Friday 21 December 2018

Two Great coffee table books / Great Houses of London - by James Stourton (Author), Fritz von der Schulenburg (Photographer) / Great Houses of Scotland - by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd (Author), Christopher Simon Sykes (Photographer)













Great Houses of London
by James Stourton  (Author), Fritz von der Schulenburg (Photographer)
The great houses of London represent one of the marvels of English architecture and yet they are almost entirely unknown. They are for the most part disguised behind sober facades but their riches within are astonishing.
There are many architectural wonders, among them Robert Adam’s 20 St James’s Square and William Burges’s Tower House. Several – including Bridgewater House with its Raphaels and Titians – have held great art collections.
These are houses that hold extraordinary stories: half the Cabinet resigned after breakfast at Stratford House; and on 4 August 1914, at 9 Carlton House Terrace, then the German Embassy, young duty clerk Harold Nicholson deftly substituted one declaration of war for another.
Great Houses of London opens the door to some of the greatest and grandest houses in the world to tell the stories of their owners and occupants, artists and architects, their restoration, adaptation and change.



 Book Review: Great Houses Of London
 M@ BY M@

We get sent all kinds of tomes about the capital, from tourist guides to scholarly dissertations. What we've never received before is a 2.5 kg wrist-snapper of a book, with a colossal naked Napoleon on the front cover.

The lewd emperor is the centrepiece of Apsley House, former home of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner. It is but one of 41 superior dwellings set out by James Stourton in this most weighty of books. 330 larger-than-A4 pages take the reader on a chronological and sumptuously illustrated journey, from the medieval Lambeth Palace up to Modernist houses and the home of Richard and Ruth Rogers. Some are world famous (10 Downing Street), but many will be unknown, even to those living a few roads away.

The author provides just the right amount of detail for each house: a little about the colourful poshsters who dwelt within; a few paragraphs concerning the architecture and furnishing; and the sometimes unusual changes of purpose each property has undergone. Stourton, Chairman of Sotheby's and an old hand at discussing the playthings of the rich, occasionally wanders into his own descriptions, giving personal insights into a great house. This first-person tone is unusual in such a book, and sets it apart from, say, an English Heritage guide. The photography, by Fritz von der Schulenburg, also deserves commendation for bringing out the detail in some diverse and unusual spaces.

The book is also full of splendid historical nuggets (and, here, we're not talking about Napoleon's nethers). Did you know that the beige colour on all the buildings surrounding Regent's Park is a relatively recent introduction? Or that Nazi soldiers once marched down the Mall carrying a Swastika-draped coffin, that of the late German ambassador whose former residence retains an Albert Speer staircase? If Led Zep guitarist Jimmy Page ever invites you round to his mad, medieval medley of a house, you say YES!.

As coffe table books go, this is a surprisingly entertaining read. You just might need to invest in a sturdier coffee table.





Great Houses of Scotland 
by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd  (Author), Christopher Simon Sykes  (Photographer)

'The Great Houses' featured in this book reveal Scots architecture in its grandest forms. The specially commissioned photographs by Christopher Simon Sykes include stunning close-ups of architectural details and objects, and capture the spirit and style of the houses while Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd's refreshingly personal and informal text is as much about the families, who in many cases still live in these fascinating places, as about the architecture and decoration. This work carries a personal selection of twenty-six houses that reflect the development of style in Scotland, from old tower houses such as Cawdor through Baroque masterpieces like Drumlanrig and the pioneering Classicism of Kinross right up to the Edwardian opulence of Manderston and Ardkinglas.

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