Hail to this volume. Inexplicably under the radar but gold standard team work on the 19th monograph within the heroic Survey of London.

Those hands. Caravaggio’s St Jerome in the cathedral in Valletta.

Think the (excellent) Grasshoppers, congenial hotel looking over the station rooftops, is safe? Please confirm if you can.

My in-house lawyer is with you

Fool alert. Within recent days I told someone, oh so authoritatively, that John Carr of York built most of Valletta. Turns out I meant Porto. If it was you, I grovel.

Remember Fleet Street? Spot the heritage building and public space [sic] and weep.

Shout out for bookishness and encouragement for scribblers?!

In Apollo Magazine, November 2018 I wrote about self loathing on the South Bank, the baleful failure to consider listing the Brutalist complex. Finally, I can breathe a sigh of relief.

In Apollo Magazine, November 2018 I wrote about self loathing on the South Bank, the baleful failure to consider listing the Brutalist complex. Finally, I can breathe a sigh of relief.

These boots aren’t going anywhere. Nice tale of Trumpian non delivery as reported by AFP.

These boots aren’t going anywhere. Nice tale of Trumpian non delivery as reported by AFP.

Honest repair?

today’s Times v today’s FT

35 years on and the Eagle Farringdon is packing them in on a clungy (old Suffolk dialect, fwiw) Monday lunchtime in February. Genius. Raising a glass to Mike.

So important. What they say is not the story. That is never the story. What happened is the story. Write what happened.

Demonstrators as far as the eye can see. Current status of the march in Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota for Ice Out of Minnesota. They are turning onto 3rd Street from 5th Avenue.

Jesse Armstrong, such a good DiD. Catch it.

Make sure you read about Temple Works, Leeds in my roundup of heritage at risk. It is a super important maverick building and is in urgent need of a sustained plan of action. It is my own favourite C19 building - call me eccentric why don’t you.

Just making sure that 2025 is definitely over

Here’s a New Year. The stove wins a special commendation.

Tiny panel painting, done on the spot. Young Constable did many of these - an instantaneous and vivacious record of where his eye led him. For me the Tate Britain Turner-Constable exhibition stand-outs. See what you think?

Erasmus programme returns to UK. Hugely welcome.

The glory that is Rousham garden. Be aware, its peerless landscape setting is facing a serious threat.

Just when I thought I couldn't admire the man more... 🎯 🎯 🎯 💯 💯 💯 👍 👍 👍

Terrific talk by Selena Daly at Camden Library (local history) on Cesare Bianchi, chef, who epitomised the experience of expatriate Italians in the UK through both wars.

Terrific talk by Selena Daly at Camden Library (local history) on Cesare Bianchi, chef, who epitomised the experience of expatriate Italians in the UK through both wars.

Backlisted - an anchor to intelligent life. Mine was the 28th, a wee while earlier.

Will Wiles in Apollo nailing Jim Stirling’s Cambridge History Library as it undergoes a careful refit. Lovely piece, kicking off with Summerson.

Read Colin Thubron’s eulogy to Gillian Tindall in Spitalfields Life. And celebrate her rare insight.

‘It would take us until the 22nd century to make the world noticeably fuller of people. But we can already see the way falling birth rates affect national politics and economics.’ David Runciman on the depopulation problem. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Rachel Cooke. Gone. I can’t believe it. Best of a very good bunch.

Boris Johnson says the idea that criticism of the BBC is being organised by the right is ‘complete and utter bollocks’, which makes me think there might be something in it.

November 5, 2025 open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

Just learned that the firm responsible for the new Cairo museum also designed the Giant’s Causeway museum in N Ireland - Heneghan Peng. Strange but true!

‘A model of social responsibility’: almshouses in the modern age - Apollo Magazine. Said it then, and now duly recognised and awarded.

So good to hear that WWM’s Appleby Blue won the big prize! I wrote about it (and Lord Leicester’s hospital, Warwick) in Apollo, February 2024. Fantastic clients too.

Well deserved plaudit for BBC director Peter Symes in Last Word on Tony Harrison. A real partnership, pioneering horse and carriage for poetry on television.

Repurposing to follow? Treviso.

Glorious Titian panel at the Scoletto (little Scuola) at San Antonio Padua. Look carefully. It is sublime.

Perfect place to eat a Monday evening meal. Trattoria al Bersaglieri, Padua. OTTIMO.

And here it is. Considered Giovanni Bellini’s masterpiece

This is how the Fondazione Querini Stampali has chosen to welcome home its exquisite Giovanni Bellini. Outrageous and inexplicable.

And in Leiston, the inspired Long House Museum, where Richard Garrett delved for many decades. Other Garretts (at Snape) include Elizabeth and Millicent. What a family.