Day in London

      Back to my visit to London the other week.  The Thursday I spent in London.  There was the RIBA Traditional Architects Group Summer Party in the the evening, and in the morning I headed over to Marylebone for a return visit to The Wallace Collection and Marylebone High St.  It seems now, at distance of a fortnight or so, I regrettably took the whole day at a bit of lick

     The Wallace collection is the most splendid place, full to bursting of all manner of good things, but it is essentially a collection of art - mainly French and Flemish - and decorative art - mainly French and mainly from the 18th century, that is the reigns of Louis XV and the later reign of his grandfather Louis XIV; not, as I stated in my previous post on the collection back in 2016, the 'Grand Siècle'.  The collection contains, therefore, elements of Baroque, Rococo and Neo-classical taste.  In France, I think the terms would be 'Louis XIII', 'Regence' and 'Louis XIV' - the later in particular being a portmanteau term as it includes both the Rocaille and Neo-Classicism.  And here I have to make a little confession or two.  Firstly the contents are not all to my taste, but the craftsmanship throughout is superlative.  And secondly, and perhaps paradoxically, I deeply admire French architecture of the period and (whispers) prefer it to its British contemporary, Neo-Palladianism.  What I admired in the few architectural elements in the collection (mainly fireplaces) was the inventiveness and the combination of gilded metal (bronze, I presume) with polished stone.  To be honest, as regular readers of this blog may notice, these examples of sophisticated, polished French design may sit in some sort of contradiction with the sort of stuff I regularly post, which seems to be more about the humble, the domestic and the patinated.  (These two pictures are from my previous visit)

     All that aside, I also wanted see again the Guardis in the collection.  Antonio Guardi (1712-1793), verduisti, is considered the last practitioner of the Venetian School - in fact the Most Serene Republic lived on for a mere four years after his death.  I prefer his work, which is lively and 'impressionistic', to that of his near contemporary, Canaletto.  Guardi was possessed of a certain 'sprezzatura'.  I find his capricci rather an inspiration for my own work.  Alas, I missed the Bonningtons, but (as last time) my eye was caught by two exquisite early 19th century French oils by Decamps and DuPre.  It's not a period I know particularly much about but these two beauties tempt me to explore.

     Well, after all that, it seems fitting that Marylebone High St is the centre of London's French community.  Eventually I found myself in Daunt Books w its wonderful Edwardian interior.  I really shouldn't be buying books - we simply haven't the space - but I did treated myself to a copy of the travel writer Robert Byron's 'The Station'.  An account of his visit to Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain, the great spiritual centre of Orthodoxy.  More of that, perhaps in a future post.

Bewdley

     Just back from a few days away in Bewdley visiting with my family.  As I written here before Bewdley is a rather a gem; small and trim, standing on the w bank of the river Severn in the north of Worcestershire with a little of the jaunty vulgarity of the seaside resort.  I really won't bother you with further superlatives, except to say a visit is well worth it. As is a trip to the Severn Valley Railway in the town.  The restored station is delightful. Both town, station and have been used for location filming; in particular they have been used for the 1970s adaptation of Charles Dicken's 'The Signalman', and the 1980s adaptation of Masefield's 'The Box of Delights'.  

St George, Stamford I

      Before I moved west one of the minor projects of this blog was to visit and document all the Medieval parish churches in Stamford. At the time only one remained 'unblogged': St George (if you exclude the remains of St Paul's church which now forms part of the chapel of Stamford School).  Whereas the other medieval churches in Stamford are open daily, St George's rarely seems to be open outside service time.  I'm tempted to ascribe this to the parish's evangelicalism I'm not sure that would be an entirely fair assumption.

     St George's is small, and low - in both senses of the word.  It barely makes any impression on that wonderful Stamford skyline from the Meadows.  There are probably those totally unaware of the church's existence, its presence being so unassuming.  It stands, the shy focal point of an irregular urban space called St George's Square that is lined with some really delicious houses.  The churches of St Mary, and All Saints stand in similar urban contexts and form some of the best architectural ensembles in Stamford.
      The exterior of St George's is the work of four building campaigns (there is older work inside).  Sometime in the midst of the 15th century church was rebuilt under the patronage of the first Gatrer King of Arms William de Bruges. The curious tower a mixture of the Medieval and the late 17th century, and in the nineteenth century there were two restorations.  The first under Edward Browning rebuilt the chancel and added the w porch and in the second J C Traylen enlarged the structure (those transept-like outer aisles).  Thankfully both architects working with the Perpendicular style of medieval church.

'A Severed Head'

     Currently reading Iris Murdoch's 1957 novel 'The Sandcastle', so last night, and faced with our almost daily struggle of an evening to find something decent to watch, and scanning the shelves of the bf's dvd collection my eyes lightened upon the Indicator edition of 'A Severed Head', the 1970 film version of Murdoch and J B Priestley's stage adaptation of her novel of 1961.  Directed by Dick Clement, with a screenplay by Murdoch, Priestly and Frederick Raphael, and a quite stellar cast - Ian Holm, Richard Attenborough, Lee Remick, and Clare Bloom etc.  You would have thought with all this talent the result  would have been a quality cinematic experience.  You would, however, be wrong. It was, instead an utter shambles, with little if anything to redeem it. Murdoch thought the film 'terrible'.  She was not wrong. Best avoided.

A Severed Head

1970

Director                 Dick Clement
Cinematogrpahy  Austin Dempster
Producer               Denis Holt, Elliot Kastner, Alan Ladd Jr

Walk around Stamford

    A hop and a skip from Peterborough by train is Stamford.  My last visit was six years ago.  As readers may know I lived near by this remarkable town and visited regularly.  I shopped there in preference to Peterborough.  It seemed much quieter than I remember it, more like the atmosphere of nearby Oundle or Uppingham.

     Stamford is one of the greatest stone-built towns in England, if not the whole UK and I do recommend a visit. If you're a tourist staying in London it is is quite an easy thing to pop-up on the train (NB you will have to change at Peterborough).¹ You will be amply rewarded.

1 Two small travel tips: 1) be aware that it may well be cheaper to break down your journey rather than pay for a single return journey - I saved about 50% on my fare to Stamford by paying for the two legs of the journey separately i.e. two singles for the journey between King's Cross and Peterborough, and a return for the journey between Peterborough and Stamford. 2) It may well be cheaper to travel by express from King's Cross to Peterborough and not on a slower stopping train.  Booking in advance also helps to keep the cost down.