I have never previously been to Harewood, north of Leeds; nor was I able to get a good sense of its Adam interiors and impressive collection of paintings on a cold, dark, rainy evening:-

I’m not sure you will be able to open this link unless you have a subscription to the FT.

It’s an article by Charles Spencer on Vanbrugh, concentrating to an extent, as implied by its headline, on the owners of his houses, one of whom, the current Duke of Marlborough, is, I assume, his cousin.

Spencer has written a book about the Battle of Blenheim and clearly has a good understanding of Vanbrugh’s personality and cultural milieu.

Not so sure about the fuzzy photographs.

They should maybe have illustrated it with Nick Howard’s amazingly beautiful and atmospheric aerial photographs of Castle Howard in all weathers which you can find on Instagram.

What it’s like to live in one of Sir John Vanbrugh’s masterpieces –

https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/f6a38386-a57a-4c89-916d-dec1e3fad15b via @FT

One of my favourite local shops is Breid, the bakery in a railway arch opposite Weaver’s Fields, which has gradually expanded its range of offerings to include malt bread at the weekend and sinfully delicious vegan chocolate biscuits. Its owner, David Miller, would deliver a loaf of bread over the gate on his way home during lockdown – hard to remember those days when I didn’t even dare go out for a loaf of bread.

I found out from the local digital newspaper (The Tower Hamlets Slice) that he has now opened another branch at 9, Morgan Street in Bow, charming and equidistant from us, a walk away through Mile End Park:-

The April edition of The Critic, just out, has a lovely, well-informed, double-page centre spread devoted to the life and works of John Vanbrugh.

It’s a bumper edition:-

Some good bedside reading….

I had my first introduction to ‘Staging the Baroque’, the exhibition which Roz Barr and Chris Ridgway have organised in three rooms upstairs at Castle Howard to celebrate Vanbrugh’s tercentenary.

One room with a short, but highly informative introduction to Vanbrugh’s life and times, including a couple of letters from the archive and the third Earl’s account books. 

Then, a second room with a massive plaster model of Castle Howard and the monuments in the grounds which makes the point – the grounds are so worth exploring:-

Then a third room with a beautiful film by Thomas Adank.

It encourages you to go out into the grounds and look afresh:-

It’s fabuloso, as always….

Not only are there the clothes, but display cases of ephemera from the old days of Old Town.  They were always good on the graphics – a playful use of type forms to match the utility ware, mostly thirties.  And a reprint of their newspaper.  The clothes are now produced in Tottenham, but to their original high standard.

I had the linen suit, but eventually the trousers perished.  Most of the rest is still going strong:-

The exhibition about Chinese Limehouse opened in St. Anne’s, Limehouse today (see below).

It’s a fascinating story, starting in the eighteenth century when the boats of the East India Company docked in Poplar and brought back examples of porcelain.

In the nineteenth century, China was both romanticised and demonised, as was Limehouse, written about by Sax Rohmer just before the First World War who popularised the idea of Limehouse as a haunt of opium dens.

The only thing I didn’t spot was any reference to Peter Ackroyd’s wonderful novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem which is a re-re-romanticisation of the Limehouse myth.

The exhibition is open Thursday to Saturday till July.  And it’s an opportunity to see a great Hawksmoor church.

In Chinese Limehouse | Spitalfields Life https://share.google/LYwEMP5J1VQF1Rdgf

I have only been to Lichfield Cathedral once, but remembered it as unspoilt and in a beautiful close, so revisited:-

The carvings on the west front are Victorian, carved locally:-

I can’t figure out the extent to which the interior is thirteenth century or Gilbert Scott.  I guess mostly Scott, but beautiful nonetheless:-

You will recollect my mourning the closure of  Old Town in Holt, a lovely and excellent shop run by Marie Willey (Miss. Willey) and Will Brown. 

I knew that some of their garments were still available at Labour and Wait, but hadn’t realised this is a more permanent arrangement (see below).  They are holding an open day this weekend in Labour and Wait’s new Covent Garden emporium.

https://broadsheet.com/london/articles/labour-and-wait-old-town-collaboration?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=london&utm_campaign=editors_picks_newsletter&lid=yasxtpxtqyru