English Buildings

Second among equals The Vines* is in many ways similar to Liverpool’s magnificent Philharmonic Dining Rooms – it was built for the same brew...

One for Cottonpolis Some of Manchester’s commercial buildings are so vast that they defeat the photographic efforts of a mere amateur with a...

  When size matters I have marked my recent visit to Manchester with a series of posts on three of the city’s small architectural gems – a c...

Church side, market side On the street called North Church Side, hard by Hull’s impressive medieval Minster, is the city’s Edwardian Market ...

  Local speciality Stoke pots, Nottingham lace, Luton hats. In years gone by, many English towns became specialist centres of manufacturing....

Another way I’d seen and admired and scratched my head at Chichester’s Council House on several occasions before my recent visit the other w...

In the vanguard I like to wander around towns and cities, finding interesting buildings, rather than relying too slavishly on guidebooks, bu...

  Distant prospects One of the themes of this blog is the pleasure to be gained from unexpected architectural encounters – those views of bu...

Staggering architecture This is a building that startled me in two distinct ways when I was looking at the wonderful 18th-century clothiers’...

  Palatial The other day I found myself in Trowbridge, strolling around the town centre looking at the rich mixture of industrial and domest...

Matters of taste Kingsmead Square seemed to be the perfect spot for a socially distanced cup of coffee on a recent visit to Bath. Our seat ...

Put your hands together for Mr Matcham… During the pandemic, with its various attendant prohibitions on gatherings and unnecessary voya...

Gigantic Leeds (2) My second gigantic and over-the-top building in Leeds is the Corn Exchange, another enormous structure by Cuthbert Br...

Maestoso, etc I often walk along Marylebone Road and I usually admire the Royal Academy of Music as I pass. The other day I did what I’ve...

Conversion I don’t recall coming across a Methodist chapel so ornately Classical as the one in Burford. The entrance front is in a loca...

Mr and Mrs Atlas Here’s a brief post as I wrestle with a deadline. There are whole books about looking up in London, and rightly so: you ...

Insurance agent's baroque? Here's a building arrestingly adapted to its site, the baroque structure that forms the continuously...

Sculptural practice I know the area north of Oxford Street quite well, especially the bit around Portland Place, home to the RIBA and i...

Back again More than five and a half years ago (sometimes I find it hard to believe I have been blogging for so long) I wrote a post abou...

G'day! The Coronet, Notting Hill Gate, was once my local cinema. I must have passed it hundreds of times and have seen a few movies...