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The Ordnance Storekeeper’s House + The Command House Chatham Kent

Moonshine

The Command House, right at the water’s edge and nestled below the tower of St Mary’s Church high on the hill behind, commands long distance views across the River Medway on the approach from Rochester to Chatham. Following a half a million pounds restoration by Stonegate Group, the largest pub company in the UK, it has flung open its eight raised panel triglyph frieze and modillion corniced fluted Doric pilastered door to customers. A bar and restaurant fill the piano nobile and spill out onto the garden stretching across to the river.

Built in the opening decades of the 18th century as The Ordnance Storekeeper’s House for Chatham Gun Wharf and later used as officers’ housing, The Command House is a fine example of the Queen Anne style. The symmetrical river facing façade is a parapeted two storeys over raised basement in height and five bays with single bay flanking lower wings in length. The red brick elevations have stone dressings.

But it is the side elevation overlooking the carpark which has the most interesting feature. An open lunette. It is set in the colossal chimneystack rising over the valley between the double piles of the roof. Sir John Vanbrugh was master of the lunette, void and chimneystack. He brings his sense of drama to all three in Kings Weston House, Bristol. The architect of The Command House is not recorded but clearly had a strong command of the classical architectural language.

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Isabel Restaurant Mayfair London + Bathrooms

The White and Gold Stuff

Recollections may vary but we’re pretty sure we didn’t make it to Bar Isabel in Buenos Aires (the Gatsbyesque Four Seasons not to mention Algodon Mansion, Atlantico, i Latina and Milión have a lot to answer for) so her sister in Mayfair is a non negotiable destination. Chilean nightlife afficionado Juan Santa Cruz took Palermo by storm six years ago and while Mayfair has plenty of competition, the heat turned up with Isabel’s arrival. We want to thrive not just survive; to do not just be.

It’s all about fusion. Lunch is a Latin Mediterranean mélange, from scallops and halibut to burrata salad and Delica pumpkin. The interior is Art Deco Chinoiserie eclecticism. We all know the best place to be at a straightforward shooting party in a country house is in the bathroom. Ditto, darling, Isabel. All six bathrooms are embellished head to toe or at least ceiling to skirting board in de Gournay hand painted gilt to the heels wallpaper. They have to be seen to be believed.

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Architects Architecture Art Design Developers People Town Houses

Annabel Karim Kassar + The Lebanese House Beirut

Saving a Home Saving a City

This is a photographic record of French Lebanese architect Annabel Karim Kassar’s installation recreating part of the façade of the late 19th century Bayt K House, a traditional Ottoman era building in the historic quarter of Gemmayzeh, Beirut. While undergoing restoration in 2020 by her architectural practice AKK, Bayt K was damaged by the Beirut Port explosion. Sarkis Khoury, Director General of Antiquities in Lebanon’s Ministry of Culture, confirmed that at least 8,000 historic buildings were damaged in the explosion including Bayt K House and the Palais Sursock. The latter, also dating from the 19th century, is located in Achrafieh and is one of the country’s grandest residences. Disrupted but undeterred, the architect has worked with Beiruti craftspeople using traditional Lebanese materials both to restore Bayt K and to recreate the house’s triple arched façade and entrance divan as a showpiece.

Nathalie Chahine and Fadlallah Dagher explain in their 2021 publication Houses of Beirut 1860 to 1925, “A very typical element of the houses, as in houses of Bilad al-Sham more generally, was the lwan or liwan. This is a room opening onto the courtyard through a wide arch.” Annabel states, “I believe the human-centred approach to designing interior spaces found in traditional cultures still has much to teach the modern world.” Her designs combine a modernist vocabulary with the language of traditional Arab, Berber and Ottoman culture and craftmanship.

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Architects Architecture Country Houses Luxury People

Eltham Lodge Royal Blackheath Golf Club Eltham London + Hugh May

Come What May

Eltham Lodge was designed by Hugh May and built in 1663 for John Shaw, 1st Baronet, banker to King Charles II,” introduces John Bunney, former Captain of Royal Blackheath Golf Club. Eltham Lodge is the clubhouse. “It is May’s last surviving newbuild. The only trace of his wing at Windsor Castle is a now internal window. Eltham would originally have had transom and mullion windows but was Georgianised by the 4th Baronet Shaw. Some of the sash windows are a panel lower inside. There are no remaining drawings or letters by May although John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys wrote about him extensively.”

The distinctive and deep timber bracketed eaves are a strong exterior feature, resembling Beaulieu House in County Louth and the demolished Eyrecourt in County Galway. “Eltham is similar in scale and appearance to three famous buildings in The Hague: The Huygenshuis, The Mauritshuis and The Sebastiaandoolen.” John notes, “It is possibly the first Flemish bond brick building in England. The porte-cochère on the garden front is a later addition.”

If a building is mentioned by the two scholars Nikolaus Pevsner and John Summerson, it’s worth visiting! “Eltham is very much a domestic house, not a grand palace, built in the clean air away from the plague and fire of the city,” he explains. “In the 1960s the cupola was removed – there may have been a rooftop terrace originally. In 1663 there were five dormers on each roof plane which can be seen in early drawings and as evidenced in the timberwork of the roof. These have been since reduced to two on each elevation. The formal gardens with fruit trees and the tapestries in the Great Chamber have all gone.”

Grinling Gibbons joined Hugh May’s team: his offset Great Stair is fully preserved. “In 1893 Eltham Lodge became a golf club,” finishes John. “But the ethos of a house in the country has been retained. May’s mantra was ‘Let one room be turned to perfection and the rest to convenience!’” The King’s Bedchamber and East India Library on the first floor overlook the entrance. The architect went for broke at Eltham Lodge with suites of rooms turned to perfection.

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Architects Architecture Country Houses Design Luxury People

Sudbrook Park + Richmond Golf Club Petersham London

All Square

The English Country Home edited by Vanessa Berridge was published in 1987. Despite its title, Sally Phipps writes about Mount River, a country house in County Kildare which would later be bought by the Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. She notes, “The owners… worked with the architect John O’Connell, who is becoming to Irish houses what John Fowler was to English ones: many have benefitted from his keen appreciation of individual atmosphere and history.”

On an off-duty visit, John casts his unrivalled eye over Sudbrook Park, now Richmond Golf Clubhouse, Petersham. The outer London village is synonymous with Petersham Nurseries, the garden centre with a restaurant which has become the restaurant with a garden centre. Wealth is in the air. Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner observe in The Buildings of England London: South, 1983: “Petersham, for its small size, is unusually rich in fine houses of the late 17th century and 18th century whose dates and ownership require further investigation.” Grade I Listed Sudbrook, built to the design of James Gibbs, is the finest.

James Gibbs is a member of that exclusive club of architects whose surnames have become adjectives. Gibbsian, Corbusian, Miesian, Palladian. O’Connellian will come. The South London guide continues, “The enviable clubhouse of the golf course is the house by James Gibbs built in 1726 for the Duke of Argyll and Greenwich (the grandson of the Duchess of Lauderdale of Ham House). Nine bays, brick and stone dressings. Basement, main and upper storey. Slender segment-headed windows with aprons. Brick quoins, parapet. The main accent on the garden as well as the entrance side a giant portico of Corinthian columns with frieze and raised balustrade, projecting only slightly in front of the façade, so that the space behind the columns is actually a loggia. On the entrance side the effect has been spoiled by a tall extension forward of the portico. On the garden side a splendid open stair towards the entrance, starting in two flights parallel with the façade and then joining up into one. The plan is typically Palladian. The centre is a cube room which runs through from front to back portico. The other rooms open out from it, and on the upper floor have to be reached from the small staircase. The cube room is luxuriously decorated: giant coupled pilasters, coved ceiling, marble fireplace, doorways with very finely designed heads and pediment – Gibbs at his most baroque.”

“The garden front portico is in antis and so shallow it doesn’t rob the Cube Room of light and prospect,” explains John. As for the 10 metre Cube Room: “Everything is resolved. It’s a robust ensemble. James Gibbs’ workshops would have pulled all of this together and produced presentation drawings for the client. The stucco work is so emphatic. The subtle beading of the coupled Corinthian pilasters is very Mies van der Rohe in its attention to detailing!” Sudbrook Park has been the very grand clubhouse of Richmond Golf Club since the end of the 19th century.

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Architecture Art Country Houses Design Hotels Luxury People Restaurants

Updown Farmhouse Deal Kent +

Girl

Cheesy puffs; pumpkin ravioli with sage butter; potato, Lancashire and chanterelle pie; clementine polenta cake with whipped cream. And Updown Cooler: Dolin Blanc, Cocchi Americano, Muscadet and a splash of Crème d’Apricot. The walled garden of a 17th century farmhouse on the edge of Deal, the prettiest salty aired town in Kent by a country kilometre, is the serene setting for sampling a new Anglo Italian seasonal late night dinner menu. Grade II Listed Updown Farm was bought by couple Oli Brown (Chef) and Ruth Leigh (Hostess) in 2021 who had both built their careers in hospitality in London.

Over to Oli, “We looked in Somerset, we looked in Norfolk, but it just felt like we had roots here in Deal and we knew the area. It’s so close to London too. Also Deal is just such a cool place. It’s thriving and this property is just unbelievably beautiful so that made our minds up for us. The garden is enclosed by incredible woodland so it feels very remote and peaceful. Updown Farmhouse is unusual but it’s going to be a lovely place to be in, eat and to stay.”

Kent isn’t exactly short of upmarket places to be in, eat and to stay, but there’s always room for one more. Here’s a completely authenticated list so far of the Garden of England’s finest. Friendliest pub: The White Horse, Dover. Most atmospheric pub: The Lantern Inn, Martin. Oldest pub: The Rose Inn, Wickhambreaux. Best pub with restaurant: Fordwich Arms, Greater Canterbury. Best pub with rooms: The Rose, Deal. Best binational restaurant: Frog and Scot, Deal. Best cheesy restaurant: The Cheese Room, Rochester. Fanciest restaurant with rooms: The Pig, Bridge. Most seaswept restaurant: Deal Pier Kitchen, Deal. Most London-on-Sea restaurant: The Table, Broadstairs. Most exclusive restaurant: The Dining Club, Deal. Most missed: The Black Douglas, Deal. Boy.

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Hôtel du Petit Moulin Paris + Christian Lacroix

We’re Here for The Ride

“Welcome to the Hôtel du Petit Moulin! We would like to thank you for your confidence and for choosing our hotel during your visit in Paris. Le Marais is full of history, wonderful shops, galleries, museums and restaurants. In fact, the building in which the hotel is set was originally the first Parisian bakery. This is where Victor Hugo would come to buy his baguette! Today, the original shop frontage remains, reminding guests of its former past as a ‘boulangerie’, protected under French Heritage. Make yourself at home, relax and enjoy a quiet drink at the honesty bar open from noon to midnight or head to the spa of our sister hotel, the Pavillon de la Reine, situated in Place des Vosges, just a 10 minute walk away from her and available to all our guests. Have a lovely stay with us.” Luc Guillo Lohan, The Manager.

Heaven’s in the detail and the Hôtel du Petit Moulin delivers from bookmarks and business cards to brass door keys and petite boxes â picorer. Highlights of the room service from Restaurant Chez Nenesse on nearby Rue de Saintonge include entrées: salade des queues de langoustines (Dublin Bay prawn salad); plats: fillets de bar aux fines herbes (sea bass fillet, sauce with fine herbs); and desserts: mousse et sorbet chocolat sauce pistache (chocolate mousse and sorbets with pistachio sauce).

Filling a pair of 17th century buildings which couldn’t be more pre Haussmann Parisian if they tried, the ground floor was once a bar and a street corner bakery. Victor Hugo’s house on Place des Vosges is just around the corner. As Monsieur Lohan notes, the former bakery still retains a hand painted glass shopfront. There are just 17 guest rooms. One bedroom on the rez-de-chaussée. Four on the premier étage. Four on the deuxième étage stacked in the same layout as below. Four stacked on the troisième étage. One on the étage intermédiaire. Three on the quatrième étage. The architecture is full of original quirks from fragments of timber structural beams to windows floating between floors. The interior is absolutely fabulous Christian Lacroix sweetie darling.The haut couture designer clearly had a lot of fun dreaming up this Louis XV on an acid trip décor. The colourful chaos of the montaged découpaged toile de jouy in the main rooms contrasts with the calm of the white marble bathrooms. Top floor Room 402 is the largest guest suite and angles into the street corner with the best views, taking in a sweep of chimneys rising above the buildings lining Rue de Poitou and Rue de Saintonge. The mirrored ceiling provides an altogether different view, not least of the shagpile carpet. “Early to bed, and you’ll wish you were dead. Bed before 11, nuts before seven,” shrieked Dorothy Parker in her short story for The Little Hours for The New Yorker, 1933.

Nowhere does acronyms better than cultural Paris. MAD (Musée des Arts Décoratifs) is hard to beat. MAHJ (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaisme) is exhibiting Erwin Blumenfeld’s photography. The Festival of (captured Light in the City of Light.