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Clive Aslet

@cliveaslet

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Journalist • Author • Publisher @triglyphbooks

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10 facts about the most BEAUTIFUL Georgian city in England

BATH 🛁

🔈LISTEN to this week’s episode of Your Places or Mine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts

#bath #ancienthistory #britishhistory #somerset #placestovisit #englishhistory #venice #venicerealto #countrylife #historyfacts #history #architecturalhistory #podcast #architecture #romanhistory #ancientrome #minerva #sulis #romanbaths #facts #factsdaily #factsvideo #placestovisit #thingstodo #royal #astrology #historyfacts #visitbritain #druid taken in Bath, Somerset by @cliveaslet

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a year ago

I’m delighted to say that I’ll be speaking on Old Westbury Gardens, Long Island, as part of the seminar series mounted by the Ax:on Johnson Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture at Downing College, Cambridge, on NOVEMBER 27 at 12pm. This will present research that I did for Old Westbury Gardens: Days of Grace on Long Island in the context of the American country house. Old Westbury Gardens is in some ways as English as it could possibly be, having been commissioned by an Anglophile, Jay Phipps, from an English connoisseur, George Crawley, as a home for his English bride Dita Grace. In other ways, it is a representative example of the movement to build sumptuous country homes that was a phenomenon of the early years of the 20th century in the US – hundreds were built on Long Island alone. Old Westbury, however, is remarkable for having survived complete with its gardens, art, furniture and archive intact.

The seminar will be livestreamed – check the CSCA website for details after term has started on October 1.

Old Westbury Gardens: Days of Grace on Long Island will be published by Triglyph Books on October 6. It is available for preorder from the Triglyph website, price £50. by @cliveaslet

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a month ago

Old Westbury Gardens: Days of Grace on Long Island, available for preorder from Triglyph Books, celebrates one of the greatest of Long Island country houses, Old Westbury Gardens, built in 1906. Since 1959 Old Westbury Gardens has been open to the public, having been left to a foundation by Peggie Phipps Boegner ho wanted the property to be preserved in memory of her mother, Dita Phipps. That year it made a film debut in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by North West where it features as the bogus mansion to which the leading actor Cary Grant is abducted.

One scene shows an evil henchman trimming the hedge outside the front of the house — he bends down with his back to the camera as he does so, then glances up to reveal his identity to the audience. This glimpse of the house as it was proved valuable in recent restoration work. The hedge had burgeoned into a great shaggy bush. It has now been returned to its original shorter and more compact size, to the benefit of the aesthetic effect.

Since then Old Westbury has featured in many films and TV series, from American Gangster and Wolf to Love Story and The Age of Innocence. by @cliveaslet

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a month ago

One of the stars of ‘Old Westbury Gardens: Days of Grace on Long Island’, available for preorder from Triglyph Books, is the sculptor Derwent Wood. Wood was in his late thirties when the house was built in 1906 and at the height of his powers.

A true artist, Wood was half American. He had been brought up in an atmosphere of art by his deeply religious parents, who joined the Plymouth Brethren— indeed art was, according to one obituary, his one passion. Several of his works are in American collections, including a bust of Henry James, now in the Boston Public Library. During the First World War, he used his sensitivity as a modeller to help repair the facial disfigurements of soldiers during the First World War, After the War, his memorial to the Machine Gun Corps - a figure of David = became famous from its position on Hyde Park Corner, axially aligned with Park Lane. It was also controversial, due to the inscription from the Book of Samuel: „Saul has slain his thousands but David his tens of thousands.“

At Old Westbury Gardens, Wood modelled everything from the doorknob on the front door to the Michelangelesque fireplace in the front hall. His name even appears on a pair silver wall sconces in the library, and dining room mantlepiece. Wood’s contribution is complemented by numerous other works of fine craftsmanship throughout the house, a tribute to the superb skills available to house makers on both sides of the Atlantic at the beginning of the 20“ century...

📸 @dylan_location by @cliveaslet

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a month ago

When Jay Phipps built Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island in 1906, he wanted it to be as English as possible to suit his own taste and that of his English bride, Dita. The designs were made by George Crawley, an old family friend who had already worked on the Phipps house on Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, for Jay’s parents. Crawley was not, though, a trained architect but a connoisseur. The tale is told in ‘Old Westbury Gardens: Days of Grace’ on Long Island, which will be published by Triglyph Books on October 6.

The son of a railroad contractor, Crawley had been to both Eton and Harrow, followed by Trinity College, Cambridge, where his aesthetic sensibilities blossomed. The portrait painter Oswald Birley – another Trinity man although 16 years Crawley’s junior – described him as impulsive, generous, extravagant, living very much for the moment. Having tried various commercial ventures without much success, his association with the Phipps family gave him the break into the world of design that he needed. In 1910 Consuel Vanderbilt, separated from her husband the Duke of Marlborough, employed him to make Crowhurst Manor in Surrey even more lyrically medieval than it had originally been – a home that could hardly have been more different from Blenheim.

Not only did Crawley, the consummate Englishman, bring his innate cultural knowledge to bear on the architecture of Old Westsbury Gardens but he chose craftsmen – mostly English – who were the best of their kind. Based in Cheltenham, the craftsman and contractor H. H. Martyn claimed that his men could equal the incomparable 17th-century virtuoso of fruitwood carving Grinling Gibbons. Everything was of the best.

In 1919 Crawley succeeded in buying a set of gates from Combermere Abbey in Shropshire and made by the greatest of English blacksmiths Robert Bakewell about 1730. They are now the entrance to Old Westbury Gardens, where, in Crawley’s words, they look “extremely handsome and dignified, & quite unique”.

📸 @dylan_location by @cliveaslet

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a month ago

Wow, I have seen it! The first copies of the book I’ve written on Old Westbury Gardens have appeared in the Triglyph Books office in Sussex, and the Triglyph CEO Dylan Thomas (who took the photographs) is as excited as I am.

Old Westbury Gardens is one of the last of great mansions built on Long Island at the beginning of the 20th century to survive with architecture, decoration, gardens, collections and archive intact. It was built in 1906 by Jay Phipps to woo his English love, Dita Grace. She wanted an English house and this was designed for her by George Crawley, not an architect but an English connoisseur and family friend. It is English throughout, an extreme rarity being its Collyweston stone roof — few exist outside the UK. The romantic American architect and town planner Grosveor Atterbury was detailed to oversee the project, much to Crawley’s annoyance: Atterbury had previously worked for Jay Phipps’s father Henry Phipps, partner of the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.

You can read all about it in ‘Old Westbury Gardens: Days of Grace on Long Island.’ Alternatively, if you find yourself on Long Island, visit the house. In 1959 the house and gardens were put into trust by Jay and Dita Phipps’s daughter, Peggie Phipps Boegner, to preserve the central home of her childhood. Maintained to the highest standards of authenticity, it is now a showcase of architecture, horticulture and the decorative arts, open to the public on a regular basis.

@dylan_location
@maurabrush
@oldwestburygardens
@kannalikham_designs
@peterpennoyer
@bunnys_eye by @cliveaslet

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2 months ago

Clive Aslet @cliveaslet and John Goodall discuss King Charles III and his views (when he was the Prince of Wales) on architecture and the built environment - from carbuncles to social regeneration. More information and tickets at barnesbookfest.org (link in bio)

#Barnesbookfest2025 #BarnesSW13 #LondonBookFestival #SWLondonEvents #LiteraryLondon #LondonBookworms #UKReaders #BookishUK #InstaBooks
#ReadingTime #BookstagramFeature #BookishPost #ReadWithPurpose by @cliveaslet

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a year ago

Clive and John Goodall will be speaking at Barnes BookFest on Saturday 27 September.

Their conversation will explore the King and architecture, reflecting on themes from our recent title ‘King Charles III: 40 Years of Architecture’.

Further details can be found via @barnesbookfest 🎟️

@cliveaslet
@goodall9328

#KingCharles #architecture #BookFest #carbuncle by @cliveaslet

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a year ago

The servants who testified in court against their mistress👨🏻‍🦳💃

The story of William Neville, the 14th Lord Abergavenny

🔉 LISTEN to this week’s episode of the podcast ‘Your Places of Mine’

#georgian #countryhouse #countrylife #historytok #bridgertonscandal #architecturalhistory #georgianhistory #countryside #countrylifemagazine #kidbrooke #history #1700s #yourplacesormine #royalty #abergavenny #servant #adultery #caughtintheact taken in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire by @cliveaslet

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a year ago

The Earl who forgave his rebellious town 🤴🏙️

Do you know about the other Great Fire that took place in the 17th Century?

Listen to the latest episode of Your Places or Mine to hear more

#northampton #fire #greatfire #greatfireoflondon #greatfireofnorthampton #history #historytiktok #learnmore #architecturalhistory #1600s #charlesii
#royalty #rich #inspiringstories #inspiration taken in Northampton, Northamptonshire by @cliveaslet

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a year ago

This architect had an incredible eye for detail 🧐👁️🏘️

To find out more, LISTEN to the podcast Your Places or Mine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or visit our website www.ypompod.com

#kingcharles #romania #royalfamily #rustic #transylvania #bucharest #princewilliam #princecharles #kingcharlesiii #historytiktok #countrylife #countryhouses #countrylivinglife #country #dracula #countdracula #transylvania taken in Tavistock Street by @cliveaslet

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a year ago

There is only ONE country Charles III has holiday homes 🏠 👑

Where is it? The answer may surprise you! 🇷🇴

To find out more, LISTEN to the podcast Your Places or Mine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or visit our website www.ypompod.com

#kingcharles #romania #royalfamily #rustic #transylvania taken in Transylvania,Romania by @cliveaslet

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a year ago