Your Places or Mine

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Clive unveils some new research. It’s the result of a coffee shared with his guest in today’s podcast, Nicholas Boys-Smith. Nicholas founded Create Streets, a social enterprise, think tank and urban design consultancy in 2012. The coffee shop was on a schizophrenic part of the street, half of it being Victorian terrace — brick built, repeating classical windows, a lot of variety in the modest shops and cafes as street level — the opposite side of the street ha...

Send us Fan Mail Worcester Cathedral rises above the banks of the River Severn as one of England's great medieval buildings, its honey-coloured stone and soaring central tower dominating the city's skyline much as they have for over nine centuries. Who better to discuss its architecture and history than John Goodall? Founded in 680 as a monastic community, the earliest fabric of the cathedral dates from a rebuilding begun in 1084 under Bishop Wulfstan, the only English-born bishop to re...

Send us Fan Mail Everybody in the world has heard of Buckingham Palace. The official London residence of the British monarch, it stands at the western end of St James’s Park, very near St James’s Palace. As well as being used for great occasions of State, accompanied by the daily ritual of the changing of the guard, it was also somewhere that successive kings and queens lived when they were in town. Now the decision has been made for HM the King to move out, giving Clive and John ...

Send us Fan Mail The Monument, rising above the streets near London Bridge, is one of the City of London's most striking historical landmarks - a soaring Doric column erected to commemorate the Great Fire of London of 1666. Begun in 1671 and completed in 1677, it stands 202 feet tall, a height chosen deliberately: the distance from its base to the spot on Pudding Lane where the fire is believed to have started. But who designed it? The candidates are Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hook...

Send us Fan Mail As a great expert on the English castle, John has been thinking about one of the great icons of England: Warwick Castle. This extraordinary building, created over centuries, has come down to us intact, not having been slighted after the Civil War in the 17th century – something exceptional. Equally remarkable is the mythology that surrounds the place, including the medieval legends attached to Guy of Warwick, after whom one of the castle’s famous towers is named. ...

Send us Fan Mail Clive has taken the riverboat to Greenwich, one of the most spectacular sites of London. ‘Good Duke’ Humphrey, brother of Henry V, built a retreat here in the 15th century, which Henry VII developed into a palace. This was where Henry VIII jousted in his early years, and where his armour was made. To the early Stuarts Greenwich’s was important from its position at the mouth of the Thames: this was where foreign ambassadors landed on their way to the court: I...

Send us Fan Mail Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire is one of those country houses you find only in Britain. The attics are full of old toys, military headgear, unwanted commodes and a giant figure of the White Rabbit, left over from an Alice in Wonderland-themed event. A collection of Roman antiquities, some found on the estate, is displayed in the downstairs lavatory, along with a child’s pedal-operated aeroplane with patriotic RAF roundels. From the roof, you can see Lincoln...

Send us Fan Mail Clive and John have both been to Stansted Park, outside Chichester, though at different times. Clive remembers it from the time he helped the owner Eric Bessborough revise a book in the 1980s, whereas John’s connection is more recent. They both find it an astonishing example of an economic revival, apparently inspired by the Covid years when the public was desperate for open space. As a result, the house and park are beautifully maintained, while estate buil...

Send us Fan Mail John has been to Cambridge to see the castle, the mound of which still survives. Although a graduate of Peterhouse and now a Visiting Professor of Architecture, associated with the Ax:son Johnson Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture at Downing College, Clive comes new to this early history but many stories of more recent times. Together the pair mull over the development of this remarkable city, famous for one of the most beautiful ensembles of buildings...

Send us Fan Mail Clive is writing a book for Yale University Press on the Story of the American Country House. John indulges him by discussing an introductory overview of the subject, with which Clive has been engaged since Yale published his The American Country House in 1990. Here is a rich and colourful theme, celebrating a sometimes spectacular architectural tradition shaped by remarkable individuals. There are numerous reasons people in Colonial American and the developing U...

Send us Fan Mail When the German Prince Puckler Muskau visited England in 1826, he told his divorced wife that it would take her ‘at least 420 years to see all the parks of England, of which there are undoubtedly at least 100,000, for they swarm in every direction.’ One of the most splendid was that at Stowe in Buckinghamshire. The garden was accompanied by an equally important country house, if not palace. John has just been there and describes this extraordinary creation, the product ...

Send us Fan Mail ‘Let’s all go down the Strand!’ ran a popular music hall song. But what sort of street were they singing about? The future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli called it ‘perhaps the finest street in Europe’ in 1847. Which is quite a claim to live up to. Certainly the Strand, one of London’s most famous and important thoroughfares, has had a long and colourful history, with much shape-shifting over the centuries. John and Clive reveal the secrets of ...

Send us Fan Mail The Laskett in Herefordshire is one of the most remarkable gardens to have been created in the 20th century but now it’s future is threatened. Sir Roy Strong, scholar, museum director and the author of over 70 erudite books, and his theatre-designer wife Julia Trevelyan Oman created it as a bolt hole from London, beginning in 1973 – a bleak time of industrial unrest and inflation. It grew to become the largest formal garden made in the UK since the Second World Wa...

Send us Fan Mail One of the most famous Catholic schools in Britain, Ampleforth College in Yorkshire this year celebrates the centenary of its chapel, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Scott has emerged in recent years as a colossus of 20th-century architecture, bestriding it alike with his religious buildings – notably the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool – and his secular designs, such as Battersea Power Station and the familiar red telephone kiosk. John describes the remarkab...

Send us Fan Mail Few houses better convey the opulence of Edwardian country house life than Manderston in the Scottish Borders. Built in the first years of the 20th century, it is an exquisite work of the scholarly architect John Kinross – which has always been kept up to the high standards set by Kinross’s client, the racehorse owner Sir James Miller. Clive reveals a particular affection for Kinross because he knew his son, also called John Kinross, when the latter was an old but sprig...

Send us Fan Mail The fascinating city of Norwich, capital of Norfolk, was one of the richest town in England during the Middle Ages. The cathedral dates from the early Norman period, as does the Castle which has recently been magnificently redisplayed. As Britain’s preeminent historian of the architecture of the Middle Ages, John has of course been to see it, and provides a superb commentary. Clive does his best to keep up by describing a Victoria roller-skating rink which n...

Send us Fan Mail

Send us Fan Mail Alnwick Castle in Northumberland is one of the most spectacular castles in England, an immense fortification that guarded the border with Scotland for centuries. The Percy family who built it had almost king-like power over their territory – and were not above rebelling against the king himself: the impetuous Harry Hotspur was killed fighting against Henry IV at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, while his wily father feigned illness. John describes the history and...

Send us Fan Mail Trafalgar Square has long been regarded as the centre of London. It wasn’t always. John describes its medieval configuration when it was still countryside – hence the name of James Gibbs’s church St Martin in the Fields. This was where Richard II kept his hawks in the royal mews. A square was proposed by the Prince Regent’s architect John Nash but not in the form we have it today. The proximity of a barracks kept public order. What about the monument that do...

Send us Fan Mail Detmar Blow was one of the brightest stars of the Arts and Crafts Movement – but his story is also dark and mysterious. A pupil of the Kensington School of Art, where he met Lutyens – a lifelong friend – he won a travelling scholarship to draw cathedrals in France. At Abbeville, he had a chance encounter with the great Victorian sage aesthete John Ruskin, then in the decline of his old age. Blow escorted Ruskin to the Alps and imbibed his radical philosophy....

Send us Fan Mail This week John takes Clive through Windsor Castle, a creation not just of the Middle Ages (subject of part 1 of this series) but of successive monarchs since the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. George III, a King who had been trained in architecture, made it into a family home, before being confined here during his years of madness. Typically, his eldest son George IV had bigger ideas, employing Jeffry Wyatt to revamp the castle after 1824. This included ...

Send us Fan Mail This week John and Clive are frothing with disapproval at Network Rail’s plan to upgrade Liverpool Street Station. It is proposed that this will be funded by a development which will impose an out-of-scale tower at the entrance to the station, which will deprive the concourse of natural light and destroy the surroundings. What a pity. Liverpool Street was brilliantly reimagined in the late 1980s, to make a virtually new station so much in the spirit of the o...

Send us Fan Mail This week John and Clive present their long-awaited podcast on one of the most essential but least discussed rooms in any dwelling – the lavatory. Or (because no object in English or any other language is subject to so many euphemisms and circumlocutions) the necessary, the little house, the smallest room, the going place, the jakes, the john, the pissing place, the bog, the toilet…the list goes on. Although it fulfils a universal need, the loo has taken many form...

Send us Fan Mail Sir Francis Dashwood, who used to dress as a Franciscan monk and allegedly took part in orgies in the ruins of Medmenham Abbey, was one of the most notorious libertines of the 18th century. Is this a correct depiction of his character? John thinks not. Instead, he acquired his dubious reputation as a result of slurs cast by his political enemies, which Sir Francis, who didn’t care what anyone else thought about him, chose to ignore. His refusal to stoo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Your Places or Mine, Clive Aslet and John Goodall head west to Exeter Cathedral, one of England’s most distinctive medieval churches. From its extraordinary uninterrupted Gothic vault — the longest of its kind in the world — to its weathered towers and richly layered history, they explore how this cathedral grew, adapted and survived centuries of change. Along the way, they swap stories about bishops, builders and bold design choices, uncovering why Exeter ...

Send us Fan Mail 2025 celebrates the rebuilding of the Bank of England by Sir Herbert Baker – if celebrate is the right word. It remains one of the most controversial projects in 20th century architecture. Baker’s name has been irredeemably blackened for his presumption in destroying the Bank of England created by Sir John Soane a century before. Clive and John revive the debate, describing the history of this great symbol of British finance and might, asking whether Baker h...

Send us Fan Mail This is the time of year when thoughts turn to mince pies, Christmas shopping, mulled wine – and chimneys, whether it is to settle around a roaring hearth or hope that Father Christmas pays a visit. So John and Clive are turning their attention to the development of this architectural form, beginning with the appearance of walled fireplaces in the Norman period. Chimneys reached a zenith of fantasy under the Tudors, when astounding feats of decoration were achieve...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode of Your Places or Mine, John is joined by the inimitable Charles Saumarez Smith who divulges all he knows about the architect Sir John Vanbrugh in anticipation of the 300th anniversary of his death. Discover the remarkable life and legacy of Sir John Vanbrugh — playwright, architect, and one of the most unconventional figures of the English Baroque. From his daring comedies to his groundbreaking designs like Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, John and Charl...

Send us Fan Mail The founding of the Georgian Group in 1937 was a milestone in the movement to save beautiful architecture. With an anniversary around the corner, Clive and John discuss how the Group emerged from the parent organisation, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and why it was needed. They reveal the extraordinary extent to the destruction inflicted on Georgian London after the First World War. Not even town palaces, Georgian square or the works o...

Send us Fan Mail Last week’s Your Places of Mine celebrated the rebuilding of the House of Commons after the original interior was bombed during one of the last raids of the Blitz. This week, Clive and John consider the Palace of Westminster, otherwise known as the Houses of Parliament, as a whole. After the old Palace had been all but destroyed by fire in 1834, Charles Barry won the competition to rebuild it, producing a building that may have shortened his life but is surely one of th...

Send us Fan Mail On May 10, 1941, an incendiary bomb destroyed the seat of British democracy, the chamber of the House of Commons. This was not the first time fire had struck the Palace of Westminster: most of it had already been rebuilt after a disastrous fire of 1834, caused not by enemy action but the burning of obsolete tally sticks – a medieval system of accounting which symbolised the antiquated nature of the place. Seventy-five years ago the House of Commons reopened, and J...

Send us Fan Mail This week John and Clive are bowled over by Albi Cathedral, a towering, outwardly austere edifice of rosy brick which is ‘quite unlike any other medieval structure that you will see – a work of abstract modernism made in the 13th century’. They discuss the background to its construction, in particular the merciless crusade against the Albigensian Heresy which takes its name from the city. Externally the cathedral appears to be as much a fortress as a religious bui...

Send us Fan Mail Phipps, Carnegie and Old Westbury Gardens In its turn of the 20th-century heyday, Long Island could boast no fewer than 900 country houses. Since then, most have disappeared, leaving Old Westbury Gardens in a unique position – the only house to have survived complete with its collections, garden and archive. Clive has just been there and shares its wonder with John, asking why the American country house is such a different beast form its counterparts in the UK. &n...

Send us Fan Mail Clive has just been to an event at Hatfield House, the palace to the North of London which stands as a monument to the political gene of the Cecil family. John is more than equal to discussing this great country house and its treasures, which the present Marquess and Marchioness of Salisbury are subtly making even more special. In the 16th-century, Robert Cecil inherited it from his father Lord Burghley, whom he followed as Queen Elizabeth’s chief minister. ...

Send us Fan Mail In 2019 a devastating fire consumed the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, one of the towering symbols of French identity, and it seemed that one of the greatest cultural monuments in Europe had, literally, gone up in smoke. But after only two short years, it has now been restored and John has been to see – and celebrate – the result. The old Notre Dame had evolved over many centuries and lived through dramatic times. Sacked during the Revolution, it was returned ...

Send us Fan Mail An extraordinary cultural loan is about to take place: soon, while its home in France is being improved, the Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed in the British Museum for two years. This will give members of the British public, along with visitors to London from overseas, the chance to get up close to one of the founding documents of England’s story. One of the foremost medievalists in the country, John is in a prime position to lead the discussion with Clive on thi...

Send us Fan Mail In advance of Remembrance Sunday on November 11, Clive has been visiting the Commonwealth War Graves in France. The Imperial War Graves Commission, as it was called when established in 1917, was the brain child of Fabian Ware, a civil servant turned newspaper editor who commanded a Red Cross dressing station during the First World War and was therefore saw the horror at first hand. Ware realised that the hundreds of thousands of young men who died for Britain dese...

Send us Fan Mail Which cathedral is closest to the English heart? Impossible to say but it may be Salisbury, the subject of this week’s Your Places or Mine. On September 28 a special service will be held to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the dedication of the altars at Salisbury’s east end in 1225. To many people, Salisbury Cathedral approaches architectural perfection more nearly than any of the other cathedrals in England. It is the most harmonious; the spire is...

Send us Fan Mail The creation of Regent Street under the Prince Regent is a rare instance of a master plan that reshaped London. It linked North and South, starting in the new Regent’s Park and ending at the Prince’s Carlton House on the edge of St James’s Park. Clive and John celebrate this extraordinary achievement, which sprang from the brain of the no less extraordinary John Nash. A triumph of the Picturesque Movement, the line of the Regent Street scheme remains unchanged and the Nash te...

Send us Fan Mail Today, the Cotswolds are famous around the world, as can be seen from the number of celebrities making their homes here. They are a brand which commands instant recognition. This, however, is a recent phenomenon, and visitors from past centuries – such as the journalist and contrarian William Cobbett – did not take anything like such a favourable view. The change came with the Arts and Crafts Movement, many of whose leading lights loved the round-shouldered ...

Send us Fan Mail Sennowe Park in North Norfolk is one of the most ebullient country houses built during the swaggering Edwardian decade at the beginning of the 20th century. It reflects the personality of the man for whom it was built, Thomas Cook, grandson of the Thomas Cook who founded the travel business. The latter, born in 1808, had been a Baptist evangelist and temperance campaigner. His epoch-making first excursion took place in 1841, when a special train took 570 people from Lei...

Send us Fan Mail The Romans arrived at Bath in AD43, calling it Sulis Minerva – a combination of the goddess Minerva with the local deity of Sulis. They loved the hot springs, practically the only ones in the country, which gush from the ground at 40 degrees Celsius. Their bathing complex came to include a huge, vaulted structure, which collapsed at some point after the legions left Britannia. It became so derelict that the source of the spring was lost and only discovered ...

Send us Fan Mail These days, privacy is high on the agenda. There are huge concerns over data, images, digital identity and personal space, all of which should be kept private. But how was this possible in previous ages when almost all of life took place in the presence of other people. This was as much the case for the social elite as it was for ordinary families. As court records of divorce cases in the 18th century reveal, very little happened that was not known to ...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone has heard about the Great Fire of London – but what about the Great Fire of Northampton…or Marlborough…or Blandford Forum? Fire has frequently wrought destruction on towns, cities and country houses, and this was particularly the case in the 17th century. Clive and John discuss why this should have been—what caused the fires, what the consequences were for the places concerned and how they were rebuilt. Northampton was a spectacular example, not onl...

Send us Fan Mail The then Prince of Wales first came to Transylvania in the late 1990s on an official visit. It’s the only time he’s come on business. He fell so much under the spell of the place that he bought a house here, in one of the wooden villages, settled, many centuries ago, by Saxons from Germany. Then he acquired another property, which he has turned into a comfortable, folksy lodge. He makes a private visit every year, if he can. Clive and John discu...

Send us Fan Mail For the first time in the history of this podcast, Your Places or Mine has gone on location. John and Clive have been invited to The Ned's Club, the amazing complex of hospitality venues, including restaurants, hotel and private members’ club, which occupies the former head office of the Midland Bank in the City of London. This provides the podcast with an opportunity to examine Britain’s commercial centre as it evolved between the Wars. Nearly every major f...

Send us Fan Mail Windsor Castle has been imbued with symbolism since William the Conqueror founded it after the invasion of 1066. He took the name of Windsor from an existing Anglo-Saxon palace which stood on a different spot. On a bluff overlooking the Thames, Windsor Castle continues to play a central role in Britain’s national identity, being a great inheritance from the Middle Ages, which no one generation could have the resources or imagination to build. It has always ...

Send us Fan Mail This week YPOMPOD is joined by Alice Loxton — History Alice to her many followers — to discuss the extraordinary series of crosses that King Edward I built in memory of his queen, Eleanor of Castile in the 1290s. Eleanor died in Lincolnshire. Her body was then carried back to London for burial, and at every place that the cortège stopped a beautiful cross was erected. The work of the royal masons, these crosses are of astonishing quality even though some stand in what a...

Send us Fan Mail The American girl was a phenomenon, charming, sporty, better educated than her European counterpart. talk on a wide range of subjects. Around sixty American girls became peeresses at the turn of the 20th century. ‘We are the dollar princesses,’ ran a popular song. Crossing the Atlantic was no longer as perilous as it had been in earlier days. Huge fortunate had been made during the expansion of the United States after the Civil War. From the 1870s, ari...

Send us Fan Mail In this summer episode of ypompod, we got to the seaside – to Ramsgate, beloved of Queen Victoria and now home to the biggest Wetherspoon’s (in an elegant neo-Greek building called the Royal Pavilion of 1913) on the face of the planet. Five miles to the east of Ramsgate, connected by a continuous yellow carpet of sand, lies Margate, which developed as one of Britain’s first seaside resorts in the mid eighteenth century. Ramsgate did not get into its stride...