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A Pinterest Post: Chettle House

Those of you who know my penchant for shopping for homes online and my fondness for Pinterest won’t be surprised that the photo above piqued my interest. What a beautiful house! Of course, I had to learn more – it’s known as Chettle House and it’s in Dorset.

Set in 5 acres of lovely gardens, this charming 1710 Queen Anne manor house was designed by Thomas Archer. An example of English Baroque architecture,  Chettle House, the village manor, is a red brick mansion built by the Bastard brothers of Blandford Forum. Yes, their surname was really Bastard. You can read more about them here.  Two rounded ends were added to the house in 1912. One of the highlights of the interior is the elegant Oak Entrance Hall, with its two flights of sweeping oak stairs, lined by fine family portraits, rising separately to meet at the balcony above.  Chettle House is a popular venue for weddings, civil ceremonies, photo shoots and filming. Most recently, Chettle House was William Wilberforce’s London home in the film Amazing Grace about the abolition of the slave trade.
 
 
 

Chettle House is now run as a bed and breakfast and is owned by Fiona and Peter Bourke. As Peter writes on their website “My wife, Fiona, and I are delighted to welcome you to Chettle House. This has been our much loved family home for over 150 years and since we inherited the property in 2002, we have devoted our lives to its restoration and upkeep. We thus take enormous pleasure in sharing it with others.”

    The beautiful Chettle Church, whose West Tower dates back to the early 16th century, offers a stunning backdrop to the gardens that surround the house.

 
 
The Castleman Hotel, once the dower house for the estate, is run by Bourke’s younger brother, Teddy, and his wife Barbara. Click here to read a Daily Mail article from 2008 asking whether the village of Chettle (pop. about 90) is the perfect English village.
 
 
See the Pinterest links in the right sidebar to see all of Kristine and Victoria’s Pinterest boards.

On The Shelf: London Villages

In London Villages: Explore the City’s Best Local Neighbourhoods author Zena Alkayat breaks down London’s current sprawl into 30 villages and introduces readers to each via a short description, maps, photos and five highlighted places of interest in each neighborhood. These are further broken down into areas of the City: central, north, south, east and west.  All of the usual suspects make an appearance: Shepherd Market, Camden Passage, Queen’s Park, Little Venice. What truly sets Alkayat’s guide apart are the newly evolved villages introduced to the reader, some of which are still works in progress, and her discovery of overlooked gems in well loved areas.

Zayat’s chatty tone allows the reader to feel as though they are getting inside information from a local, with all the “need to know” details thrown in for good measure. Here’s Zayat’s take on Turnham Green (near Chiswick Common): “Though situated a little north of Chiswick’s main attractions, Turnham Green has established itself as the commercial heart of the area. To the south runs an incredibly scenic stretch of the Thames dotted with rowing clubs and pubs for walkers. Inland, Palladian villa Chiswick House attracts vast numbers of tourists, as does Hogarth’s House . . . For Londoners, the rather upmarket Chiswick car boot sale operates on the first Sunday of every month from the school on Burlington Lane, and the area’s centuries-old brewing heritage means there are plenty of historic pubs to enjoy. Frustratingly, there’s little to get excited about along Chiswick High Road itself, dwarfed as it is by standard high street restaurants and chains but offshoots Turnham Green Terrace and Devonshire Road lay claim to a stronghold of independent retailers. On Turnham Green Terrace, a number of delis have made the street a destination for fans of fine food, and Foubert’s Café (a local institution since 1980) is famous for its Italian ice cream. Devonshire Road, meanwhile, offers clothes boutiques, gift shops and the ramshackle Strand Antiques at number 46.” One of the five highlighted places of interest chosen by Alkayat includes Fosters’ Bookshop on the High Road: “The Foster family has run this tightly packed antiquarian store since 1968 and continues to acquire and sell a choice selection of rare books and first editions, together with volumes of local history and more general Penguin paperbacks and illustrated children’s novels.” I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to head to Turnham Green some first Sunday soon.

Other places I’m looking forward to visiting thanks to Alkayat include:

The Prince Alfred & Formosa Dining Room (Little Venice): “The Prince Alfred’s original snug rooms, snob screens and decorative tiles make it one of the best examples of a late Victorian pub in London. The ornate bar is adjoined to the intimate Formosa Dining Room, which enjoys repeated recommendations in Michelin’s Eating out in Pubs guide.”

Jane Bourvis (Golborne Road): “Walking into this vintage bridal shop feels like wandering to Miss Haversham’s dressing room. Dozens of antique lace dresses hang from the ceiling, corsets weigh down rails, and every available surface is topped with trinkets, strings of pearls and wind-up music boxes.”

Cannon & Cannon (Brixton Road): “Cannon & Cannon can sort cheese and charcuterie board dilemmas with minimal fuss. Its selection of British cured meat (sourced from as close as Kent and as far as the Scottish Highlands) is matched by a stellar range of artisan cheese. Pair with the deli’s chutneys and pickles and wash down with pale ale from Bermondsey’s Kernel Brewery.”

Virginia (Clarendon Cross): “Clarendon Cross’s concentration of eccentrics and artists may be thinning these days, but long serving establishments such as Virginia keep the area’s unconventional personality alive. Virginia Bates opened up shop in 1971 and is renowned in the upper echelons of the fashion industry for her incredible collection of antique apparel from the 1850s to the 1930s.”

London Villages should be on every Anglophile’s shelf. For visitors to the City, it will be indispensable when either planning your next trip or in order to learn more about the history of London. For locals, London Villages will no doubt keep that age old question, “What should we do this weekend?” at bay for months to come.

London Villages by Zena Alkayat with photographs by Kim Lightbody
 and illustrated maps by Jenny Seddon is published by Frances Lincoln
 in paperback, £9.99. 192 pages, ISBN 9780711234666

Video Wednesday

Colour footage of London during the Blitz shot by Alfred Coucher, wartime mayor and chief air raid warden of Marylebone, west London. The film comes to light 70 years after having been stored in his attic. Watch the six minute video covering it’s discovery, listen to historians discuss the impact of the Blitz on London and learn about the Blitz Project and the on-going digitalization of the online archives.
 
 
 
 
 

London Wrap Up

Here I am, sadly coming to the end of the extended account of my Summer, 2013, visit to England.  But I am thinking ahead to our Wellington Tour in September, 2014, when Kristine and I hope many of our readers will join us, beginning in London on September 4.

Last July, Britain was commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of HM Elizabeth, and the main thoroughfares were decked in purple and gold flags.  The country was also eagerly anticipating the birth of a royal heir, which occurred shortly after we returned to the US.

The Day of the Christening October 23, 2013
Prince George of Cambridge, his father, grandfather and great-grandmother, The Queen
 
For the past few weeks, I’ve been chronicling  my trip with Ed, who suffered from a very sore foot and had considerable pain. Nothing can be fun when your feet are sore!  But he was brave — and determined, so he limped onward through Cambridge, touring the stately estates of Houghton and Holkham Halls, and tramping around London, from Horse Guards and St. James and Mayfair, to the St. Pancras-King’s Cross neighborhood, and finally to the Wellington Arch and Apsley House.   
 
 
Handsome town houses along Grosvenor Crescent
 
After leaving Apsley House, we tried to calculate the most direct route to our restaurant, but in the curves and corners of the adjacent streets, it was no easy task to keep Ed on his feet as little as possible.  The scenery was excellent, however, fine townhouses, many converted to commercial use or serving as embassies.
 

 
More of the same 
 
On our walk to The Grenadier
The Grenadier, a delightful pub, beloved of Wellington’s troops
 
The modest little building has a long and celebrated history, including stories of the 1st Duke of Wellington and his troops, various ghosts, even up to the locals who were only momentarily disturbed by the limping tourists.  The food is right up to date, however, and delicious.
 

Inside the Grenadier
 
Kristine and I hope to welcome you to dinner at the Grenadier, included in The Wellington Tour.  We’ll be here on Saturday, September 6, 2014, so make plans to join us in London and touring a bit of southern England.  For details:
 
 
Charing Cross Road, London, July 17, 2013
 
Since it wouldn’t be a trip to London without an evening of theatre, I sent Ed back to the hotel for a nap and went to find tickets for a play he’d enjoy that evening, preferably a comedy.  Whether it was just good luck or London Karma, I got off the tube at Leicester Square station, and right next door was Wyndham’s Theatre where a play I had on my list was selling tickets in the lobby.  Eureka!
Felicity Kendal as Sheila in Relatively Speaking
 
Relatively Speaking by Alan Ayckbourn was first produced in 1965, but the revival held up perfectly as a funny but dark play about ironic misunderstandi
ngs and outright lies. Felicity Kendal has had a long career in television and movies, as well as the stage; I think I remember her most as Rosemary in Rosemary and Thyme, a British mystery series that has played on my local PBS station.  She was perfect in her role in this play, as were the other actors. We left laughing, but what character besides Sheila was a person we’d like to know?  Ayckbourn, author of about 77 plays, definitely has the last laugh.
A snap of the ceiling before they announced “No Cameras.”

The play was a perfect ending to a wonderful trip, for all that was left was repacking and the Heathrow Express before winging homeward.  Now, several months have passed, and Ed’s foot has healed up nicely.  And I have been planning, planning, planning for that September tour, perhaps with YOU.

 
 
 

St. Paul's Cathedral: a National Symbol

 
St. Paul’s Cathedral from the Thames, 1850
 

The Wellington Tour will visit St. Paul’s Cathedral on September 6, 2014, to pay our respects to the burial site of the Duke of Wellington…and there will be plenty more to see.  Please consider joining Kristine and me, Victoria, in England next year.  Our tour details are here.

St. Paul’s, Today

St. Paul’s is not only the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of England, it is a national symbol and the site of many national events: weddings, funerals, and significant celebrations. 

Queen Elizabeth II arrives at St. Paul’s 4 June 2012

It shares these roles with Westminster Abbey; St. Paul’s was the site of the service of national thanksgiving to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, and the Abbey in 2013 hosted the service of national thanksgiving to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.

Commemoration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, St. Paul’s, 2012

For the website of the St. Paul’s Cathedral, click here.  You will find a dizzying round of services and events every week.

St. Paul’s, a symbol of survival and hope in the Blitz
 
Though the Cathedral suffered some damage during World War II, every morning Londoners awoke to see the dome standing tall and proud among the smoking ruins of the City. 
 
We will tell the story later of Sir Christopher Wren and building this St. Paul’s from 1666-1708, probably the fifth or sixth church built on this site.  The previous cathedral succumbed to the Great Fire of 1666.
 
Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in the Great Fire of 1666
 
Today, however, our post will take you to the Crypt to see the tomb of Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), the first Duke of Wellington.  He is buried near the tomb of another hero of the Napoleonic Wars, Horatio, Admiral Lord Nelson (1758-1805), who died in the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar off the Spanish Coast establishing British hegemony on the seas.
 
Nelson’s Tomb, St. Paul’s Cathedral Crypt
 
Only one meeting between Admiral Nelson and the  eleven-year younger Major-General Wellington is known. It took place in September, 1805,  just six weeks before Nelson’s death. The two men waited to see the Secretary of War, Lord Castlereagh. Though Wellington immediately recognized the Admiral, Nelson only after some time knew with whom he was speaking.  Later, Wellington was quoted, “I don’t know that I ever had a conversation that interested me more”.   (Andrew Lambert,  [2005] Nelson: Britannia’s God of War. London: Faber and Faber.)

 
Duke of Wellington’s Funeral Procession leaving Apsley House

The Duke of Wellington passed away at his residence in Walmer Castle in Kent on September 14, 1852, at age 83.  He was one of a very few non-royals to have a state funeral, held at St. Paul’s Cathedral on November 18, 1852.  More than 13,000 were in attendance, including both Houses of Parliament.

An engraving of the funeral procession
 
Representative view of the Wellington Funeral
 

At the proper moment in the service, the Duke’s coffin was lowered into the crypt; the tomb was completed in 1858 by Architect Francis C. Penrose.   

Views of the Wellington Tomb

Not only military heroes are buried in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Among many others buried here are the founder of British nursing Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), composer Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), scientist Sir Arthur Fleming (1881-1955), and Sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986).

Also in the crypt is the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), architect of the cathedral.  His epitaph, in Latin: ‘Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you.’

Please join us to tour St. Paul’s and many more wonderful sites in London and southern England on The Wellington Tour.