Clik here to view.
400 years since Shakespeare's death - visit his primary school
Stratford on Avon’s half-timbered Guildhall was completed in 1420; thus the new Visitor Centre, which opened in April 2016, celebrates nearly 600 years of service. Following a £1.8 million restoration...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More athletic stars are yet to shine at the Rio Games
I have two very close connections with the upcoming Paralympic Games starting this week in Rio. Firstly my father was the filtration engineer for all water sports at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Silk heaven..... in Cheshire
Jonathan Jones warned that as cultural heritage becomes one of the softest targets for financial brutalism, Northern museums and their precious objects will be lost forever, including Derby's Silk...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The mutual admiration between ballet and fashion
In setting the historical context for the Ballet and Fashion Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2012, Roger Leong wrote that art and fashion have long been associated with each other....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tallis Foundation, architecture, gardens and music/theatre. Melbourne is...
Within two hours of his ship (SS William Nicol) landing in Australia in Feb 1842, James Butchart had seen enough of the recently planned City of Melbourne to be confident about his future. He quickly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Anti-Jacobite" wine glasses, after the Battle of Culloden
Inga Walton wrote very well about the National Gallery of Victoria exhibition called Kings Over The Water (2013). Although religion played a significant role in the propaganda surrounding the overthrow...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fatty Arbuckle's three murder trials - 1921 and twice in 1922.
According to the Smithsonian, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle (1887-1933) was always a chubby young man who weighed about 118kg, suffered many infections, and had addictions to morphine and alcohol. Yet...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teasmade! Wake up and drink it!
Every generation believes it invented the world; that what we have now is bigger, better, smarter and more efficient than what existed in previous generations. Here is an example where that belief...
View ArticleClik here to view.
One of the best Edwardian railway stations - Dunedin
Surveyor Charles Kettle planned the New Zealand city of Dunedin to be an “Edinburgh of the South”, to create beautiful views over the town centre, the hilly suburbs and the harbour. Dunedin's unique...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Kleinfeld brides and Pnina Tornai
Hedda Kleinfeld used to love fashion back in Vienna where she avidly read all the fashion magazines from the USA. In 1941 she and her parents emigrated to the USA and opened the Kleinfield store in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How much influence did Prince Albert have on British culture?
Oh how tastes change! Once upon a time Prince Albert (1819 – 1861) was a royal consort with a high level of learning in the realms of design and architecture. He single handedly raised the level of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Buvelot, Ashton and a famous art school in Sydney
The artist Louis Buvelot (1814-88) was probably the spiritual father of many young Australian artists; he was a man who had done his own art training in Lausanne and Paris and spent 18 years in Brasil....
View ArticleClik here to view.
History of Heraldry and Architecture - a guest post
Heraldry and Architecture are irretrievably linked throughout history. The earliest examples of fortifications the Romans built as the Legions travelled from one region of the world to another, at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Waterlow Court in Hampstead: communal housing for progressive women workers.
How would the booming city of London house the turn-of-the-century New Woman? Comfortable ladies' residential chambers such as Sloane Gardens House (built in 1888) and York Street Chambers (built in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Man Booker Prize and my journey through modern literature
Joe and I graduated, married and left Australia on our European jaunt, as did every other Australian young graduate who could afford to travel. We were away from Jan 1971-Jan 1976, living in hospital...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is gorgeous
I have noted before that Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, was delighted with the success of the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851; he soon envisaged a lengthier list of facilities that would...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Queen Elizabeth II's tragic mother in law: Princess Alice of Greece
Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885-1969), born in Windsor Castle, was related to most European royal families. Her parents were Prince Louis of Battenberg & Princess Victoria of Hesse, grand...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Composing music in Gallipoli’s trenches: Frederick Septimus Kelly
The Edwardian years (until 1913) were full of music, arts, science, sports, workers’ rights, medical progress, café society and hopes for world peace. How ironic that WW1 (1914-8) brought more barbaric...
View ArticleClik here to view.
19th century hoaxes: the exotic Princess Caraboo
In April 1817, a confused young woman appeared at a cobbler's cottage in the village of Almondsbury near Bristol. This very attractive stranger wore a black shawl twisted turban-style and spoke a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"A Glorious Legacy": Australian soldiers in WW1
My grandfather and father were humanists and opponents of military killings, before WW1 and WW2 respectively. Yet both agreed to fight as soldiers, even before conscription was introduced. So why did...
View Article