Author Archives: raspurr

About raspurr

criticism not only welcome but utterly necessary

‘’Tis so raw-boned’: William Morris in Scotland

Posted on June 15, 2020 by raspurr

Scotland was not a country with which William Morris was particularly enamoured. His visits there, often undertaken with some reluctance, were only ever of a practical nature. In spite of his instinctive dislike for the place, however – displayed especially … Continue reading →

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Why Churches?

Posted on May 12, 2019 by raspurr

The practice of visiting historic churches (especially of taking, say, two busses out to a remote village to do so) is not at present a fashionable one. In parts of the popular mind, it is something to be filed alongside … Continue reading →

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My grandmother and the Holocaust

Posted on June 24, 2018 by raspurr

NB: I have put this post on this blog because I don’t have anywhere else to upload it. It is not directly relevant to architecture. Claude Lanzmann’s 1985 documentary film Shoah took eleven years to make, six of which were dedicated … Continue reading →

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Imaginary Edinburgh

Posted on December 5, 2017 by raspurr

If you go to Edinburgh’s New Town and stand at the corner of George Street and Hanover Street, looking south towards The Mound, you will be duly rewarded with a compelling piece of architectural symmetry. The weighty columns of the … Continue reading →

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Modernist Sussex And a Way Out of Crisis

Posted on February 14, 2017 by raspurr

Brighton & Hove is supposed to be a radical city. Or, at least, Brighton is. Or, at least, parts of Brighton are. It’s certainly worth noting that the Brighton Kemptown constituency has voted Conservative in the last two general elections. … Continue reading →

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The Utter Pointlessness of Brighton’s i360

Posted on September 7, 2016 by raspurr

From thence to Venice, Padua, and the rest, In one of which a sumptuous temple stands, That threats the stars with her aspiring top, Thus, hitherto has Faustus spent his time The history of architecture’s preoccupation with height at various points … Continue reading →

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“A brickbat flung in the public face” – the failed Brutalism of Edinburgh’s St. James Centre

Posted on May 20, 2016 by raspurr

Jonathan Meades, in a recent column on the neglected merits of postmodernist buildings, wrote that “Today, 40 years after brutalism dissipated in an assault of bien-pensant hostility and oil crises, few weeks pass without a new book or blog hymning its … Continue reading →

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On ‘Old Buildings’

Posted on March 2, 2016 by raspurr

‘Old buildings’ are things you go out of your way to see. You might see them environed by sunset on a tourist’s Instagram account, or on a leaflet encouraging you to pay money to be shown round them. They are characters in … Continue reading →

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Edinburgh at Eye-Level & the ‘Heave Awa Hoose’

Posted on January 27, 2016 by raspurr

To begin straightforwardly – writing about architecture in Edinburgh is proving more difficult than I had imagined. Before I moved up, I had thought that I would hardly need to try, that my hitherto uninspiring blog would reach new heights, … Continue reading →

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Edinburgh: First Thoughts

Posted on November 4, 2015 by raspurr

I’ve been in Edinburgh for almost two months, which I think warrants some sort of hurried treatise on the place, and as I’ve got the evening off I might as well see what I can muster. On this blog, I usually … Continue reading →

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