Habitat Catalogue 1988

      I had bought this, the 1988 edition of the Habitat catalogue, because I was looking for the Arts and Crafts fabric range that Habitat produced in that year in collaboration with the V&A.  The aptly named V&A Collection.  I'm really intrigued by this collection (which also I have discovered, as of 7.10.24, also included ceramics) as it revived designs by Arts and Crafts masters such as Voysey.  Images of these designs are available on the V&A website but information is quite scarce.  There are any number of Habitat fabrics dating from 1988 on the museum website which therefore, I presume, formed part of the collaboration but only about half a dozen are obviously 'Arts and Crafts'.  If sales of second hand curtains on eBay are anything to go by, the designs 'Madura Tree' and 'Madura Leaf' were the most popular patterns.  The two Voysey fabrics, 'The House that Jack built' and 'Alice' both designed for children, included in the collection are almost as popular, but other designs such as 'Hemlock' are yet to appear.  Maybe the name was off putting.

     The first sentence I typed here when thinking about writing this post was: 'It is as though something has crawled into a corner and quietly died', and there is no ignoring the act that looking through this catalogue in the days after it arrived was a disappointing experience.  Not only were the hoped for Arts and Crafts fabrics not featured, but something quite vital had indeed died.  Images too small, the submergence of everything in a gloop of sleekness.  Everything is bland and just a little corporate - I'm not sure whether this just a reflection of the wider culture, or of the internal machinations of the company. Then there is the absence of texture. Gone too are those little articles that, perhaps, set the Habitat catalogue apart from its competitors.  There is an almost unnerving sense of claustrophobia - the 1988 catalogue is a very introverted product caught up in its own 'materiality'; the room sets more enclosed, arid; there are less items on view that are unavailable to but at Habitat.  The items that suggested the life of owner of the room.  In addition all the photographs are far too small, and to be honest, I found it difficult to find suitable content to photograph for this blog.  Looking back at the distance of a fortnight, however, most telling thing, and not a first glance that noticeable, is the absence of the introductory letter from Terence Conran himself.  
     Since then I have somewhat modified my attitude.  The older Habitat is still there.  There are some good design to be found - lovely glass wear, cutlery and kitchenware.  There is a whole plethora of good fabrics designed by Collier Campbell, some of which may have been designed back in the 1970s.  Yet because of the design of the catalogue all these good things have to be actively searched for.

     (All the pattern fabric below is, I believe, by Collier Campbell.)

     

St Michael, Clyro

      Of all noxious animals, too, the worst is a tourist.  And of all tourists the most vulgar, ill-bred, offensive and loathsome is the British tourist.

     To Hay-on-Wye on Thursday (only four books bought).  Thursday chosen because it was market day - always the best day for visiting a country market town.  On the way back home we made a small detour to Clyro, just over the Wye from Hay and at the very south east tip of old Radnorshire.  My interest was sparked a couple of years ago by watching, on YouTube, a documentary made for the BBC by Sir John Betjeman on the 19th century clergyman and diarist Francis Kilvert.  'Vicar of the Parish' was made in 1975/6 (broadcast Thursday 29th July '76), directed by Patrick Garland and produced, for BBC Wales, by Derek Trimby.  It has a wonderful melancholic air and good use is made of the 'Sea Slumber Song' from Elgar's 'Sea Pictures'.  There is, sadly, evidence of Betjeman's increasing Parkinson's Disease; he spends most of the time in front of the camera sitting down.

     Francis Kilvert, born 1840 in Wiltshire, came to Clyro in 1865 as curate.  He stayed until 1871, when he returned to Wiltshire before returning to the Marches in 1876 to the living of St Hamon in Radnorshire. From 1877 until his death two years later he was vicar of Bredwardine over the border in Herefordshire. His diaries, started in 1870 and continued until his death, open a window onto rural provincial life in the 1870s.

     And so to the church.  It stands in the midst of a large graveyard.  All that remains of the Medieval structure is the study w tower - belfry stage added 1897.  The rest of the church was rebuilt in the 1850s by the Hereford architect Thomas Nicholson (1823-1895).  Chancel and nave with north aisle.  Decorated detailing. Local rubble stone with bath stone (?) dressings.  Betjeman sometimes wondered if Victorian churches would ever 'soften'; judging by St Michaels perhaps not.  The interior, with the exception of the chancel is light-filled and not at all bad, though on the dull side.  There are few furnishings of note.  Lavish funerary monuments in graveyard.

Habitat Catalogue 1981/2

     So here I am with yet another vintage Habitat catalogue.  This time from 1981.  A rather jaunty cover, mainly blue and yellow, busier than before with just a smidge of vulgarity.  The aesthetic has changed - more sharper and hard-edged, less homely.  That change detected in the 1978 edition continues to grow. The catalogue interior, however, tells a slightly different story, in that it is more evenly balanced between the new hard style and the old humanism.  In fact some of the images, say of the 'Arbour' bedroom range, look like they've been used in earlier editions, however the presence of a new wallpaper range 'Kandi' on the wall shows that the image was taken specifically for the 1981/2 edition. Habitat as evolutionary, and perhaps even conservative.  As for the eclecticism of earlier catalogues, apart from the lighting, Art Deco Revival has disappeared, as have the Liberty prints, but the Laura Ashley inspired 'ditzy' print 'Tangleweed' remains.  Brown is on the way out and there is an increase of bright primary colours and pastels, with mixed results.  
     One of the delights of the Habitat catalogue are the little extras in the way of articles.  This edition has four written by members of the Conran stable such as Stephen Bayley* (Bauhaus furniture), and Antonio Carluccio (Italian cooking).  I guess in a way it makes Conran seem like Henri Gautier Villars.

     Several of the new style home sets, it has to be said, are really quite awful. The worst is the room created by Stafford Cliff; perhaps not bad, but hardly domestic.  More suitable for a commercial space. Born in Australia, Cliff, I should remind you at this point, had been the Art Director of the Habitat Catalogue for 10 years from 1971; this then could be either his final catalogue, or the first without him.  I know that this is tantamount to heresy, but I'm that not that impressed with the room set designed by Terence Conran either.  It just seems a bit tired.  The work of a man with a busy schedule and little time to spare. But then, I suppose, Habitat seems to have quite the history of bad design, in the same way it was quite good at simulacra.  Anyway the good....

The bad....

 And the strange....

*  Described once as Robin to Conran's Batman

The Mechanics Institution, Neath

      To Neath Great Fair on Wednesday.  Soft, almost wistful, sunshine and the streets of the town centre full of stalls and people.  The founding charter was granted in 1280 by Gilbert De Clare, making the oldest Charter Fair in Wales.  At one point it was one of nine fairs held in the town annually.  As you might have guessed it is the sort of event I approve of, however it has, perhaps, seen better days.  We went home after an hour

     It was my first visit to the town and I must say I was pleasantly surprised though the place is in need of some tlc.  Its bones, however, are good, and it is certainly pleasanter than the centre of Swansea.  There is enough to draw me back.  Nestling in the quiet enclave of Church Place we found this rather fine example of Victorian Classicism:  The Mechanics Institution of 1847.  Alfred Russell Wallace was the architect. It is still in the Georgian tradition, yet the detailing, which has a curious flatness to it, has a freedom that would have not been tolerated back in the day.  Interesting play between textured wall and smooth mouldings.  It is now the office of the local civic society.

Own work: The Temple of Bacchus, Stowe

     Of late I've been rather interested in garden structures, such as follies and banqueting houses, and, slightly tangential, to that the influence English garden structures, such as those by Vanbrugh and Kent had on French Neo-classicists such as Claude-Nicholas Ledoux.  I'm particularly drawn to the over-scaled and dramatic architecture of Sir John Vanbrugh.

     Here is my interpretation of a now lost building by Vanbrugh - The Temple of Bacchus that once stood in the gardens at Stowe, in Buckinghamshire.  It was built in 1719 for Viscount Cobham and survived until the 1920s when it was demolished for the school chapel designed by Sir Robert Lorimer.  I accidentally discovered a photographic illustration of the temple in a book in the horticultural library at Aberglasney.  It was my first I encounter with the building and I was very intrigued - it had drama and heft.  A quality of presence and mystery.  It was, I thought, a suitable subject for a painting, but could find very few other illustrations of the temple, and those were of poor quality or too small.  However I wasn't to be deterred, and so here then, based on those meagre resources, is my evocation of a lost part of our architectural history, our patrimony.  Mixed media, 23 x 46 cms.

An Evening with the CBSO

 Back to Birmingham this week to see family and attend a concert by the CBSO.  It was my first experience of the orchestra playing live and in person, and it was quite the event.  The conductor was maestro Kazuki Yamada and he certainly is a showman.  It was obvious that the concert going public of the city have taken him to their hearts.  There is a real rapport between them.  
    The concert consisted of four pieces: Ravel's 'Mother Goose Suite', Mozart's Piano Concert no.27 - soloist Paul Lewis; and, after the interval, the luscious late Romanticism of 'La Nuit et L'Amour' by Augusta Holmes, and 'Pictures at an Exhibition' by Mussorsgky, arranged by Sir Henry Wood.  The latter was remarkable in its 'piss and vinegar'.  A much more emotional, even irrational, interpretation of Mussorgsky's original piano score than Ravel's more famous arrangement.

Tair Trysor Pontypridd

      The Eisteddfod was our first visit to Pontypridd and we were were rather pleasantly surprised.  By no means as dour as expected.  The site of the Eisteddfod, Ynysangharad War Memorial Park, was trim, well maintained with carpet bedding, lido, bandstand, and a smart bowls club. All a proper municipal park should be. It contains the memorial to Evan James and his son James, residents of Pontypridd, who between them wrote 'Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau', 'Land of my Fathers'.  

     Pontypridd stands at the point where the river Rhondda joins the Taff, making it an important road and rail junction in the South Wales Valleys.  There are, of course, some issues as with any town this size: the road system is understandably intrusive, and disruptive to the urban fabric; the shopping area was, sadly like many, a bit rundown.  In the last few years quite a bit of redevelopment has taken place in the town centre.  I don't rate the architectural quality of what has been done but it has, amongst other things, opened the main shopping street to the river Taff, and that is a good thing.  This part of the development, replacing the 1960s Taff Vale Shopping Centre, consists of three separate buildings: a public library, and two office blocks, one of which houses 'Transport for Wales'.  I had to smile seeing the 'T' logo of Transport for Wales on the roof of the building as it reminded me of the vast illuminated 'T's that decorated the corner of roof of 'Fordson Community Singery' in Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'.  On what floor, I wonder, do the orgies take place?

     Architecturally though, Pontypridd, an essentially Victorian town, has three treasures.  The first is the famous and quite extraordinary 'Old Bridge', a breath-taking leap of stone over the churning waters of the river Taff.  It was completed in 1756, on the fourth attempt.  It is the work of William Edwards (1719-1789), autodidact, engineer, architect and Methodist minister.  I have talked about him before, briefly, in my post about that wonderful bridge by the falls at Cenarth built by his son David.  The Cenarth bridge looks quite traditional compared to this daring design. Strangely enough it looks a bit like a Late Roman/Byzantine bridge, such as the Karamagara in Asia Minor.  Or one of those bridges erected under the Ottoman Empire.  The likeness must be purely coincidental. 

      For the first fifty years or so after opening the 'Old Bridge' stood in open country.  However by the beginning of the 20th century the town had grown rich enough to call in a London based architect, the admirable Henry Hare, to design the new council offices, and a rather wonderful job he made of it.  Stylistically it almost defies categorisation.  Most likely historians will refer to a building of this type as 'Edwardian' or 'Free Style'.  It owes a debt to both Richard Norman Shaw and the Arts and Crafts movement.  As with any building of that period it is exquisitely detailed - the result, I believe, of drawing out the details full scale.  The slate roof is beautifully graded - a delight.  The sculpture is by J D Forsyth.  As you can see below the building does suffer, however, from being on a busy junction.

     Sadly, I have no images of the third treasure to offer you, and it was not at all obvious to us from the street.  It was only when we entered what we thought was just a bakers (we were after the chicken pies), that the full busy (if not chaotic) splendour was revealed.  This is the 'The Prince's Café', a virtually intact Art Deco bakers, café and grill room.  You will have to believe me when I tell you the place is a delight.  Or go there yourself.