Category: Architecture

Zsolonay

Are you curious about the roofs in Budapest? They sometimes have brightly coloured tiles made out of pyrogranite at the end of the 19th century. They were and still are made by Zsolonay.

The Holy Right Hand

I don’t know why I went to St Stephen’s Basilica to see his Holy Right Hand when St Oliver Plunkett’s head is more dramatic in Drogheda. But, to be fair, something I don’t like, Saint S in Budapest gets a lot more visitors (half price seniors and students) than St O in Drogheda. And, if… Continue reading The Holy Right Hand

Budapest Buildings

I usually try to avoid having people in photographs but here the couple emerging onto the steps of the Museum of Fine Arts show its scale and grandeur.

Gin Palace

I had two memorable holidays in Hong Kong in the 1980s, staying with my newly wed cousins.

Adie and Button

“The high regard for modern architecture and design today is arguably the work of Pioneers of Modern Design. Originally published in 1936 as Pioneers of the Modern Movement, this book by the late art historian Nikolaus Pevsner laid the foundation for the recognition of “modern design” by lining up a progressive historical narrative to explain the… Continue reading Adie and Button

Green Park

While it is correct to call it The Green Park it is pedantic and if the knowledgable Andrew Jones eschews the definite article so will I.

The Gaumont

The Cadogan Estate has done its magic on Sloane Street turning it into a shopping boulevard with wider pavements and more greenery. It has already transformed the Duke of York barracks site into a pedestrian precinct with restaurants. Now it is moving west along the King’s Road.

The Garrison Chapel

Members of the Royal Family as part of the job have to perform excruciatingly boring functions at best or, at worst, carry out engagements on advice from the Foreign Office through gritted teeth. So it is charming that King Charles can indulge his own whimsical fancies through The King’s Foundation – a Scottish charity that… Continue reading The Garrison Chapel

Another Blot

It used to be called the Cherry Blossom roundabout – not because of a profusion of flowering cherry trees but because of the proximity of a smelly shoe polish manufacturer: Cherry Blossom.