When we were children

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Kuching

The recent obituary of Anthony Brooke, the last White Rajah, reminded me of a story my father used to tell me as a child. Luckily, although ancient, he is still alive, and he recounted it for me today. The Brookes became the Rajah's of Sarawak in North Borneo, Malaya in 1841 . By the time we went to live in Sarawak in 1963, the Brookes had been replaced by British colonial governors. My parents dined several times at their residence, above, and we went there to children's parties. On one occasion the acting governor came to dinner at our house on the opposite side of the Sarawak River.

My father had given instructions to our minders that my brother and I should be well-behaved and out of sight upon the governor's arrival. We duly complied, but I remember viewing the arrival from the staircase on the upper floor of the gigantic sprawling house in which we lived. It was the custom in those days that the gun was fired from the Istana at 8 o'clock to signal that the governor was sitting down for dinner. When I was informed of the impending occasion, I asked my father, "But who will fire the gun?". He relayed the story to the governor, and this was the ice breaker that he recounts to this day.

Mind over matters

Some of you may already know about Stephen Wiltshire, a savant with the most extraordinary talent for detailed drawing from memory, usually of architectural phenomena.

Images from stephenwiltshire.co.uk

The neighbours

I mentioned in the previous post that the neighbours were invisible from our small house, but their grand neoclassical edifice is very much in evidence as one comes up the drive, before turning left to the lane for the Garden House. These are two views of Milne Graden House, the first from the drive, and the second from the walk beneath the house along the river bank.

The present house dates from the early C19th, and the original Milne family have now left and the estate is in different hands.

More visible are the neighbours from the the animal kingdom, including this family of swans, with their quite large signets, who were out muddying the shallow waters, to stir up a bit of supper for themselves. There are the usual assortment of other creatures. This butterfly has been sunning itself as I type. Grey squirrels have been prancing about with chestnuts in their mouths, and searching for somewhere to bury them ahead of the winter. And pheasants wander through the shrubbery and lawns. It's really quite therapeutic to view it all from the sitting room or kitchen window. Old hat to country folks, but a very welcome change for someone who spends most of his time in a city.

A doll's house

A small and perfectly formed house - the Garden House - on the banks of the River Tweed is our home for a week. The property has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a sitting room, and a kitchen. It has been tastefully and comfortably furnished in the Country House style.

The word that best describes the house is darling. We are not following any other aspects of Ibsen's play, but in an enchanting way, this is a doll's house.

Our leisurely drive down from Perthshire was in bright sunshine, and after unpacking and finding our bearings, we wandered down to the river bank, and had an unexpected encounter with the neighbours, (of the fauna variety). The only other human neighbour is the landowner, who's substantial Regency pile is not visible from our property, but which we drove past as we entered the driveway, and which we glimpsed from the river. More of that anon.

Unfortunately the unpredictable weather has meant that today is likely to be devoted to indoor activities, including in a motor car, and visiting a couple of the statelies in the vicinity.

Café society

Some developments in Bangkok are surprising ones, including the opening of Dean & Deluca, near to where Bangkok's tallest building will be built. The opening of the gourmet and coffee shop is perhaps less surprising than the architectural design of MahaNakon:

 

which has the unfortunate look of an aftermath of some awful terrorist attack, of which this city has very recent experience. However, that's only my view, and some people actually rather like it. Any lukewarm sales fears that the developers might have will be easily laid to rest by the address, that just trips off the tongue:

92 Narathiwasrachanakarin Road.

A bat out of hell

Heaven, or Hell

The elaborate gilded altar

A side entrance to the temple with the carved relief of Heaven, (or Hell)

The residents, keeping an eye on the proceedings

The the house described in Monday's post, Pinang Peranakan Mansion, has all the requisites that any self-respecting Baba-Nyonya Chinese would need, including its own temple, depicted here. The temple has intricate carvings of both heaven and hell, which face each other on either side of the open courtyard. It was difficult to determine which was which, so I can't recall whether the picture I took is heaven or hell. However, to the right of this area a group of bats had taken up residence in the rafters and they buzzed around from time to time adding an unexpected air of eeriness to the scene.

...Like a bat out of hell

I'll be gone when the morning comes...

For myself, the continuing disruptions in the city have rectified a long overdue exploration of one of Thailand's islands. In the morning we're off to Koh Samet, in the Gulf of Siam. Back in a few.

As gaudy as it gets

The Pinang Peranakan Mansion

The upstairs, above, looking down to the courtyard below:

According to the blurb Peranakan Mansion is one of the most ornate private homes in Penang. It once belonged to Kapitan Chung Keng Kwee, a colourful personality in the C19th. Currently it is a museum showcasing the Peranakan/Baba Nyoyian community.

The rather sedate and neoclassical building in the first picture, if somewhat unusually coloured, gives way to the most vulgar over-the-top glitz of which a Middle Eastern interior designer would be immensely proud. It's so vulgar, it's almost kitch, becoming a caricature of itself.

That notwithstanding, this building is one of many within the World Heritage Site of George Town, Penang, founded in the C18th by the British, as Prince of Wales Island, and subsequently named George Town, (or Georgetown), after King George III.

Architecture in Georgetown includes a mélange of different styles, reflecting the variety of peoples who have settled over the last 200 years: Chinese, Indians, Arabs, local Malays, Achehnese from Indonesia, Siamese, Burmese and Europeans.

This house featured in the current edition of The Amazing Race, for those of you, (like me), who watch this programme.

Black & White

This image, from Uniquely Singapore shows a black and white house, many of which still exist in Singapore, and which are a legacy of the British colonial empire in Singapore and Malaysia. I wrote recently about one such house here, and another is featured in the New York Times piece here, and from which the following picture is taken:

What is obvious in the house featured in the NYT article, even if the decoration doesn't overwhelm you, is the spaciousness, and the obvious grandeur of the Twenties' architecture.

Singapore was my birthplace, and here is a photo of me being wheeled around the garden - rather unkempt by the look of it - by my "black and white" amah, a fiesty woman who joined our staff when I was born. By all accounts, she protected me like her own, (although she never had any children, in observance of the tradition of celibacy).

Cast out first the beam

I'm always slightly mystified by the house hunting programmes which I enjoy watching when I'm in Britain which follow the process of a couple who wish to move from the city to the country and how often the house of their hearts' desire is a cottage with "those lovely" beamed ceilings. These are some examples of the type of thing to which I'm referring.

I cannot imagine anything worse, and I find it hard to understand the attraction. Primarily these beamed ceilings are of low height, and then this is compounded by the darkness and focus that beams add to that drawback. There is some unfathomable attraction to this "cosy cottage" phenomenon, which might work if you were a hobbit, but fails in every other way.

I suppose there is a thought that you are buying something historical, but surely there are better periods of architecture upon which to make such a pronouncement. Many better periods. It's fairly obvious that my own preferred style is that of the Georgian neoclassical.

Even in "mock Tudor" which may be the intention of the last picture, I'm not appreciating the point of the beams, which only create an unwelcome heaviness, and the prison-like ambiance that I'm sure many of us do not love.

But I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which wasn't the intention of the line of Scripture from which my post's title derives.

In proportion

These two images of a gallery (above) and cupola at the Victoria & Albert Museum demonstrate in a monumental way the power of height in interior spaces. The substantial columns only enhance that effect.

The two architectural models from the Architectural Exhibition Gallery at the V&A were only two of many that caught my eye. I had hoped to purchase an architectural model as an interior design piece, but these rather diminished those available in the retail sector.

Less monumental, but in proportion are these two images of the drawing room and dining room at the castle where we stayed in August, bathed in their subdued lighting. I so miss the ceiling height that these Georgian interiors offer, and which make any space very forgiving of whatever style or interior design you choose.

Model behaviour

When I first saw this image on an auction website I immediately thought I would like to bid for it. There was only one picture, so I made further inquiries and the auctioneer produced several more images, including the one below. It was suggested in the particulars that it was "possibly part of a larger construction", and the new images proved that. But they also sealed my decision as far as not wishing to bid, as I felt unable to use the piece without a considerable amount of alteration.

And this was despite the starting bid being a relatively modest USD100. It sold for USD600. Also the size of the piece: 25" high and 32" long would have made it a rather large mistake.

This fruitwood and ebony model of the Temple of Neptune at Paestum c.1840 was offered by Christie's at a significantly higher estimate of USD3,800-6,000 and achieved USD7,652.

And finally, this architectural model of Easton Neston c.1694 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, is part of the collection owned by the Royal Institute of British Architects, and is being displayed at the V&A's Architectural Exhibition Gallery, which I shall go and visit next month, whilst in London.

The exhibition is centred on this Hawksmoor piece, and through architectural models by Wren, Vanbrugh, Hawksmoor and Talman, it traces how engravings of continental structures were translated into English buildings.

Somehow and from somewhere, I really would like to own an architectural model. I'm not suggesting that the V&A would be my source! But I shall be scanning auctions for this additional interest.

Essential glossary

This new book should appeal to those of us interested in architecture, and sometimes unsure about the correct term for an architectural detail, or entablature.

My only concern is that it isn't too "dumbed down", and the lines:

some of the illustrations include charming cartoonish detail, (a couple of lager louts under a classical arch; a cycling vicar at the porch of a parish church; "smug undergraduates" walking past Doric engaged columns)...

may support this fear.