Your Places or Mine

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Few houses better convey the opulence of Edwardian country house life than Manderston in the Scottish Borders. Built in the first years of the 20th century, it is an exquisite work of the scholarly architect John Kinross – which has always been kept up to the high standards set by Kinross’s client, the racehorse owner Sir James Miller.  Clive reveals a particular affection for Kinross because he knew his son, also called John Kinross, when the latter was an old but sprightly man with many memories to share – as well as because Manderston was the subject of one of his first sets of country-house articles for Country Life.
Sir James had married Eveline, a daughter of Lord Scarsdale of Kedleston Hall, in Derbyshire, a masterpiece by Robert Adam which finds its reflection in Manderston.  But if the architectural style is Adamesque, the decoration by Charles Mellier and Company often strikes a French note.  Entirely of its time, however, is the staircase, whose balustrade is plated with silver.  There was a marble dairy to keep the milk cool in the Scottish Baronial home farm.  Given Sir James’s interest in horses, it is no surprise that the stables are splendid. But this was also the age of the first motor cars, much feared by some as an agent of change – which indeed it was.
Not that Manderston itself has changed very much: it still perfectly conveys the domestic priorities of the Edwardian age, when country houses more comfortable than ever before.

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The fascinating city of Norwich, capital of Norfolk, was one of the richest town in England during the Middle Ages.  The cathedral dates from the early Norman period, as does the Castle which has recently been magnificently redisplayed.  As Britain’s preeminent historian of the architecture of the Middle Ages, John has of course been to see it, and provides a superb commentary.  Clive does his best to keep up by describing a Victoria roller-skating rink which now houses a gallery of Asian textiles and craft. 
Norwich is still remarkable for the density of its churches, from mighty St Peter Mancroft overlooking the market square to St Julian’s, where the anchoress Julian of Norwich was immured (her Revelations of Divine Love are the first works in English literature attributed to a woman).   The painters of the Norwich School of watercolourists – once revered and collected, their works are now akin, in terms of popularity in the market, to the brown furniture they would have sat on – can be studied in the Castle museum.

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Alnwick Castle in Northumberland is one of the most spectacular castles in England, an immense fortification that guarded the border with Scotland for centuries.  The Percy family who built it had almost king-like power over their territory – and were not above rebelling against the king himself: the impetuous Harry Hotspur was killed fighting against Henry IV at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, while his wily father feigned illness.  John describes the history and setting of this formidable building, its battlements still lined with statuary figures of warriors (probably 18th-century) to repel enemies.  
In London, the Percys owned Northumberland House, demolished in the 19th century, and employed Robert Adam to turn the old nunnery of Syon House into a spectacular neo-Classical villa, using decoration in the style of the recently discovered ruins of Pompeii.  Adam was also employed to decorate Alnwick but his scheme was swept away in the mid 19th century by Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland, a man so solemn he was known as the Doge.  The principal interiors were sumptuously painted and gilded in the Renaissance style that the Duke had seen on his travels in Italy.  For this he employed the Italian architect Luigi Canina who used Giovanni Montiroli as his assistant.  John and Clive are very nearly lost for words at the magnificence of the result – but (just as well for the podcast) not quite!

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Trafalgar Square has long been regarded as the centre of London.  It wasn’t always. John describes its medieval configuration when it was still countryside – hence the name of James Gibbs’s church St Martin in the Fields. This was where Richard II kept his hawks in the royal mews.  A square was proposed by the Prince Regent’s architect John Nash but not in the form we have it today.  The proximity of a barracks kept public order.
What about the monument that dominates Trafalgar Square today, Nelson’s column?  Clive has the story of its slow journey towards completion, and the disappointments suffered by its architect William Railton.  Since then, the square has acquired fountains designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with Art Deco sculpture – replacing ones by Sir Charles Barry that were fed from an artesian well. Within living memory, Trafalgar Square used to be a traffic island, cut off from the National Gallery by a busy road. Now it can justifiably be called the beating heart of the metropolis.