Subterms
The procedure for protecting buildings of historic or architectural interest is now 70 years old. What are the flaws of the current listing system and how can it be improved? England’s listed building system celebrated its 70th anniversary this year (the system varies across the UK) with a clutch of additions, such as a London […] More
The history of a nation, a city, or a culture, is written in stone in its cemeteries, and a society may be judged by the way it treats and remembers its dead. In England we have the churchyard – all too often these days with once-handsome headstones stacked irreverently around the perimeter – and the […] More
Between 2014 and 2016 the documentary photographer Martin Parr turned his wry gaze to the University of Oxford. The resulting exhibition and book present a photographic portrait of the university today; laying bare its hidden stories and eccentricities. Speaking at the launch of ‘Martin Parr: Oxford’ in the Bodleian Weston Library, the artist expanded on […] More
There are few better places to be than Provence in July. The sunflowers are in bloom, the region’s cherries are in season, the Tour de France passes through, and there are a number of arts festivals: performing arts in Avignon, classical music in Aix-en-Provence – and world-class photography in Arles. Founded in 1969 by Lucien […] More
The homes of great men and women can sometimes tell us much more than words. Over the last two centuries, many have been deliberately preserved and have become shrines, open to the public and to worshippers. Above all, writers and poets have enjoyed this treatment, what with Burns’s cottage, Walter Scott’s Abbotsford, the ‘birthplace’ of […] More
Sandycombe Lodge, built by J.M.W. Turner in Twickenham in 1812, offers an intriguing glimpse of the painter’s potential as an architect. It reopens to the public on 19 July 2017 following a major restoration project overseen by Turner’s House Trust. Writing for Apollo in December 2012, Gavin Stamp outlined the history of the building as […] More
Bringing together over 300 images, the Irving Penn centennial exhibition at the Met offers a dizzying run through the long arc of Penn’s career. The photographs include Penn’s earliest quasi-touristic photos of various signs and street scenes; vibrant still lives; his fashion photographs from the 1940s through the 1990s; endless portraits (the most notable of […] More
England’s ancient cathedrals are in serious financial trouble, so much so that there is talk of some of them closing their doors (and being allowed to fall down?). The crisis is such that a Cathedrals Working Group has been set up to review the governance and financial management of the nation’s 42 Anglican cathedrals. Huge, […] More
