Gwyn's speed folly-hunting trip around Scotland takes him to Ross & Cromarty... Sir Hector Munro's folly was built to commemorate his own heroism: a replica of the Gates of Negapatam, an Indian stronghold he had captured from the Dutch on November 12th 1781 after a four week seige. After twenty years ... Read More...
Architecture
Gwyn has been on a speed trip folly-hunting round Scotland. The itinerary was carefully scheduled and every minute was accounted for. Here's the first of two Scottish folly posts: a visit to Banffshire... This sophisticated, rigidly classical monopteros is said to have been designed by William Playfair in 1788, although it ... Read More...
In this series Philip Wilkinson – author, architectural historian and denizen of the wonderful English Buildings Blog – takes us on a journey round some buildings with rather unlikely creators… Charles Francis Annesley Voysey was one of the great domestic architects of the Arts and Crafts movement, famous for his low-slung, ... Read More...
In this series Philip Wilkinson – author, architectural historian and denizen of the wonderful English Buildings Blog – takes us on a journey round some buildings with rather unlikely creators... Son of a tradesman and grandson of a refugee Flemish merchant, John Vanbrugh began his career as a soldier, won a ... Read More...
On your day to day travels about town, have you ever had an epiphanic moment – an instant when you've seen something as you’ve never seen it before? Bryan Appleyard writes about this in his book, The Brain is Wider than the Sky. He talks of the concept of ‘vuja ... Read More...
A special treat for Francophiles and lovers of art and architecture... These wonderful images are taken from a new book Catherine Brennand’s France. Catherine was an award-winning water-colourist with a special love of architecture. Diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2002 she continued to paint full time through two courses of chemotherapy before ... Read More...
Gwyn visits 'the Taj Mahal of Wales' and recalls a remarkable impromptu lunch cooked by none other than the late, great Fanny Cradock... We slouched into a pub last week, the Clytha Arms on the old Abergavenny to Raglan road. There were more dogs than people in the stone-flagged bar, and I ... Read More...
Gwyn Headley visits a magnificent folly 'built by the ghost of Sir Christopher Wren', where he was once marooned as an infant by his wicked siblings... Hampshire’s finest folly — the biggest, the most impressive, the oddest — is unquestionably Peterson’s tower at Sway. Andrew Thomas Turton Peterson was born in ... Read More...
Travellers in need of a good night’s sleep are hardly likely to want to stay at the nearest station hotel. And, if you’re a regular commuter, you certainly won’t relish the thought of a room that looks out onto a station concourse… These are some of the reasons why I ... Read More...
Gwyn Headley must have a claim to being the leading authority on British follies - those purposless pieces of architecture that contribute so much to the greatness and gaiety of the nation. He has recently published the definitive guide Follies of England, available in a series of county-by-county ebooks from ... Read More...
