – interest in creating lakes: first in his plans for Welbeck; then at Blenheim; and in 1725, just before his death, at Castle Howard:-

2. The four Sibyls which Historic England (and Wikipedia) say are by John Nost, but my Castle Howard book say are by Andries Carpentière who certainly supplied a lot of work to Castle Howard:-

3. The quality of the stone carving (see Christine Casey, Architecture and Artifice):-

And the antiquities:-

I attach a link to the programme I did with Jools Holland broadcast yesterday about Vanbrugh’s involvement with music and opera – not a subject which is at all well documented and, indeed, the extent of his interest in Opera is mostly entirely speculative.  But I very much enjoyed doing it, not least because Jools Holland is himself so incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about Vanbrugh: a true believer. 

Also, his producer had discovered the most amazing recording of Handel’s Eternal source of light divine – not the one which appears in the link on BBC Sounds, but Jestyn Davies singing on a recording for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee which you can find on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/track/1zDyLvZULlalzNA7djc9ZK).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002v1qx

If you are going to V&A East and even if you’re not, then I strongly recommend Brendan Cormier’s brilliant, thoughtful and extremely articulate description of the thinking which has gone into V&A East, not just the V&A East Museum, but the Storehouse as well on Tim Abraham’s latest Superurbanism podcast (link below).

It includes an effective rebuttal of the idea that it is a colonialist enterprise and the most thoughtful and persuasive account of why ticketing would be a bad idea at this juncture and a tourist tax a better one.

S3 EP07 — Brendan Cormier – Superurbanism – Apple Podcasts https://share.google/JVVVKwZcJbLeFlJvH

A slightly surreal object has appeared in the garden:-

I went on quite an amazing tour of St. Bride’s Foundation Institute, just by St. Bride’s Church, organised by the Victorian Society.  We started on the top floor with examples from the obviously very rich collections of books, print and printed ephemera and then went downstairs for a demonstration of type-founding and print technology.

There was a film about the production of the Daily Express in circa. 1976 showing the technical skills involved in type-setting and print production. 

I had no idea of the complexities of newspaper production, all swept away in the early 1980s before computerisation:-

I have been looking at V&A East for so long while bicycling across Olympic Park that I have got used to it as an empty shell.  But this morning I was able to get a preview and was impressed.  The interior spaces are bigger and more generous than I was expecting, the public spaces likewise generous, the view from the terrace on the top floor superb.  Annoyingly, I didn’t have time to try the café, nor was I able to get a very good sense of the Museum displays, other than the fact that they are deliberately eclectic and mostly contemporary. 

I am looking forward to going back.

The obituary I wrote of Tom Phillips for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has just appeared online (https://www-oxforddnb-com.lonlib.idm.oclc.org/display/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-90000383127?rskey=OUb2iP&result=4).

Unfortunately, you can only access it through a library – for me, it is one of the many wonderful things about being a member of the London Library.

As sometimes happens, since writing the obit., I had forgotten about the incredible range of Tom’s career – artist, musician, writer, reviewer, trustee of the British Museum.

I’m only sad that there isn’t a picture, so am posting a good one taken for an article in the Guardian:-

I am also posting a link to the lovely article about his house written by Richard Ovenden for The World of Interiors (https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/tom-phillips-peckham-home).

I have just spotted that I am on the Jools Holland programme this coming Saturday (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002v1qx).

It turns out that he is a fantastic Vanbrugh enthusiast and very knowledgeable about him, even to the extent of having built a model of Goose-Pie House.

I really enjoyed discussing all things Vanbrugh with him and choosing music which Vanbrugh might have heard, although the choice is totally hypothetical.