Embroidery in brick
Although famous for its stone-built colleges and churches, Oxford in the 19th century became a city of brick. Vast brick-built houses – some Gothic, some "Queen Anne" – fill the grander streets of North Oxford. Smaller brick terraces line the streets off the Cowley and Iffley roads in East Oxford. And out beyond the station is a further group of small streets near the river in the area known as Osney. Some of these are built of brick in more than one colour, and here the builder has addressed the issue of what to do with the blank wall at the end of a terrace in a refreshing way.
The effect recalls one of those fabric samplers that young women used to use to demonstrate their embroidery skills. Unlike the multi-coloured samplers, though, the "stitches" are in only two colours, in rows of patterning that continue the strips of red and buff on the fronts of the houses. It's effective, even if the positions of each strip have more architectural relevance on the fronts, where the patterned bands relate to such structural details as the tops and bottoms of windows. The numbers of the date, which start off confidently, run out of steam when it comes to the final 5. But full marks for trying, and for enlivening an unregarded corner with a bold bit of folk art.
Actually as a knitter I would say the pattern is less like a sampler and more like fairisle where the rule is you must not use more than two different colours in any one row. It's charmingly inspirational, I may see if I can knit it!
ReplyDeleteCatherine: Thank you for your comment. Yes! It is like fairisle. It would be wonderful if you could knit it, and I am pleased to know that the post has proved inspirational.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Catherine re: fairisle and would love to see her efforts too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, VK. It would be great if lots of people could knit this design!
ReplyDeleteSince all the builder has to do is order so many bricks in a different colour, it's a wonder more construction in brick doesn't use this opportunity for ornamentation. In some housing estates, the gable walls are a positive insult in their completely austere plainness - you can see in Belfast, for instance, why they provide such a canvas for political artwork. There seems to be an unspoken rule that if you build in brick you have to build with complete austerity in stretchers in one colour only: but I remember houses in Nechells, Birmingham, with terracotta panels and brick dentillation under the roof - ordinary people's houses, but built in the 19th century. Medieval cathedrals in North Germany are built in brick, but aren't plain - some with exquisite gothic detail. Why can't niches with blind arcading, for instance, be machine-made for gable walls or large blank spaces? Apart from anything else, the bricklayers would finish quicker!
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