Category: Personal Legacy
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To look at my family tree is to see a map of a London that has largely slipped away. In the 1960s and 70s, we weren’t just living near the City; we were the very people who kept its historic heart beating. From the markets to the livery halls, every member of the family practiced…
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There are fragments of our childhood that, decades later, shine with undiminished clarity. For me, many of those luminous memories are bound up with the school trips that took us, term after term, to the hallowed halls of Sadler’s Wells Theatre. We were barely out of single digits, under 10 years of age, wide-eyed and…
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The Abraham Lincoln Room at The Savoy is a space defined by layers of history. While many recognise it for its Edwardian elegance today, I have a different connection to its walls. In the late 1980s, I was part of the team that fitted the St John’s travertine cladding, a material that defined the room’s…
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In the landscape of a life spent in service to great architecture, certain years stand out as thresholds. For me, that year was 1987. I began my tenure at 2-8a Rutland Gate with the master stonemasons of Szerelmey, ensuring the exterior held the timeless elegance required of a Knightsbridge landmark. However, my role soon evolved…
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In the early 1990s, my career as a carver was defined by a transition between two of the most prestigious estates in England. I had just completed a significant period of work at Woburn Abbey, serving the Duke of Bedford. Woburn was a masterclass in scale; the seat of the Russell family demanded a masonry…
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My grandad was, for all intents and purposes, my dad. A proud Lancastrian with a formidable work ethic, he was a man of quiet discipline. Having served as a Grenadier Guardsman during the war, he carried that military precision with him for the rest of his life. He did not drink or gamble; his only…
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The Artisan’s Professional Veil In the early years of an apprenticeship, a craftsman’s world is narrow. Working under the banner of established firms like Drings of Bath and Szerelmey , one was rarely privy to the names or reputations of the clients. We were there to serve the building, not the biography of its owner.…