Dominion Theatre

The Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre and former cinema located on Tottenham Court Road, close to St Giles Circus and Centre Point, in the London Borough of Camden.

The Dominion was home to the long-running musical “We Will Rock You” played at the theatre from 14 May 2002 until 31 May 2014. It was also home to the London auditions of Britain's Got Talent and from February to April 2016 to War of the Worlds.

Over several years, the theatre has undergone a rolling programme of refurbishment which has included reclaiming the area above the main foyer as a studio for rehearsals or events (2008), and reclaiming the offices in Nederlander House, which were originally part of the theatre but had been rented as commercial office space. Within this area, originally listed on the theatre plans as a 'Boardroom', a new Boardroom space has been created (2011). Following the closure of We Will Rock You, the theatre remained dark for 15 weeks, during which time owners undertook a mass programme of refurbishment, including replacing carpets, painting and restoring architectural features, refurbishing seats, renovating the 'front of house' toilets and bars, and updating much of the backstage facilities, including the flying system. This £6 million restoration programme was completed in 2017 with the unveiling of a brand new double-sided LED screen, the largest and highest resolution projecting screen on the exterior of a West End theatre.

Since re-opening on 16 September 2014, the Dominion Theatre has been home to a number of short run musicals and spectaculars, including Evita (September 2014), White Christmas (November 2014), Lord of the Dance (March 2015) and the London premiere of Elf (October 2015). Since March 2017, the Dominion Theatre is home to An American in Paris, with booking extending to January 2018.

In addition to hosting musicals in recent years, the theatre has also hosted a number of regular charity events, including MADTrust's West End Eurovision (2012, 2013, 2014) and West End Heroes (2013, 2014, 2015). The brainchild of current General Manager, David Pearson, 'West End Heroes' was produced by the theatre and brought together stars from current West End Shows, with musicians, from all the armed forces. The second event, in 2014, was hosted by Michael Ball.

Construction and restoration

Construction of The Dominion began in March 1928 with a design by W and TR Milburn and a budget of £460,000. The site was the location of the former Horse Shoe Brewery, which was the site of the 1814 London Beer Flood. The first performance was 3 October 1929. The Tottenham Court Road façade features a ground level entry sheltered by a broad marquee with the second through fourth levels framed by large pilasters. The central portion is concave and faced with Portland stone. A three-bay bow window extends the height of the second and third storeys and is surmounted by sculpture of two griffins. Behind the griffin statue are three square openings which hold decorative iron grates. The griffins were removed in 1932 to mount an aeroplane for the musical Silver Wings. The remainder of the bow window was hidden during the run of ‘We Will Rock You’ by a large shimmer curtain and statue of Freddie Mercury. These elements were reinstalled as part of the restoration. In addition to restoring the Tottenham Court Road façade, the stonework and windows of the dressing room block at the rear of the theatre were cleaned and replaced.

When the Dominion was built, it was linked to the building on Great Russell Street now known as Nederlander House. This building had been separated from the theatre and rented as office space for many decades. In 2011, the Dominion spent £200K reinstating the connection between the theatre, with this building returning its use to that the original theatre builders intended. It is now home to the theatre management offices plus a refurbished Boardroom space on the top floor. This Boardroom is marked as such on the original 1929 plans and it is now being hired out by the theatre's Dominion Events department for meeting, training and conference bookings. Other areas above the main foyer, which the Rank Organisation converted to office space, have been restored and now house 'The Studio' a rehearsal and audition space.

The auditorium currently has a seating capacity of 2,069 in two tiers of galleries, down from the 1940 capacity of 2,858 following the closure many decades ago of the upper circle. The theatre retains its 1920s light fittings and art deco plasterwork.

History

After initial success, including the London premiere of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights in February 1931, with Chaplin himself attending, the theatre began a financial slide until the company was liquidated 30 May 1932. In 1933, Associated Provincial Picture Houses assumed control of the facility and adapted the auditorium for films. In 1940, Associated became part of the Rank Organisation.

The Dominion temporarily closed because of the Blitz early in October 1940 and reopened on 12 January 1941. Its first major live show was The Judy Garland Show which ran for a month in 1957 and it has been a popular venue for musical theatre since. Soon after, the theatre received a Todd-AO system with two Philips 70mm / 35mm projectors and a 45 feet (14 m) wide screen.

After World War II, the theatre hosted both movies and live shows. Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific opened 21 April 1958 and played four years and 22 weeks. In 1963, Elizabeth Taylor appeared at the European opening of Cleopatra which played for almost two years. On March 29th 1965 The Sound Of Music film was screened here until June 29th 1968, The longest run of screenings of the film at any venue in the world.

During the 1980s, it became a popular venue for music concerts. It was where Tangerine Dream recorded its album Logos in 1982, which contains a tribute tune called "Dominion". Dolly Parton filmed her 1983 concert at the Dominion and released it as a television special, Dolly in London. Other performers to appear during this era included Duran Duran, Adam and The Ants, Billy Bragg, Bon Jovi, The Boomtown Rats, Boy George, David Bowie, Ian Drury and the Blockheads, Manfred Mann, Sinead O’Connor, Thin Lizzy, U2 and Van Morrison. In 1986, the Dominion hosted the musical Time, whose producers altered the interior extensively to accommodate the production.

Since the early 1990s the Dominion has hosted several musicals including a new production of Grease by David Ian and Paul Nicholas, Scrooge: The Musical, Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, a return of Grease, and Notre Dame de Paris. Bernadette The Musical, by Maureen and Gwyn Hughes, played briefly in 1990.

The Dominion hosted the Royal Variety Performance 1992 through 1996 and in 2000 and 2001.

In 2002, the hit stage musical We Will Rock You, based on the songs of Queen, created by Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor together with British comedian Ben Elton opened. The show was scheduled to close in October 2006 before embarking on a UK tour, but due to popular demand was extended indefinitely. In 2012, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of We Will Rock You, the theatre created the Freddie Mercury Suite, which displays pictures from the Queen singer's lifetime. This area was previously housed memorabilia of Judy Garland. In March 2014, producers announced that We Will Rock You would close June 2014.

The Theatre played host to a "re-imagined" production of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds from February to April 2016 and featured direction by Bob Thompson, an onstage orchestra conducted by Jeff Wayne and Liam Neeson as the Journalist in 3D holography.

Ownership

The Dominion has had a variety of owners during its history. The Rank Organisation and Apollo Leisure operated it from 1988 to 1999. In 1999, SFX Entertainment acquired Apollo Leisure and in 2001 Clear Channel Entertainment, part of the US based multinational, purchased SFX. Clear Channel spun-off its venues as Live Nation UK who operated Clear Channel's venues on behalf of the Nederlander Organization. On 23 October 2009 the Nederlander Organization took full control of the venue, purchasing Live Nation's portion of ownership. [Wilipedia ]

Sometimes you talk to other explorers who give you hints how to ge in somewhere. I thought I had it all figured out when we arrived here. Until I saw where we should go in. I clearly should have mentioned that I am almost 2 meters long and 120 kilograms.... Luckily it all worked out!

This castle dates back to the 13th century. It was built on a crossing of two very important trade routes and therefor interesting area for people to settle. It has been owned by various aristocrats during the centuries.

The beautiful plaster on the several ceilings was built in the end of the 17th century already. In one room called the 'Bacchus Room' the ceiling is decorated with angels and wine barrels.

Although the decorations inside are some you don't see very often, the rest of the castle is rather empty. They have been working on renovation, but guess this is at a standstill for several years already....

Please visit www.preciousdecay.com for more pictures and follow me on Facebook on www.facebook.com/Preciousdecay

If you like my work and you would like a piece of me on your wall, please contact me for various materials and prices!

Canons Ashby House is an Elizabethan manor house located in Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, England. It has been owned by the National Trust since 1981, although "The Tower" is in the care of the Landmark Trust and available for holiday lets.

It has been the home of the Dryden family since the 16th century. The main part of the manor house was built in approximately 1550 with additions in the 1590s, in the 1630s and 1710; it has remained essentially unchanged since the 1710s.

John Dryden had married Elizabeth Cope in 1551 and inherited, through his wife, a 15th century L-shaped farmhouse which he gradually extended. In the 1590s his son, Sir Erasmus Dryden completed the final north range of the house which enclosed the Pebble Courtyard.

The interior of the house is noted for its Elizabethan wall paintings and its Jacobean plasterwork.

The house sits in the midst of a formal garden with colourful herbaceous borders, an orchard featuring varieties of fruit trees from the 16th century, terraces, walls and gate piers from 1710. There is also the remains of a medieval priory church (from which the house gets its name).

Leighton Film Test

Canons Ashby House (previously known as Canons Ashby Hall) is a Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house located in the village of Canons Ashby, about 11 miles south of Daventry, Northamptonshire. It has been owned by the National Trust since 1981 when the house was close to collapse and the gardens had turned into a meadow.

The house had been the home of the Dryden family since its construction in the 16th century; the manor house was built in approximately 1550 with additions in the 1590s, in the 1630s and 1710. The interior of Canons Ashby House is noted for its Elizabethan wall paintings and its Jacobean plasterwork. It has remained essentially unchanged since 1710 and is presented as it was during the time of Sir Henry Edward Leigh Dryden (1818–1899), a Victorian antiquary with an interest in history.

The house sits in the midst of a formal garden with colourful herbaceous borders, an orchard featuring varieties of fruit trees from the 16th century, terraces, walls and gate piers from 1710. There is also the remains of a medieval priory church (from which the house gets its name).

Explored 28-04-2018. Highest position #228

Hardwick Hall

An Elizabethan Masterpiece

Built in 1590-9 by Robert Smythson for Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury.

Elizabeth was more famously known as ‘Bess of Hardwick’ one of the most formidable women of Elizabethan England and the matriarch of the Cavendish family.

Hardwick is one of the earliest English interpretations of Italian Renaissance architecture, and stands as one of the greatest of all Elizabethan houses.

Huge grids of glass are used to great effect in this rectangular, turreted building, which caused leading observers of that time to rhyme: ‘Hardwick Hall, more window than wall’.

The impressive twin towers are each crowned with a balustrade incorporating an ‘E.S.’ motif (for Elizabeth Shrewsbury) and, unusually, each of the 3 main storeys has a ceiling higher than the one below.

Hardwick boasts arguably the most spectacular Elizabethan interiors in England, with plasterwork by Abraham Smith, overmantels by Thomas Accres, and a classical screen by William Griffin, all dating from the 1590s.

Hardwick was transferred to the National Trust from Bess’s descendants, the Dukes of Devonshire, in 1959.

Grade l listed.

My Image

The Cut-Velvet Bedroom

The bed and cut-velvet hangings are eighteenth-century.

The large leather studded blanket chest at the foot of the bed is c1730.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardwick-hall

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardwick_Hall

Lanhydrock, near Bodmin, is a magnificent late Victorian country house with extensive servants quarters, gardens and a wooded estate.

It is the perfect country house and estate, with the feel of a wealthy but unpretentious family home. The kitchens, nurseries and servants' quarters offer a thrilling glimpse into life 'below stairs', while the spacious dining room and bedrooms are truly and deeply elegant.

The house is set in wooded parkland of 1,000 acres and encircled by a garden of rare shrubs and trees.

Follow in the footsteps of generations of the Robartes family, walking in the 17th-century Long Gallery among the rare book collection under the remarkable plasterwork ceiling. After a devastating fire in 1881 the house was refurbished in the high-Victorian style, with the latest mod cons.

Don't miss

* There are 50 rooms to explore – allow plenty of time!

* Play the Steinway piano in the Long Gallery

* Look out for the museum and second-hand bookshop

The gardens

The historical garden with its 30-acres of woodland was laid out back in 1857, but its present format was actually established later on in the Victorian period, and many of the plants are no more than 70 years old. However, a grand atmosphere permeates the entire setting and compliments the brilliant planting of more modern times.

Explore formal parterres of dazzling bedding plants and wander along paths that wind through a woodland landscape planted in a semi-formal Cornish fashion - rhododendrons and Himalayan magnolias lurching to their full-size in the fresh Cornish air. Because the grounds lie inland and rise up to 130-metres above sea level, the plants have to cope with harsher climates than the lush valley gardens of the south coast. In spite of this, Lanhydrock still puts on one of the county's most colourful spring shows, with over 120 species of cream and white magnolias featuring amongst a flurry of wild blooms that carpet the woodland.

Learn more about the history and the work involved to keep the magnificent gardens maintained via the new interpretation on permanent display in the garden's thatched cottage.

Take-in the sweeping views over the gardens and the valley landscape, and it's pretty obvious that this is prime garden for walkers. Not only is there 30-acres of formal and informal woodland to explore, but the garden opens onto an extensive network of footpaths zig-zagging through 900-acres of beautiful countryside.

And with so much space to roam, Lanhydrock makes a very family friendly day out. Whilst the fresh air and colourful surroundings will captivate the kids' imaginations and wear them out, the restaurant has a fantastic children's menu and there are excellent baby-changing facilities on-site.

(visitcornwall.com)

Lanhydrock House (kornisch Lannhydrek) ist ein Herrenhaus nahe der englischen Stadt Bodmin in Cornwall. Es liegt fast 13 Kilometer von der Südküste Cornwalls entfernt im waldreichen Tal des Flusses River Fowey, inmitten eines 367 Hektar großen Anwesens, das bis zu 130 Metern Höhe ansteigt.

Lanhydrock House ist von einem attraktiven formalen Garten und einem Landschaftspark umgeben. Der angrenzende Hügel ist mit ausgewählten Bäumen und Sträuchern bepflanzt. Viele Teile des heutigen Hauses sind viktorianischen Ursprungs, einige sind jedoch mehr als 200 Jahre älter, sie datieren etwa um das Jahr 1620.

Fünfzig Jahre nach dem Bau von Lanhydrock House wurde im Jahr 1690 der erste geometrische Garten neben dem Haus angelegt, er wird erstmals im Lanhydrock-Atlas von 1694 bis 1697 erwähnt. Der Garten bestand aus einer Rasenfläche für Kegel- oder Ballspiele, dem Bowling Green, einem Blumengarten, der von einem Weg entlang der Baumlinie umsäumt war, einer Fasanerie, einem Küchengarten, einem Birnen- und Obstgarten sowie einem an der Nordseite des Hauses angrenzenden Natur- oder Wildgarten. Mit dem Abriss des Ostflügels des Hauses 1780 durch George Hunt wurde auch diese Gartenanlage beseitigt, so dass das Parkgelände bis an das Gebäude reichte.

Um das Jahr 1860 legte man oberhalb des Hauses einen Staudengarten an, den „Oberen Garten“ oder „Hochgarten“. Nach 1858 erstellte Richard Coad basierend auf Plänen des Architekten George Truefitt, die dieser ab 1854 entworfen hatte, einen neuen, heute noch zu besichtigenden geometrischen Garten an der Ost- und Nordseite von Lanhydrock House. Er ist umgeben von niedrigen zinnenbewehrten Brüstungen und Obelisken im Stil des Hauses. Truefitt sah für Lanhydrock Wasserspiele, Terrassen, Kieswege und eine Promenade zum Torhaus vor, die Coad um eigene Ideen, wie die Granitstufen zur Kirche und eine Sitzgelegenheit, ergänzte. Etwa 1933 erfolgte eine Vereinfachung der viktorianischen Beetaufteilung und die Anpflanzung erster Magnolien.

Lanhydrock Gardens besteht heute aus mehreren, unterschiedlich stark voneinander abgetrennten Bereichen. Im Innenenhof oder Vorhof von Lanhydrock House ist eine durch einen Kiesweg begrenzte runde Rasenfläche angelegt. An den Hauswänden neben dem Weg stehen Immergrüne Magnolien (Magnolia grandiflora) und im Juli und August blühende Hortensiengewächse der Sorte Schizophragma integrifolium. Östlich in Richtung Torhaus schließt sich der „Geometrische Garten“ an, der durch 23 beschnittene Säuleneiben (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) dominiert wird. Zwischen ihnen sind Rosenbeete angelegt, die vornehmlich mit den Sorten ‘Octavia Hill’, ‘Bright Smile’, ‘Escapade’, ‘Wheelhorse Classic’ und ‘Margaret Merril’ bepflanzt sind.

Im Norden des geometrischen Gartens, und hinter der niedrigen Nordmauer außerhalb der eigentlichen Gartenanlage gelegen, befindet sich eine bepflanzte Freifläche, die vormals als Krocket- und Tennisplatz genutzt wurde. Der Tennisplatz nahm dabei die östliche Seite der Freifläche ein. Neben einigen Büschen, wie Gwillimia (Magnolia delavayi), stehen hier zwei Blutbuchen und eine jüngere Korkeiche. Die Blutbuchen wurden von prominenter Seite gepflanzt, die größere 1889 durch den ehemaligen britischen Premierminister William Ewart Gladstone, die kleinere 1905 durch Archibald Philip Primrose, dem 5. Earl of Rosebery. Auf dem westlich angrenzenden ehemaligen Krocketrasen stehen Rhododendren der Sorten ‘Mother of Pearl’, ‘Hugh Koster’ und ‘Pink Pearl’.

Nordwestlich des geometrischen Gartens, nördlich der Gebäude von Lanhydrock House, geht die Gartenanlage ins „Parterre“ über. Hier werden im Frühling und im Sommer verschiedene Blumen innerhalb von Buchsbaumhecken gepflanzt, die in einem komplizierten Muster auf ebener Fläche angelegt sind. Südlich und östlich davon stehen sechs den Bäumen im geometrischen Garten im Schnitt gleiche Säuleneiben. Eine Terrassenstufe höher in Richtung der kleinen Kirche sind die Blumenrabatten als Muster direkt in die Rasenfläche gesetzt.

Beide Bereiche, deren Höhenunterschied keinen Meter ausmacht, haben je eine Bronze-Urne als Mittelpunkt. Diese Urnen, von denen auch einige den geometrischen Garten schmücken, sind Erwerbungen Francis Gerald Agar-Robartes’, des 7. Viscount Clifden, aus der Sammlung von Lord Hertford im Pariser Château de Bagatelle. Sie wurden vom Goldschmied Ludwigs des XIV., Louis Ballin, geschaffen. Nach Westen wird das „Parterre“ durch die Umfassungsmauer begrenzt, in der zwei Durchgänge ausgespart sind. Neben dem Herrenhaus erreicht man über eine Treppe die Kirche St Hydroc, daneben führt ein Weg an der Kirche vorbei in Richtung „Hochgarten“. Unterhalb der Mauer ist ein erhobenes Beet mit Schmucklilien-Hybriden der Sorte ‘Headbourne’, Fuchsien und Waldreben angelegt.

Der Weg zum Hochgarten kreuzt den in Nord-Süd-Richtung verlaufenden Kirchweg, neben dem Fächer-Ahorn (Sorte ‘Sango-kaku’) und laubabwerfende Hybriden der Westlichen Azalee stehen. Direkt vor der Kirche sind verschiedene Kamelien-Sorten, Rhododendren (Rhododendron arboreum var. roseum) und Stern-Magnolien-Hybriden (Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’) gepflanzt, in der Ecke des Kirchhofs eine baumartige Magnolia hypoleuca (obovata). Den nördlichen Abschnitt des Kirchwegs flankieren einige Hortensien, dahinter Magnolia campbellii ‘Charles Raffill’, Rhododendron fictolacteum und Rhododendron rex.

Den Eingang zum Hochgarten markiert ein durch eine Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ verdecktes gewölbtes Tor. Der hinter dem Tor liegende Gartenbereich wurde ab 1933 durch den 7. Viscount Clifden mit verschiedensten Arten von Magnolien bepflanzt, die heute eine Höhe bis zu 25 Metern erreichen. Durch den Hochgarten fließt der Borlase stream („Bach von Borlase“), der die Wasserversorgung für Lanhydrock House sichert. In und an ihm gedeihen Kandelaberprimeln, Astelia, Aronstab, Schaublatt und Kirengeshoma

Im Norden des Hochgartens gelangt man über die „Magnolienlichtung“ zum „Staudenkreis“. Dieser bildet erst seit 1972 einen Vollkreis, nachdem auf der nördlichen Hälfte die Ruinen eines Gewächshauses und eines Schuppens abgerissen wurden. Den südlichen Halbkreis hatte Lady Clifden schon vor 1914 gestaltet. Die hier gepflanzten Stauden blühen vom Ende des Sommers bis in den Herbst. An der Nordwestecke des Hochgartens wurden nach dem zerstörerischen Sturm von 1979 zum Schutz des Gartens Eichen und Edelkastanien angepflanzt.

Lanhydrock war 1996 der Hauptdrehort für den Film Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Regie führte Trevor Nunn, Hauptdarstellerin war Helena Bonham Carter als Olivia. Weiterhin dienten Haus und Garten als Drehort für die Rosamunde-Pilcher-Verfilmungen Klippen der Liebe (1999) und Im Zweifel für die Liebe (2009).

(Wikipedia)

The 88,180-square-foot city-owned property at 174 E Flagler St. has 79 apartments, four retail stores and the theater with 10 former apartments serving as dressing rooms.

Tucked into Miami’s contemporary skyline is an enchanting Mediterranean courtyard with shimmering stars and golden balconies. Majestic turrets and towers suggest another era when performances were events, and grand theaters provided a dreamlike escape from the modern world.

The Olympia Theater is not just a “venue” – it is the jewel of South Florida arts and entertainment facilities, affording South Florida’s diverse community and its international guests a unique cultural experience that defies comparison.

The Olympia Theater opened in 1926 as a silent movie palace and amazed the public with its stunning Moorish architecture, perfect acoustics and simulated night sky, complete with wafting clouds and twinkling stars. It also achieved fame as the first air-conditioned building in the South.

The “talkies” and Vaudeville soon arrived at the Olympia, and for more than 40 years the theater was the number one entertainment center in Miami. It was one of the last theaters in the country to showcase Vaudeville acts.

Throughout its history, the Olympia has been host to the world’s most exciting performers in the arts and entertainment community. Cultural icons such as Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Luciano Pavarotti and Etta James have provided memorable evenings under the Olympia Theater's stars. The theater has also hosted today’s best-known pop stars and is a favored venue for concerts.

In 1975, South Florida business tycoon and philanthropist Maurice Gusman saved the aging theater and adjacent Olympia Office Building from demolition then donated them to the City of Miami in 1975. Thanks to extensive restorations in the 1970s, overseen in part by famed architect Morris Lapidus, the theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Time continued to take its toll on the Olympia, however, and by the late 1980s virtually every structural system of the theater was in need of repair and replacement. The roof had several leaks that had damaged the theater’s historic paint and plaster as well as the seating and carpeting in the auditorium. The HVAC system had to be entirely replaced. Electrical, sound systems, and plumbing all required upgrades.

Noted restoration architect Richard J. Heisenbottle, AIA, was retained to develop an ambitious, multi-year plan for additional stabilization and restoration work. In order to minimize loss of income for the theater, construction was planned to occur during only the summer months, when bookings were normally at a minimum. Critical components were broken down into construction segments that could be completed in three months. During the rest of each year, the architectural and engineering team completed plans and theater management secured funds for the next round of work.

The theater owes its distinctive character to architect John Eberson, the master of “atmospheric” theater design, and it is one of the few Eberson theaters around the world still standing. Restoration of Eberson’s original design scheme, including original colors and finishes, was another top priority of the construction plan. Following detailed analysis, decorative painters restored the original, vibrant paint scheme to the decorative plasterwork throughout the theater. Seventies-vintage plastic seating was replaced with wood-and-brass seats boasting historically appropriate detailing. Even the new carpeting was custom loomed to match the 1926 original.

In 1975, Maurice Gusman donated the theater and adjacent Olympia Office Building to the city.

Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:

www.olympiaarts.miami/olympia-theater.html

www.miamitodaynews.com/2021/01/12/historic-olympia-gusman...

www.miamidade.gov/Apps/PA/propertysearch/#/

www.miamitodaynews.com/2022/07/26/miami-may-ask-proposals...

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

We had stopped to look at the village sign opposite, then turned round and saw this amazing building. It's quite a small village, strung out along a rural road, so it's surprising that it's still got a post office. (I'm assuming it's still running, there were notices in the window. It was Sunday when we visited, so obviously not open then.) It must be a very old building, look at the lovely wonkiness of the door. And there's some more pargetting around the bay window.

Seen during our recent weekend in Suffolk.

THIS ELIZABETHAN HALL AND STANDS ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER CALDER IN PADIHAM IN THE HEART OF INDUSTRIAL LANCASHIRE. THE HALL WAS BUILT BETWEEN 1600 AND 1605 GAWTHORPE HALL WAS THE FAMILY HOME OF THE SHUTTLEWORTH FAMILY FOR OVER 300 YEARS. INSIDE THE HOUSE YOU WILL FIND PERIOD ROOMS ON DISPLAY FROM THE 1850 REMODELLING BY RENOWNED ARCHITECT SIR CHARLES BARRY AND PUGIN AS WELL AS ORIGINAL PLASTERWORK CEILINGS, PANELLING AND THE IMPRESSIVE LONG GALLERY. ALSO ON DISPLAY ARE OVER 200 PIECES FROM THE NATIONALLY IMPORTANT GAWTHORPE TEXTILE COLLECTION.

THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY HAS LOANED OVER 20 PAINTINGS TO THE HALL ALL OF WHICH ILLUSTRATE ITS FASCINATING CONNECTIONS AND HISTORY, PARTICULARLY WITH THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR. GAWTHORPE HALL IS AN ARTISTIC AND HISTORIC TREASURE TROVE IN THE MIDDLE OF INDUSTRIAL LANCASHIRE.

GAWTHORPE HALL IS CLOSED COMPLETELY FOR THE REST OF 2015. THIS IS DUE TO MAJOR BUILDING CONSERVATION WORK TO THE HALL, AND IS EXPECTED BE OPEN FULLY FOR 2016.

Lanhydrock, near Bodmin, is a magnificent late Victorian country house with extensive servants quarters, gardens and a wooded estate.

It is the perfect country house and estate, with the feel of a wealthy but unpretentious family home. The kitchens, nurseries and servants' quarters offer a thrilling glimpse into life 'below stairs', while the spacious dining room and bedrooms are truly and deeply elegant.

The house is set in wooded parkland of 1,000 acres and encircled by a garden of rare shrubs and trees.

Follow in the footsteps of generations of the Robartes family, walking in the 17th-century Long Gallery among the rare book collection under the remarkable plasterwork ceiling. After a devastating fire in 1881 the house was refurbished in the high-Victorian style, with the latest mod cons.

Don't miss

* There are 50 rooms to explore – allow plenty of time!

* Play the Steinway piano in the Long Gallery

* Look out for the museum and second-hand bookshop

The gardens

The historical garden with its 30-acres of woodland was laid out back in 1857, but its present format was actually established later on in the Victorian period, and many of the plants are no more than 70 years old. However, a grand atmosphere permeates the entire setting and compliments the brilliant planting of more modern times.

Explore formal parterres of dazzling bedding plants and wander along paths that wind through a woodland landscape planted in a semi-formal Cornish fashion - rhododendrons and Himalayan magnolias lurching to their full-size in the fresh Cornish air. Because the grounds lie inland and rise up to 130-metres above sea level, the plants have to cope with harsher climates than the lush valley gardens of the south coast. In spite of this, Lanhydrock still puts on one of the county's most colourful spring shows, with over 120 species of cream and white magnolias featuring amongst a flurry of wild blooms that carpet the woodland.

Learn more about the history and the work involved to keep the magnificent gardens maintained via the new interpretation on permanent display in the garden's thatched cottage.

Take-in the sweeping views over the gardens and the valley landscape, and it's pretty obvious that this is prime garden for walkers. Not only is there 30-acres of formal and informal woodland to explore, but the garden opens onto an extensive network of footpaths zig-zagging through 900-acres of beautiful countryside.

And with so much space to roam, Lanhydrock makes a very family friendly day out. Whilst the fresh air and colourful surroundings will captivate the kids' imaginations and wear them out, the restaurant has a fantastic children's menu and there are excellent baby-changing facilities on-site.

(visitcornwall.com)

Lanhydrock House (kornisch Lannhydrek) ist ein Herrenhaus nahe der englischen Stadt Bodmin in Cornwall. Es liegt fast 13 Kilometer von der Südküste Cornwalls entfernt im waldreichen Tal des Flusses River Fowey, inmitten eines 367 Hektar großen Anwesens, das bis zu 130 Metern Höhe ansteigt.

Lanhydrock House ist von einem attraktiven formalen Garten und einem Landschaftspark umgeben. Der angrenzende Hügel ist mit ausgewählten Bäumen und Sträuchern bepflanzt. Viele Teile des heutigen Hauses sind viktorianischen Ursprungs, einige sind jedoch mehr als 200 Jahre älter, sie datieren etwa um das Jahr 1620.

Fünfzig Jahre nach dem Bau von Lanhydrock House wurde im Jahr 1690 der erste geometrische Garten neben dem Haus angelegt, er wird erstmals im Lanhydrock-Atlas von 1694 bis 1697 erwähnt. Der Garten bestand aus einer Rasenfläche für Kegel- oder Ballspiele, dem Bowling Green, einem Blumengarten, der von einem Weg entlang der Baumlinie umsäumt war, einer Fasanerie, einem Küchengarten, einem Birnen- und Obstgarten sowie einem an der Nordseite des Hauses angrenzenden Natur- oder Wildgarten. Mit dem Abriss des Ostflügels des Hauses 1780 durch George Hunt wurde auch diese Gartenanlage beseitigt, so dass das Parkgelände bis an das Gebäude reichte.

Um das Jahr 1860 legte man oberhalb des Hauses einen Staudengarten an, den „Oberen Garten“ oder „Hochgarten“. Nach 1858 erstellte Richard Coad basierend auf Plänen des Architekten George Truefitt, die dieser ab 1854 entworfen hatte, einen neuen, heute noch zu besichtigenden geometrischen Garten an der Ost- und Nordseite von Lanhydrock House. Er ist umgeben von niedrigen zinnenbewehrten Brüstungen und Obelisken im Stil des Hauses. Truefitt sah für Lanhydrock Wasserspiele, Terrassen, Kieswege und eine Promenade zum Torhaus vor, die Coad um eigene Ideen, wie die Granitstufen zur Kirche und eine Sitzgelegenheit, ergänzte. Etwa 1933 erfolgte eine Vereinfachung der viktorianischen Beetaufteilung und die Anpflanzung erster Magnolien.

Lanhydrock Gardens besteht heute aus mehreren, unterschiedlich stark voneinander abgetrennten Bereichen. Im Innenenhof oder Vorhof von Lanhydrock House ist eine durch einen Kiesweg begrenzte runde Rasenfläche angelegt. An den Hauswänden neben dem Weg stehen Immergrüne Magnolien (Magnolia grandiflora) und im Juli und August blühende Hortensiengewächse der Sorte Schizophragma integrifolium. Östlich in Richtung Torhaus schließt sich der „Geometrische Garten“ an, der durch 23 beschnittene Säuleneiben (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) dominiert wird. Zwischen ihnen sind Rosenbeete angelegt, die vornehmlich mit den Sorten ‘Octavia Hill’, ‘Bright Smile’, ‘Escapade’, ‘Wheelhorse Classic’ und ‘Margaret Merril’ bepflanzt sind.

Im Norden des geometrischen Gartens, und hinter der niedrigen Nordmauer außerhalb der eigentlichen Gartenanlage gelegen, befindet sich eine bepflanzte Freifläche, die vormals als Krocket- und Tennisplatz genutzt wurde. Der Tennisplatz nahm dabei die östliche Seite der Freifläche ein. Neben einigen Büschen, wie Gwillimia (Magnolia delavayi), stehen hier zwei Blutbuchen und eine jüngere Korkeiche. Die Blutbuchen wurden von prominenter Seite gepflanzt, die größere 1889 durch den ehemaligen britischen Premierminister William Ewart Gladstone, die kleinere 1905 durch Archibald Philip Primrose, dem 5. Earl of Rosebery. Auf dem westlich angrenzenden ehemaligen Krocketrasen stehen Rhododendren der Sorten ‘Mother of Pearl’, ‘Hugh Koster’ und ‘Pink Pearl’.

Nordwestlich des geometrischen Gartens, nördlich der Gebäude von Lanhydrock House, geht die Gartenanlage ins „Parterre“ über. Hier werden im Frühling und im Sommer verschiedene Blumen innerhalb von Buchsbaumhecken gepflanzt, die in einem komplizierten Muster auf ebener Fläche angelegt sind. Südlich und östlich davon stehen sechs den Bäumen im geometrischen Garten im Schnitt gleiche Säuleneiben. Eine Terrassenstufe höher in Richtung der kleinen Kirche sind die Blumenrabatten als Muster direkt in die Rasenfläche gesetzt.

Beide Bereiche, deren Höhenunterschied keinen Meter ausmacht, haben je eine Bronze-Urne als Mittelpunkt. Diese Urnen, von denen auch einige den geometrischen Garten schmücken, sind Erwerbungen Francis Gerald Agar-Robartes’, des 7. Viscount Clifden, aus der Sammlung von Lord Hertford im Pariser Château de Bagatelle. Sie wurden vom Goldschmied Ludwigs des XIV., Louis Ballin, geschaffen. Nach Westen wird das „Parterre“ durch die Umfassungsmauer begrenzt, in der zwei Durchgänge ausgespart sind. Neben dem Herrenhaus erreicht man über eine Treppe die Kirche St Hydroc, daneben führt ein Weg an der Kirche vorbei in Richtung „Hochgarten“. Unterhalb der Mauer ist ein erhobenes Beet mit Schmucklilien-Hybriden der Sorte ‘Headbourne’, Fuchsien und Waldreben angelegt.

Der Weg zum Hochgarten kreuzt den in Nord-Süd-Richtung verlaufenden Kirchweg, neben dem Fächer-Ahorn (Sorte ‘Sango-kaku’) und laubabwerfende Hybriden der Westlichen Azalee stehen. Direkt vor der Kirche sind verschiedene Kamelien-Sorten, Rhododendren (Rhododendron arboreum var. roseum) und Stern-Magnolien-Hybriden (Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’) gepflanzt, in der Ecke des Kirchhofs eine baumartige Magnolia hypoleuca (obovata). Den nördlichen Abschnitt des Kirchwegs flankieren einige Hortensien, dahinter Magnolia campbellii ‘Charles Raffill’, Rhododendron fictolacteum und Rhododendron rex.

Den Eingang zum Hochgarten markiert ein durch eine Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ verdecktes gewölbtes Tor. Der hinter dem Tor liegende Gartenbereich wurde ab 1933 durch den 7. Viscount Clifden mit verschiedensten Arten von Magnolien bepflanzt, die heute eine Höhe bis zu 25 Metern erreichen. Durch den Hochgarten fließt der Borlase stream („Bach von Borlase“), der die Wasserversorgung für Lanhydrock House sichert. In und an ihm gedeihen Kandelaberprimeln, Astelia, Aronstab, Schaublatt und Kirengeshoma

Im Norden des Hochgartens gelangt man über die „Magnolienlichtung“ zum „Staudenkreis“. Dieser bildet erst seit 1972 einen Vollkreis, nachdem auf der nördlichen Hälfte die Ruinen eines Gewächshauses und eines Schuppens abgerissen wurden. Den südlichen Halbkreis hatte Lady Clifden schon vor 1914 gestaltet. Die hier gepflanzten Stauden blühen vom Ende des Sommers bis in den Herbst. An der Nordwestecke des Hochgartens wurden nach dem zerstörerischen Sturm von 1979 zum Schutz des Gartens Eichen und Edelkastanien angepflanzt.

Lanhydrock war 1996 der Hauptdrehort für den Film Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Regie führte Trevor Nunn, Hauptdarstellerin war Helena Bonham Carter als Olivia. Weiterhin dienten Haus und Garten als Drehort für die Rosamunde-Pilcher-Verfilmungen Klippen der Liebe (1999) und Im Zweifel für die Liebe (2009).

(Wikipedia)

History[edit]

Broughton's Church of England Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin was built in about 1300 in a style that is transitional from Early English to Decorated Gothic.[2] The church is in the grounds of Broughton Castle, the 14th- to 16th-century country house the seat of the ancestral line of the Lords Saye and Sele (the Fiennes family) restored using the consultancy of architect George Gilbert Scott.

Broughton Rectory was rebuilt in 1694.[3] It was altered three times in the 19th century: firstly by Richard Pace of Lechlade in 1808, and then with extensions by S.P. Cockerell in 1820 and H.J. Underwood in 1842.[3]

The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Broughton parish had two watermills. By 1444 there were at least three, one of which was a fulling mill.> By 1685 there was a second fulling mill, and both mills supplied the local woollen industry. Fulling and cloth-dyeing remained local industries until early in the 20th century.[4]

In the 17th century Broughton's agriculture was predominantly pasture for cattle and sheep, which has given to the parish such field names as Dairy Ground, Grazing Ground and New Close Pasture. Improved crop rotation in the agricultural revolution increased arable farming in the parish, with crops being diversified in the 18th century to include clover, flax, hops, sainfoin and woad. Some of these crops have given place names to the parish such as Sandfine Wood, Sandfine Road and Woadmill Farm. Woad was still grown in 1827, when it was used locally for dyeing wool.[4]

Broughton has a pair of Gothic Revival almshouses that were built in 1859

Main rooms at Broughton Castle

The gatehouse is of 1406, and the block to its left, now the shop and cafe, has Gothic windows facing the moat. The main facade is medieval to the left, but in Elizabethan prodigy house style at the centre and right. The chapel is 14th-century Decorated Gothic, the other main rooms that are opened mainly Elizabethan. The great hall runs along the facade. Upstairs there is a long gallery overlooking the gardens at the rear.[4]

The best bedrooms have two very elaborate chimneypieces, in the Queen's Bedroom (used by Anne of Denmark) a stone one heavily decorated with ornament in a style "proclaiming the Renaissance but simultaneously revealing a still very imperfect comprehension of what it was all about". This was presumably the result of a local carver with access to an ornament pattern book such as those by Hans Vredeman de Vries; the two human heads still look distinctly medieval. The other chimneypiece, in the bedroom James I used, is at another stylistic extreme; a very polished and spacious stucco piece in a style comparable to that of the First School of Fontainebleau, and probably not made by English artists. The central medallion, with a mythological scene, is designed by Rosso Fiorentino, and also appears in the Palace of Fontainebleau. This is flanked by two large nude boys. The Italian artists of the Tudor court Henry VIII used at Nonsuch Palace have been suggested; the pieces were almost certainly made elsewhere and taken to Broughton.[5]

There are several fine plasterwork ceilings, the most spectacular in the Great Parlour on the first floor, and the Oak Room below it. There is 18th-century painted Chinese wallpaper of different tree, bird and flower designs in three bedrooms, in very good condition. At roof level there is a room believed to be that "with no ears", where the 1st viscount plotted with Parliamentary leaders in the years before the Civil War.[6] The gardens have long herbacious borders, at their best in summer.

Films and TVs[edit]

Parts of the films The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), Oxford Blues (1984), Three Men and a Little Lady (1990), The Madness of King George (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and Jane Eyre (2011) were shot in the castle. TV filming for parts of Elizabeth The Virgin Queen, Friends and Crocodiles, 1975 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, and the titles of Noel's House Party also took place there. The castle has been used as the location for several other films and TV programmes[7] including an adaptation of Jane Eyre and

Concerts[edit]

In August 1981, the electric folk band Fairport Convention held their annual reunion concert at Broughton Castle, rather than the usual Cropredy location.[8] The concert was recorded, and released on the album Moat on the Ledge (1982).

Fiction[edit]

Published in April 2009, The Music Room is a novel by William Fiennes. This fictionalized memoir of his childhood and his epileptic brother is set in (the never identified) Broughton Castle. It has been described as "a beautiful poem of a tribute to his family, his parents, the magical, moated castle that was his home"

Wikipedia

I could be happy here.

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Seaview's history began in 1859 when Jonathan Stout, a cooper from Ohio, arrived on the Long Beach Peninsula.

In 1880 he purchased 153 acres along the ocean front with plans for a summer resort. He ran through several names for the resort—Stout's, Ocean View, North Pacific Beach, and finally Sea View.

He built a hotel a few hundred feet from the mean high tide line with an ocean view across the driftwood that accumulated every winter. A half mile of accreted sand covered with trees now separate the hotel's site from the ocean due to the effects of the North Jetty at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Stout recorded his townsite at the Pacific County courthouse in October 1881 and soon began selling lots. Most were fifty by one hundred feet and sold for one hundred dollars. To build a cottage on a lot cost between two and three hundred dollars.

They were board-and-batten on the outside, with no insulation or interior plasterwork. Many Portlanders purchased lots and built houses in Seaview throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, until the Panic of 1893 put a damper on such luxuries.

Most of those who built summer homes in Seaview would ride a steamboat down the Columbia River to Astoria on the Oregon side where they would disembark and board a smaller steamboat to take them across the river to Ilwaco. There they could transfer their trunks to a wagon and be drawn by horses the rest of the way. The wagon route went through the woods on a plank road to the "weather beach," and then along the beach to Seaview.

In 1889 the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company began regular service on a narrow gauge railroad that ran up the Long Beach Peninsula to Nahcotta. The Seaview depot—no more than a shed and platform at first—was near Stout's hotel, the "Sea View House."

With railway service, summering families could board the railcars right on the Ilwaco docks for the trip up the peninsula. In 1885, many hundreds of people were estimated to be coming to the peninsula for summer vacation. In 1900, the South Bend Journal reported that the number of summer vacationers had grown to 20,000.

In 1892 US Senator and Portland businessman Henry Winslow Corbett built a vacation home in Seaview on three acres facing the ocean. This summer home, which he named Westborough House, included the main three-story house with a ballroom on the second floor as well as housing for the servants and a stable for horses and carriages. A cow accompanied the family for its summer sojourn on the peninsula so they would always have fresh milk.

In the late 1930s the property left the Corbett family and became the Grandview Lodge, welcoming tourists with rooms in the main house and cabins on the grounds. Grandview Lodge is now the Sou'wester Lodge, still an imposing sight on the Seaview beach approach. It has often functioned as a cultural center in Seaview, hosting lectures, literary events, topical discussions, dramatic performances, and chamber concerts. The Corbett pasture is now an RV park and campground.

In 1905 a regular depot was built at Seaview on the east side of the tracks. The Seaview Depot's front doors opened toward the north onto the main Seaview beach approach road, and a long wooden boardwalk ran along the tracks on the west side of the depot and past adjoining businesses to the south end of the block. Departing passengers stood on the boardwalk the length of the block awaiting a train's arrival.

Two photos of the depot from 1908 and 1910 show three or four businesses on the boardwalk south of the depot. The photos, linked below, show no business names, but there appear to be an ice cream shop, an "Oyster House and Lunch Room," and a fish market. The first photo shows a train approaching the station from the south. The second photo shows a train heading north as it departs the station.

In each photo, the same two children in the same outfits are looking at the photographer from the west side of the tracks. Despite the labeling of one photo as "circa 1910" and the other as "circa 1908," the photos were apparently taken only minutes apart on the same day.

The Seaview depot building still exists, and is now a restaurant. The Hotel Shelburne, built in Seaview in 1896, still exists today as the Shelburne Country Inn. Other hotels in Seaview included the Hackney Cottage, Sunset Hotel, The Hotel Seaview and The Sou'Wester Inn.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaview,_Washington

Lanhydrock, near Bodmin, is a magnificent late Victorian country house with extensive servants quarters, gardens and a wooded estate.

It is the perfect country house and estate, with the feel of a wealthy but unpretentious family home. The kitchens, nurseries and servants' quarters offer a thrilling glimpse into life 'below stairs', while the spacious dining room and bedrooms are truly and deeply elegant.

The house is set in wooded parkland of 1,000 acres and encircled by a garden of rare shrubs and trees.

Follow in the footsteps of generations of the Robartes family, walking in the 17th-century Long Gallery among the rare book collection under the remarkable plasterwork ceiling. After a devastating fire in 1881 the house was refurbished in the high-Victorian style, with the latest mod cons.

Don't miss

* There are 50 rooms to explore – allow plenty of time!

* Play the Steinway piano in the Long Gallery

* Look out for the museum and second-hand bookshop

The gardens

The historical garden with its 30-acres of woodland was laid out back in 1857, but its present format was actually established later on in the Victorian period, and many of the plants are no more than 70 years old. However, a grand atmosphere permeates the entire setting and compliments the brilliant planting of more modern times.

Explore formal parterres of dazzling bedding plants and wander along paths that wind through a woodland landscape planted in a semi-formal Cornish fashion - rhododendrons and Himalayan magnolias lurching to their full-size in the fresh Cornish air. Because the grounds lie inland and rise up to 130-metres above sea level, the plants have to cope with harsher climates than the lush valley gardens of the south coast. In spite of this, Lanhydrock still puts on one of the county's most colourful spring shows, with over 120 species of cream and white magnolias featuring amongst a flurry of wild blooms that carpet the woodland.

Learn more about the history and the work involved to keep the magnificent gardens maintained via the new interpretation on permanent display in the garden's thatched cottage.

Take-in the sweeping views over the gardens and the valley landscape, and it's pretty obvious that this is prime garden for walkers. Not only is there 30-acres of formal and informal woodland to explore, but the garden opens onto an extensive network of footpaths zig-zagging through 900-acres of beautiful countryside.

And with so much space to roam, Lanhydrock makes a very family friendly day out. Whilst the fresh air and colourful surroundings will captivate the kids' imaginations and wear them out, the restaurant has a fantastic children's menu and there are excellent baby-changing facilities on-site.

(visitcornwall.com)

Lanhydrock House (kornisch Lannhydrek) ist ein Herrenhaus nahe der englischen Stadt Bodmin in Cornwall. Es liegt fast 13 Kilometer von der Südküste Cornwalls entfernt im waldreichen Tal des Flusses River Fowey, inmitten eines 367 Hektar großen Anwesens, das bis zu 130 Metern Höhe ansteigt.

Lanhydrock House ist von einem attraktiven formalen Garten und einem Landschaftspark umgeben. Der angrenzende Hügel ist mit ausgewählten Bäumen und Sträuchern bepflanzt. Viele Teile des heutigen Hauses sind viktorianischen Ursprungs, einige sind jedoch mehr als 200 Jahre älter, sie datieren etwa um das Jahr 1620.

Fünfzig Jahre nach dem Bau von Lanhydrock House wurde im Jahr 1690 der erste geometrische Garten neben dem Haus angelegt, er wird erstmals im Lanhydrock-Atlas von 1694 bis 1697 erwähnt. Der Garten bestand aus einer Rasenfläche für Kegel- oder Ballspiele, dem Bowling Green, einem Blumengarten, der von einem Weg entlang der Baumlinie umsäumt war, einer Fasanerie, einem Küchengarten, einem Birnen- und Obstgarten sowie einem an der Nordseite des Hauses angrenzenden Natur- oder Wildgarten. Mit dem Abriss des Ostflügels des Hauses 1780 durch George Hunt wurde auch diese Gartenanlage beseitigt, so dass das Parkgelände bis an das Gebäude reichte.

Um das Jahr 1860 legte man oberhalb des Hauses einen Staudengarten an, den „Oberen Garten“ oder „Hochgarten“. Nach 1858 erstellte Richard Coad basierend auf Plänen des Architekten George Truefitt, die dieser ab 1854 entworfen hatte, einen neuen, heute noch zu besichtigenden geometrischen Garten an der Ost- und Nordseite von Lanhydrock House. Er ist umgeben von niedrigen zinnenbewehrten Brüstungen und Obelisken im Stil des Hauses. Truefitt sah für Lanhydrock Wasserspiele, Terrassen, Kieswege und eine Promenade zum Torhaus vor, die Coad um eigene Ideen, wie die Granitstufen zur Kirche und eine Sitzgelegenheit, ergänzte. Etwa 1933 erfolgte eine Vereinfachung der viktorianischen Beetaufteilung und die Anpflanzung erster Magnolien.

Lanhydrock Gardens besteht heute aus mehreren, unterschiedlich stark voneinander abgetrennten Bereichen. Im Innenenhof oder Vorhof von Lanhydrock House ist eine durch einen Kiesweg begrenzte runde Rasenfläche angelegt. An den Hauswänden neben dem Weg stehen Immergrüne Magnolien (Magnolia grandiflora) und im Juli und August blühende Hortensiengewächse der Sorte Schizophragma integrifolium. Östlich in Richtung Torhaus schließt sich der „Geometrische Garten“ an, der durch 23 beschnittene Säuleneiben (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) dominiert wird. Zwischen ihnen sind Rosenbeete angelegt, die vornehmlich mit den Sorten ‘Octavia Hill’, ‘Bright Smile’, ‘Escapade’, ‘Wheelhorse Classic’ und ‘Margaret Merril’ bepflanzt sind.

Im Norden des geometrischen Gartens, und hinter der niedrigen Nordmauer außerhalb der eigentlichen Gartenanlage gelegen, befindet sich eine bepflanzte Freifläche, die vormals als Krocket- und Tennisplatz genutzt wurde. Der Tennisplatz nahm dabei die östliche Seite der Freifläche ein. Neben einigen Büschen, wie Gwillimia (Magnolia delavayi), stehen hier zwei Blutbuchen und eine jüngere Korkeiche. Die Blutbuchen wurden von prominenter Seite gepflanzt, die größere 1889 durch den ehemaligen britischen Premierminister William Ewart Gladstone, die kleinere 1905 durch Archibald Philip Primrose, dem 5. Earl of Rosebery. Auf dem westlich angrenzenden ehemaligen Krocketrasen stehen Rhododendren der Sorten ‘Mother of Pearl’, ‘Hugh Koster’ und ‘Pink Pearl’.

Nordwestlich des geometrischen Gartens, nördlich der Gebäude von Lanhydrock House, geht die Gartenanlage ins „Parterre“ über. Hier werden im Frühling und im Sommer verschiedene Blumen innerhalb von Buchsbaumhecken gepflanzt, die in einem komplizierten Muster auf ebener Fläche angelegt sind. Südlich und östlich davon stehen sechs den Bäumen im geometrischen Garten im Schnitt gleiche Säuleneiben. Eine Terrassenstufe höher in Richtung der kleinen Kirche sind die Blumenrabatten als Muster direkt in die Rasenfläche gesetzt.

Beide Bereiche, deren Höhenunterschied keinen Meter ausmacht, haben je eine Bronze-Urne als Mittelpunkt. Diese Urnen, von denen auch einige den geometrischen Garten schmücken, sind Erwerbungen Francis Gerald Agar-Robartes’, des 7. Viscount Clifden, aus der Sammlung von Lord Hertford im Pariser Château de Bagatelle. Sie wurden vom Goldschmied Ludwigs des XIV., Louis Ballin, geschaffen. Nach Westen wird das „Parterre“ durch die Umfassungsmauer begrenzt, in der zwei Durchgänge ausgespart sind. Neben dem Herrenhaus erreicht man über eine Treppe die Kirche St Hydroc, daneben führt ein Weg an der Kirche vorbei in Richtung „Hochgarten“. Unterhalb der Mauer ist ein erhobenes Beet mit Schmucklilien-Hybriden der Sorte ‘Headbourne’, Fuchsien und Waldreben angelegt.

Der Weg zum Hochgarten kreuzt den in Nord-Süd-Richtung verlaufenden Kirchweg, neben dem Fächer-Ahorn (Sorte ‘Sango-kaku’) und laubabwerfende Hybriden der Westlichen Azalee stehen. Direkt vor der Kirche sind verschiedene Kamelien-Sorten, Rhododendren (Rhododendron arboreum var. roseum) und Stern-Magnolien-Hybriden (Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’) gepflanzt, in der Ecke des Kirchhofs eine baumartige Magnolia hypoleuca (obovata). Den nördlichen Abschnitt des Kirchwegs flankieren einige Hortensien, dahinter Magnolia campbellii ‘Charles Raffill’, Rhododendron fictolacteum und Rhododendron rex.

Den Eingang zum Hochgarten markiert ein durch eine Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ verdecktes gewölbtes Tor. Der hinter dem Tor liegende Gartenbereich wurde ab 1933 durch den 7. Viscount Clifden mit verschiedensten Arten von Magnolien bepflanzt, die heute eine Höhe bis zu 25 Metern erreichen. Durch den Hochgarten fließt der Borlase stream („Bach von Borlase“), der die Wasserversorgung für Lanhydrock House sichert. In und an ihm gedeihen Kandelaberprimeln, Astelia, Aronstab, Schaublatt und Kirengeshoma

Im Norden des Hochgartens gelangt man über die „Magnolienlichtung“ zum „Staudenkreis“. Dieser bildet erst seit 1972 einen Vollkreis, nachdem auf der nördlichen Hälfte die Ruinen eines Gewächshauses und eines Schuppens abgerissen wurden. Den südlichen Halbkreis hatte Lady Clifden schon vor 1914 gestaltet. Die hier gepflanzten Stauden blühen vom Ende des Sommers bis in den Herbst. An der Nordwestecke des Hochgartens wurden nach dem zerstörerischen Sturm von 1979 zum Schutz des Gartens Eichen und Edelkastanien angepflanzt.

Lanhydrock war 1996 der Hauptdrehort für den Film Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Regie führte Trevor Nunn, Hauptdarstellerin war Helena Bonham Carter als Olivia. Weiterhin dienten Haus und Garten als Drehort für die Rosamunde-Pilcher-Verfilmungen Klippen der Liebe (1999) und Im Zweifel für die Liebe (2009).

(Wikipedia)

A Grade II Listed Building from 1884, by Henry Currey, the interior considerably remodelled by Frank Matcham in 1903.

Rendered Italianate front;slate roofs. Front flanked by four storey tower with quoins, arcaded top storeys and pyramid lead roofs. Entrance between with pediment over. Domed foyer possibly by Matcham. Auditorium with gallery and grand tier. Good plasterwork to gallery fronts and saucer dome. Proscenuim arch on giant brackets, an unusual touch. Apparently unaltered since 1903.

britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101043618-devonshire-park-th...

The Puerto del Perdon is a side entrance to Seville Cathedral on Calle Alemanes, it was the main entrance to Muslim Mosque that stood on the same site. For me this is a perfect example of Andlucian History and Arcitechture . Origionally an entrance to the Plaza de Naranjos or Orange garden of the Muslim Mosque, it had the magnificient horse shoe shape of the Alhomad Muslims or Moors. The shape and plasterwork is exquisite. Following the Reconquista of Sevilla in 1248 and after the Siege of Sevilla it is of geat credit to the Christians that they kept the beautiful Moorish buildings and nowhere is this more pronounced that in Andalucia. The Spanish Sate made it compulsary for all mosues to be turned into Catholic Churches with the Cathedral in Seville and especially the magnificient Mosqueta in Cordoba being the best examples. There are many other examples like in Rhonda nad Medina Sidonia. What was originally Muslim has been turned Christian but the beauty has been kept and in most cases enhansed . My opinion of the Muslim turned Christian places of worship are beautiful provided thet maintain sufficient elements of the origional design and history. It is also interesting to compare what was the largest building in the world prior to Seville Cathedral was Hagia Sopia Church in Istanbul that was converted into mosque around the same time as Seville went the other way. Only One God but it must be My God.

If or when you visit Puebla and you have to make a choice of which of the 70 plus churches you might visit, I would put Templo de Santo Domingo at or close to the top of the list. Not ostentatious on the outside but inside is mind boggling for its use of gold leaf in the side Capilla del Rosario.

The severe grey quarrystone facade of Puebla's Templo de Santo Domingo gives no clue to the opulence within. Upon entering you'll find that the church is a masterpiece of baroque architecture and decoration. The grandiose altarpiece of the main altar, the spectacular onyx pulpit, and the sumptuous plasterwork and gold leaf contribute to the extravagant decor that characterizes Mexican baroque style.

Santo Domingo church dates from the late 16th century.

Construction started in 1571 and completed in 1611 except for the dome.

Wyndham's Theatre, London - the Stalls, Royal (Dress) and Grand (Upper) Circles in the auditorium, from a Dress (Royal) Circle box. Opened in 1899 and designed by W G R Sprague. The internal decor and plasterwork was done by J M Boekbinder. Very beautiful auditorium in Louis 16th style. Originally accommodating 1,200, the balcony (a continuation of the Upper Circle tiering) and Pit are now fully seated and spacing increased throughout to provide a total of around 800 seats. Grade 2* listed. Part of Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, and restored by them in 2008.

City of Westminster, London, West End, England - Wyndhams Theatre, Charing Cross Road

August 2024

The Pere Marquette Motel, currently operating as the Peoria Marriott Pere Marquette, is a 14-story hotel in downtown Peoria, Illinois, United States. Built in 1926, the building is Peoria's only surviving example of an upscale 1920s hotel. The hotel has passed through several owners and is currently owned by Marriott. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The original first floor included a grand lobby and three large meeting rooms. The Cotillion Room, the hotel's original ballroom, features a high domed ceiling, French window mirrors, and decorative plasterwork. The LaSalle Room and the Cheminee Lounge both originally featured high ceilings with crystal chandeliers, though the original crystal was removed from the Cheminee Lounge. The lobby and the Cotillion Room both originally had murals by George Matthews Harding; the lobby mural depicted Pere Marquette landing at Peoria, while the Cotillion Room mural showed Sieur de La Salle leaving France.[2] The hotel features 288 guest rooms

Canons Ashby House (previously known as Canons Ashby Hall) is a Grade I[1] listed Elizabethan manor house located in the village of Canons Ashby, about 11 miles (17.7 km) south of the town of Daventry in the county of Northamptonshire, England. It has been owned by the National Trust since 1981 when the house was close to collapse and the gardens had turned into a meadow.[2] "The Tower" of the building is in the care of the Landmark Trust and available for holiday lets.

Design

Kitchen range at Canons Ashby House

The interior of Canons Ashby House is noted for its Elizabethan wall paintings and its Jacobean plasterwork. It has remained ssentially unchanged since 1710 and is presented as it was during the time of Sir Henry Edward Leigh Dryden (1818–1899), a Victorian antiquary with an interest in history.

The house sits in the midst of a formal garden with colourful herbaceous borders, an orchard featuring varieties of fruit trees from the 16th century, terraces, walls and gate piers from 1710. There is also the remains of a medieval priory church (from which the house gets its name).

History

The house had been the home of the Dryden family since its construction in the 16th century; the manor house was built in approximately 1550 with additions in the 1590s, in the 1630s and 1710.

One John Dryden had married Elizabeth Cope in 1551 and inherited, through his wife, an L-shaped farmhouse which he gradually extended. In the 1590s his son, Sir Erasmus Dryden completed the final north range of the house which enclosed the Pebble Courtyard.

John Dryden and Elizabeth Cope had a daughter, Bridget Dryden (1563-1645),born at Canons Ashby. She became the second wife of cleric and teacher Francis Marbury; their daughter Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. Anne's strong religious convictions were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened to destroy the Puritans' religious community in New England. She was eventually tried and convicted, then banished from the colony with many of her supporters. To 19th century America, she was a crusader for religious liberty; in the 20th century, she became viewed as a feminist leader for her staunch defence of individual freedom of thought. Today, a statue of Anne Hutchinson stands in front of the State House in Boston, Massachusetts.

Sir Henry Edward Leigh Dryden's daughter, the historian and photographer Alice Dryden (1866–1956) was born in the house and lived there for 33 years. She moved away after her father died, since a woman could not inherit the estate and it went to her uncle, Sir Alfred Erasmus Dryden (1821–1912).[3]

Louis Osman (1914–1996), an architect and accomplished British goldsmith lived at Canons Ashby from 1969/70 to 1979. Whilst there, Osman made the crown, with his enamellist wife, Dilys Roberts, which was used at the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales in 1969. They also made the gold enamelled casket that held the Magna Carta which was on view in the United States Capitol, Washington, DC in 1976 for the United States Bicentennial.[4]

During World War II, the London offices of 20th Century Fox films were evacuated to Canons Ashby House; the evacuee staff lived in the nearby village of Moreton Pinkney.

Gervase Jackson-Stops, who was the Architectural Adviser to the National Trust for over twenty years, broke fresh ground when he fought for the rescue of the then decaying manor-house in the 1980s. This was the first time that the Trust used its charitable funds rather than the traditional family endowment to save a historic house.Wikipedia

The Grand Opera House is a theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed by the most prolific theatre architect of the period, Frank Matcham. It opened on 23 December 1895.

According to the Theatres Trust, the "magnificent auditorium is probably the best surviving example in the United Kingdom of the oriental style applied to theatre architecture".

The auditorium was restored to its former glory, and the foyer spaces and bars were reimagined and developed as part of a £12.2 million project in 2020/2021, generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The venue hosts musicals, drama, ballet, opera and comedy performances as well as educational events and tours. The Theatre’s annual pantomime, which has been performed since its opening in 1895, remains the most popular show each year. The Theatre’s capacity is 1,058.

History

Originally called the New Grand Opera House and Cirque, it was renamed the Palace of Varieties in 1904, changing its name to the Grand Opera House in 1909. Charlie Chaplin performed there in 1908, and although Variety programmes dominated the pre-war years, entertainers as diverse as Nellie Melba, Sarah Bernhardt, Ralph Richardson and Gracie Fields performed there regularly. It became a repertory theatre during World War II and at the celebrations to mark the end of the war, Eisenhower, Montgomery and Alanbrooke attended gala performances at the Theatre.

After the war, stars of stage and screen returned to the Theatre, with notably highlights including performances by Laurel and Hardy, Vera Lynn, Orson Welles, and Luciano Pavarotti in his UK debut. In 1965 the National Theatre brought its production of Love for Love to the Grand Opera House with a cast boasting Laurence Olivier, Lyn Redgrave, Albert Finney, Geraldine McEwan and a young Anthony Hopkins.

The Grand Opera House was acquired by the Rank Organisation, which led to its use as a cinema between 1961 and 1972.

As business slowed in the early 1970s with the onset of the Troubles, Rank initiated plans to sell the theatre to a property developer, who proposed that the building be pulled down and replaced with an office block. However, following the action of Kenneth Jamison (director of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland) and Charles Brett (founder member of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and ACNI board member), the building was bought by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and listed in 1974. The Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education, Arthur Brooke, lent his support to the project and his department provided the funding for extensive renovatation of the theatre. The Grand Opera House reopened in 1980, and in the years that followed many leading performers appeared on its stage, including Liam Neeson, Rowan Atkinson, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Darcey Bussell and Lesley Garrett. The building has been damaged by bombs on several occasions, usually when the nearby Europa Hotel had been targeted. It was badly damaged by bomb blasts in 1991 and 1993. The theatre continued, however, to host musicals, plays, pantomimes and live music.

2006 renovation and reopening

In 1995 the running of the theatre was taken over by the Grand Opera House Trust. In 2006 an extension was added which included a studio theatre space , extended foyers, dressings rooms and access for customers with disabilities. The Theatre reopened with a Gala event on 21 October 2006.

Restoration 2020

In 2020 the Grand Opera House closed for restoration and development. The project saw the auditorium’s paintings and decorative and ornate plasterwork painstakingly restored and conserved, as well as new seating, carpets, curtains and drapes installed. The design of the foyer and public spaces was reimagined, with a new bar installed in the restored 1980 glass extension overhanging Great Victoria Street, and the stalls and circle bars refurbished. As part of the project, the Theatre’s technical infrastructure was also upgraded and a permanent heritage exhibition installed telling the Theatre’s 125-year history installed.

[Wikipedia]

Lanhydrock, near Bodmin, is a magnificent late Victorian country house with extensive servants quarters, gardens and a wooded estate.

It is the perfect country house and estate, with the feel of a wealthy but unpretentious family home. The kitchens, nurseries and servants' quarters offer a thrilling glimpse into life 'below stairs', while the spacious dining room and bedrooms are truly and deeply elegant.

The house is set in wooded parkland of 1,000 acres and encircled by a garden of rare shrubs and trees.

Follow in the footsteps of generations of the Robartes family, walking in the 17th-century Long Gallery among the rare book collection under the remarkable plasterwork ceiling. After a devastating fire in 1881 the house was refurbished in the high-Victorian style, with the latest mod cons.

Don't miss

* There are 50 rooms to explore – allow plenty of time!

* Play the Steinway piano in the Long Gallery

* Look out for the museum and second-hand bookshop

The gardens

The historical garden with its 30-acres of woodland was laid out back in 1857, but its present format was actually established later on in the Victorian period, and many of the plants are no more than 70 years old. However, a grand atmosphere permeates the entire setting and compliments the brilliant planting of more modern times.

Explore formal parterres of dazzling bedding plants and wander along paths that wind through a woodland landscape planted in a semi-formal Cornish fashion - rhododendrons and Himalayan magnolias lurching to their full-size in the fresh Cornish air. Because the grounds lie inland and rise up to 130-metres above sea level, the plants have to cope with harsher climates than the lush valley gardens of the south coast. In spite of this, Lanhydrock still puts on one of the county's most colourful spring shows, with over 120 species of cream and white magnolias featuring amongst a flurry of wild blooms that carpet the woodland.

Learn more about the history and the work involved to keep the magnificent gardens maintained via the new interpretation on permanent display in the garden's thatched cottage.

Take-in the sweeping views over the gardens and the valley landscape, and it's pretty obvious that this is prime garden for walkers. Not only is there 30-acres of formal and informal woodland to explore, but the garden opens onto an extensive network of footpaths zig-zagging through 900-acres of beautiful countryside.

And with so much space to roam, Lanhydrock makes a very family friendly day out. Whilst the fresh air and colourful surroundings will captivate the kids' imaginations and wear them out, the restaurant has a fantastic children's menu and there are excellent baby-changing facilities on-site.

(visitcornwall.com)

Lanhydrock House (kornisch Lannhydrek) ist ein Herrenhaus nahe der englischen Stadt Bodmin in Cornwall. Es liegt fast 13 Kilometer von der Südküste Cornwalls entfernt im waldreichen Tal des Flusses River Fowey, inmitten eines 367 Hektar großen Anwesens, das bis zu 130 Metern Höhe ansteigt.

Lanhydrock House ist von einem attraktiven formalen Garten und einem Landschaftspark umgeben. Der angrenzende Hügel ist mit ausgewählten Bäumen und Sträuchern bepflanzt. Viele Teile des heutigen Hauses sind viktorianischen Ursprungs, einige sind jedoch mehr als 200 Jahre älter, sie datieren etwa um das Jahr 1620.

Fünfzig Jahre nach dem Bau von Lanhydrock House wurde im Jahr 1690 der erste geometrische Garten neben dem Haus angelegt, er wird erstmals im Lanhydrock-Atlas von 1694 bis 1697 erwähnt. Der Garten bestand aus einer Rasenfläche für Kegel- oder Ballspiele, dem Bowling Green, einem Blumengarten, der von einem Weg entlang der Baumlinie umsäumt war, einer Fasanerie, einem Küchengarten, einem Birnen- und Obstgarten sowie einem an der Nordseite des Hauses angrenzenden Natur- oder Wildgarten. Mit dem Abriss des Ostflügels des Hauses 1780 durch George Hunt wurde auch diese Gartenanlage beseitigt, so dass das Parkgelände bis an das Gebäude reichte.

Um das Jahr 1860 legte man oberhalb des Hauses einen Staudengarten an, den „Oberen Garten“ oder „Hochgarten“. Nach 1858 erstellte Richard Coad basierend auf Plänen des Architekten George Truefitt, die dieser ab 1854 entworfen hatte, einen neuen, heute noch zu besichtigenden geometrischen Garten an der Ost- und Nordseite von Lanhydrock House. Er ist umgeben von niedrigen zinnenbewehrten Brüstungen und Obelisken im Stil des Hauses. Truefitt sah für Lanhydrock Wasserspiele, Terrassen, Kieswege und eine Promenade zum Torhaus vor, die Coad um eigene Ideen, wie die Granitstufen zur Kirche und eine Sitzgelegenheit, ergänzte. Etwa 1933 erfolgte eine Vereinfachung der viktorianischen Beetaufteilung und die Anpflanzung erster Magnolien.

Lanhydrock Gardens besteht heute aus mehreren, unterschiedlich stark voneinander abgetrennten Bereichen. Im Innenenhof oder Vorhof von Lanhydrock House ist eine durch einen Kiesweg begrenzte runde Rasenfläche angelegt. An den Hauswänden neben dem Weg stehen Immergrüne Magnolien (Magnolia grandiflora) und im Juli und August blühende Hortensiengewächse der Sorte Schizophragma integrifolium. Östlich in Richtung Torhaus schließt sich der „Geometrische Garten“ an, der durch 23 beschnittene Säuleneiben (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) dominiert wird. Zwischen ihnen sind Rosenbeete angelegt, die vornehmlich mit den Sorten ‘Octavia Hill’, ‘Bright Smile’, ‘Escapade’, ‘Wheelhorse Classic’ und ‘Margaret Merril’ bepflanzt sind.

Im Norden des geometrischen Gartens, und hinter der niedrigen Nordmauer außerhalb der eigentlichen Gartenanlage gelegen, befindet sich eine bepflanzte Freifläche, die vormals als Krocket- und Tennisplatz genutzt wurde. Der Tennisplatz nahm dabei die östliche Seite der Freifläche ein. Neben einigen Büschen, wie Gwillimia (Magnolia delavayi), stehen hier zwei Blutbuchen und eine jüngere Korkeiche. Die Blutbuchen wurden von prominenter Seite gepflanzt, die größere 1889 durch den ehemaligen britischen Premierminister William Ewart Gladstone, die kleinere 1905 durch Archibald Philip Primrose, dem 5. Earl of Rosebery. Auf dem westlich angrenzenden ehemaligen Krocketrasen stehen Rhododendren der Sorten ‘Mother of Pearl’, ‘Hugh Koster’ und ‘Pink Pearl’.

Nordwestlich des geometrischen Gartens, nördlich der Gebäude von Lanhydrock House, geht die Gartenanlage ins „Parterre“ über. Hier werden im Frühling und im Sommer verschiedene Blumen innerhalb von Buchsbaumhecken gepflanzt, die in einem komplizierten Muster auf ebener Fläche angelegt sind. Südlich und östlich davon stehen sechs den Bäumen im geometrischen Garten im Schnitt gleiche Säuleneiben. Eine Terrassenstufe höher in Richtung der kleinen Kirche sind die Blumenrabatten als Muster direkt in die Rasenfläche gesetzt.

Beide Bereiche, deren Höhenunterschied keinen Meter ausmacht, haben je eine Bronze-Urne als Mittelpunkt. Diese Urnen, von denen auch einige den geometrischen Garten schmücken, sind Erwerbungen Francis Gerald Agar-Robartes’, des 7. Viscount Clifden, aus der Sammlung von Lord Hertford im Pariser Château de Bagatelle. Sie wurden vom Goldschmied Ludwigs des XIV., Louis Ballin, geschaffen. Nach Westen wird das „Parterre“ durch die Umfassungsmauer begrenzt, in der zwei Durchgänge ausgespart sind. Neben dem Herrenhaus erreicht man über eine Treppe die Kirche St Hydroc, daneben führt ein Weg an der Kirche vorbei in Richtung „Hochgarten“. Unterhalb der Mauer ist ein erhobenes Beet mit Schmucklilien-Hybriden der Sorte ‘Headbourne’, Fuchsien und Waldreben angelegt.

Der Weg zum Hochgarten kreuzt den in Nord-Süd-Richtung verlaufenden Kirchweg, neben dem Fächer-Ahorn (Sorte ‘Sango-kaku’) und laubabwerfende Hybriden der Westlichen Azalee stehen. Direkt vor der Kirche sind verschiedene Kamelien-Sorten, Rhododendren (Rhododendron arboreum var. roseum) und Stern-Magnolien-Hybriden (Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’) gepflanzt, in der Ecke des Kirchhofs eine baumartige Magnolia hypoleuca (obovata). Den nördlichen Abschnitt des Kirchwegs flankieren einige Hortensien, dahinter Magnolia campbellii ‘Charles Raffill’, Rhododendron fictolacteum und Rhododendron rex.

Den Eingang zum Hochgarten markiert ein durch eine Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ verdecktes gewölbtes Tor. Der hinter dem Tor liegende Gartenbereich wurde ab 1933 durch den 7. Viscount Clifden mit verschiedensten Arten von Magnolien bepflanzt, die heute eine Höhe bis zu 25 Metern erreichen. Durch den Hochgarten fließt der Borlase stream („Bach von Borlase“), der die Wasserversorgung für Lanhydrock House sichert. In und an ihm gedeihen Kandelaberprimeln, Astelia, Aronstab, Schaublatt und Kirengeshoma

Im Norden des Hochgartens gelangt man über die „Magnolienlichtung“ zum „Staudenkreis“. Dieser bildet erst seit 1972 einen Vollkreis, nachdem auf der nördlichen Hälfte die Ruinen eines Gewächshauses und eines Schuppens abgerissen wurden. Den südlichen Halbkreis hatte Lady Clifden schon vor 1914 gestaltet. Die hier gepflanzten Stauden blühen vom Ende des Sommers bis in den Herbst. An der Nordwestecke des Hochgartens wurden nach dem zerstörerischen Sturm von 1979 zum Schutz des Gartens Eichen und Edelkastanien angepflanzt.

Lanhydrock war 1996 der Hauptdrehort für den Film Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Regie führte Trevor Nunn, Hauptdarstellerin war Helena Bonham Carter als Olivia. Weiterhin dienten Haus und Garten als Drehort für die Rosamunde-Pilcher-Verfilmungen Klippen der Liebe (1999) und Im Zweifel für die Liebe (2009).

(Wikipedia)

Corsham Court is an English country house in a park designed by Capability Brown. It is in the town of Corsham, 3 miles (5 km) west of Chippenham, Wiltshire, and is notable for its fine art collection, based on the nucleus of paintings inherited in 1757 by Paul Methuen from his uncle, Sir Paul Methuen, the diplomat. It is currently the home of the present Baron Methuen, James Methuen-Campbell, the eighth generation of the Methuens to live there.

Early history

Corsham was a royal manor in the days of the Saxon kings, reputed to have been a seat of Ethelred the Unready. After William the Conqueror, the manor continued to be passed down through the generations in the royal family. It often formed part of the dower of the Queens of England during the late 14th and early 15th centuries, becoming known as Corsham Reginae. During the 16th century, the manor went to two of Henry VIII's wives, namely Catherine of Aragon until 1536, and Katherine Parr until 1548.

During the reign of Elizabeth I the estate passed out of the royal family; the present house was built in 1582 by Thomas Smythe. The owner of Corsham Court in the mid-seventeenth century was the commander of the Parliamentarian New Model Army in Wiltshire; his wife, Lady Margaret Hungerford, built what came to be known as the Hungerford Almshouses in the centre of town.

An entrance archway was built to the south of the house c. 1700–20. The arch, in baroque style. is flanked by massive ashlar piers with ball finials.[3]

Methuen family

The house was bought in 1745 by Sir Paul Methuen for his cousin, also named Paul Methuen, whose grandson became Baron Methuen. The house remains the seat of the Methuen family.

In 1761–64, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown was commissioned to redesign and enlarge the house and landscape the park.[4] Brown set the style of the present-day building by retaining the Elizabethan stables, the Riding School,[3] and the great gabled front to the house, which he doubled in depth and provided gabled wings at either end of the house, creating the Picture Gallery and State Rooms in the east wing and a library and new kitchens in the west wing. The Picture Gallery was designed as a triple cube and has a coffered plasterwork ceiling over a high cove stuccoed in scrolls, designed by Brown[5] and carried out by Thomas Stocking of Bristol (1763–66). The Long Gallery contains Italian Old Masters, with a notable marquetry commode and matching pair of candlestands by John Cobb (1772) and four pier glasses designed by Robert Adam (1770).

File:Corsham Court about 1880

Capability Brown also worked as a landscape architect for his commission at Corsham.[6] His 1761 plan for laying out the park separated it from the pleasure grounds using a ha-ha (sunken fence) so that the view from the house would not be obstructed. Brown planned to enlarge the fish ponds to create a lake and constructed an orangery (neither of which survive) and built a Gothic Bath House (which does survive).[7] He created a "Great Walk" stretching for a mile through clumps of trees. An ornamental arch was built so that the family and their guests could walk underneath the public right of way without having to cross it. Brown also planted screens of trees around the park to obscure roads and fields beyond, making the view more arcadian. The layout of grounds and gardens by Brown represents his most important commission after Blenheim Palace.[8]

In 1795, Paul Cobb Methuen commissioned Humphry Repton to complete the landscape, left unfinished at Brown's death with the lake still to be completed, and in 1796 commissioned John Nash to completely remodel the north façade in Strawberry Hill Gothic style, beating the experienced James Wyatt for the commission. Nash further embellished other areas of Brown's external building works, including Brown's Gothic Bath House in the North Avenue, as well as reorganising the internal layout to form a grand hall and a library, at the centre of which is the large library table associated with a payment to Thomas Chippendale's partner Haig, in 1779.[9] By 1808 much of Nash's work was replaced with a more solid structure, when it was discovered that he had used unseasoned timber in beams and joists; all of Nash's work at Corsham save the library was destroyed when it was remodelled by Thomas Bellamy (1798–1876) in 1844–49[4][10] during the ownership by Paul Methuen, 1st Baron Methuen, who was Member of Parliament for Wiltshire and Wiltshire North.

The Sham Ruin

Brown planned to include a 50,000 m2 lake. This lake, however, was not completed until some forty years later, by Repton, who formed his long working relationship with Nash at Corsham Court. They laid out avenues and planted the specimen trees, including American oaks, Quercus coccinea and Q phellos, and the magnificent oriental plane. The grounds also incorporate a folly ruin, built by Nash c. 1797, incorporating some medieval stonework and some material from the eighteenth-century Bath House built by Brown.[11]

In 1960, the house and the Bath House were recorded as Grade I listed[12][7] and the ensemble of stables, riding school and entrance arch as Grade II*.[3] The park was recorded as Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens in 1987. Wikipedia

Ormesby Hall, a Grade I listed building, is a predominantly 18th-century mansion house built in the Palladian style and completed in 1754. It is situated in Ormesby, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire in the north-east of England.

The home of the Pennyman family, originally dating from c. 1600, the property has been much modernised. Now described as a "classic Georgian mansion", it comprises a main residential block and an adjacent stable block. The stable block housed the horses of Cleveland Police Mounted Section until their disbandment in December 2013.

The Pennyman family began acquiring land in Ormesby in the 16th century and bought the Manor of Ormesby in about 1600 from the Conyers/Strangeways family. They acquired a Baronetcy from Charles II for fighting on the side of the royalists in the English Civil War, which became extinct in 1852 with the death of Sir William Pennyman. They lived in the house until 1983 when the National Trust opened the property and its 270 acres (110 ha) of land to the public after the death of Mrs Ruth Pennyman.

The house contains significant plasterwork, a Victorian kitchen and laundry areas, gardens and estate walks. There is also a model railway which is open to the public.

Ormesby Hall holds a range of events throughout the year.

The historic barn at the estate farm was destroyed by fire in August 2023.

The Grand Opera House is a theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed by the most prolific theatre architect of the period, Frank Matcham. It opened on 23 December 1895.

According to the Theatres Trust, the "magnificent auditorium is probably the best surviving example in the United Kingdom of the oriental style applied to theatre architecture".

The auditorium was restored to its former glory, and the foyer spaces and bars were reimagined and developed as part of a £12.2 million project in 2020/2021, generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The venue hosts musicals, drama, ballet, opera and comedy performances as well as educational events and tours. The Theatre’s annual pantomime, which has been performed since its opening in 1895, remains the most popular show each year. The Theatre’s capacity is 1,058.

History

Originally called the New Grand Opera House and Cirque, it was renamed the Palace of Varieties in 1904, changing its name to the Grand Opera House in 1909. Charlie Chaplin performed there in 1908, and although Variety programmes dominated the pre-war years, entertainers as diverse as Nellie Melba, Sarah Bernhardt, Ralph Richardson and Gracie Fields performed there regularly. It became a repertory theatre during World War II and at the celebrations to mark the end of the war, Eisenhower, Montgomery and Alanbrooke attended gala performances at the Theatre.

After the war, stars of stage and screen returned to the Theatre, with notably highlights including performances by Laurel and Hardy, Vera Lynn, Orson Welles, and Luciano Pavarotti in his UK debut. In 1965 the National Theatre brought its production of Love for Love to the Grand Opera House with a cast boasting Laurence Olivier, Lyn Redgrave, Albert Finney, Geraldine McEwan and a young Anthony Hopkins.

The Grand Opera House was acquired by the Rank Organisation, which led to its use as a cinema between 1961 and 1972.

As business slowed in the early 1970s with the onset of the Troubles, Rank initiated plans to sell the theatre to a property developer, who proposed that the building be pulled down and replaced with an office block. However, following the action of Kenneth Jamison (director of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland) and Charles Brett (founder member of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and ACNI board member), the building was bought by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and listed in 1974. The Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education, Arthur Brooke, lent his support to the project and his department provided the funding for extensive renovatation of the theatre. The Grand Opera House reopened in 1980, and in the years that followed many leading performers appeared on its stage, including Liam Neeson, Rowan Atkinson, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Darcey Bussell and Lesley Garrett. The building has been damaged by bombs on several occasions, usually when the nearby Europa Hotel had been targeted. It was badly damaged by bomb blasts in 1991 and 1993. The theatre continued, however, to host musicals, plays, pantomimes and live music.

2006 renovation and reopening

In 1995 the running of the theatre was taken over by the Grand Opera House Trust. In 2006 an extension was added which included a studio theatre space , extended foyers, dressings rooms and access for customers with disabilities. The Theatre reopened with a Gala event on 21 October 2006.

Restoration 2020

In 2020 the Grand Opera House closed for restoration and development. The project saw the auditorium’s paintings and decorative and ornate plasterwork painstakingly restored and conserved, as well as new seating, carpets, curtains and drapes installed. The design of the foyer and public spaces was reimagined, with a new bar installed in the restored 1980 glass extension overhanging Great Victoria Street, and the stalls and circle bars refurbished. As part of the project, the Theatre’s technical infrastructure was also upgraded and a permanent heritage exhibition installed telling the Theatre’s 125-year history installed.

[Wikipedia]

THIS ELIZABETHAN HALL AND STANDS ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER CALDER IN PADIHAM IN THE HEART OF INDUSTRIAL LANCASHIRE. THE HALL WAS BUILT BETWEEN 1600 AND 1605 GAWTHORPE HALL WAS THE FAMILY HOME OF THE SHUTTLEWORTH FAMILY FOR OVER 300 YEARS. INSIDE THE HOUSE YOU WILL FIND PERIOD ROOMS ON DISPLAY FROM THE 1850 REMODELLING BY RENOWNED ARCHITECT SIR CHARLES BARRY AND PUGIN AS WELL AS ORIGINAL PLASTERWORK CEILINGS, PANELLING AND THE IMPRESSIVE LONG GALLERY. ALSO ON DISPLAY ARE OVER 200 PIECES FROM THE NATIONALLY IMPORTANT GAWTHORPE TEXTILE COLLECTION.

THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY HAS LOANED OVER 20 PAINTINGS TO THE HALL ALL OF WHICH ILLUSTRATE ITS FASCINATING CONNECTIONS AND HISTORY, PARTICULARLY WITH THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR. GAWTHORPE HALL IS AN ARTISTIC AND HISTORIC TREASURE TROVE IN THE MIDDLE OF INDUSTRIAL LANCASHIRE.

GAWTHORPE HALL IS CLOSED COMPLETELY FOR THE REST OF 2015. THIS IS DUE TO MAJOR BUILDING CONSERVATION WORK TO THE HALL, AND IS EXPECTED BE OPEN FULLY FOR 2016.

The Edinburgh Festival Theatre (formerly Empire Palace Theatre) is a performing arts venue located on Nicolson Street in Edinburgh, Scotland used primarily for performances of opera and ballet, large-scale musical events, and touring groups. After its most recent renovation in 1994, it seats 1,915. It is one of the major venues of the annual summer Edinburgh International Festival and is the Edinburgh venue for the Scottish Opera and the Scottish Ballet.

The present theatre’s location is Edinburgh’s longest continuous theatre site, for there has been a theatre in that location since 1830. From being Dunedin Hall, the Royal Amphitheatre, Alhambra Music Hall, the Queen’s Theatre, Pablo Fanque's Amphitheatre, and Newsome’s Circus, the site became the Empire Palace Theatre, the first of the famous Moss Empires’ chain, opening on 7 November 1892. Designed by the great British theatre architect, Frank Matcham, (who built the London Coliseum, among others) its décor was lavish, with elephants with Nubian riders, nymphs and cherubs in abundance on the plasterwork, and it seated 3000 people on four levels.

For the following twenty years all the top artists of the day played at the Empire Palace until, on 9 May 1911, there was a disastrous fire on stage. While all 3000 theatre goers escaped safely (there were eleven backstage deaths and the death of a lion), the theatre reopened three months later. However, given the long term competition from the growth of film as a popular medium, the theatre was re-equipped to present bigger and more spectacular shows. Reusing some of Matcham’s original design concepts, the theatre reopened on 1 October 1928 with the musical Show Boat.

Between 1928 and 1963 the Empire was a variety, musical and opera house, often including ice shows. Big names like Harry Lauder, Charles Laughton, Fats Waller, Joe Loss, and Laurel and Hardy appeared, while English comedians Max Wall, Morecambe and Wise and Harry Worth established themselves at the Empire.

In addition to the music hall and popular entertainers who appeared at the Empire, the theatre became a principal venue of the Edinburgh International Festival between 1947 and 1963. It was particularly associated with international ballet and, during the first Festival in 1947, Margot Fonteyn danced in The Sleeping Beauty, while in subsequent years, performances by the Old Vic theatre company, the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera were presented.

However, for nearly thirty years after 1963 the theatre became a bingo hall, only temporarily serving as a Festival venue. Finally, after its third major remodeling, the Empire Palace Theatre reopened in June 1994 with a glass-fronted structure for the new entrance (created by Law & Dunbar-Nasmith Architects), as the now-renamed Edinburgh Festival Theatre. In 1997, the distinguished theatre manager and artistic director Stephen Barry was appointed to shape the rejuvenated venue's future. With the restoration of the Empire Theatre’s former 1928 glory, plus a dramatic mix of art nouveau, beaux arts and neo-classicism, and including adequate acoustics, the new theatre serves all the artistic needs of the community.

The theatre is said to be haunted by a tall, dark stranger rumoured to be the famous illusionist Sigmund Neuberger, aka The Great Lafayette, who was one of those who burned to death in the fire at the Empire in 1911. [Wikipedia]

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There were a series of circuses and performance halls on this site from the 1820s (Ducrow’s, etc) and a music hall from about 1860 (Alhambra, Queen’s etc). Frank Matcham built the very first Moss Empire (the Empire Palace) here in 1892 and also carried out its reinstatement after a destructive fire in 1910. The 1892 theatre had a circus-theatre interior of almost barbaric magnificence. In 1928 the Matcham house was demolished and a new theatre built by W & T R Milburn, who were amongst the most competent theatre designers of their time (see e.g. London Dominion, Liverpool Empire and Southampton Mayflower). The Edinburgh auditorium is arguably their best surviving work. The subsequent transformation of the Empire into the Edinburgh Festival Theatre by Law & Dunbar-Nasmith (Colin Ross) completed in 1994 was (until the Royal Opera House reopening) perhaps the most radical make-over of an old theatre undertaken in Britain in modern times. Edinburgh’s long drawn-out quest for an opera house, which spawned a number of abortive new-build projects over the years, had become a standing joke by the 1980s. Theatre Projects Consultants with Law & Dunbar-Nasmith identified the Empire as a prime candidate for conversion for this purpose as early as 1975, but it was to be nearly twenty years before their sensible idea was followed up. When it was eventually done, there was no penny-pinching. The undistinguished façe and front of house were demolished and, with the acquisition of additional space, rebuilt on spacious modern lines, with a curved, transparent façe, visible distantly as a glowing landmark in Nicolson Street. The back of house, too, was totally demolished and a new stage house built, together with dressing rooms and a generous staircase, described as a ‘vertical green room’. The stage itself is immense at 25m x 18m (82ft x 59ft), plus huge wing space on stage left and a rear scene dock which can be opened up for deep vistas. The retained Milburn auditorium has become the splendid filling in a modern sandwich. Like most of the Milburns’ designs, it owes more to contemporary North American models than to the Matcham school. Two balconies with slips meeting a deep-splayed ante-proscenium with pairs of boxes stepping down on either side. Rectangular enriched proscenium frame with a flaming urn at the centre. Ceiling divided into panels with a central dome. Three forestage lifts. Sighting throughout is excellent. The stalls (altered for bingo) have been re-raked to work with the now flattened stage which has thereby been raised at the front edge and thus improved sightlines from the unaltered circles. Necessary changes of this kind have been easily absorbed. The architects did not lose their nerve (as so often happens with so-called restorations) over matters of detail. The seats, for example, are either 1928 originals or careful reproductions. The decorations are not an exact recreation of the Milburn scheme, which was rather skimped, but a convincing essay in the manner of the period with sensitively applied patina glazes to avoid an over-bright appearance. [Theatres Trust ]

www.grandview.com.jo/petra_monuments11.html

At the foot of al-Habees and the towering rock of Umm al-Biyara, stands the building for which the Arched Gate and paved temenos were designed, the least damaged by time or earthquakes of all the built monuments of Petra. Its full name, Qasr al-Bint Far'oun (the palace of Pharaoh's daughter) indicates that it too is touched by legend. The princess, it is said, announced that she would marry the first man to channel water to her palace. Since two men succeeded on the same day, the princess asked both how they had done it. The first declared that it was by his own power and that of his men. The second replied, 'With God's power, my power and the power of my men and my camels'; and the princess chose this more modest and godly suitor. As she did so, the wing of a locust fell into the channel of the rejected suitor, and this fragile object halted the flow of water and could not be removed, thus confirming the princess's wise choice.

The name of the building belies its function for this was no palace but the most important temple in Petra. Passing beneath the triple-arched gate, worshippers made their way across the long, narrow temenos to sacrifice at the open altar which faces the temple. The priests would mount the steps and pass under the high arch into the temple itself. In its heyday the walls were covered with decorative plasterwork both inside and out, some of which can still be seen on the outside. Inside only small fragments survive, but the base stone is pocked with holes that once held the elaborate, all-covering plaster in place.

In the holy of holies at the back of the temple stood the image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated, the focus of worship. In 1959 Peter Parr found a gigantic marble hand, part of the cultic statue which must once have stood at least six metres high in this sanctuary. Its human, rather than block-like, form shows clearly that it represented one of the foreign deities with which the Nabataean gods were identified. Fragments of two dedicatory inscriptions in Greek were also found here – one to Aphrodite and another to Zeus Hypsistos ('most high'). While Dushara was identified with Zeus, this particular definition of Zeus as 'hypsistos' is more commonly associated with the adopted Syrian god Ba'al-Shamin. This may indicate that this important temple had a dual dedication – to Ba'al-Shamin-Zeus and to al-'Uzza-Aphrodite.

Qasr al-Bint was once thought to date to the second century AD, in the early years of Roman rule in Petra. But during the 1964 excavations in the temenos a Nabataean dedicatory inscription to Aretas IV was found on a statue base in the bench which had been added to the temenos wall. In 1990 Dr Fawzi Zayadine found another dedication to Aretas IV in a similar position. These revised all thoughts of a Roman date and the temple is now revealed as Nabataean, and not later than the turn of the millennium. Since the temple itself must have pre-dated both the temple wall and the (missing) statue of Aretas IV with the inscription on the base, it is thought that it may date to the time of Aretas' predecessor, Obodas III, or even Malichus I.

Excavations by French archaeologists, who have been working in the temenos and surrounding areas since 1999, have added to our understanding of what happened in this part of Petra before, during and after the Nabataean period. Soundings done both within the temenos and beyond the western wall of the precinct, indicate that it was occupied in the Hellenistic period, and that there were houses here before the Nabataeans paved the temenos. Also in the Nabataean period, a substantial building was constructed immediately to the east of the temple – with its monumental entrance opening directly from the temenos, it was clearly an integral part of the temple complex, though its function is still unclear.

Sometime after the Roman annexation in AD 106, a smaller marble-clad altar was constructed in the north-west corner of the temenos; and later a western wall was built with an imposing curved exedra in the middle, flanked by columns and niches. Inscriptions found during the excavation of the exedra refer to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, co-emperors in 161-169; and the discovery of a bust of Lucius Verus in the wadi nearby in the mid-1990s, and another of Marcus Aurelius next to the exedra in 2004, suggest that this whole structure may have been built in their honour. The complete white marble statues would have stood more than life size. Both the exedra and the upper part of the temple were damaged in the fourth century (probably in the earthquake of 363), after which the exedra was levelled and a house was built over and behind it, only to be destroyed in the following century.

In the Byzantine period the area was reoccupied and part of it became a cemetery; and in the twelfth century the Crusaders used some of the fallen stones from Qasr al-Bint to build the small fort on top of the rock of al-Habees behind the temple.

Lanhydrock, near Bodmin, is a magnificent late Victorian country house with extensive servants quarters, gardens and a wooded estate.

It is the perfect country house and estate, with the feel of a wealthy but unpretentious family home. The kitchens, nurseries and servants' quarters offer a thrilling glimpse into life 'below stairs', while the spacious dining room and bedrooms are truly and deeply elegant.

The house is set in wooded parkland of 1,000 acres and encircled by a garden of rare shrubs and trees.

Follow in the footsteps of generations of the Robartes family, walking in the 17th-century Long Gallery among the rare book collection under the remarkable plasterwork ceiling. After a devastating fire in 1881 the house was refurbished in the high-Victorian style, with the latest mod cons.

Don't miss

* There are 50 rooms to explore – allow plenty of time!

* Play the Steinway piano in the Long Gallery

* Look out for the museum and second-hand bookshop

The gardens

The historical garden with its 30-acres of woodland was laid out back in 1857, but its present format was actually established later on in the Victorian period, and many of the plants are no more than 70 years old. However, a grand atmosphere permeates the entire setting and compliments the brilliant planting of more modern times.

Explore formal parterres of dazzling bedding plants and wander along paths that wind through a woodland landscape planted in a semi-formal Cornish fashion - rhododendrons and Himalayan magnolias lurching to their full-size in the fresh Cornish air. Because the grounds lie inland and rise up to 130-metres above sea level, the plants have to cope with harsher climates than the lush valley gardens of the south coast. In spite of this, Lanhydrock still puts on one of the county's most colourful spring shows, with over 120 species of cream and white magnolias featuring amongst a flurry of wild blooms that carpet the woodland.

Learn more about the history and the work involved to keep the magnificent gardens maintained via the new interpretation on permanent display in the garden's thatched cottage.

Take-in the sweeping views over the gardens and the valley landscape, and it's pretty obvious that this is prime garden for walkers. Not only is there 30-acres of formal and informal woodland to explore, but the garden opens onto an extensive network of footpaths zig-zagging through 900-acres of beautiful countryside.

And with so much space to roam, Lanhydrock makes a very family friendly day out. Whilst the fresh air and colourful surroundings will captivate the kids' imaginations and wear them out, the restaurant has a fantastic children's menu and there are excellent baby-changing facilities on-site.

(visitcornwall.com)

Lanhydrock House (kornisch Lannhydrek) ist ein Herrenhaus nahe der englischen Stadt Bodmin in Cornwall. Es liegt fast 13 Kilometer von der Südküste Cornwalls entfernt im waldreichen Tal des Flusses River Fowey, inmitten eines 367 Hektar großen Anwesens, das bis zu 130 Metern Höhe ansteigt.

Lanhydrock House ist von einem attraktiven formalen Garten und einem Landschaftspark umgeben. Der angrenzende Hügel ist mit ausgewählten Bäumen und Sträuchern bepflanzt. Viele Teile des heutigen Hauses sind viktorianischen Ursprungs, einige sind jedoch mehr als 200 Jahre älter, sie datieren etwa um das Jahr 1620.

Fünfzig Jahre nach dem Bau von Lanhydrock House wurde im Jahr 1690 der erste geometrische Garten neben dem Haus angelegt, er wird erstmals im Lanhydrock-Atlas von 1694 bis 1697 erwähnt. Der Garten bestand aus einer Rasenfläche für Kegel- oder Ballspiele, dem Bowling Green, einem Blumengarten, der von einem Weg entlang der Baumlinie umsäumt war, einer Fasanerie, einem Küchengarten, einem Birnen- und Obstgarten sowie einem an der Nordseite des Hauses angrenzenden Natur- oder Wildgarten. Mit dem Abriss des Ostflügels des Hauses 1780 durch George Hunt wurde auch diese Gartenanlage beseitigt, so dass das Parkgelände bis an das Gebäude reichte.

Um das Jahr 1860 legte man oberhalb des Hauses einen Staudengarten an, den „Oberen Garten“ oder „Hochgarten“. Nach 1858 erstellte Richard Coad basierend auf Plänen des Architekten George Truefitt, die dieser ab 1854 entworfen hatte, einen neuen, heute noch zu besichtigenden geometrischen Garten an der Ost- und Nordseite von Lanhydrock House. Er ist umgeben von niedrigen zinnenbewehrten Brüstungen und Obelisken im Stil des Hauses. Truefitt sah für Lanhydrock Wasserspiele, Terrassen, Kieswege und eine Promenade zum Torhaus vor, die Coad um eigene Ideen, wie die Granitstufen zur Kirche und eine Sitzgelegenheit, ergänzte. Etwa 1933 erfolgte eine Vereinfachung der viktorianischen Beetaufteilung und die Anpflanzung erster Magnolien.

Lanhydrock Gardens besteht heute aus mehreren, unterschiedlich stark voneinander abgetrennten Bereichen. Im Innenenhof oder Vorhof von Lanhydrock House ist eine durch einen Kiesweg begrenzte runde Rasenfläche angelegt. An den Hauswänden neben dem Weg stehen Immergrüne Magnolien (Magnolia grandiflora) und im Juli und August blühende Hortensiengewächse der Sorte Schizophragma integrifolium. Östlich in Richtung Torhaus schließt sich der „Geometrische Garten“ an, der durch 23 beschnittene Säuleneiben (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) dominiert wird. Zwischen ihnen sind Rosenbeete angelegt, die vornehmlich mit den Sorten ‘Octavia Hill’, ‘Bright Smile’, ‘Escapade’, ‘Wheelhorse Classic’ und ‘Margaret Merril’ bepflanzt sind.

Im Norden des geometrischen Gartens, und hinter der niedrigen Nordmauer außerhalb der eigentlichen Gartenanlage gelegen, befindet sich eine bepflanzte Freifläche, die vormals als Krocket- und Tennisplatz genutzt wurde. Der Tennisplatz nahm dabei die östliche Seite der Freifläche ein. Neben einigen Büschen, wie Gwillimia (Magnolia delavayi), stehen hier zwei Blutbuchen und eine jüngere Korkeiche. Die Blutbuchen wurden von prominenter Seite gepflanzt, die größere 1889 durch den ehemaligen britischen Premierminister William Ewart Gladstone, die kleinere 1905 durch Archibald Philip Primrose, dem 5. Earl of Rosebery. Auf dem westlich angrenzenden ehemaligen Krocketrasen stehen Rhododendren der Sorten ‘Mother of Pearl’, ‘Hugh Koster’ und ‘Pink Pearl’.

Nordwestlich des geometrischen Gartens, nördlich der Gebäude von Lanhydrock House, geht die Gartenanlage ins „Parterre“ über. Hier werden im Frühling und im Sommer verschiedene Blumen innerhalb von Buchsbaumhecken gepflanzt, die in einem komplizierten Muster auf ebener Fläche angelegt sind. Südlich und östlich davon stehen sechs den Bäumen im geometrischen Garten im Schnitt gleiche Säuleneiben. Eine Terrassenstufe höher in Richtung der kleinen Kirche sind die Blumenrabatten als Muster direkt in die Rasenfläche gesetzt.

Beide Bereiche, deren Höhenunterschied keinen Meter ausmacht, haben je eine Bronze-Urne als Mittelpunkt. Diese Urnen, von denen auch einige den geometrischen Garten schmücken, sind Erwerbungen Francis Gerald Agar-Robartes’, des 7. Viscount Clifden, aus der Sammlung von Lord Hertford im Pariser Château de Bagatelle. Sie wurden vom Goldschmied Ludwigs des XIV., Louis Ballin, geschaffen. Nach Westen wird das „Parterre“ durch die Umfassungsmauer begrenzt, in der zwei Durchgänge ausgespart sind. Neben dem Herrenhaus erreicht man über eine Treppe die Kirche St Hydroc, daneben führt ein Weg an der Kirche vorbei in Richtung „Hochgarten“. Unterhalb der Mauer ist ein erhobenes Beet mit Schmucklilien-Hybriden der Sorte ‘Headbourne’, Fuchsien und Waldreben angelegt.

Der Weg zum Hochgarten kreuzt den in Nord-Süd-Richtung verlaufenden Kirchweg, neben dem Fächer-Ahorn (Sorte ‘Sango-kaku’) und laubabwerfende Hybriden der Westlichen Azalee stehen. Direkt vor der Kirche sind verschiedene Kamelien-Sorten, Rhododendren (Rhododendron arboreum var. roseum) und Stern-Magnolien-Hybriden (Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’) gepflanzt, in der Ecke des Kirchhofs eine baumartige Magnolia hypoleuca (obovata). Den nördlichen Abschnitt des Kirchwegs flankieren einige Hortensien, dahinter Magnolia campbellii ‘Charles Raffill’, Rhododendron fictolacteum und Rhododendron rex.

Den Eingang zum Hochgarten markiert ein durch eine Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ verdecktes gewölbtes Tor. Der hinter dem Tor liegende Gartenbereich wurde ab 1933 durch den 7. Viscount Clifden mit verschiedensten Arten von Magnolien bepflanzt, die heute eine Höhe bis zu 25 Metern erreichen. Durch den Hochgarten fließt der Borlase stream („Bach von Borlase“), der die Wasserversorgung für Lanhydrock House sichert. In und an ihm gedeihen Kandelaberprimeln, Astelia, Aronstab, Schaublatt und Kirengeshoma

Im Norden des Hochgartens gelangt man über die „Magnolienlichtung“ zum „Staudenkreis“. Dieser bildet erst seit 1972 einen Vollkreis, nachdem auf der nördlichen Hälfte die Ruinen eines Gewächshauses und eines Schuppens abgerissen wurden. Den südlichen Halbkreis hatte Lady Clifden schon vor 1914 gestaltet. Die hier gepflanzten Stauden blühen vom Ende des Sommers bis in den Herbst. An der Nordwestecke des Hochgartens wurden nach dem zerstörerischen Sturm von 1979 zum Schutz des Gartens Eichen und Edelkastanien angepflanzt.

Lanhydrock war 1996 der Hauptdrehort für den Film Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Regie führte Trevor Nunn, Hauptdarstellerin war Helena Bonham Carter als Olivia. Weiterhin dienten Haus und Garten als Drehort für die Rosamunde-Pilcher-Verfilmungen Klippen der Liebe (1999) und Im Zweifel für die Liebe (2009).

(Wikipedia)

Erected between 1769 and 1779, and formerly the Royal Exchange. It is a square building in Corinthian style, with three fronts of Portland stone. Since 1852, however it has been the centre of the municipal government. The interior is designed as a circle within a square, with fluted columns supporting a dome shaped roof over the central hall. The building contains many items of interest, including 102 royal charters and the mace and sword of the city.

IMG_8837 350D

Adding to the endless rustic beauties of Meybod, Yazd, the Pigeon Tower (dovecote), kabutar khaneh in Persian, is a splendid functioning structure left over from the Qajar Dynasty.

These pigeon towers, or dovecotes, have been used in Iran for centuries. Although they provided a safe home and shelter for the pigeons, this wasn’t their only function.

In the past, pigeon towers were built all over Iran for the purpose of collecting the birds’ droppings. The farmers of the past knew how pigeon droppings were a very rich and effective fertilizer for growing plants and crops.

Unfortunately, due to the modern-day global culture of industrial farming and agriculture, where quantity highly outshines quality, many of these methods have been forgotten.

The building of the kabutar khaneh (translating to ‘pigeon house’) has a very calculated design. The architect has managed to cram-in a plethora of functionalities alongside beautiful aesthetics. The architecture of the dovecote is very artistic, as well as practical.

Standing 3 stories tall, the castle-turret shaped structure features uniquely beautiful brick and plasterwork all the while providing 4,000 spots for pigeons.

The main attraction and entryway for the birds is, of course, the roof. A giant bowl of water on the roof attracts birds to land and explore on the top of the structure. Carefully designed entry holes stopped bigger birds such as crows and hawks from forcing their way into the tower.

The foundation and base of the building is made from pure stone, preventing rats from burrowing in. The cylindrical walls all around, inside and out, are covered in smooth plaster making it impossible for snakes to climb and find a way in.

On top of all that, the architect knew that startled pigeons all fly away at once, and so even took the vibrations caused by their simultaneous flapping into consideration!

The floor established in the center of the tower, alongside the arches connecting the balconies act as a reinforcement for the tower structure. This way, the vibrations are dispersed evenly among the entire building.

Very cool!

A fragment of the original stone opus sectile floor. The 2 synagogues of Toledo, both of them gorgeous, are among the handful remaining in Spain and were a highlight of our trip. This one was built in 1357 by Samuel Ha-Levi Abulafia, treasurer to King Pedro I of Spain. This was while the Jews were rebuilding from the pograms of 1348 -- the Jews of Toledo were, as usual, blamed for the Black Death, and the attacks on them seem to have done double duty as a way for the king's bastard brother Enrique of Trastámara to whip up support and seize royal assets. Ha-Levi, having the ear of the king, was apparently exempted from the usual requirement that any synagogues be more modest than the city's churches; this may also have been a form of compensation from the king for the pograms. The result was a Mudejar gem, richly decorated with Moorish-style plasterwork and an artesonado wood ceiling.

"A visit to Sloans should be made during the daytime so you can see its exceptional opulent Art Nouveau interior from 1900 situated on the first and second floors. The ground floor island-style bar with its quality fittings only dates from the 1980s. Built 1827-8 probably as part of the Argyll Arcade in 1827-8 by John Baird, this is a three-storey tenement-style building. The interior was remodelled in 1900 by Charles Robinson, who specialised in ornate bar interiors. He was commissioned by David Sloan, a prominent Glasgow publican of the era. Known then as the Arcade Café, it was described at the time as 'consisted of richly furnished dining rooms, coffee rooms and bars, in addition to a "cigar and tobacco divan" to which businessmen could retire'.

There are two entrances – from Argyll Street there is what looks like a tunnel under a building called Cranston House leading to the pub set back on the right. A small flight of terrazzo steps has ‘Sloan’s’ on one and ‘Lounge Bar’ on another. However head for Argyle Arcade to find what Historic Scotland describes as a tiled entrance ‘of exceptional quality’. It has a segmental-arched columned timber entrance with deeply recessed glazed timber two-leaf doors leading to marble staircase. The walls of the highly decorative passageway into the pub are completely covered in tiling – a dado of blue, green, yellow and brown patterned tiles with regularly spaced floriate tiled columns and cream tiles above. At the top of the stairs is a lobby with a mosaic floor having leaf symbols.

The ground floor originally consisted of a main bar with a large mahogany circular counter with three booths and ample seating accommodation. The island gantry included spirit casks and a leaded glass canopy attached to the ceiling ran around the top of the counter. Research has identified that these fittings were in place up to the 1980s. Also, there was a small cocktail bar on the ground floor. Nowadays, the ground floor bar has a wood laminate floor, an island-style servery with a U-shaped counter front that is panelled in the same style as that on the wall panelling with a mirror panel at the top all the way around. The island gantry has square columns topped with capitals holding up the top section, which has semi circular pediments at the top on both sides. Less than half of the lower shelving has been lost to fridges. Around the walls are seating bays – two on the left and three on the right, The bays have bench ends incorporating newell posts but whilst quality work all of it only dates from the 1980s. The oldest fittings are the etched panels in the toilets doors. There are doorways lined with similar panelling leading to another smaller room at the rear. It has 1980s panelling and fixed seating also a ‘Turners Brewery Pale Ale Ayr’ mirror on the far wall. This presumably is where the original cocktail bar was situated.

On the Argyll Arcade end of the ground floor bar there is an ornate arcaded glazed timber screen with etched glass and a two-leaf door leads to impressive panelled stairwell. There is an ornate heavy dark timber staircase to the upper floors with decorative newel posts and a large wall painting at first floor landing. At the top of the impressive staircase on the first floor there is the former cash office. There is an impressive corridor consisting of arcaded glazed timber screens with etched glass, Art Nouveau stained glass windows at the top, strapwork plasterwork to ceiling picked out in gold, and rooms leading off. To left of corridor a two leaf door leads to the large dining room with a panelled dado and bell pushes, deep frieze to cornice with low relief plasterwork with putti. More strapwork plasterwork to ceiling. Note one door has ‘Powder Room’ on it. Further down the corridor on the left is a ladies toilet in what was originally a small dining room. The former Smoking Room at the rear left has a panelled dado, deep frieze to cornice with low relief plasterwork with putti. More strapwork plasterwork to ceiling which with the frieze is painted a deep green colour and detail picked out in gold. There is an ornate wood surround chimneypiece with overmantle mirror almost reaching the ceiling. On the right of the corridor a two-leaf door leads to the former Ladies Dining Room is now a small bar with strapwork plasterwork to ceiling picked out in gold but modern seating. On the wall is a ‘Campbell & Co’s Edinburgh Ales’ mirror. What was the original ladies toilet is now a store room. Another former small dining room has been amalgamated with the lift service room and is now a kitchen with no old fittings surviving. At the far end of the corridor on the right what was a bar is now an office and the bar removed. (Various other small rooms still exist but they now have alternate uses.) Note there are letters above the doors – ‘C’ on the Dining Room, ‘F’ on what is now the bar, ‘D’ on a cloakroom, and ‘E’ on the smoking room.

On the second floor on the left is a stuning large ballroom with a vaulted coffered ceiling with detail picked out in gold, a number of small skylights, and stained glass exterior windows with a wreath motif. It has a parquet floor, and on the wall are timber dado supports and regularly spaced pilasters with plaster heads painted gold. All around the room there is a deep cornice with open pediments, egg and dart moulding and festoons with detail painted gold. At the south end of the room is a classical marble chimneypiece with horseshoe tiled insert, overmantle mirror, and above a broken pediment. At the north end is a bar behind shutters but as the right hand part has a different dado the bar may be a later insertion. Modernised toilets on second floor. Its listed category was changed from B to A in November 1996 and the listing descriptions states “Sloans is a rare example of a bar, dining room and coffee house complex with an exceptional opulent Art Nouveau interior. The upper floors contain dining rooms, smoking rooms and an impressive ballroom. The tiled entrance from the Argyll Arcade is of exceptional quality. Also of particular note is the quality of the timberwork, such as the arcaded glazed screens and impressive staircase. The decorative plasterwork is of some quality and completes the rich decorative scheme.”

As the quality interior-work is situated on the first and second floors visitors are recommended to ring ahead to ensure the rooms can be visited (or to pre-arrange a guided tour).

Very helpful research including a first floor plan and old photos from John Gorevan, author of Glasgow’s Pubs and Publicans (2002) Tempus Publishing ISBN 9780752427591 to whom we are most grateful. "

Information: pubheritage.camra.org.uk/pubs/299

Canons Ashby House is an Elizabethan manor house located in Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, England. It has been owned by the National Trust since 1981, although "The Tower" is in the care of the Landmark Trust and available for holiday lets.

It has been the home of the Dryden family since the 16th century. The main part of the manor house was built in approximately 1550 with additions in the 1590s, in the 1630s and 1710; it has remained essentially unchanged since the 1710s.

John Dryden had married Elizabeth Cope in 1551 and inherited, through his wife, a 15th century L-shaped farmhouse which he gradually extended. In the 1590s his son, Sir Erasmus Dryden completed the final north range of the house which enclosed the Pebble Courtyard.

The interior of the house is noted for its Elizabethan wall paintings and its Jacobean plasterwork.

The house sits in the midst of a formal garden with colourful herbaceous borders, an orchard featuring varieties of fruit trees from the 16th century, terraces, walls and gate piers from 1710. There is also the remains of a medieval priory church (from which the house gets its name).

This period two story building is rented by the Bank but has recently been sold. It's a protected building . It retains some of its original period features including cornicing and plasterwork .

Boroujerdi Historical House, Kashan, Iran.

The house was built in 1857 by architect Ostad Ali Maryam, for the bride of Haji Mehdi Borujerdi, a wealthy merchant. The bride came from the affluent Tabatabaei family, for whom Ali Maryam had built the Tabatabaei House some years earlier. It consists of a rectangular beautiful courtyard, delightful wall paintings by the royal painter Kamal-ol-molk, and three 40 meter tall wind towers which help cool the house to unusually cool temperatures. It has 3 entrances, and all the classic signatures of traditional Persian residential architecture, such as biruni and daruni (andarun). The house took eighteen years to build using 150 craftsmen. It has three entrances and all the classic signatures of Persian architecture. The main entrance is in the form of an octagonal vestibule with multilateral skylights in the ceiling. Near the entrance is a five-door chamber with intricate plasterwork. Walking through a narrow corridor, one reaches a vast rectangular courtyard that has a pool and is flanked by trees and flowerbeds. The house is famous for its unusual wind towers, which are made of stone, brick, sun-baked bricks and a composition of clay, straw and mortar. Three 40-meter-tall wind towers help cool the house to unusually cool temperatures. Even the basements consistently benefit from the flow of cool air from the wind towers. Since exceptional attention has been paid to minute architectural details demanded by the geographical and climatic conditions of the area, the house has attracted considerable attention of architects as well as Iranian and foreign scientific and technical teams. While Boroujerdi House used to be a private home, it is now open to the public as a museum. The museum is divided into four sections, namely reception, ceremonies, residential halls and rooms.

Plas Mawr a Grade I Listed Elizabethan townhouse dating from the 16th Century, which is now open as a museum managed by Cadw, in Conwy, County Conwy, North Wales.

The property was built by Robert Wynn, a member of the local gentry, following his marriage to his first wife, Dorothy Griffith. Plas Mawr occupied a plot of land off Conwy's High Street and was constructed in three phases between 1576 and 1585 at a total cost of around £800. Wynn was known for his hospitality, and the household was supported by Wynn's local dairy herds, orchards, and gardens. On his death he laid out complex instructions for dividing his estate; the resulting law-case took years to resolve, effectively preventing the redevelopment of the house and preserving it in its original condition.

After 1683 it passed into the hands of the Mostyn family and ceased to be used as a family home. It was rented out for various purposes during the 18th and 19th centuries, including for use as a school, cheap lodgings and finally as the headquarters of the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art.

In the 20th century the house became increasingly well known for its preserved Elizabethan architecture, but the costs of maintenance grew considerably, and its condition deteriorated. The Welsh heritage agency Cadw took over the management of the property in 1993, with many of its rooms redecorated to resemble their condition in 1665.

Architecturally, Plas Mawr is almost unchanged from the 16th century, and the historian Rick Turner considers the house to be "the finest surviving town house of the Elizabethan era". Plas Mawr shows a blend of continental Renaissance and local North Wales influences, with an innovative floorplan and architectural detailing.

The house still retains much of its original plasterwork, which incorporates symbols, badges, and heraldry, which the historian Peter Smith has described as "the most perfect and the most complete memorial to Elizabethan Wales."

Information Source:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plas_Mawr

Levens Hall is a magnificent Elizabethan mansion that was built around 1350 by the Redman family as a pele (or peel) tower and was later expanded and rebuilt towards the end of the 16th Century. It is the family home of the Bagots, and contains a collection of Jacobean furniture, fine paintings, the earliest English patchwork and many other beautiful objects. (No photos from inside the house as photography is not allowed)

The world-famous award winning gardens were laid out in 1694. The topiary beech hedges and colourful seasonal beds create a stunning visual impact. The topiary garden has huge abstract shapes, pyramids and columns reminiscent of monstrous chess men.

These photographs remind me of my many days visiting stately homes during the summer months, hope you enjoy.

Lanhydrock, near Bodmin, is a magnificent late Victorian country house with extensive servants quarters, gardens and a wooded estate.

It is the perfect country house and estate, with the feel of a wealthy but unpretentious family home. The kitchens, nurseries and servants' quarters offer a thrilling glimpse into life 'below stairs', while the spacious dining room and bedrooms are truly and deeply elegant.

The house is set in wooded parkland of 1,000 acres and encircled by a garden of rare shrubs and trees.

Follow in the footsteps of generations of the Robartes family, walking in the 17th-century Long Gallery among the rare book collection under the remarkable plasterwork ceiling. After a devastating fire in 1881 the house was refurbished in the high-Victorian style, with the latest mod cons.

Don't miss

* There are 50 rooms to explore – allow plenty of time!

* Play the Steinway piano in the Long Gallery

* Look out for the museum and second-hand bookshop

The gardens

The historical garden with its 30-acres of woodland was laid out back in 1857, but its present format was actually established later on in the Victorian period, and many of the plants are no more than 70 years old. However, a grand atmosphere permeates the entire setting and compliments the brilliant planting of more modern times.

Explore formal parterres of dazzling bedding plants and wander along paths that wind through a woodland landscape planted in a semi-formal Cornish fashion - rhododendrons and Himalayan magnolias lurching to their full-size in the fresh Cornish air. Because the grounds lie inland and rise up to 130-metres above sea level, the plants have to cope with harsher climates than the lush valley gardens of the south coast. In spite of this, Lanhydrock still puts on one of the county's most colourful spring shows, with over 120 species of cream and white magnolias featuring amongst a flurry of wild blooms that carpet the woodland.

Learn more about the history and the work involved to keep the magnificent gardens maintained via the new interpretation on permanent display in the garden's thatched cottage.

Take-in the sweeping views over the gardens and the valley landscape, and it's pretty obvious that this is prime garden for walkers. Not only is there 30-acres of formal and informal woodland to explore, but the garden opens onto an extensive network of footpaths zig-zagging through 900-acres of beautiful countryside.

And with so much space to roam, Lanhydrock makes a very family friendly day out. Whilst the fresh air and colourful surroundings will captivate the kids' imaginations and wear them out, the restaurant has a fantastic children's menu and there are excellent baby-changing facilities on-site.

(visitcornwall.com)

Lanhydrock House (kornisch Lannhydrek) ist ein Herrenhaus nahe der englischen Stadt Bodmin in Cornwall. Es liegt fast 13 Kilometer von der Südküste Cornwalls entfernt im waldreichen Tal des Flusses River Fowey, inmitten eines 367 Hektar großen Anwesens, das bis zu 130 Metern Höhe ansteigt.

Lanhydrock House ist von einem attraktiven formalen Garten und einem Landschaftspark umgeben. Der angrenzende Hügel ist mit ausgewählten Bäumen und Sträuchern bepflanzt. Viele Teile des heutigen Hauses sind viktorianischen Ursprungs, einige sind jedoch mehr als 200 Jahre älter, sie datieren etwa um das Jahr 1620.

Fünfzig Jahre nach dem Bau von Lanhydrock House wurde im Jahr 1690 der erste geometrische Garten neben dem Haus angelegt, er wird erstmals im Lanhydrock-Atlas von 1694 bis 1697 erwähnt. Der Garten bestand aus einer Rasenfläche für Kegel- oder Ballspiele, dem Bowling Green, einem Blumengarten, der von einem Weg entlang der Baumlinie umsäumt war, einer Fasanerie, einem Küchengarten, einem Birnen- und Obstgarten sowie einem an der Nordseite des Hauses angrenzenden Natur- oder Wildgarten. Mit dem Abriss des Ostflügels des Hauses 1780 durch George Hunt wurde auch diese Gartenanlage beseitigt, so dass das Parkgelände bis an das Gebäude reichte.

Um das Jahr 1860 legte man oberhalb des Hauses einen Staudengarten an, den „Oberen Garten“ oder „Hochgarten“. Nach 1858 erstellte Richard Coad basierend auf Plänen des Architekten George Truefitt, die dieser ab 1854 entworfen hatte, einen neuen, heute noch zu besichtigenden geometrischen Garten an der Ost- und Nordseite von Lanhydrock House. Er ist umgeben von niedrigen zinnenbewehrten Brüstungen und Obelisken im Stil des Hauses. Truefitt sah für Lanhydrock Wasserspiele, Terrassen, Kieswege und eine Promenade zum Torhaus vor, die Coad um eigene Ideen, wie die Granitstufen zur Kirche und eine Sitzgelegenheit, ergänzte. Etwa 1933 erfolgte eine Vereinfachung der viktorianischen Beetaufteilung und die Anpflanzung erster Magnolien.

Lanhydrock Gardens besteht heute aus mehreren, unterschiedlich stark voneinander abgetrennten Bereichen. Im Innenenhof oder Vorhof von Lanhydrock House ist eine durch einen Kiesweg begrenzte runde Rasenfläche angelegt. An den Hauswänden neben dem Weg stehen Immergrüne Magnolien (Magnolia grandiflora) und im Juli und August blühende Hortensiengewächse der Sorte Schizophragma integrifolium. Östlich in Richtung Torhaus schließt sich der „Geometrische Garten“ an, der durch 23 beschnittene Säuleneiben (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) dominiert wird. Zwischen ihnen sind Rosenbeete angelegt, die vornehmlich mit den Sorten ‘Octavia Hill’, ‘Bright Smile’, ‘Escapade’, ‘Wheelhorse Classic’ und ‘Margaret Merril’ bepflanzt sind.

Im Norden des geometrischen Gartens, und hinter der niedrigen Nordmauer außerhalb der eigentlichen Gartenanlage gelegen, befindet sich eine bepflanzte Freifläche, die vormals als Krocket- und Tennisplatz genutzt wurde. Der Tennisplatz nahm dabei die östliche Seite der Freifläche ein. Neben einigen Büschen, wie Gwillimia (Magnolia delavayi), stehen hier zwei Blutbuchen und eine jüngere Korkeiche. Die Blutbuchen wurden von prominenter Seite gepflanzt, die größere 1889 durch den ehemaligen britischen Premierminister William Ewart Gladstone, die kleinere 1905 durch Archibald Philip Primrose, dem 5. Earl of Rosebery. Auf dem westlich angrenzenden ehemaligen Krocketrasen stehen Rhododendren der Sorten ‘Mother of Pearl’, ‘Hugh Koster’ und ‘Pink Pearl’.

Nordwestlich des geometrischen Gartens, nördlich der Gebäude von Lanhydrock House, geht die Gartenanlage ins „Parterre“ über. Hier werden im Frühling und im Sommer verschiedene Blumen innerhalb von Buchsbaumhecken gepflanzt, die in einem komplizierten Muster auf ebener Fläche angelegt sind. Südlich und östlich davon stehen sechs den Bäumen im geometrischen Garten im Schnitt gleiche Säuleneiben. Eine Terrassenstufe höher in Richtung der kleinen Kirche sind die Blumenrabatten als Muster direkt in die Rasenfläche gesetzt.

Beide Bereiche, deren Höhenunterschied keinen Meter ausmacht, haben je eine Bronze-Urne als Mittelpunkt. Diese Urnen, von denen auch einige den geometrischen Garten schmücken, sind Erwerbungen Francis Gerald Agar-Robartes’, des 7. Viscount Clifden, aus der Sammlung von Lord Hertford im Pariser Château de Bagatelle. Sie wurden vom Goldschmied Ludwigs des XIV., Louis Ballin, geschaffen. Nach Westen wird das „Parterre“ durch die Umfassungsmauer begrenzt, in der zwei Durchgänge ausgespart sind. Neben dem Herrenhaus erreicht man über eine Treppe die Kirche St Hydroc, daneben führt ein Weg an der Kirche vorbei in Richtung „Hochgarten“. Unterhalb der Mauer ist ein erhobenes Beet mit Schmucklilien-Hybriden der Sorte ‘Headbourne’, Fuchsien und Waldreben angelegt.

Der Weg zum Hochgarten kreuzt den in Nord-Süd-Richtung verlaufenden Kirchweg, neben dem Fächer-Ahorn (Sorte ‘Sango-kaku’) und laubabwerfende Hybriden der Westlichen Azalee stehen. Direkt vor der Kirche sind verschiedene Kamelien-Sorten, Rhododendren (Rhododendron arboreum var. roseum) und Stern-Magnolien-Hybriden (Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’) gepflanzt, in der Ecke des Kirchhofs eine baumartige Magnolia hypoleuca (obovata). Den nördlichen Abschnitt des Kirchwegs flankieren einige Hortensien, dahinter Magnolia campbellii ‘Charles Raffill’, Rhododendron fictolacteum und Rhododendron rex.

Den Eingang zum Hochgarten markiert ein durch eine Magnolia kobus × loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ verdecktes gewölbtes Tor. Der hinter dem Tor liegende Gartenbereich wurde ab 1933 durch den 7. Viscount Clifden mit verschiedensten Arten von Magnolien bepflanzt, die heute eine Höhe bis zu 25 Metern erreichen. Durch den Hochgarten fließt der Borlase stream („Bach von Borlase“), der die Wasserversorgung für Lanhydrock House sichert. In und an ihm gedeihen Kandelaberprimeln, Astelia, Aronstab, Schaublatt und Kirengeshoma

Im Norden des Hochgartens gelangt man über die „Magnolienlichtung“ zum „Staudenkreis“. Dieser bildet erst seit 1972 einen Vollkreis, nachdem auf der nördlichen Hälfte die Ruinen eines Gewächshauses und eines Schuppens abgerissen wurden. Den südlichen Halbkreis hatte Lady Clifden schon vor 1914 gestaltet. Die hier gepflanzten Stauden blühen vom Ende des Sommers bis in den Herbst. An der Nordwestecke des Hochgartens wurden nach dem zerstörerischen Sturm von 1979 zum Schutz des Gartens Eichen und Edelkastanien angepflanzt.

Lanhydrock war 1996 der Hauptdrehort für den Film Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Regie führte Trevor Nunn, Hauptdarstellerin war Helena Bonham Carter als Olivia. Weiterhin dienten Haus und Garten als Drehort für die Rosamunde-Pilcher-Verfilmungen Klippen der Liebe (1999) und Im Zweifel für die Liebe (2009).

(Wikipedia)

Stockport Town Hall captured in the reflection of a traffic mirror.

The building, designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas– who also designed Belfast City Hall – was opened Prince and Princess of Wales (Later King George V and Queen Mary) in 1908. It is built in the Baroque style.

It is known locally as the Wedding Cake because of its white appearance and columns.

The building’s main facade is 70 metres long and the clock tower rises to almost 40 metres.

The famous ballroom has magnificent plasterwork and is now home to the Wurlitzer organ that once graced Manchester’s Free Trade Hall.

An image from the personal portfolio of one of Greater Manchester Police’s photographers.

View our Gallery set below for more non-police related images taken by the Force's photographers.

All the work has been produced in the photographers’ own time and has been uploaded outside of working hours. We hope you enjoy your visit. The Gallery

For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk

To report crime call police on 101 the national non-emergency number.

You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.

Image by Chris Oldham : Greater Manchester Police

View On Black

"All sanity depends on this: that it should be a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are moving easily under the flesh." -- Doris Lessing

Stowe, one of the largest houses in Britain, is surrounded by the most historically important of all English landscape gardens.

In the 16th century the Stowe estate came into the hands of the Temple family, whose wealth had been acquired through sheep farming.

Sir Richard Temple, the 3rd Baronet constructed a new house in 1678 - 83. In 1715 his son, created Viscount Cobham in 1718, married the heiress of a rich London brewer and used his new wealth to expand the garden to designs of Charles Bridgeman.

Between 1719 - 26 Lord Cobham engaged Sir John Vanbrugh to make additions to the house and design some of the garden buildings. Further additions were made to the house on the garden side in 1733 - 50. In the 1730s William Kent was commissioned to continue the eastward extension of the gardens and he created 'The Elysian Fields', an arcadian landscape with ornamental buildings.

This was one of the first 'natural' landscapes and initiated the style known as the 'English Garden'. Shortly before his death in 1749 Lord Cobham expanded the garden further to create the 'Grecian Valley'. He was probably aided in this by his head gardener, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, who was just beginning his great career. Brown worked at Stowe for ten years and in 1744 was married at the little medieval church.

Lord Cobham was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Richard Grenville who became Lord Temple. He 'naturalised' Bridgeman's gardens to the west and then set about remodelling the interior and exterior of the house, the work being completed in 1777.

The new south front (and probably the north) was created by Thomas Pitt, Lord Camelford. He was greatly influenced by the neo-classical style but the design of the south front owes much to an earlier scheme produced by Robert Adam.

Lord Temple's nephew and successor became Marquess of Buckingham in 1784. He completed the interior decoration and then set about amassing a great collection of paintings and manuscripts. The family reached the height of their prestige when the Marquess's son was made Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. However, in 1848 the 2nd Duke fell massively into debt. This resulted in the great art collection being dispersed but fortunately lead to the house and garden remaining almost unchanged.

Further losses occurred after the agricultural depression of the late-19th century and in 1921 Lady Kinloss, the daughter of the 3rd Duke, sold the property as the site of a public school.

Stowe School still owns the building but in 1989 the gardens were given to the National Trust.

An approach to the house from Buckingham, culminating in a great triumphal arch, was laid out in the 1770s or 1780s but the present route is from the west to the north or entrance front. This is the massive main block dating from 1720 with a portico designed by Vanbrugh. From here curved colonnades, dating from the early 1770s, stretch away to conceal the service courtyards.

The visitor enters by the north portico into an interior now denuded of the original lavish furnishings. The interior is well maintained by Stowe School and all the main reception rooms are open to the public. The first room to be viewed is the neo-Palladian North Hall, dating from the 1730s, which has a coved ceiling embellished with 'grotesques' by Kent. From here the visitor passes into the state rooms on the south or garden front. The vast, mostly empty, rooms were decorated by the 1st Marquess of Buckingham in the neo-classical taste he acquired on his Grand Tour in 1774.

The Library of 1801 is still used for its original purpose. The Music Room was decorated in Pompeian-style by the Italian architect Vincenzo Valdre. The magnificent Saloon is the most impressive room at Stowe and is one of the finest neo-classical rooms in England. The room is elliptical with a domed roof, scagliola columns and a frieze depicting a Roman triumph. The Temple Room, the original drawing room, has a splendid plasterwork ceiling dating from 1776. The final room on the tour is the State Dining Room which was built as a gallery in 1740s and still has some of its neo-Palladian decoration.

On leaving the house the visitor passes through the vast Corinthian portico on the south front and descends the broad flight of stairs, created in 1754 by Borra, to the gardens. From here the whole of the imposing south front can be viewed; one of the most impressive, neo-classical facades in England.

The 325 acres of landscaped gardens have six lakes and contain many magnificent 18th century buildings. Pitt's Corinthian Arch can be seen on the horizon from the south front.

On a lawn to the west of the vista is Vanbrugh's Rotondo. Kent's Temple of Venus and Gibb's ruined Temple of Friendship are on the south side of the lake just inside the ha-ha. To the east are the Elysian Fields in a valley overlooked by the medieval church. The church is all that remains of a vanished village.

Further south is a Palladian bridge built in imitation of the bridge at Wilton. To the north and east of the Elysian Fields is the Grecian Valley with its splendid Temple of Concord.

www.stowe.co.uk/Stowe-House.aspx

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/...

A plaster screen at the other end of the Great Hall, which depicts a medieval woman expelling her drunken husband, to the amusement of his friends, who bear him away. Pevsner dismissed it as a poor piece of domestic art - he may have been right.

"All Saints' Church, Northampton situated in the centre of Northampton, is a Church of England parish church. It is a Grade I listed building.

After the fire, Charles II gave a thousand tons of timber for the rebuilding of All Hallows' Church, and one tenth of the money collected for the rebuilding of the town was allocated to the rebuilding of All Hallows', under the management of the King's Lynn architect, Henry Bell. Bell was resident in Northampton at the time, and he set to rebuild the church in a manner similar to Sir Christopher Wren's designs.

The central medieval tower survived the fire, as did the crypt. The new church of All Saints' was built east of the tower in an almost square plan, with a chancel to the east and a north and south narthex flanking the tower.

Visitors enter the church through the existing tower into a barrel vaulted nave. At the centre is a dome, supported on four Ionic columns, which is lit by a lantern above. The barrel vault extends into the aisles from the dome in a Greek-cross form, leaving four flat ceilings in the corners of the church. The church is well lit by plain glass windows in the aisles and originally there was a large east window in the chancel, that is now covered by a reredos. The plasterwork ceiling is finely decorated, and the barrel vaults are lit by elliptical windows.

Built in the style of Christopher Wren's London churches rebuilt after the Great Fire of London, it has in the past been mistakenly attributed to him. The rebuilding of the city churches was initiated by financing of the Rebuilding of London Act 1670. Wren, as Surveyor General of the King's Works, undertook the operation, and one of his first churches was St Mary-at-Hill.

The rebuilt church of All Saints' was consecrated and opened in 1680. In 1701, a large portico was added to the west end, in front of the narthex, very much in the style of the Inigo Jones portico added to Old St Paul's Cathedral in the 1630s.

Northampton is a minster and market town in the East Midlands of England. It is also the county town of wider county of Northamptonshire. Northampton lies on the River Nene, 60 miles (97 km) north-west of London and 45 miles (72 km) south-east of Birmingham. One of the largest towns in England, it had a population of 212,100 at the 2011 census (223,000 est. 2019).

Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates to the Bronze Age, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. In the Middle Ages, the town rose to national significance with the establishment of Northampton Castle, an occasional royal residence which regularly hosted the Parliament of England. Medieval Northampton had many churches, monasteries and the University of Northampton, all enclosed by the town walls. It was granted a town charter by Richard I in 1189 and a mayor was appointed by King John in 1215. The town was also the site of two medieval battles, in 1264 and 1460.

Northampton supported the Parliamentary Roundheads in the English Civil War, and Charles II ordered the destruction of the town walls and most of the castle. The Great Fire of Northampton in 1675 destroyed much of the town. It was soon rebuilt and grew rapidly with the industrial development of the 18th century. Northampton continued to grow with the arrival of the Grand Union Canal and the railways in the 19th century, becoming a centre for footwear and leather manufacture.

Northampton's growth was limited until it was designated as a New Town in 1968, accelerating development in the town. It unsuccessfully applied for city status in 2000." - info from Wikipedia.

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

Now on Instagram.

Museo Universitario Casa de los Muñecos (House of Dolls University Museum).at Calle 2 Nte 2, Centro Puebla de Zaragoza.

Casa de los Muñecos is a three-story Baroque-style building, typical of 18th-century Puebla architecture, distinguished by the intriguing figures on its façade, images from which its nickname "muñecos" (dolls) derives.

In 1983 the Autonomous University of Puebla acquired the property to convert it into a University Museum. After renovations the museum opened 10 December, 1987.

More than four thousand pieces make up the museum collection of scientific instruments, furniture, photographs, plasterwork, paintings, prints, and watercolours.

The building compliments the 1987 Puebla UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.

Main rooms[edit]

The gatehouse is of 1406, and the block to its left, now the shop and cafe, has Gothic windows facing the moat. The main facade is medieval to the left, but in Elizabethan prodigy house style at the centre and right. The chapel is 14th-century Decorated Gothic, the other main rooms that are opened mainly Elizabethan. The great hall runs along the facade. Upstairs there is a long gallery overlooking the gardens at the rear.[4]

The best bedrooms have two very elaborate chimneypieces, in the Queen's Bedroom (used by Anne of Denmark) a stone one heavily decorated with ornament in a style "proclaiming the Renaissance but simultaneously revealing a still very imperfect comprehension of what it was all about". This was presumably the result of a local carver with access to an ornament pattern book such as those by Hans Vredeman de Vries; the two human heads still look distinctly medieval. The other chimneypiece, in the bedroom James I used, is at another stylistic extreme; a very polished and spacious stucco piece in a style comparable to that of the First School of Fontainebleau, and probably not made by English artists. The central medallion, with a mythological scene, is designed by Rosso Fiorentino, and also appears in the Palace of Fontainebleau. This is flanked by two large nude boys. The Italian artists of the Tudor court Henry VIII used at Nonsuch Palace have been suggested; the pieces were almost certainly made elsewhere and taken to Broughton.[5]

There are several fine plasterwork ceilings, the most spectacular in the Great Parlour on the first floor, and the Oak Room below it. There is 18th-century painted Chinese wallpaper of different tree, bird and flower designs in three bedrooms, in very good condition. At roof level there is a room believed to be that "with no ears", where the 1st viscount plotted with Parliamentary leaders in the years before the Civil War.[6] The gardens have long herbacious borders, at their best in summer.

Films and TVs[edit]

Parts of the films The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), Oxford Blues (1984), Three Men and a Little Lady (1990), The Madness of King George (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and Jane Eyre (2011) were shot in the castle. TV filming for parts of Elizabeth The Virgin Queen, Friends and Crocodiles, 1975 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, and the titles of Noel's House Party also took place there. The castle has been used as the location for several other films and TV programmes[7] including an adaptation of Jane Eyre and

Concerts[edit]

In August 1981, the electric folk band Fairport Convention held their annual reunion concert at Broughton Castle, rather than the usual Cropredy location.[8] The concert was recorded, and released on the album Moat on the Ledge (1982).

Fiction[edit]

Published in April 2009, The Music Room is a novel by William Fiennes. This fictionalized memoir of his childhood and his epileptic brother is set in (the never identified) Broughton Castle. It has been described as "a beautiful poem of a tribute to his family, his parents, the magical, moated castle that was his home"

Wikipedia