Oxford Street and the roof garden at John Lewis.

When people ask me if I want to go to Oxford Street I normally reply that I'd love too but I'm having red hot needles pushed under my fingernails that day and that will be much more pleasurable. I can't stand the place - it has all the shops you get in Bromley and is crowded to the point of madness. However when John Lewis recreate their first shop and open their roof garden to the public I am rather compelled to go. John Lewis started life as a draper's apprentice but when he mastered the trade branched out on his own. His son John Spedan Lewis entered the family business but after a fall from his horse where he had to spend two years recovering, tried to involve the workers in the control of the business. He did this by settling shares on employees as part of their remuneration and eventually all the workforce became partners in the business. The term Partnership is a misnomer as the company is really a PLC but all the employees are owners. I'm still not convinced it's really a co-op but I think they try quite hard at democracy, but also too at paternalism. The roof garden was lovely though.

Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the Most Glorious and Undivided Trinity - Trinity House

Trinity House had one of its rare open days today so I went along to see it. Commemorating 500 years this year, Trinity house is the lighthouse authority for England, Wales and the Channel Islands but also looks after mariners and their dependents who have fallen on hard times. They inspect local navigation aids too. Their palatial hall is not often open but was used as the Austrian House during the Olympics of 2012. Today however was access some areas and notices exhorted visitors 'Do not attempt to open this door'. As you would expect all is of the finest quality - there are Trompe-l'œil ceilings and painted ceilings, wonderful carpets and all in all a tremendous place to carry out the business of preserving life at sea.

The Cambridge Vampire - Ronald Seth tells this story so it must be true...

Although he chooses some odd names for the characters and some odd phrasing as we shall see. In the late 1920s a a Peter Grimes (let the reader understand the name) lived in Peterhouse College, Cambridge and had ground floor rooms overlooking the disused graveyard of St Mary the less (or Little St Mary's Church) from the west end. One night he didn't sleep due to scratching on his windows and a fellow student told him about the reputed vampire in the churchyard - the only one left in England. There was nothing near the window to cause any scratching, no trees or bushes and anyway the scratching stopped when he turned the light on. A friend suggested that mice might be a possibility but the scratching sounded like glass so mice behind the skirtings were unlikely to make that noise.

 
A picture of the west end of the churchyard today - note the vampiric looking cat. 

 Anyway poor Peter Grimes got teased about this as it became common knowledge. But thankfully the scratching also died down. Come the day before All Saints Day, called, with no prayer book justification, all hallows even, when the dead are reputed to walk the earth (although how would they know what day it was when they are not bound by time as we are?). Grimes went to bed as normal but the scratching began again. This time when he put the light on it didn't stop. Grimes found himself drawn to the window, or so he said whilst in hospital in a state of severe shock. He thought it was the boys from the town making a nuisance of themselves, or a fellow collegian having a 'rag' [practical joke]. He went to the window and the scratching intensified, and started to be accompanied by grunts as if the entity was becoming excited. Grimes shouted at the thing to go away or he would call the porter. the thing became more excited at his words. Grime's hand went to the window catch and found himself opening the window. A clawed hand grabbed his wrist more like an eagle's talons than fingers. He caught a glance at the creature's face which had intense eyes and a mouth with two large fangs protruding from it. Grimes stated it could not be a mask. The marks on his wrist lasted a year and, until he graduated (in Seth's words) he was 'as nervous as a highly strung hare'. And here is a picture of the range of rooms in Peterhouse College viewed from the church yard.

Ely - warts and all.

It is certainly true that I once saw a tourist information site that said Ely was a meteorite in the middle of the fens that made sure that Ely women were exceptionally buxom and Ely men especially well endowed. I must say that the Ely women and men looked perfectly normal to me. And it isn't a meteorite, it's a block of Kimmeridge clay. Anyway Ely lies about 20m above the normal fenland although the fenland is shrinking year by year as it dries out.  Ely is the setting for the story in Tales of the Unexpected called 'the Flypaper' by Elizabeth Taylor (no not that one).  From that era at the very beginning of Thatcher's reign, it has the atmosphere of a sleepy cathedral town where nothing much happens, surrounded by fenland where anything could happen.  You'll have to watch the thing yourself on youtube but it is a genuinely terrifying story and the look of fright and hopelessness as the protagonists sit down to tea needs to be seen to be believed. Ely's riverside has now been developed with cocktail bars and all sorts of thatchery things, including some interactive works of light sculpture (it sez 'ere) like this one called Sluice.

 Ely's most famous resident is Oliver Cromwell once the Lord Protector of England. The Tourist information centre is set up in his old house. However he only inherited it from his uncle in 1636 together with property in the East of England and the right of farming taxes for the bishop. THe house is truly old and dates from the 13th Century, with some wall paintings concealed behind panelling in the parlour where an introductory film is shown. From there we move into the kitchen where we look at Elizabeth Cromwell's recipes. I definitely want to make a sack posset containing as it does cream and sherry. Then it is up to the bedroom where we get to try on puritan hats, helmets, clothes and stuff, while hearing about how the church was changed by Charles. Moving on into an armoury we learn about the civil war and the equipment of Cromwell's soldiers. We arrive in the study and have to decide if Cromwell is a hero or a villain. Perhaps I'm a little too balanced because, although he did some good things, and a lot of our freedoms today were hard won by the civil war, I think the circumstances of the 17th Century caused a lot of desparation: the stuarts were particularly bad rulers and anybody would have wanted to rise against them. If anybody doubts me compare the Stuarts with the Hanoverians. We see Cromwell die in White Hall and learn that his head is buried in Sidney Sussex College. So overall, Cromwell's house is an interesting hour. Not so the Ely Museum, the former bishop's gaol again from the 13th Century. The Court in classical style looks better than this ordinary looking house. The exhibits are chronological and rather a lot is made of the use of the building as a gaol. The culmination of Ely is it's cathedral with octagon, tower tours and stained glass museum. I arrived there rather too late to take any advantage of it so contented myself with looking at the sculptures and some of the window glass. Hans Feibusch and Jonathan Clarke have sculptures in the lobby. Hans Feibusch's Christus @The arms outstretched in welcome show the wounds of crucifixion; the face shows the strength of the compassion with which Christ looks on the world.' Jonathan Clarke's The Way of Life 'is made of cast aluminium and has nine sections, each differently jointed. Like the journey of faith, its path is irregular and unpredictable; and just as the journey is sometimes hard, sometimes joyful, the surface texture and colour also vary.' Some of the windows were dedicated to commercial concerns in the town. I noticed Barclays Bank and British Railways Board. The cathedral outside is stunning too.

There was no evensong in the Cathedral today so I had to go elsewhere for that, which was a big disappointment.  Still it gave me more material to blog.  Watch this space.

Mill Hill

On one side of the Ridgeway all is suburban, on the other can be seen the unspoilt countryside of what was Hertfordshire - or you could if somebody hadn't put up a six foot fence! Still Mill Hill village is pretty although the Broadway isn't. There are some old almshouses of 1696 overlooking a duck pond and another sheep wash pond, really just leftover gravel workings. There are some cottages, a former Quaker meeting House and of course there is Mill Hill School. Founded for protestant dissenters it is now open to all who can afford the fees. The buildings designed by William Tite and the gate of honour is in memory of the former students fallen in World War one. The church was built by William Wilberforce and is fairly plain. Not open when I called it has some interesting glass according to Arthur Mee. There are no pictures but St Joseph's missionary college and its associated convents etc (a very Roman Catholic area this in spite of the school) seem to be being turned into luxury flats.

King's Lynn Hanseatic port

To commemorate Europe day I visited a port in an earlier version of European union: Kings Lynn. Beginning at the 17th century customs house I walked through the old merchant's town of Lynn.  Formerly the Bishop's Lynn but now since Henry VIII's time it is proudly King's Lynn.  This is not a post about the early Hanseatic league but the later one - although the meadieval town was well established as a port I am taking a later view - the sophisticated 18th Century town with its town walks and terraces.

The river is the place to start as that is where the ships come in. You will have to imagine it thronged with vessels because although King's Lynn is still a working port the river is not deep enough for ships of today. The Custom House with it's fine display of Hanseatic merchantmen and customs implements is my next call. The Custom House is on the Purfleet which is a small inlet now but in Hanseatic times was about 3 times the width providing a safe harbour. After that it is off down King Street to see some merchant's houses and their warehouses. And very fine these are too with all kinds of candy twist balusters possibly eccentric but delightful all the same. Lastly Hanse house holds an indoor market of antique-y crafty things that have seen better days and a fairly popular tea room. I had a lovely day in King's Lynn although the charity shops were very poor, and was rather unsure of the eateries so went for the 'safe' option of Wetherspoons, although in a meadieval house. Much more on King's Lynn later in the year.

Wythenshawe - Manchester's garden town

It's a long journey from the slums of Manchester to the not-quite garden city of Wythenshawe.  Not quite garden city because the suburb for seventy thousand people was never intended to be self contained.  Thanks for this blogpost must go to all at William Temple Church especially Stephen, Tony and Andy who made me feel so welcome and took great trouble to show me round their 'turf'. So it would be fitting to at least begin with the start of Wythenshawe in 1926. Wythenshawe began almost by chance when Ernest and Sheena Simon bought Wythenshawe Hall in 1926 and presented it to Manchester 'for the public good'. Alderman Jackson persuaded the Council to buy 2500 acres of farmland to plan a garden suburb council estate. Specifically rejecting the Vienese solution of flats Alderman Jakson brought in Barry Parker from Letchworth as planner and architect. The innovation in Wythenshawe was neighbourhood units with shops, churches and the usual amenities in neighbourhoods rather than all travelling to the centre for the civic amenities. This is demonstrated in small parades of shops in the communities although schools seem a little more haphazard. The main shopping centre is a bit small for an estate of 70000 people. But it has an Asda superstore (formerly the Co-op) and some of the shops such a town needs.  There is also the forum which has childcare, a library and a sports centre including swimming pool.  The theatre that it once had has gone, as nobody really wanted to see plays in Wythenshawe. 
The other innovation was parkway roads to separate traffic and pedestrians, although this is rather less effective. The housing on the estate is quite modest: in the early parts of the estate the feeling is cottagey, often with mansard roofs to economise on bricks, interest provided by occasional gables on the ends of terrace blocks. The later post world war two houses are a bit more ambitious but a lot more uniform with fewer twiddly bits. However for the Manchester slum dweller the gorgeous, green surroundings with blossoming trees (I came to Wythenshawe in blossom time) this new world must have represented a paradise, although they might have found it hard to get to work - it's a long way to the city centre, something that cars would alleviate in the post war world but not for all. Some tenants did dread being sent to Wythenshawe as it would make their commute to work a nightmare, although there were some factories there from day one. However even as others abandoned the people to their fate the Church did not. The first church to be built was St Michael and All Angels Lawton Moor. And what a church - unique in its star shape and with a huge concrete cross on the top it was designed by Nugent Francis Cachemaille-Day who we met at St Saviours Eltham. The church and adjacent vicarage was built in 1935-6. The East window is filled with hand painted stained glass showing angels - 128 panels plus the smaller panels at the top, each showing one or two angels. That's quite a lot of angels! The slender concrete columns support the roof and a huge chandelier and the whole church is surmounted by a concrete cross. It's a wonderful building. The choir stalls are very plain and simple in style: They look as though they are made of plywood but they are quarter sawn oak, the most expensive cut of oak. The outside of the church is hard to photograph but take it from me it still looks good after all this time.

William Temple Church had the foundation stone laid in 1963 and was consecrated in 1965 so it celebrates 50 years next year 2015. Designed by one of the most influential modernist church Architects, George Pace, the church is opposite the Wythenshawe Forum and Civic Centre in the heart of the town. We met George Pace's work with the bell tower at Chester Cathedral, but this church is exceptional. The font is firmly in the centre of the church in front of the sanctuary. The congregation sits in four blocks using pews reclaimed from a previous church with hassocks in a striking modernist design. The new fittings for the church use black iron looking rather spiky and what appears to be limed oak.  Attending the morning service the space works quite well with decent acoustics and accomodation for the whole congregation round the altar rail.  The church is pleased to offer baptisms to all and weddings to those eligible.    So all in all a worthwhile visit to Manchester's take on the garden suburb.

Clapham Workers of all lands unite!

Some pictures of Clapham - the Bread and Roses and the RMT

Sydenham - respectable suburb.

Compelled to roam over the surface of the world by Die Blogenleser the wanderer Rechthardt came to the roof trees of Sydenham.  These houses are certainly made of the roof trees and look as though they have been there since just after the war, although they might be 1960s hippyish but not I suspect 1990s ecohomes.  

Entering the Sydenham Wells Park the wanderer learned from the Rheintöchter that when the London County Council laid out the park in 1900 they had laid out a watercourse in the shape of the Rhine as a tribute to the local German community.

Wandering down the Rhine with the maidens and and dwarves sporting in the summery meadows and basketball courts and no doubt getting into some power dramas over gold the wanderer came to a fountain - a large boulder but it was switched off.  Oh for a Moses or the action of Psalm 105 41

By now the wanderer's feet were aching due to new boots and the staff wasn't holding up so well either so this called for a new direction.  

In this place there were strange beasts, possibly one of them was Fafner and it looked as though a smith had been active with the railings.  And so the wanderer awaits a Siegfried to slay the terrible beasts lurking in the undergrowth and pools.

Driven by hunger from the open country the wanderer  came to the town of WestwaldHügel but the inhabitants did not look kindly on the wanderers request for a smoked salmon sandwich and they did not have it.  And so the wanderer returned to the wanderer's dwelling but did not go into the tavern because a football match was in progress.

Milton Keynes

Arguably the last new town, Milton Keynes is as old as I am.

Certainly not as old as the rocks on which she sits MK (as maybe we should call it) is also very different aesthetically from other new towns as you can get. The church of Christ the Cornerstone is a joint venture between all the mainstream churches in England not just protestant but also including the RCs something that certainly didn't happen at Harlow or any other new town I've been to. The Cornerstone cafe was closed when I called.

The MK art gallery was presided over by quite a handsome young man who thrust a leaflet into my hand giving details of their exhibition. 

And quite an exhibition it was. Not too many real treasures although my dad would have gone for the Aston Martin DB4 sports car but the items were not junk either. Artists included Tom Chadwick Derek Jarman, Thomas Gainsborough, Picasso and Maggie Hambling. To be fair there were a lot of schools represented too. So when you've seen the church and the gallery what else is left - and the reply to that has got to be 'not much'. There is a lot of public art in the town centre, not a patch on Harlow's, but it's not that good and no post about MK would be complete without a shot of concrete cows! There is a pleasant park which has some sculptures but central MK is all about the shops. There are pleasant places to live in round about but couldn't spare the time to visit them today.

Kingsbury bristol- suburb of imagination.

I think it was Bristol.  It might be York or perhaps Durham with little alleys going down to the river.  The two houses with the mosaic gardens and the mosaic walls depicting willowy maidens in the Arts and Crafts rational dress style. The hillside shops the dark stone alley running down to the river, the steep hillside, the forked station road, the dereliction.  Our life experiences conspire to build suburbs of imagination and dreams. Historical enough but also and up to date, with spacious garden surrounded dwellings for a dignified life, but with the bustle of the town.

No pics- it doesn't exist. But I have added a picture of beauty in suburbia.

Luton Harpenden and St Albans

Shopping on the Bed-Pan line. Luton is the town with a great history of riots and burnings from ex servicemen burning the Town Hall because they were excluded from peace celebrations in 1919 to muslim idiots burning poppies in protest about some war they didn't understand. I went to Luton in the hope of good shopping and a day out and was pleased to find that the train far had been reduced from £13 last time I went to about £8 for the day return. This must be the only reduced fare on the network so get it before the company notices. I didn't stay very long in Luton but went on to Harpenden which is much nicer. It's a fairly big village with some historic buildings.

Bushey

Suburbs can conceal real wonders as we have learned before on this blog.   Bushey was the home of an artists colony established by Hubert von Herkomer a member of the Royal Victorian Order who had a school in a house called Lululand. He also produced film and promoted motor racing so he seems like my kind of artist - not much of an ascetic. After he got tired of the school he sold it to another artist called Lucy Kemp Welch who sold it back to Herkomer after a while. Ms Kemp-Welch had a memorial gallery in the church hall but this was closed in the 1980s due to insurance problems. No matter: Herkomer's and Kemp Welch's pictures are now kept in Bushey Museum which is in the former town hall.

When I called in the museum there was an interesting exhibition that I called Sheldon Cooper's Fun With Flags. This was a display of flags put up by the inhabitant of one of the houses in Bushey to celebrate various national occasions. There were quite a lot of flags although the Swiss flag was not square as it should have been. There was local history too and a memorial to William Schwenk Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan. The best bit of the museum was undoubtedly the paintings. Lots of late nineteenth and early twentieth century paintings although there was one described as a town in East Anglia which I thought represented Uxbridge. The gardens of Lululaund have been converted into a beautiful rose garden although not so lovely in January.

Middlesbrough and Hartlepool

I worked in Middlesbrough for the worst four years of my life! Middlesbrough started its life as a railway docks town of the Stockton and Darlington Railway called Port Darlington. Incorporated as a borough in the 1850s the prime minister at the time called it an 'infant Hercules. Until very recently there was a firm called 'The Ownere of the Middlesbrough Estate' who had their offices in the place with the columed portico in the picture. The Owners of Middlesbrough did not, at the end, own Middlesbrough but they did at the begining. I called in Middlesbrough on a Monday and most of the newly built cultural places were closed. Hartlepool is a place that was used by the writers of Coronation Street to write out charachters who usually said they were improving their job prospects by moving to Hartlepool. I'm not sure that they could but I think that's a case of irony in soap operas. Hartlepool is the home of Andy Capp. 'Nuff said! Andy Capp The old part of Hartlepool has some historic buildings like St Hilda's Church.

From Travels around London

St Hilda's Church

Billericay

A long walk in the Essex town was supposed to be interesting but it wasn't.  There are lots of historic buildings in the high street and an interesting 18th century brick church with a clock commemorating Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.

Ipswich - Urbs veteris

I hope it's not the onset of senility: I said to the custodian in the museum that I'd never been to Felixstowe before. But I had a good day none the less in the oldest town in England (it sez 'ere). The first thing that greets you when you come to Ipswich proper from the station is the Willis Faber Building - a black glass walled building housing a firm of solicitors that like impressive buildings - they are also in the former Port Of London Authority building. The first commission of Norman Foster after establishing Foster Associates it was the youngest building to be given grade 1 listing. This certainly makes a statement in what is a meadieval town but the black glass reflects the older buildings and is a pleasant blend of old and new. The museum is also a blend of old and new too with a proper Victorian natural history display, including a woolly mammoth and these bad boys. The whole museum has some interesting artifacts, including a scolds chair and a gallery devoted to Thomas Clarkson an Ipswich man who campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade. Not all the galleries looked like this. The Co-op department store in Ipswich has alas been closed down. But there is an Age Concern charity shop in there, and I'm glad I went in because they had limited edition prints of the store, done for the 120th anniversary of Ipswich Society in 1988. Five years later the Ipswich Co-operative Society merged with Norwich and twelve years later East Of England Co-op was formed from societies in Essex and East Anglia. Sadly the department store business isn't what it was and these vast co-operative palaces had to close. You can see pictures here. Ipswich is under catered foodwise but has three Wetherspoons! I ended up in the Golden Lion which had nice food. After lunch it was time to call in at the Christchurch mansion and the Wolsley Art Gallery which contained some great art and artefacts displayed to advantage in the historic house. I particularly noted the Great Hall had some half doors which I thought unusual. Ipswich does not neglect its famous sons: Cardinal Wolsley is honoured by a statue in front of his birthplace although the plaque is rather back handed in its compliments. Although not as protestant as Lewes Ipswich is firmly puritan. Aother Ipswicher to be honoured is a rugby playing pilot, Prince Obolenski who has his statue in Cromwell Square. Ipswich worth a return, although might do Lowestoft and Felixstowe...