Jacobean Splendour at Charlton House

The Open House weekend in London is one weekend every September where buildings across the city are open to the public. It is a celebration of architecture and design and an opportunity to visit places purely based on which school of architecture they represent. When I read in my brochure that Charlton House is one of the finest and only remaining examples of Jacobean architecture in England, I knew straight away that I had to visit.

Built between 1607 and 1612, this splendid red brick building stands in the grounds of Charlton Park. It was initially built to house Sir Adam Newton, tutor to Prince Henry, son of James I but Henry died before the house was completed. The house saw a series of private owners between the 17th century and early 20th century and was sold to the council in 1925 before becoming part of the Greenwich Heritage Trust in 2014.

The house is located just a mile away from Charlton Station and two miles from Woolwich Town Centre.

Charlton House in all her glory. I loved the clock tower.

The house and gardens are really well kept and the walled gardens are definitely worth a visit. On this particular day, our focus was on the guided tours of the interior.

As soon as we entered the house, we wasted no time in climbing the original Jacobean wooden staircase and exploring the upper level. We paused on the landing to admire the perfect lawns to the rear of the house.

The Long Gallery was my second favourite room in the house. True to its name, it occupies the full 76ft length of the north wing of Charlton House and has windows to the northern, western and eastern aspects.

Looking to the north. The north wing of Charlton House was destroyed during World War II so what we see today is the result of restoration work.

The light in the Long Gallery is quite enchanting and I saw many people captivated by it, just as I was. But remember to look up if ever you find yourself in the Long Gallery.

How exquisite is the strapwork ceiling?

We managed to drag ourselves out of the Long Gallery, although we could have quite easily spent the rest of the afternoon there. We stopped only to admire the fireplace in the saloon before wandering through the upper rooms to the Dutch Room and making our way back onto the landing.

We had come full circle – that is the Long Gallery you can see up ahead. To the left in the photo below is the original oak staircase.

Just look at the detail in that wallpaper! There were in fact lovely details all around the house. As we made our way to the library in the southern wing, we spotted these Dutch tiles.

While I loved the rest of Charlton House, especially the Long Gallery, I was simply enamoured by the Old Library. When we walked in, my eyes were immediately drawn to the beautiful ceiling which just happens to be my very favourite shade of teal green.

I somehow managed to enact my old trick of taking photos and making a place appear to be empty. It really wasn’t empty at all on the day of our visit and I was simply very lucky. There was something quite magical about the Old Library and the acoustics were quite interesting too. It is no wonder that lunchtime classical concerts are held here on Fridays and it is a popular venue for weddings and events too.

After a while, not even the allure of new favourite place and endless photographic opportunities could disguise the fact that we were very hungry indeed and that the café just happened to be serving tea and cake. The good news is that Charlton House now often afternoon tea from just £11.90 per person and I’m certain I needed an excuse to take my mum out for the day.

Charlton House
Charlton Road
London
SE7 8RE

Website: Charlton House
House open: 9am to 5pm daily

Charlton House is taking part in London’s Open House on Sunday 18 September from 10am to 4pm. Guided tours will be taking place at 10am, 1pm and 2pm and admission is free.

There will also be performances featuring Nell, a munitions worker from the nearby Royal Arsenal during WWI. Performances are at 11.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm.

Read more »

St Paul’s Bow Common: A Brutalist Masterpiece

London is a treasure trove of architectural masterpieces, showing off the finest examples of every major school of design from Neoclassical to Art Deco to Modernist. There is one school of design that receives less focus, sometimes unfairly so. Born of necessity and a determination to overcome adversity, the Brutalist movement in architecture emerged in the post-war period and lasted right up until the end of the post-war restoration projects in the 1970s. As is suggested in the name, Brutalist structures are often concrete monoliths, ugly in name and ugly in nature.

Yet sometimes they are quite beautiful

I've written before about finding Beauty in Brutalism at the Barbican Estate and I’ve hinted that no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn’t bring myself to appreciate the monstrous complex in Southbank. This post is dedicated to St Paul’s Bow Common which is not only one of the most significant churches built in the post-war period, from an architectural point of view but it is also quite lovely.

Robert McGuire & Keith Murray was a small architectural practice famous for combining Brutalism with the Scandinavian tradition.  St Paul’s Bow Common was the first church designed by Robert McGuire, then still a student at the Architectural Association in London. It was built between 1958-1960 and in 2013 was judged to be the best Modern Church built in the UK since 1953 by the National Churches Trust.

On the day that we visited, I took my friend Bianka along because she is an architectural draftswoman and I knew that she would appreciate it. She wasn’t the only one. I loved how cool it was inside, how the light shone through the skylight and draped itself across the inner walls. This is a place of peace and tranquillity and would have provided a refuge for many weary East Londoners in the turbulent times following the war.

From the doorway, looking inside

Looking up at the star-shaped detail on the skylight

Reflections in the holy water font

Stepping outside to admire the detail in the lintels. There was a gap between the top of the wall and the bottom of the concrete lintel, which allowed natural light into the entrance way.

In fact, natural light flowed into the church from all angles.

The view of the church from the inside looking out to the entrance.

A glimpse of the famous pipe organ.

Charles Luytens’s famous mosaics. You can visit the St Paul's Bow Common website to read about how he considered his works incomplete and returned 43 years later to complete them.

Candles hanging from the alter.

Gazing up at the skylight.

Before we left, we stopped to admire Ralph Beyer’s impressive lettering. Beyer is famous for turning lettering into an art form. The message runs right round the lintel on three sides and says:

“Truly this is none other, But the House of God, This is the Gate of Heaven”

St Paul’s Bow Common is taking part in Open House London on 17-18 September 2016. If you’re still planning your weekend, definitely consider skipping the queues at the more popular venues and heading off the beaten track. St Paul's Bow Common on Open House London.

What do you think? Do you see the beauty in Brutalism or is this a sight for sore eyes?

Read more »

Prague: Walking Vinohrady to Old Town Square

How do you show your love for a city? You can photograph it from every angle, dine along its rivers and tell the world of your love affair. Or you can just walk through its streets and breath it in. When we visited Prague we did just that, we walked wherever we could, taking in the streets and alleyways, parks and suburbs, famous sights and hidden treasures.  It was a wonderful five days that left me with a thirst for more and a definite plan to visit this fantastic city again.

Despite soaring temperatures and barely a shadow in sight, we decided to walk from our hotel in Vinohrady to the Old Town on our first day. On paper it appeared to be about a mile but somehow we managed to walk seven miles on that first day.

Rather than draw you a map of the rather haphazard route that we took, I thought I’d share our journey with you and the sights that we saw.

It always takes me a little while to get a feel for a city. What are the people like? Are they friendly? How modern is the city? What is quaint and what is innovative? The first thing I spotted on our walk was the tram – poor Stephen doesn’t quite understand my obsession with public transport but needless to say, having never lived in a city with an active tram service, I was transfixed by the trams.

We walked down Wenceslas Square and I battled with the sun to get a good photo of the Wenceslas Monument. I knew very little about the Good King Wenceslas, the patron saint of Prague, Bohemia and the Czech Republic but during our trip we learnt a lot about the Přemyslid dynasty, of which he was a part. We would also come to learn a lot about Wenceslas Square and its central part in the fight to overthrow Communism.

We decided to take a slight detour so that we could see Henry’s Bell Tower (known as Jindřišská věž in Czech). The story of the tower is that the church of St Henry needed a bell tower but it was clear that its walls were not strong enough to support the weight of the bells. The decision was made to make a detached bell tower instead.

Henry’s Bell Tower still stands today and is 65m high and was built between 1472 and 1475.

Our detour took us past another tower, this time the famous Powder Gate. The Powder Gate was originally intended to form part of the defences for the adjacent Royal Court but construction halted 8 years after it began in 1475 due to riots which caused the king to flee. It never did serve a defensive purpose and gained its name after it was used to store gunpowder in the 17th century. Look at that beautiful detail.

Adjacent to the Powder Gate is the Municipal House or Obecní dům in Czech.

We decided to escape the heat and the glare of the sun to explore this beautiful building and you can read all about it in Art Nouveau Opulence in Prague's Municipal House.

All too soon, we were out in the sun again and decided it was time to head for Old Town Square. We strolled down Celetná Street which was blessedly shady and took a look at some of the touristy fare.

We finally broke out onto Old Town Square and stood staring at the people and crowds for a very long time.

I finally got my bearings and made a beeline for the famous Astronomical Clock which has adorned the side wall of the Town Hall since the end of the 15th century. As I negotiated the crowds to get a better view, I peered over my right shoulder and saw a very unimpressed-looking husband glaring back at me. It seems that I had rushed off without notice (after dragging him around for several hours) and he was not happy. Realising that it was high time for a beverage and a break, I decided that we’d had enough exploring for the time being.

We walked back through Old Town Square, stopping only to admire these buskers. They were very good.

We then turned into an alleyway at the edge of Old Town Square and found a seat at Au Gourmand.We were incredibly hot and thirsty and both managed to inhale a fresh mint iced tea followed by an orange and ginger homemade lemonade during our short time there. They were both delicious and a great help in cooling us down.

There is no rest for intrepid explorers though and soon we were on our way. As we exited onto Dlouha Street, Stephen was thrilled to spot a classic Coke truck and excitedly send a photo off to his colleagues. I guess you do have to be a bit of a Coke geek to work for a certain company.

We wondered down the streets of the Old Town, walking towards the Jewish Quarter and soon arrived at the exquisite St Agnes of Bohemia church. This wonderful place deserves its own post but I’ll leave you with just a taste of the Presbytery of St Francis inside St Agnes.

That tiny little person in the photo is Stephen and it gives you an idea of how vast the presbytery is.

After our visit to St Agnes, we strolled through the Jewish Quarter hoping to eat at one of the famous restaurants. Despite my heritage, I did not realise what day it was and soon realised it was Saturday when we noted that all of the restaurants were closed! I’m happy to report that it was our only culinary disaster of the trip and we opted instead to head inside the Kolonial for their signature pork knuckle.

We managed but a short walk after our meal but the day was beginning to take its toll on our legs. Feeling rather smug at all we had managed to see in one day, we descended into the blissfully cool Metro at Staroměstská and took a train back to the hotel.

Read more »

Seaside Dining at The Lobster Shack, Whitstable

We’d been for a long walk along the beachfront from Tankerton to Whitstable Harbour and as we rounded the last stretch, we could see Whitstable Harbour. There in the distance, I saw what looked like a large warehouse with the words “restaurant” painted on the roof. If there is one home truth about the sea air, it is that it stimulates your appetite and suddenly eating by the sea front seemed like the best idea ever.

We followed signs for The Lobster Shack and chose to sit right by the water’s edge. I have to admit, for one split second I did wonder why we were the only people sitting outside but my thoughts quickly turned to food and how quickly I could obtain it.

As the wind began to pick up, I hurried inside, pausing only to ascertain whether it was less windy closer to the shack. It wasn’t and so I hurried along. Inside The Lobster Shack it was bustling and full of diners. I was surprised how quickly I was served and placed the order before grabbing drinks and water for Molly the Labrador and heading back outside.

After losing my cup to the wind, Stephen and I settled down to enjoy our drinks and gaze over the sea. Molly tried her best to drink her water out of a pint glass before settling down to enjoy the wind in her face.

When the waitress came outside with our food, she remarked at how brave we were to face the windy conditions. When a local says something like that about any part of England’s rough and windy coastline, it is usually a good idea to take heed but we were simply too hungry.

To start, we shared a half dozen medium Whitstable Rock Oysters for £10, served with lemon, Tabasco and shallot vinegar. My first thought was that the oysters tasted remarkably like shampoo but that was before I realised that the wind had blown half my ponytail into my mouth. Once I perfected holding my hair with one hand and my oyster shell with the other, I was truly able to appreciate the oysters. We knew that we were close to the source because the oysters were simply delicious. We even got to try a few dashes of the Tabasco sauce before the wind blew the container into the sea.

For main course, I tried half a lobster tail served with chili and chorizo for £14.95 and Stephen tried the local skate wing for £9.95, beer battered and served with chips and a homemade tartar sauce. I apologise for the quality of this photograph, what you can’t see in the photo above is Stephen desperately trying to prevent the plates from blowing away and he put in a fine effort.

The lobster tail was absolutely delicious. I had never eaten lobster before but will certainly eat it again. Even though the chili and chorizo could have made the dish quite spicy, I didn’t find it too spicy at all and instead thought it to be very tasty. Stephen enjoyed his skate wing but warned me that he didn’t think I would like it due to the numerous and unusually-located bones. I decided to give it a miss but he said it was very good. We both loved the chips which is unusual because I am super fussy when it comes to chips. We drowned them in vinegar and agreed that they were perhaps the best part.

Once we had finished our meal, we quickly polished off our drinks and were soon on our way. We might have been brave enough to face the wind but even we could not take much more. We turned the way we had come and walked on past the beach huts before making our way home. We even stopped to chat to a lady about the history of the beach hut which you can read about on our walk from Tankerton Slopes to Whitstable Harbour.

I’d certainly recommend The Lobster Shack and the lobster tail was so good that I’d even brave the wind again for it, although I might just sit inside next time just to be sure.

The Lobster Shack
East Quay
Whitstable Harbour
Whitstable Kent
CT5 1AB

Have you ever tried extreme dining? What is the most you have braved for a good meal?

Read more »