Send us a text

Sir Francis Dashwood, who used to dress as a Franciscan monk and allegedly took part in orgies in the ruins of Medmenham Abbey, was one of the most notorious libertines of the 18th century. Is this a correct depiction of his character? John thinks not. Instead, he acquired his dubious reputation as a result of slurs cast by his political enemies, which Sir Francis, who didn’t care what anyone else thought about him, chose to ignore. His refusal to stoop to the level of his opponents has meant that some of the mud has unfairly stuck. But he can now be reexamined as one of the Georgian period’s most fascinating and complex personalities, who among other achievements, published a book of common prayer for ordinary people with his friend, the American statement Benjamin Franklin.

Today, Dashwood’s reputation as a dilettante is kept alive by his country house, West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire, owned by the National Trust but still lived in by Dashwood’s family. His mentor was his guardian, John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, who built Mereworth Castle in Kent as a homage to Palladio’s Villa Rotunda in the Venetian. Dashwood employed several architects to create not only a splendid house with, unusually, different facades that could be read independently, but a fine landscape park well-stocked with follies. The dazzling interiors of the house are so rich that no subsequent owner has seen fit to replace them. They survive as an extraordinary document of 18th-century taste and ideas.

Send us a text

In this episode of Your Places or Mine, Clive Aslet and John Goodall head west to Exeter Cathedral, one of England’s most distinctive medieval churches. From its extraordinary uninterrupted Gothic vault — the longest of its kind in the world — to its weathered towers and richly layered history, they explore how this cathedral grew, adapted and survived centuries of change. Along the way, they swap stories about bishops, builders and bold design choices, uncovering why Exeter feels so different from other English cathedrals — and why its quiet brilliance deserves closer attention.

Send us a text

2025 celebrates the rebuilding of the Bank of England by Sir Herbert Baker – if celebrate is the right word. It remains one of the most controversial projects in 20th century architecture. Baker’s name has been irredeemably blackened for his presumption in destroying the Bank of England created by Sir John Soane a century before. Clive and John revive the debate, describing the history of this great symbol of British finance and might, asking whether Baker has had a fair press.
While Soane’s vanished interiors were a masterpiece, the financial operations of the British state had hugely expanded during the First World War. Baker admired Soane but what was he to do? The options were not favourable to conservation. Baker was himself a Classicist and saw himself as speaking the same language as Soane. Moreover, although a man of Empire, he was also – paradoxically perhaps – deeply committed to the Arts and Crafts Movement. His Bank of England became one of the greatest commissions for sculpture and the decorative arts of its time.
Baker’s reputation was blackened by his erstwhile friend Lutyens, with whom he fell over over New Delhi. Is now the time to redeem it?

Send us a text

This is the time of year when thoughts turn to mince pies, Christmas shopping, mulled wine – and chimneys, whether it is to settle around a roaring hearth or hope that Father Christmas pays a visit. So John and Clive are turning their attention to the development of this architectural form, beginning with the appearance of walled fireplaces in the Norman period. Chimneys reached a zenith of fantasy under the Tudors, when astounding feats of decoration were achieved by means of the novel building material of brick. The invention of more efficient grates in the Georgian period led to another kind of design challenge, while the Victorians capped the countless chimneys which spread coal smoke over cities such as London with a myriad of pots and cowls. Which type of chimney is Santa’s favourite? As this episode of ypompod reveals, he is spoilt for choice.

Send us a text

In today's episode of Your Places or Mine, John is joined by the inimitable Charles Saumarez Smith who divulges all he knows about the architect Sir John Vanbrugh in anticipation of the 300th anniversary of his death. Discover the remarkable life and legacy of Sir John Vanbrugh — playwright, architect, and one of the most unconventional figures of the English Baroque. From his daring comedies to his groundbreaking designs like Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, John and Charles explore how Vanbrugh’s bold imagination reshaped both the stage and the skyline. Join us as we uncover the wit, ambition, and controversies behind a man who refused to live—or build—by the rules.

Send us a text

The founding of the Georgian Group in 1937 was a milestone in the movement to save beautiful architecture. With an anniversary around the corner, Clive and John discuss how the Group emerged from the parent organisation, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and why it was needed. They reveal the extraordinary extent to the destruction inflicted on Georgian London after the First World War. Not even town palaces, Georgian square or the works of the Adam Brothers, notably the Adelphi, were spared.

Whereas SPAB’s interests were principally medieval and rural, the Georgian Group’s were metropolitan and post-1714. It required a heroic effort to get it going. The idea originated with the much put upon journalist Douglas Goldring, before catching the imagination of various grandees, including Lord Derwent; Robert Byron served as a brilliant propagandist. Clive shares some of his own experience as the Founding Hon.Secretary of the Twentieth Century Society (the called the Thirties Society) to illuminate some of the issues. The Georgian Group was a media success – but demolition on a scale previously unimagined came, courtesy of the Luftwaffe, during the Blitz. With new challenges after the Second World War.

Send us a text

Last week’s Your Places of Mine celebrated the rebuilding of the House of Commons after the original interior was bombed during one of the last raids of the Blitz. This week, Clive and John consider the Palace of Westminster, otherwise known as the Houses of Parliament, as a whole. After the old Palace had been all but destroyed by fire in 1834, Charles Barry won the competition to rebuild it, producing a building that may have shortened his life but is surely one of the herculean achievements of the Victorian age. With the help of the superb designer of Gothic ornament, AWN Pugin, he produced a building that is both deeply traditional in its style and iconography and intensely modern in the technology that underpinned it. The glorious, theatrical composition of turrets, pinnacles, and rich tracery purposefully evokes the virtues of an idealised medieval past, in the hope of inspiring the legislators of the present day.

Only two years before the fire, the Great Reform Act had been passed. Until that point much of the governance of the country had taken place in the splendid homes of the aristocracy, so the state of the Houses of Parliament may not have concerned them unduly. The new building would be equipped with all the amenities that Parliamentarians could find in their London clubs. It was at the same time more sumptuous and more middle class.

Innumerable statues and paintings of saints, heroes and kings reminded post-Reform politicians of the standards they were expected to live up to. The Lords chamber was always richer than that of the Commons – a contrast made all the greater when the Commons was toned down after the Second World War. But the greatest richness of all was reserved for the monarch.

What does it mean? How was it all done? What does the future hold in store? The subject is almost endless but Clive and John manage to do it justice in just an hour!

Send us a text

On May 10, 1941, an incendiary bomb destroyed the seat of British democracy, the chamber of the House of Commons. This was not the first time fire had struck the Palace of Westminster: most of it had already been rebuilt after a disastrous fire of 1834, caused not by enemy action but the burning of obsolete tally sticks – a medieval system of accounting which symbolised the antiquated nature of the place. Seventy-five years ago the House of Commons reopened, and John has joined the celebrations that are marking the anniversary.

This could have been an opportunity to reshape the Commons entirely, making it obviously modern. That was not the approach favoured by Sir Winston Churchill. In particular, he wanted the chamber to remain, as it had been before, slightly too small. This meant that it would still be crowded when important debates were held, heightening the drama and sense of occasion. The architect chosen for the work was Sir Giles Scott, famous for the Anglican cathedral at Liverpool as well as Battersea Power Station, the University Library in Cambridge and red telephone kiosks. Scott designed the chamber we have today in a simplified version of Gothic with modern elements, whose practical if not workaday character heightens the contrast with the House of Lords, where Pugin’s ornament drips with gold.