I remember seeing pictures of the Anderson House by Jamie Fobert when it was first completed in 2002 (it was long-listed for the Stirling Prize).

It’s quite something – created in an inhospitable courtyard space near the BBC:-

I find that I have only taken photographs of the wonderful woodwork in the church at Walpole St. Peter:-

It’s a beautiful church – so light and airy, so large and well preserved:-

I’ve always wanted to go to the Wisbech Museum, one of the best preserved local collections, originally opened in 1835, with an entrance fee of a shilling.  It now costs £5 for a year.  The current building opened in 1847. and it still has its original display cases:-

I was struck how well the displays stand up, with thoughtful, well written labels and some surviving historical labelling as well:-

Go if you can.

I went to the second launch of my nephew George’s book, The Romance of Classicism, in which he talked about his work as a designer of new country houses in a self consciously Palladian style, but with an occasional dash of Soane.

I kept on thinking of a famous article by Howard Colvin on ‘Gothic Survival and Gothick Revival’: that is, how much of his approach to classicism is the survival of the tradition and how much a conscious revival ?

He started his talk with an image of his grandfather, Raymond Erith’s, house at King’s Walden Bury, a statement of classicism in 1969.  Erith was trained at the AA from 1921 to 1926, so just pre hard-line modernism.  He then designed, mostly, in a style of stripped down classicism, as in his Provost’s Lodge for Queen’s College, Oxford and Great House, Dedham. 

So, George’s work could be – maybe is – survival, not revival.

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I finally made it to Jock McFadyen’s beautiful, but eerie exhibition of aspects of the London underground, accompanied by a sound track by Jem Finer of The Pogues.  They go well together, real, but surreal, recorded from life, but demonstrating the essential strangeness of it all.

Here is Aldgate East:-

Next door are some of his big topographical works of East London, including Three Colts Lane:-

Closes Sunday.

It’s that time of year.

Today is the first public day of Goldsmith’s Fair:-

Cathy Courtney, one of the key people behind Vanbrugh300, persuaded the National Portrait Gallery to host an event scripted by Cathy in which Vanbrugh, played by Stephen Boxer, discusses the plans for Blenheim with Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, played by Harriet Walter.  Initially in a way they are semi-amicable, but degenerate into open warfare, with the Duchess annotating Vanbrugh’s letters with rude comments.

It was a great pleasure, and very revealing, hearing both sides of the story, as it were, live, because they both wrote with such vigour and such utter contempt for each other’s point of view.  Vanbrugh’s side of the story is relatively familiar, so it was good to get Sarah’s as well.

I thought I would make a day of a trip to Charleston, so was dropped close to Firle Beacon in order to walk along the downs and dropping down to Tilton:-

It’s the opening of the Quentin Bell exhibition at Charleston and the house has acquired portraits of him on temporary loan, including an early portrait by Vanessa Bell (1921):-

It supplements the portrait of him by Duncan Grant painted in 1919:-

Then there is a portrait bust of his sister Angelica done in 1935, the year he went to study in Burslem:-

And Olivier with Julian by Duncan Grant:-

Then, there are some of his ceramics not (obviously) in the exhibition:-

I have been on a brisk walking tour of central Birmingham, starting at the Curzon Street booking hall of 1838 by Philip Hardwick, a very early piece of railway architecture for the London & Birmingham Railway:-

The Millennium Point multi-story car park by Birmingham City Council Urban Design (2012):-

The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire by Feilden Clegg Bradley (2015-2017), a good building with a wonderful concert hall:-

Then we went to the jewellery quarter to see the old Municipal School of Jewellery and Silversmithing which opened in 1890:-

Just up the street is The Queen’s Arms (1901):-

Then to the J.H. Chamberlain School of Art, designed just before his death in 1883:-

Finally, Mecanoo’s Library – showy:-

Not sure a public library needs so much glitz:-