Country Life 7-Dec-2022

The Museum of Architecture’s perennially popular and wonderfully eccentric ‘candy paradise’ is back for its sixth year. The event sees more than 100 landscape architects, engineers and architectural designers wave goodbye to traditional tools and come together to construct a gingerbread city in miniature, using baked bricks and sugared cement. The sweet sensation is built to a different design every year. This year, it will comprise five cities, in five very different climate zones: polar, continental, temperate, dry and tropical. The architects will consider building methods, environments and local resources, in light of the impact the climate crisis is having on communities across the globe. Festive workshops will run alongside the exhibition, including one where you can build a gingerbread house using a handmade, in-house-recipe gingerbread kit. Each kit is made fresh,…

At Risk no more BOSTON MANOR HOUSE (above and below), the Jacobean gem on the outskirts of Brentford in west London, heads a list of 19 sites in the capital whose futures have been secured, enabling their removal from Historic England’s updated Heritage at Risk register (Town & Country, November 16). Noted for its superb plaster ceilings and chimney-pieces, the house was built in 1623 by Lady Reade, who inherited the site via marriage from Sir Thomas Gresham, owner of nearby Osterley House. Now in the hands of the London Borough of Hounslow, the Grade I-listed house, the grounds of which form an attractive public park, will reopen to visitors in early 2023 after a four-year restoration programme. Also deemed saved is a 19th-century drinking fountain and adjacent cattle trough at Hyde…

THEY are a wiry silhouette, dull against the clutter of fuzzy hats, imperious shop signs and misty breaths of a cold autumn evening. But it takes only a moment and the angels above Regent Street come alive in a burst of gold and white, their wings and tails twinkling in festive triumph against the darkening sky. It’s the Christmas lights switch-on and the festive season has officially begun, ushering in a cascade of partying, cooking and frenzied shopping. To paraphrase Louisa May Alcott, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without any light displays. It’s perhaps surprising, therefore, to discover that they only made their first appearance in London less than 70 years ago, although they are the modern incarnation of a much older tradition. Someone in Germany—story wants him to be none other…

Seasonal suggestions Be sure to head on down to St Paul’s Cathedral for an Advent service (www.stpauls.co.uk). ‘A Celebration of Christmas’, December 15, is free to attend, but advance booking is required; the Christmas Carol Service (December 23 and 24) is free to attend and unticketed. Be prepared to queue. Borough Market’s annual Evening of Cheese is back, 6pm– 9pm, December 15. The extravaganza includes tastings, drinks and plenty of expert advice (www.boroughmarket.org.uk/events/an-evening-of-cheese. Shire-horse carriage rides around Richmond and Bushy Parks are available until January 1, 2023 (www.royalparks.org.uk). In Richmond Park, the 75-minute experience costs from £450, plus booking fee, for a six-seater carriage and refreshments. Rides in Bushy Park are £15 per head for 25 minutes, including refreshments, until December 26. The rides will help fund conservation initiatives using working…

I REMEMBER my first time very clearly. We were both 16 and it was called Parma Café. ‘It’s the best greasy spoon I’ve been to,’ she said, as we walked there from her house behind Oval Tube. Twelve years later, Constance and I live together in Walworth, a little further south, and she still talks about the Parma often, although it was turned into a Japanese restaurant two years ago. Outside Café House (189, Walworth Road, SE17), a man in a dirty grey suit drags a mattress down the pavement. When my food comes, they’ve added chips as well. ‘A mistake,’ I suggest to the waiter. ‘Yes, but is it a problem?’ In the doorway, two couples are standing inches apart, talking into each other’s faces as they fiddle with their…

Belgravia feels a very long way from Scotland in almost every way. What do you love about this part of London? I don’t think there’s anything to compare to the elegance, tranquillity and village-like atmosphere of Belgravia. Boisdale of Belgravia (15, Eccleston Street, SW1), our original restaurant, has a very satisfactory ring to it, which far outweighs the accusations of snobbery I have to endure occasionally. We’ve been here for 33 years and I have lived in the area for 44 years. At Boisdale, you blend Scottish cuisine and drinks with Cuban cigars and jazz. Where do you go to get away from such hedonism? My favourite landmark is the statue of Bolívar on the corner of Belgrave Square. In itself, it’s not a particular beauty, but I do at times enjoy contemplative…