Sir Walter

The most interesting of the Gilbey brothers is Walter. They were all good businessmen and philanthropic but Walter had a deeper hinterland. “In 1858, the year after his return from the Crimean War, Walter had married Ellen Parish, the fourth daughter of the landlord of the White Horse Inn at North Street, and soon after… Continue reading Sir Walter

From Gilbey to Guinness

W. A. Gilbey was founded in 1857 and was initially successful because wine imported from South Africa attracted less duty and the brothers passed on this advantage to their customers. That got them off the ground but almost immediately, in 1860, the rules changed.

Basilica of Saint-Denis

If you watch rugby you will have heard of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. It was built for the 1998 football World Cup. I went to Saint-Denis, three stops north of Gard du Nord on the RER, on Monday morning to see an older building.

MAD in Paris

What would you get if you crossed the  V & A with the Design Museum? It would be MAD; the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Wallace Fountains

Some cities have signifiers. Not sure that’s the right word but I haven’t used it before and it’s always good to add to the exiguous vocabulary deployed here.

Published
Categorised as Sculpture

Fountains of Paris

In rural Ireland in the 1950s most homes had electricity but few had mains water. A well at Barmeath supplies water, pumped by hand until electricity came along. Mrs McGinn, who lived in the front lodge, had to trudge across a field to fill two buckets at a tap feeding a cattle trough. There was… Continue reading Fountains of Paris

Brasseries and Books

Why are the Eurostar terminals at St Pancras and Gard du Nord always so crowded and, if a train is delayed or cancelled, overcrowded?

This and That

When a country has an elite school it is always described as the Eton of (insert country). In the FTWeekend today Aitchison College is “Pakistan’s answer to Eton”. Is there a Harrow of Pakistan, or anywhere else? But I digress.