This article was originally published by The Critic Magazine in October 2022. Read it here. Approaching the revamped Battersea Power Station on a sunny autumn morning, the area around the building is dotted with slack-jawed visitors, peering skywards in awe through the lenses of theirsmartphones. This masterpiece on the Thames, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in … Continue reading Powerless Heritage

This essay was first published at The Pathos of Things newsletter. Subscribe here. Many British people will hear about Felixstowe for the first time this month, thanks to a planned workers’ strike that promises yet more economic pain. Located on the Suffolk coast, Felixstowe is the site of the UK’s biggest container port; almost half of the … Continue reading The Lost Magic of the Seas

This essay was first published at The Pathos of Things newsletter. Subscribe here. In Britain, where the saying goes that every man’s home is his castle, we like to see domestic space as something to be improved. Even if we have to save until middle age to own a decent home, we do so, in … Continue reading The Kitchen as a Theatre of History

This essay was first published at The Pathos of Things newsletter. Subscribe here. I recently found myself browsing a Financial Times feature about “great tech for greener living,” a selection of stylish items for the principled customer. They included an oak iPhone stand sustainably crafted by Polish artisans (holding your phone “at a perfect 25-degree tilt”); wireless earphones … Continue reading The Consolations of Green Design