The most delightful building in London.

Most people who take an interest in history know that King George III was afflicted by a long period of madness that we now understand to have been caused by the disease, porphyria. It's perhaps less well known that he was the first British king to take an interest in science, amassing over his lifetime a very fine collection of scientific instruments and clocks.

In the 1760s, he commissioned the most popular architect of the day, William Chambers, to build him an observatory at Richmond upon Thames, now part of London but at that time, out in the country. Landscaping was provided by Capability Brown.

The building was completed in 1769, in time for the King, the Queen, and two astronomers to observe the Transit of Venus, the passage of Venus across the sun. Occurring only rarely, the transit was thought to provide a method of measuring the distance from the earth to the sun, as well as of determining the size of the universe. Two obelisks were also set up in the park to create a meridian line, and before the Royal Observatory moved to Greenwich in the 19th century, Mean Time was calculated from Richmond.

In the twentieth century, the King's Observatory became the headquarters of the Meteorological Office. It was from there that the weather forecast was taken to decide when to launch the troops into France on D-Day. The two sheds used in forecasting, the only Grade I listed sheds I've ever come across, still stand in the grounds. They were built without nails so that they would be non-magnetic.

A detail from the Chinese wallpaper in the dining room. William Chambers had visited Canton on two occasions, and a lot of the interior decoration reflects his interest in Chinese art.

Parts of the stunning collections of Chinese and Georgian porcelain on show

The building's fortunes declined after the Met Office's departure, but it has now been restored to its former glory by the current leaseholder, a wealthy and philanthropic businessman, who, like Chambers, has a great interest in Chinese art. The freehold remains the property of the Crown.

 

Adventure on the high seas for Inspector de Silva!

I'm delighted to announce that the latest Inspector de Silva mystery is now available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback. To grab your copy, just click on the image in the side-bar or go to:
https://www.amazon.com/Passage-Nuala-Inspector-Silva-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B07PK43L7H/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=passage+from+nuala&qid=1552319162&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

Local Hero

With the imminent launch of the new book in my Inspector de Silva series, which sees de Silva and Jane off to Egypt to visit the Pyramids, in mind, how could I refuse when I had the chance to ride a camel on a recent trip to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands?

My husband and I visited the island hoping for winter sun, but found there was so much more to do there, not only riding camels! A highlight of the trip was discovering the work of their most famous artist, Cesar Manrique (1919 - 1992). I have to admit, we'd not heard of him before. He had an amazing career as an artist, architect, designer, sculptor, and activist. When tourism took off in Lanzarote in the late 1960s, he was the driving force in the campaign to prevent the island being spoiled by insensitive development, with the result that, for the most part, you see  low-rise buildings in the traditional Moorish style, rather than concrete and glass monsters.

One of Manrique's houses is now home to the Cesar Manrique Foundation, a beautiful, airy gallery where some of his work is displayed.

 In the basement, we marvelled at the rooms he designed out of the spaces left by gigantic larva bubbles, the result of Lanzarote's volcanic terrain. The walls are partly plastered and whitewashed and partly left in the original basalt rock, creating a striking contrast.

Another treat was a visit to the house where he spent the last years of his life, before, tragically, he died in a car crash. The old building he restored is delightful: traditional in materials and construction but brought up to date with all mod cons and a gorgeous pool, and surrounded by colourful gardens.

Manrique was interested in the art of painters like Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock and emulated the scale of their paintings using vast canvases that he worked on on the floor of his studio. He also loved to use a variety of materials to build up texture in his paintings, for example sawdust, resin and glue.

The house is on the edge of a small town in the north of the island called Haria. I like to think that Manrique, a ferociously hard worker, occasionally found time to enjoy an espresso and a chat with other locals at the delightful café in the shady main street. 

Coming Soon!