These are a few of my favourite things… Phil Cooper
Whether you’re a fan of Julie Andrews and her warbling or not, we’ve coopted some lyrics from one of her most famous ditties as the title for our new blog series. In the series, each member of the team is going to give us a rundown of – you guessed it – their favourite things. Actually, to be more specific, it’s one building, one city and one object. So we’re really crowbarring the Sound of Music analogy now that I think of it but we needed a catchy hook.
To start with, we’re kicking off with Phil’s favourite things. Originally, the plan was for Phil to sing along to the original while replacing “dew drops on roses” with wood-burning stoves and his favourite classic cars. Unfortunately, it was too much of a struggle to fit the syllables in so you're stuck with this blog.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Favourite Building: Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury
Predictably, my choice is a brutalist megastructure!
The Brunswick Centre was completed in 1972 to designs by Patrick Hodgkinson and is a really early example of mixed-use development, with a public retail "street" running through the centre of it. Flats are piled on top of it, and step backwards, so that each flat has its own winter garden and balcony space, without allowing them to overshadow the streets.
Originally, it wasn't a commercial success and most of the flats were leased to Camden Council for social tenants, but predictably the place has been gentrified, and the flats are now very sought after. There is even a super bougie art house cinema!
The best part of it to me, though, is the space between the lifts and the "front doors" of the flats, which creates an eerie and uncanny dystopian space in the middle of the building - check it out in the recent Disney series "Andor"...
Photo credit to Ian Manfield, 2007, courtesy Wikipedia
Favourite City: Marrakesh, Morocco
For some reason, I had no interest in visiting Arabia whatsoever, until I took a trip in 2019 in an (only subjectively successful) attempt to winter climb Mount Toubkal in the High Atlas.
Phil Cooper, 2019
The logical thing to do was to spend a few days in Marrakesh after the trip to rest and recuperate and see what the city had to offer. And what a spectacular place to visit! I've been back since, and one of the delights is that it changes daily, you could never get bored of it. The food is spectacular, the street life is never-ending, and the intensity of the Medina and the streets of the Souk are beautifully balanced by the peace and tranquillity of the courtyards of the various Riad that fill the city.
We always stay at Palais Lamrani which is superb and reasonably priced, but there are loads of excellent small hotels of the same nature. A must see is the Jardin Majorelle, formerly the home of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, but other than that, just spending time walking around the city and haggling over the cost of pairs of leather slippers is a beautiful way to enjoy a weekend!
Phil Cooper, 2019
Design Object: Clearview Vision 500 wood-burning stove
This is quite a boring choice, but I was trying to think of an object I own that has had a significant impact on my life over the past few years, and it occurred to me that my wood-burner is probably the best example. In the winter, if I'm at home, it's usually lit, and while the Clearview is an expensive and not very "designery" stove, it's absolutely the best at burning wood! If you go into any house in the Peak District where they rely on a stove for heat, you will invariably see a Clearview, or you'll hear that the occupants wish they'd bought a Clearview! The magic lies in some elaborate but simple physics which means the stove somehow burns more of the wood, so produces less soot and ash. They're approved for use in some smoke control zones as a result, but from my point of view it means I don't have to empty the ash out very often, and the glass never gets dirty!
Incidentally, I got mine from my friends Tom and Becki at Natural Earth Products, in Grindleford - heartily recommended!
Natural Earth Products, 2022