Your Places or Mine

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This week John and Clive present their long-awaited podcast on one of the most essential but least discussed rooms in any dwelling – the lavatory.  Or (because no object in English or any other language is subject to so many euphemisms and circumlocutions) the necessary, the little house, the smallest room, the going place, the jakes, the john, the pissing place, the bog, the toilet…the list goes on.  Although it fulfils a universal need, the loo has taken many forms over the centuries, being subject not only to technological innovation but social change.  Today’s norms were not always those of the past.  Did multi-seater conveniences provide users with the chance to talk to friends, or do they reflect the discipline of monastic or military life – to be frequented only at certain times and in a regulated manner?  From the magna cloaca of Ancient Rome to Sir John Harington’s funny but laboured book on the first water closet, via the Victorian sewers (which Clive has visited) beneath London, ypompod shines a light on a subject that, in some respects, cannot be too private.  Warning: the episode may contain schoolboy humour, however much John and Clive have attempted to avoid it.

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Sir Francis Dashwood, who used to dress as a Franciscan monk and allegedly took part in orgies in the ruins of Medmenham Abbey, was one of the most notorious libertines of the 18th century.  Is this a correct depiction of his character?  John thinks not.  Instead, he acquired his dubious reputation as a result of slurs cast by his political enemies, which Sir Francis, who didn’t care what anyone else thought about him, chose to ignore.  His refusal to stoop to the level of his opponents has meant that some of the mud has unfairly stuck.  But he can now be reexamined as one of the Georgian period’s most fascinating and complex personalities, who among other achievements, published a book of common prayer for ordinary people with his friend, the American statement Benjamin Franklin. 
Today, Dashwood’s reputation as a dilettante is kept alive by his country house, West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire, owned by the National Trust but still lived in by Dashwood’s family.  His mentor was his guardian, John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, who built Mereworth Castle in Kent as a homage to Palladio’s Villa Rotunda in the Venetian.  Dashwood employed several architects to create not only a splendid house with, unusually, different facades that could be read independently, but a fine landscape park well-stocked with follies.  The dazzling interiors of the house are so rich that no subsequent owner has seen fit to replace them.   They survive as an extraordinary document of 18th-century taste and ideas.

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In this episode of Your Places or Mine, Clive Aslet and John Goodall head west to Exeter Cathedral, one of England’s most distinctive medieval churches. From its extraordinary uninterrupted Gothic vault — the longest of its kind in the world — to its weathered towers and richly layered history, they explore how this cathedral grew, adapted and survived centuries of change. Along the way, they swap stories about bishops, builders and bold design choices, uncovering why Exeter feels so different from other English cathedrals — and why its quiet brilliance deserves closer attention.

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2025 celebrates the rebuilding of the Bank of England by Sir Herbert Baker – if celebrate is the right word.  It remains one of the most controversial projects in 20th century architecture.  Baker’s name has been irredeemably blackened for his presumption in destroying the Bank of England created by Sir John Soane a century before.  Clive and John revive the debate, describing the history of this great symbol of British finance and might, asking whether Baker has had a fair press.  
While Soane’s vanished interiors were a masterpiece, the financial operations of the British state had hugely expanded during the First World War.  Baker admired Soane but what was he to do?  The options were not favourable to conservation.  Baker was himself a Classicist and saw himself as speaking the same language as Soane.  Moreover, although a man of Empire, he was also – paradoxically perhaps – deeply committed to the Arts and Crafts Movement.  His Bank of England became one of the greatest commissions for sculpture and the decorative arts of its time. 
Baker’s reputation was blackened by his erstwhile friend Lutyens, with whom he fell over over New Delhi.  Is now the time to redeem it?

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This is the time of year when thoughts turn to mince pies, Christmas shopping, mulled wine – and chimneys, whether it is to settle around a roaring hearth or hope that Father Christmas pays a visit.  So John and Clive are turning their attention to the development of this architectural form, beginning with the appearance of walled fireplaces in the Norman period.  Chimneys reached a zenith of fantasy under the Tudors, when astounding feats of decoration were achieved by means of the novel building material of brick.  The invention of more efficient grates in the Georgian period led to another kind of design challenge, while the Victorians capped the countless chimneys which spread coal smoke over cities such as London with a myriad of pots and cowls. Which type of chimney is Santa’s favourite?   As this episode of ypompod reveals, he is spoilt for choice.