Tag Archives: History

Victoria’s secret: how a carbuncle got away with it

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Alex Grant

Building Design magazine’s awarding of its Carbuncle Cup for this year’s worst new building to Nova, a new office and retail development around the corner from London’s Victoria Station, sets off predictable reactions. How could it have been built? Who … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Peterborough: how an ancient city became a New Town

Posted on September 7, 2017 by Alex Grant

There are few pleasures like exploring an unfamiliar town on foot for the first time. A new series of posts on this website, In Praise of Ordinary Places, looks at Middle England towns that are overlooked by tourists (Oxford, Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Northampton, a town that needs to grow up and become a city

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Alex Grant

There are few pleasures like exploring an unfamiliar town on foot for the first time. A new series of posts on this website, In Praise of Ordinary Places, looks at Middle England towns that are overlooked by tourists (Oxford, Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

If Macron wins it proves that despite five years of terror, France can resist the siren calls of fascism. I’m not sure Britain could

Posted on May 6, 2017 by Alex Grant

Imagine that a terrorist had shot dead four police officers, in two daylight attacks on the streets of Winchester and Southampton, a few months before the 2012 Olympics. After a few days at large he attacks the playground of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Somewhere in England: Bedford, a quiet success

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Alex Grant

There are few pleasures like exploring an unfamiliar town on foot for the first time. A new series of posts on this website, In Praise of Ordinary Places, will look at Middle England towns that are overlooked by tourists (Oxford, Bath … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

One place where the Trump presidency may do no harm? Cuba

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Alex Grant

I’ll leave aside – for now – his misogyny, racial prejudice, egotism, and contempt for democracy and the rule of law. I will even cast my eye away from Michael Gove’s fawning interview in the Times at the beginning of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Politicians should get out of Westminster for its restoration – and stay out

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Alex Grant

News that the Palace of Westminster will be out of bounds for six years for the £4bn mother of all restorations has provoked a stream of predictable responses. A strange coalition of metropolitan Guardianistas like John Harris, nationalists and devolutionists … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The demise of Boris Johnson – the Quintin Hogg of our times – shows that the age of Balliol superiority is now over

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Alex Grant

The spectacular collapse of Boris Johnson’s Prime Ministerial hopes earlier today have a striking historical parallel. Boris is not – and never has been – the Donald Trump or Winston Churchill of contemporary British politics, or even the Falstaff or … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Of all the places: in praise of Northamptonshire, the middle of everywhere

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Alex Grant

German has a good word – unheimlich – for this eerie feeling: when something mysterious or unfamiliar somehow makes uncanny sense. Over the last year I’ve felt it in the most unlikely of places: Northamptonshire. Let me explain why. Nearly … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

My old snapshot from 1991 shows how the London skyline has changed utterly – and how it has stayed the same

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Alex Grant

Sorting through some old photos in my cellar a few months ago I came across a snapshot of the London skyline I took, as a callow 17-year-old, in the autumn of 1991. Out of curiosity, in late 2014 I went back … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments