Merry Christmas 2013

The Temple Bar - Etching by Andrew Ingamells
reproduced by kind permission of Guinness Flight Hambro Asset Management Ltd.
scanned from the Master's christmas card

Season's greetings and best wishes

from the Master

JAKI

Merry Christmas - 2012

A very happy Christmas and optimism for the New Year

The Clerk

Ian Head

Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects
164 Stockbridge Road
Winchester
Hants SO22 6RW

Tel 01962 869158

the webmaster's contribution to the card

A MASTERLY YEAR … AND IT’S NOT OVER YET!

I always knew that 2012 would be a roller-coaster year, but it’s been positively supersonic … 70 years came on July 23, and I celebrated it in style with a Luncheon Party at the Knebworth House Barns on 7 September, a perfect day with 60 family, friends and Livery Company guests. In a summer of poor weather we were blest with warm sunshine. A highlight was the presence of Joan, Eileen and Stella, three bridesmaids at my parents’ wedding in April 1936. On 18 September I was installed as Master of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects for 2012-3, at Waterrnen’s Hall in the City. Robert Adam, an architect with whom I have enjoyed working over the past few years made generous remarks in his reply to the guests. I’ve almost lost count of the events I have attended through the Autumn, including a charity walk round 40 livery halls, processing in two services at St. Paul’s Cathedral and in the Lord Mayor’s Show, and several black tie dinners. My events began with a visit to the Henry Moore Foundation, my Master’s Reception at the Artworkers’ Guild and a tour of the Royal Courts of Justice led by my cousin, Mr Justice (Sir Gary) Hickinbottom, and we are having our customary Carol Service at St. Lawrence Jewry on 14 December. Then a let up until the machine starts up again in the New Year! As my Consort, I have been fortunate and delighted by the support of my stalwart friend Ann Yorke, who enlivens every event that she attends (and she attended a ‘ladies only’ luncheon hosted by the outgoing Lady Mayor at Mansion House, which included a tour of the private apartment).  

Rewind to Spring 2012, on 31 March, Sheila, my aide for 23 years retired. This has impacted upon my ability to deal with a workload that has not lightened significantly, despite my regularly turning new work away. Happily Sheila and husband Alan have attended several Company events. Rowse also misses Sheila, and is rather capricious as Office Manager, but a true feline friend in times of stress. In April I was keynote speaker at the celebrations for the 75th Anniversary of Greenbelt, Maryland and in July I presented a paper on Barry Parker’s work before and after his two years in Brazil, when I attended the International Planning History Society conference at Sao Paulo. Unusually there are no more trips abroad planned until the Company visit to Finland in May 2013. 

The Olympic Games passed me by, although Ann and I sat through most of the televised opening ceremony in The George at Alfriston, on one of the Glyndebourne weekends. These included a witty production of Rossini’s Cenerentola, Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen, a hyperactive Purcell’s Fairie Queene (particularly the ‘Duracell’-powered bunnies) and (great relief) the best Marriage of Figaro I have ever seen, ingeniously updated to 1960s hippy Seville, with solid sets based on the heritage of Moorish architecture, a tough, credible production, far removed from neo-Rococo chocolate box Mozart (or the perverse modernism of the production that opened the new house in 1994). The pacing, acting and ensembles were up to the best standards. As I write this I am filling in the booking form for next year! 

MERVYN (AND ROWSE) WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY 2013

CAROL SERVICE AND SUPPER

St Paul's and the City - by Frances Farmar

The Company’s annual service of Christmas carols and readings took place at St Lawrence Jewry on the evening of Tuesday 13 December with our Honorary Chaplain, The Rev Canon David Parrott officiating and preaching. The service, kindly put together by Liveryman Paul Weston in conjunction with both the Chaplain and his Director of Music Catherine Ennis was, as always, a delight. Some 60 members of the Company were in attendance.

As seems to be customary David Parrott’s sermon (if that is the right terminology) was based around the visual aids which he had brought with him – white gloves and a tricorn hat. These, he explained, were what City Vicars needed to invest in when they took up their posts as Chaplains to the Lord Mayor of Sheriff. In addition to having to purchase such items it seems that there is a very clear code of etiquette which sets out how and precisely where (geography-wise) they should be worn. The moral of the story was that, in much the same way as such accoutrements rendered their owners ‘fit for purpose’ on those important City occasions, so should we be fit for purpose in God’s service in the City – particularly at Christmas time.

The generously catered buffet supper which followed was again held at the back of the church – a format which allows members of the Company to chat informally with colleagues, guests and friends.

Merry Christmas 2011

2011

Yet more books for your Christmas season reading

I knew it was a mistake to start down the road of promotion of books produced by members of the Company but it is a pleasure to know that we have among our number so many authors.

James Stevens Curl has three offerings (the covers of which are shown alongside):

Freemasonry & the Enlightenment: Architecture, Symbols, and Influences  - this is a new edition to the original based of further research and available in hardback at £45.00 + packing and postage from Historical Publications Ltd, 32 Ellington Street, London N7 8PL. www.historicalpublications.co.uk

 First published in 1993, Georgian Architecture in the British Isles 1714 - 1830 this is a fully revised and newly illustrated guide to the architecture of the British Isles during the reigns of the first four Georges. This is available from English Heritage Publishing Sales, Central Books.99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN. Email: eh@centralbooks.com Price is £45.00 inclusive of a 10% discount and packing and postage.

Also from the Historical Publications stable is Spas, Wells, & Pleasure-Gardens of London. These facilities attracted London Society at all levels from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The book ranges from the simple medicinal wells such as those at Sydenham, to celebrated spas such as Bagnigge, Islington, Saddler's, and Beulah. It then proceeds to the many Tea- and Pleasure-Gardens, small and large, that provided entertainment and relaxation distanced from the insalubrious London air.

The book is available at £25.00 per copy + £4.00 for packing and postage.

And from Stephen Games comes his recently published book Pevsner - the Early Life; Germany and Art.

For two generations, Nikolaus Pevsner was the godfather of modern British architecture. He was a historian, but unlike many historians today, he believed that the modern world should have its day in the sun, and not be forced unnecessarily to defer to the past. This put him at odds with the conservation culture that he helped to create, and there were times, as co-chairman of the Victorian Society, when he had to absent himself from a vote, for fear of going head to head with other members. Where did Pevsner develop this passionate and complex commitment to the new? The British have always taken it for granted that Pevsner was a modern, along with a lot of other assumptions about this honorary Englishman. Now, for the first time, Stephen Games has gone back to look closely at Pevsner’s origins, not as an Englishman, or a modern, or a specialist in architecture, but as a German, a conservative and an art historian. In the first volume of his new biography, Games looks at the tensions that shaped Pevsner’s early life, at the influence of his neurotic mother and the social pressures he encountered as a schoolboy during the First World War, and at the role that art history played in the troubled German psyche in the 1920s and 30s. Based on extensive interviews in Europe and years of research in Pevsner massive archive in California, Games presents a picture of Pevsner’s early life that will overturn many of the comfortable notions we have had about him. “Pevsner – The Early Life: Germany and Art”. Now out in paperback and available from AMAZON

Book - early for Christmas

With the very recent publication of 'A Passion to Build', Liveryman Peter Murray has added to the impressive armoury of talents those of a novelist.

The book, available from the book shop at the building centre in Store street, as an E book or down loadable onto your Kindle is illustrated here and Peter suggests that you might like to purchase copies for your friends and families with a view to spotting the role models for the characters portrayed.

To quote from the back cover:

'A Passion to Build follows the meteoric careers and tangled love lives of two leading architects and their iconic designs for a major international athletics event - the EuroGames' which is to take place in the fading northern city of Frampton-on- Tees. Fampton's energetic and scheming Mayor believes the investment and legacy of the Games will restore some vitality to the once booming economy of the area.

The design teams struggle to create great buildings and have to fend off critics like the conservationist Duke of Frampton who would prefer to see the stadia designed in the traditional style.

The lives of the architects unravel as they compete to design the best building and to win the much-vaunted Frazer Prize. Their struggle reaches a dramatic climax at the spectacular opening ceremony of the EuroGames watched by millions around the world'.

The Blog Master will welcome authoritative reviews of this book.

Merry Christmas 2010

g'ntlm'n & ladies

be so good as to click 'ere below

for your Xmas message

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GkHNNPM7pJA

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Joyeux fêtes 2010

und ein erfolgreiches neues Jahr 2011

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