Month: February 2025

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Hotels Luxury People Restaurants

International Media Marketplace 2025 Lunch + Queen Elizabeth II Centre Westminster London

Exquisite Requisite

The QEII represents travel at its best. Life is all about luxury not plain sailing. Turning everything on its head, we’re now in an upside down ziggurat. We’re at a second floor summit. The TravMedia one. All aboard for the finest portmanteau in the city. At the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster “The world is represented here today” as Louise Napier so eloquently points out. Betwixt the roofscapes of the peerless spireless Westminster Abbey and a very freshly gilded Big Ben it’s all happening. Lunch is a prerequisite of our position.

Louise is Managing Director of TravMedia UK. She observes, “As we step into 2025, the travel industry continues to thrive with many travellers seeking richer, more meaningful experiences. Sustainability, authenticity and technology are shaping the future of travel and media coverage. Conversations around these themes will be at the heart of this year’s event. I like to stand back and watch the handshakes, hugs and connections!” Lunch is sponsored by Destination British Columbia. Bordered by Alberta to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west, British Columbia is Canada’s westernmost province.

It’s a truly international event with representatives from Austin to Zürich, Denver to Düsseldorf, Pas-de-Calais to Pleasure Beach Resort. The cuisine is convincingly Canadian. Maple infused endive, cucumber and apple salad. Canadian potato salad. Mushroom bao. Ginger and soy prawn bao bun. Crab mac and cheese. Blueberry cobbler. Apple tart. Rosie Oliver of Destination British Columbia tells us, “Vancouver has a fresh mild summer unlike other north American cities which can be hot and humid. And of course, Vancouver is surrounded by oceans, mountains and rainforests.” Our Louis Vuitton luggage is packed.

Et puis? Confiserie fine à la réglisse et au miel: délicieuse spécialité de Montpellier. Merci beaucoup, Montpellier Méditerranée.

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Art Design People

Design Museum London + Bethan Laura Wood

In Colour

It’s the inaugural show in a new and important annual display at the Design Museum called Platform. In another first, it’s British designer and artist Bethan Laura Wood’s debut solo presentation in a UK museum. After graduating from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Design Products and setting up her eponymous studio, Bethan qucikly gained a cult following and global reputation.

The exhibition is split into three sections: Desire, Adornment and Hyperreality. Desire focuses on Bethan’s fascination with how we connect with everyday objects, fusing collectability with usefulness. Adornment explores her use of ornamentation and pattern. Hyperreality is about natural versus humanmade: a Kaleidosopeorama carpet incorporates a graining appearance, a decorative technique used in the Regency era to imitate expensive hardwoods. The interior minimalism of the former Commonwealth Institute has never looked so colourful.

“I am really excited to be able to show in this beautiful space and to be able to give it a taster of the different kind of ways in which I interact with design in my practice. You’ll see in this show industrial works where we have things like the Rosenthal pieces I have done to one-off sculptural works. It’s a real honour to be able to show what I love to do and be able to share the nuance of some of the things that don’t always get seen when you are showing final pieces.” So says Bethan. A chair design for French company Tolix follows the shape of Elizabeth I’s bodice. There are even the design concept drawings for her collaboration with Perrier-Jouët at Masterpiece London Art Fair 2019.

Bethan reclines amidst one of her pieces, Terrazzo Quarry – a sort of psychedelic Giant’s Causeway. “I designed these soft interactive sculptures specially for this display,” she relates. “The three giant rock shapes with ‘super fake’ precious stones showcase the terrazzo pattern I created for the design company Poltronova. I love objects that tell a story, especially ones that connect very much to their time and place.” Immersed in her sculpture and wearing her own fashion design, Bethan is a living artwork.

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Art Design Luxury People Restaurants

Maison François Restaurant St James’s London +

Baby Eats Shellfish

It’s a Saturday between Saturdays, the ordinary time of late winter, the hinge between the great Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter. Duke Street off Piccadilly is best known for aristocratic period art galleries like Moretti but more recent arrivals – if not quite breaking the mould – are stirring the mix. White Cube, a contemporary art gallery, suitably white and appropriately cuboid, opened in 2006 in Mason’s Yard which is tucked behind Duke Street.

Virginia Overton’s new body of work called Paintings is the current exhibition. It’s an exploration of the relationship between architecture, sculpture and painting. A series of low relief wall compositions is assembled from salvaged industrial materials gathered by the artist. Virginia’s reconstructions reflect both artistic legacy and functionalist origin in the space and shape of canvases. She employs line, form and colour to reinterpret Modernist sculptural traditions through the idea of painting. Plenty of food for thought then and then the thought of food. Across the street.

The Honourable François O’Neill was brought up on the 400 hectare country estate of Cleggan Lodge near Broughshane in County Antrim. The house was built as a shooting lodge for nearby Shane’s Castle, the seat of his grandfather’s cousin Raymond Lord O’Neill. On 8 October 1960 Woman’s Mirror ran a feature on the owner of Shane’s Castle. “Raymond Arthur Clanaboy O’Neill, for years one of Britain’s most eligible bachelors, has just about everything a girl could wish for. He is 4th Baron O’Neill, descendant of the Kings of Ireland. He loves parties, jazz and vintage cars, and likes his friends to call him Ray. He owns estates in Ireland and Leicestershire, and runs a garage in Belfast. How he has avoided the clutches of Mayfair’s husband hunting debs and their mothers is a mystery – and an achievement.” Three years later, Raymond would marry Georgina Scott, eldest daughter of Lord George Scott who in turn was the youngest son of John 7th Duke of Buccleuch.

Back to the younger O’Neill. François spent childhood summers with his mother Sylvie’s family on the Côte Sauvage. His father Hugh, 3rd Baron Rathcavan, ran Brasserie St Quentin in South Kensington for decades and when it closed in 2008, François opened Brompton Bar and Grill on the same site and kept that going for six years. New decade, new era, new location, new brasserie. Maison François on Duke Street is now celebrating its fifth birthday.

The host building is another one of the more recent insertions stitched into the historic urban fabric of St James’s. Upper floor reticence contrasts with lively street presence of planting, seating and awnings in front of picture windows. The double height interior is eclectically finished, from a Brutalist cement ceiling to latticed walnut screens inspired by the pews in Gottfried Böhm’s St Mariä Heimsuchung’s 1960s Modernist church in Impekoven. Designer John Whelan suggests, “The client wanted to reference traditional European brasseries but create a contemporary version.” Things are even more industrial chic down under: Frank’s, a basement wine bar, has white painted brick walls and a polished concrete floor. Catchpole and Rye bathrooms are a subtle Irish link.

Head Chef Matt Ryle’s comprehensive menu reflects its all day offering. Le Pain: five choices (with caviar and truffle supplements). Hors d’Oeuvres et Charcuterie: 10. Les Salades et Les Légumes: nine. Les Pâtes: three. Les Poissons et Les Viandes: eight. Fruits de Mer: six. Les desserts: 13. Les glaces: three. Les sorbets: three. La fromage: two. Lunch begins with life enhancing melted cheese canapés that look like tiny County Antrim haystacks. Anchovies, burrata, chilli, pain grillé à l’ail en Français is wonderfully crisp and garlicky. Cornichons are served as a side for everyone’s hors d’oeuvre. Matt was the first Head Chef at Isabel in Mayfair, an outpost of the boujee Buenos Aires restaurant which François helped launch, but Maison François provided the opportunity to make the menu truly his own.

After Philipponnat Champagne, it’s a swap of regions, heading northeast to Alsace for Domaine Heywang Riwerle 2023. Pumpkin, champagnes sauvages, truffe is a deconstruction of the fruit using line, form and colour to reinterpret Modernist sculptural traditions through the idea of dining. Next: the pudding trolley! A double drawered chariot of sweetness! A Wardian case on wheels! Lunch ends with an éclair menthe posing as the maquette of a snow topped Slemish Mountain. François takes the by now well tested template of the London brasserie – think Chris Corbin, Jeremy King, Richard Caring – and infuses it with Franco Northern Irish vivacity and verve.

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Architecture Art Country Houses People

Cavanacor House + Cavanacor Gallery Ballindrait Donegal

Weathering Well

An anaemic sun blurred against a bleached sky casts no shadows over the house or garden. Close the cast iron gates and the four hectare estate folds in on itself. Set back from the coast, it’s a rural idyll, but no immunity to destruction is granted in this intense climate. Just a few kilometres away, a sandstorm is rushing through Marble Hill Beach like a suspended granular mist. The Wild Atlantic Way lives up to its name.

The walls of Cavanacor House are soaked in five centuries of history enveloping five centuries of furniture. Owner Eddie O’Kane squeezes half a millennium of stories into one hour of erudition. An apron of outbuildings, converted to an art gallery, clambers up a hill behind the house. Between the outbuildings and back of the house stands a one bay two storey building. Except it’s not a building, it’s a fragment. An attached tower of exposed chimneybreasts provides a clue.

“It used to be the tip of the return wing. The previous owner Miss Clarke demolished the middle section of the wing in the 1960s to reduce rates.” In so doing she unintentionally created a framing device of the garden. “Around the same time, the house was rendered. Only the separate part and outbuildings are still roughcast.” The house was the seat of the same family up until Miss Clarke bought it, but surnames changed from Tasker to Pollock (later shortened to Polk) to Keyes to Humfrey through marriage. It’s the ancestral home of the 11th American President James Knox Polk.

Walking round to the front, past the double pile gable, the five bay two storey symmetrical façade gives the impression of a distinguished Georgian house, belying its even older origins. No doubt that was the intention. A Doric columned doorcase with a rectangular fanlight is set in a square monopitched porch. Why have one fanlight when it’s possible to have two? A further fanlighted doorcase flanked by splayed walls inside the porch draws visitors into the entrance hall.

“An 1820 estate map in the entrance hall shows the house without a porch. But an 1880 map does show it.” Clearly a later addition. ‘The place where King James crossed’ is marked on the earlier map. Prior to the Siege of Derry, on 20 April 1689 Protestant armies amassed on the flat plains of Cavanacor along the strategic route of the Deele River. James II visited Cavanacor as the guest of owner John Keyes. Simultaneously, John’s brothers were inside Derry City, getting ready to defend the walls against the King’s troops.

“James II dined on the lawn under a sycamore tree. It was an exotic type of tree back then. The sycamore was introduced late to Ireland. The tree had a 24 foot circumference. We were driving home on Boxing Day 1998 during the Great Storm. It was like a disaster movie. Lights were going out as we drove through villages. Trees swaying. We just got back in time to Cavanacor to see the massive sycamore tree burst asunder.” That wild Atlantic weather. “My son Eamon is an artist. He made an art piece out of the shattered tree.”

Eddie is also an artist. He studied painting at Belfast’s renowned Art College (now part of the University of Ulster). His wife Joanna studied sculpture. Art and architecture are a family theme. Joanna’s father was John Lewis-Crosby, Director of The National Trust of Northern Ireland from 1960 to 1979. John was also Chairman of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in the 1980s.

“The very old glass in the windows is rippled. I’ve noticed when I’m painting indoors it gives a quality of light different from modern glass.” Lugged doorcases on either side of the entrance hall lead through to the main reception rooms. Straight ahead, a pair of arches is separated by a panelled screen. One arch outlines a corridor; the staircase ascends through the other.

“I enjoy doing detective work. Look at the join in the staircase handrail. I think the stairs originally continued below the screen down to the servants’ quarters in the basement.” One of Eddie’s paintings of the garden hangs in the dining room. “The garden looks Victorian with its profusion of foliage. But when there’s a drought, a ghostly path appears through the grass. It looks like an early herb knot garden.”

Eamon O’Kane’s exhibition Exploring Architecture is on show at the Cavanacor Gallery. One section features acrylic paintings of Eileen Gray’s house in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. “Eamon is fascinated by Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray’s professional jealousies. They produced great art and architecture amidst their turbulent personal lives.” Corbu bragged, “Less is more!” Eileen yawned, “Less is bore!” White walls and flagstone floors provide a sense of calm to the gallery, whatever the weather is outside.

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Architecture Art Country Houses People

Glenarm Castle Walled Garden Antrim + Catherine FitzGerald

Lawns in Bawns

“Kings, princes, and the wisest men of all ages, have some or other of them, taken singular delight in this exercise of planting, setting, sowing, and what else that is requisite in the well ordering of orchards and gardens, and rejoiced to see the fruits of their labours.” Leonard Meager, The Complete English Gardener, 1697.

“The rugged coast hemmed in by the Glens of Antrim is extremely remote,” says Randal McDonnell 10th Earl of Antrim. “At one time my family owned 330,000 acres of County Antrim – basically the top half! This has gradually been reduced to 2,000 acres. Glenarm Castle is all about continuity of family ownership as well as architectural spirit and character. Alterations after three fires were sometimes for better, sometimes not. Fortified buildings were all the rage during the last restoration so the house was give a suitably castellated stylistic cloak.”

His grandmother Angela Countess of Antrim left her mark on the castle interior. “Granny was an exceptional person. She took to painting the main rooms in her own very individualistic manner. Granny didn’t stop with the hall. Perhaps her most fantastical creation is the cherubic infant waterskiing on the dolphin. The result is a rare war years interior. I grew up loving Glenarm. When I inherited the estate I thought I wouldn’t touch the overgrown Walled Garden with a bargepole!” That would change – two decades later.

After studying English and History of Art at Trinity College Dublin, Catherine FitzGerald trained as a horticulturalist at the Royal Horticultural Society. A Postgraduate Diploma in Landscape Conservation and History at the Architectural Association topped up her studies. “My aim is that each garden should feel completely right and of its place rather than imposed,” she believes, “acting with, rather than against, nature and local idiom.” Catherine hand draws plans in the Gertrude Jekyll tradition.

Green genes run in the family. She calls both her grandmothers “plantaholics”. Years ago, her mother Madam Olda FitzGerald germanely wrote about the family home, “The garden of Glin Castle in County Limerick is extraordinarily beautiful and yet I feel it is not a fine garden. It seems to me to be more of a field cut neatly and circumspectly into a lawn or two, with a little hill that is covered in daffodils in the spring, and some primeval oaks that drench you with their leafy arms as you pass. It is a garden that acknowledges its castle first and foremost, while this battlemented toy fort, preoccupied with its own importance, accepts the homage too carelessly to repay the compliment.”

Olda posits, “Many of its windows treacherously look out over the Shannon estuary or else yearningly, like the rest of us, away down the avenue towards the chimneys and steeple of the village, with an occasional haughty glance down at the croquet lawn and crab apple trees below. The crab apples were planted 40 years ago, and for most of the year give the impression of being thickly covered in grey feathery fungus, until they burst into the most unseemly fertility every summer.”

Roughly 290 kilometres northeast of Glin Castle lies Glenarm Castle, another faux fortified residence. Randal and his wife Aurora are friends of Catherine’s so she was an obvious choice when he finally decided to bring the 1.6 hectare Walled Garden back to life. “I had just left my job as Planting Designer for Arabella Lennox-Boyd,” Catherine relates, “and was beginning to design gardens on my own. Randal gave me my first commission really. It was a wonderful opportunity.” An ancestor of Randal’s – Anne McDonnell Countess of Antrim – built the Walled Garden in the 1820s using limestone quarried from the demesne. It’s a relatively recent addition considering the McDonnells have been at Glenarm Castle for six centuries and counting.

Randal inherited Glenarm Castle back in 1992 when he was 25. ”By the time I took on the Walled Garden, it was completely derelict bar the yew circle, the beech circle and a few shrubs,” he recalls, “but I didn’t hesitate. I had always loved this place. It had sagged rather, but it was very exciting to be able to stop it sagging for a bit.” In place of dereliction, and any sagging for that matter, is Catherine’s design for six ornamental gardens in separate “rooms”.

Five pay homage to the traditional productive functions of walled gardens: the Apple Orchard; the Cherry Garden; the Herb Garden; the Pear Garden; and the Medlar Garden. A viewing point of these five rooms is cleverly provided by the Mount which occupies the sixth space in the top northwest corner. An oblong pool is placed just off centre.

There were pleached trees and borders already at the bottom of the garden by the time Catherine got involved so she was asked to make sense of the top half. Her design replaced a blank space dotted with a few languishing trees and shrubs marooned among stretches of grass. “My instinct,” records Catherine, “was to divide it up into different rooms and walks which visitors could wander through and wonder where they were going next rather than taking it all in at once.” The Walled Garden is entered through the simple green coloured Bell Gate, framed by a cloak of clematis draped over the high stone walls.

Naturally, Glin Castle was an influence on Catherine’s design: “The kitchen garden at Glin which was restored by my mother in the 1970s is always in the back of my mind when planning walled gardens. She used yew topiary shapes, Irish yew and espaliered apple and pear divisions to provide a strong structure and design as a background to the fruit vegetables and annuals she planted. At Glenarm, elements of this are there with the espaliered pears and strong structure provided by the hedges.”

“I wanted to relate the theme to walled gardens,” she adds, “so used a lot of fruit trees but in an ornamental way: the espaliered pear tree circle … the formal rows of medlars … the apple tree orchard … the crab trees and so on.” The brief was to keep it relatively simple and low maintenance.  As a result, it’s highly structural with no fussiness. More from Catherine: “It was all done on a modest budget. Randal had a great team who implemented it.” One of the biggest structural tasks was restoring the 100 metre long glasshouse with its myriad rhomboid panes.

Catherine was also influenced by the gardens on the late Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava’s Clandeboye Estate in County Down and Ned Lambton’s Cetinale Estate in Siena. She notes, “Both these gardens have espaliered fruit trees trained on circular wrought iron frameworks and I liked that idea. I was also influenced by Scampston Hall Walled Garden in Yorkshire, designed by Piet Outdolph. It has a ziggurat shaped mount – while the one at Glenarm is spiral shaped – but I could see how effective it was in giving a view over the whole garden.” The Mount is especially effective at Glenarm because it is now possible to see dramatic views up the Glens and woods in one direction and the sea in the other. Not forgetting views across the Walled Garden itself.

She believes, “Gardens are about evoking sensations and emotion. I try to imbue my gardens with a sense of romance.” There’s all that plus a sense of drama. Expect to see explosive reds, yellows and blues in the aptly named Hot Border. Crimson dahlias are a favourite of the Countess. Drama needs contrast. Turn the corner at the end of the Hot Border to be greeted by the pale foxgloves of the Double Borders. “It did take a long time to get going,” she admits, “the beech hedges and yew buttresses along the walls seemed to take forever to establish. But now they have got going it really feels like it is becoming mature. It’s how I imagined it would be which is fantastic!”

“Right plant, right place,” is her motto. Glenarm Castle Walled Garden has reached peak horticultural experience, for now and foreseeable futurity. Hurrah! It’s a paradise of paradoxes: hill and plain; openness and enclosure; polychrome and green. Continuing the castle theme, Catherine FitzGerald’s would go on to design yet another significant Irish garden. Somewhere between Glin and Glenarm in geography and age, Hillsborough Castle would become Northern Ireland’s next horticultural attraction. “We attract around 90,000 visitors a year,” concludes Randal McDonnell 10th Earl of Antrim. “The Tulip Festival in May is especially popular.”

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Architecture Art Design Developers Hotels Luxury People Restaurants Town Houses

Clarance Hôtel Lille + Aurélie Vermesse

Fire in the Sunshine

It’s been a while since our last visit to France’s fourth largest city – Paris is ever so distracting – so we’ve dusted down our previous article and spruced it up. Of course we’re back to Aurélie Vermesse’s urban oasis and a return visit to Méert Chocolaterie. Nothing tastes as good as skinny truffles. We’re pleased to see Lille is still a little frayed round the edges. A touch crumbly. Shabby chic. What’s not to love again?

Sitting on the Nominations Committee of the 2018 World Boutique Hotel Awards was our excuse to stay in five star intimate luxury in Lille first time round. No excuse needed this time. Three blind arches on either side of a gated pedimented Corinthian pilastered archway line the pavement of Rue de la Barre in Quartier du Vieux. Beyond this most enigmatic of screen walls is a courtyard aproning the façade of a gorgeous nine bay three storey stuccoed mansion. It’s Relais and Châteaux; it’s really a château.

Clarance Hôtel started life in 1736 as the home of the Count and Countess of Hespel. Hotelier Aurélie relates, “It took me more than two years to set up La Clarance as a hotel, opening in April 2015. Today, I have 30 employees, a Michelin starred restaurant and a thriving bar! The Clarance is the result of a dream that was born during a weekend at Domaine Les Crayères in Reims, a Relais and Châteaux hotel. I quit my job to go back to school and then create the Clarance from scratch!”

Beauty and simplicity form the cornerstones of her hospitality. “Baudelaire’s poetry is at the heart of our contemporary artwork and room decoration,” Aurélie explains. “Art, gastronomy and kindness are essential to my life and, I hope, to yours too. I want to share the warmth and diversity of our cuisine and the products of our region. And the light of the north that bathes our house.”

Our coterie in this corner of the ancient capital of Flanders, we’re an outré beau monde, is at home among the soignée haute monde, overlapping social carousels in slow motion, floating through the airily graceful reception rooms. A row of French windows lighting the rear enfilade opens onto a gloriously private walled garden with the tower of St Catherine’s Church as a backdrop. Fruit trees and beehives surround a waterlilies pond that would give Claude Monet a run for his money. Clarance Hôtel is so chic.

By nightfall, turndown of our light and spacious bedroom includes a handwritten card: “There, all is order and beauty, luxury, peace and pleasure. I wish you a pleasant stay at Clarance. Aurélie.” And the all important skinny chocolate truffles on our pillow. Our room is called Le Voyage, complete with map of the world headboard. It’s one of just nine top floor rooms. The other second floor rooms are Allegorié; L’Albatros, Crépuscule du Soir, Hymne, Le Flacon, Le Jeu, La Musique and Clarance. They’re all numbered. What should be room 13 is luckily unnumbered: it’s the broom cupboard. First floor rooms include Le Cygne, La Géante, L’Horloge, L’Idéal and Le Rebelle. But no À Celle Qui Est Trop Gaie or Les Métamorphoses du Vampire. There are 27 guest bedrooms in total. An illustrated book of Charles Baudelaire’s poems placed in all the rooms is a clue to their nomenclature.

A segmental arched window set in the wide dormer of Le Voyage looks over the courtyard to a pleasing jumble of rooftops and chimneys. Directly below are seats perfect for enjoying a nightcap of Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu 2015 from Loire Valley under the moon rapt in idle reverie. Seven years will dissolve into the thin evening air before we get to repeat the experience once again.

There were a lucky 13 categories in the 2018 World Boutique Hotel Awards: Beach or Coastal; City Explorer; Classic Elegance; Culinary Excellence; Family; Honeymoon Hideaway; Inspired Design; Newcomer; Relaxation Retreat; Romantic Retreat; Wellness Spa; Sustainability; Stunning Views. We considered nominating Clarance Hôtel for all of them. Ok, Beach or Coastal was pushing it. The pride of Lille deserves its own category: Unique Boutique.

Lille in those days was for us still a city of newness, a fount of unexpected treasures. But it’s alright to renew an acquaintance, to once more exhale the soft air of youth. We now know that Lille stands for all the things that are important in life – love, beauty, food and shopping. We have not come to tan or trade. Living is our art form. We’re captivated by it all. Encore une fois.

We’re back under the eaves and this time sleeping in Le Flacon. A similar window to Le Voyage frames a view of St Catherine’s Church. Intoxicating memories in kisses of fine linen await. But first there are visits to Méert and its neighbours Comtesse du Barry (for essential terrines) and El Market (for concept clothing). That’s shopping sorted. Love and beauty are all around and will increase in abundance as the day fades. Just food to go then.

“Fast or slow service?” asks our waitress. We’re lunching in the boiserie bedecked Michelin starred dining room. “Fast!” The Countess Hospice Museum is still to be done. There are three midday menus – L’Horloge, L’Idéal and L’Invitation au Voyage – each with varying numbers of course. L’Idéal lives up to its name. Canapés are followed by a foamy pumpkin amuse bouche. The starter is three fat and juicy St Jacques of Boulogne-sur-Mer pan fried scallops. Roasted small boat sole main course precedes steamed orange and saffron pudding. No French lunch is complete without petit fours. Isabel Ferrando’s Stella Ducit 2023 delivers a floral nose of acacia, a hearty citrus palate and a pleasant fennel finish. As our sommelier confirms. La vin des avants.

Aurélie has penned uplifting messages on the back of the menu: “Préserver les cuisines du monde”; “Partager la passion du beau et du bon”; and “Être acteurs d’un monde plus human”. This is final level food. Plus haut n’existe pas. Breakfast will be an ecstacy of eggs to see. Oeufs à la coque, au plat, brouillés, omelette nature or omelette garnie. We head back to nature. Toujours la haute monde. Polo necked fellow guests look so sophisticated. Le paradis, c’est les autres.

The Countess Hospice Museum was built as a hospital founded in 1237 in the grounds of Countess Jeanne de Flandre’s palace. Galleries and the chapel encircle a cobbled courtyard. It’s all rather wonderful. Hits of its hallowed halls include a tiled image of a man in need of a chamber pot as well as Old Master paintings of butch nuns, dying gentlemen, raucous markets and flying balloons by the likes of François Watteau and Wallerant Vaillant. It’s the chauffeur’s night off but that doesn’t matter. La Barre is Hôtel Clarance’s new bar on Rue de la Barre and is Lille’s coolest nightspot bar none. La fin de la journée.

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Architects Architecture Art Design People

Lille Cathedral + Charles Leroy

Pointed Arches Circling the Globe

Mid 19th century England saw a flowering of Gothic Revivalism thanks to William Butterfield, George Gilbert Scott, William White and of course the Pugin dynasty. Across the Channel, things were pretty pointed too. At the dawn of the Second Empire, 200 churches were under construction in France. The Gothic style even enjoyed official State endorsement as Napoléon III garnered support among his Catholic clergy.

It’s 1854. The booming city of Lille is declared a diocese. Time for a church dedicated to a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary behind an iron trellis. An international architectural competition is required. A diktat unsurprisingly declares the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Treille must be Gothic Revival. What can possibly go wrong? An English Protestant architect winning? Two years later, in the words of one assessor, “L’Angleterre qui a triomphé!” William Burges and his sidekick Henry Clutton take first prize. Quel désastre!

William Burges was the English master of polychromatic romanticism. Witness his slightly bonkers Tower House on Melbury Road, Kensington. A neo medieval mini fortress on an uppity middle class leafy avenue. Dated 1875 to 1881; styled 13th century French Gothic. Not your average architect’s home. But Lille was never to benefit from his Anglican boldness and brilliance. Silver medallist Cuthbert Brodrick’s submission would also remain unexecuted. Much curmudgeonly fudgery later the winner of the third price, the very French and very Catholic Charles Leroy was commissioned to complete the detailed design of the “Cathedral of the North of France” with its buttressed knuckle plan east facing radiating chapels.

The church was indeed upgraded to a cathedral with the establishment of the Lille Bishopric in 1913. But 34 years later the dosh had dried up and Monsieur Leroy’s twin peaked western approach was never executed. Fast forward to the 1990s and the entrance front was finally completed to the design of Lille architect Pierre-Louis Carlier and Irish engineer Peter Rice. Minimalist Gothic. A vast arched recess dominating the façade is filled with 28 millimetre thick white marble which appears opaque outside but allows orangey light to flood the interior. A rose window by painter Ladislas Kijno who lived in Pas-de-Calais illuminates the arch. Candles flicker among contemporary artworks. Overhead, a hanging reads: “Revenez à Dieu: Il Vous Appelle à la Vie en Jésus Christ!”