English Buildings

  Feel free to admire Sometimes the purpose of this blog is just to point out things that I like – and I don’t necessarily have much more to...

Mouthwatering This blog is, of course, supposed to be an account of my encounters with buildings, but I’ll include something else occasional...

The far pagodas My recent visit to Leicestershire involved the great pleasure of being taken to a couple of churches I’d not seen before....

The old order This house, which I’ve admired several times when I’ve been driving northwards through the Langtons, a cluster of villages ...

Clothing the world My first acquaintance with Market Harborough was when I was a teenager, during a long and exhausting bus journey acr...

Why I like this This tile panel is on the side of a building in the centre of Lutterworth. The building is now a coffee shop but was clea...

Local interest I know some people who would scoff or at best smile tolerantly if I said I’d made a point of going to Lutterworth. A sim...

Ello, ello ‘I know you’ll like this,’ said Mr Ashley, pointing to the word ‘POLICE’ above the door. And, in spite of the rain, before y...

Geologist wanted: apply within When I passed through Ashby de le Zouch last year it was quite late in the day. There was time only to p...

The exemplary bee I've noted before how bees have been used as symbols of co-operation for hundreds of years, and as symbols of the...

Hygienic, high-style As the traffic moved slowly along Ashby’s main street, my eyes raked the side of the road, looking for a parking s...

Bricklayer’s classical After my recent encounters with garagiste ’s corrugated iron and chunky fragments of railwayana , perhaps this ...

Stockerston Hall You step into a field near the church, walk a few yards and watch the parting clouds that shift to let the sun warm up...

Windows and webs This building in the Leicestershire village of Quorndon was built in the 19th century on the site of an older flour mill...

  --> A place in the sun Long ago when I was a teenager, I occasionally accompanied a relative of mine on journeys to do wi...

Tradition and change During my recent stay in Leicestershire a friend I’d visited gave me directions from his house back towards the county ...

Built to last Just along Granby Street from the Turkey Café described in the previous post is this large Victorian bank. It’s such a show s...

Swans, up I know I’ve gone on about swans on this blog before. About their seductive combination of strength and softness, their place in En...

Regular readers of this blog will have realized by now that it’s mostly about the outsides of buildings. There’s a reason for this, which is...

England is a small and tightly packed country, in which unexpected vistas open up and architectural surprises await one around corners, in v...