Goth Walk XVII

To give the Young Lord Declan a break I took the Goths on a long trek around Gothic Revival buildings in London on Saturday. Last year I did one on churches in the City; this time I'd been telling people it wouldn't be as interesting, as architects aren't as mad as clergy. How wrong I was. As we neared the end of the tour, one of my chums said they were remembering the buildings by the fate of the architect: died insane, suicide, insane, drug addict, suicide ... We speculated whether it was more the case that lunatics designed Gothic buildings, or whether drawing endless flying buttresses and arched windows actually drove people mad. Dr Bones once looked across at Pugin's masterpiece, the Palace of Westminster, with me, and remarked 'Look, a building designed by someone who was mentally ill'. What? 'Everything is repetition, repetition. You have to be mad to design that'.

The rain drizzled a bit as we paused at the Royal Courts of Justice (GE Street) and traipsed up into Clerkenwell but after that we were fairly kindly treated by the elements. My planned surprise view of the Grand Midland Hotel (GG Scott) by approaching it from the tangle of residential streets to the south worked exactly as planned, and the final stop at All Saints', Margaret Street (W Butterfield), achieved the intended result of wonder and admiration. I wore my second best top hat, considering the weather.

Thanks to Mrs Pacanowski for the photograph of us at Margaret Street.