C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 51 Book reviews Pragmatic idealist Charles Holden Architect Eitan Karol, Shaun Tyas (Donington, Lincs) 2007, 520pp, 335 b&w and 58 colour illus, hardback, ISBN 978 1 90028 981 8, £49.50 ‘Pragmatic idealism’ is an oxymoron used several times by Eitan Karol to describe the approach to life and work of Charles Holden (1875-1960). Close reading of this substantial monograph corroborates this judgment. The youngest child of a Bolton shopkeeper, Holden left school at 14. Following the death of his mother, he was cared for by a sister whose husband was a surveyor. Assisting his brother-in law, he began to learn the rudiments of building. Soon serving his articles with a workaday Manchester architect, a chance meeting introduced him not only to a circle of artists and the poetry of Walt Whitman. Holden’s new selfconfidence and early realisation of his potential through architecture sprang from aWhitmanic personal idealism. A move to London and CR Ashbee’s architectural practice in 1897 offered an opportunity to refine developing arts and crafts movement sympathies. However, Holden’s pragmatic idealism was probably first practised in his departure for the office of Percy Adams, a hospital designer, at the end of 1899. Posterity should be grateful to Adams for recognising Holden’s skill. The most revealing comparison offered by the book is that of the Jacksonian daintiness of Adams’ perspective of the Belgrave Hospital, Kennington, with the built reality as expressed in Holden’s drawing, sublime in its elemental simplicity of mill-like sheer brick work and unrelieved soaring verticals. On the firm foundation of a series of radical projects of the Edwardian decade, it is perhaps no surprise that, in the interwar years, Holden’s approach became attractive to progressive corporate clients, notably the Underground Group and the University of London. Given his preference for the solid and static, the more dynamic forms of his 1930s stations of the Piccadilly Line extension seem inconsistent. One is tempted to attribute this conspicuous ‘branding’ to his most important client of the 20s and 30s, the like-minded Frank Pick. Surely the main paradox of Holden’s work is that this lifelong advocate of personal idealism, the limitless potential of the individual and democracy, should have been the English architect of the first half of the 20th century most adept at symbolising corporate enterprise. If there is a shortcoming in Karol’s virtually exhaustive account it is that Holden’s output tends to be treated in isolation. It is clear from his early independent work that, as with many young designers, landmarks of contemporary practice and published avant-garde projects were strong influences. Similarly, notwithstanding the transatlantic radicalism of Holden’s Underground Group headquarters at 55 Broadway,Westminster (completed in 1929), over subsequent years he was far from alone in composing city buildings from incised and ‘telescopic’ cuboids of Portland stone. This is a profusely illustrated and neatly designed volume, although we must await a second edition for correction of a range of minor errors – for example, the name of typographer Edward Johnston is misspelt throughout. Such quibbles should not detract from admiration of Karol for his enormous diligence. Alan Johnson, author of Understanding the Edwardian and Inter-war House, is an architect in the Government Historic Estates Unit of English Heritage. A jewelled crown Conservation of Phoebe Anna Traquair Murals at Mansfield Traquair Centre Edinburgh Fiona Allardyce, Historic Scotland, 2007, 163pp, 419 illustrations mostly colour, ISBN 978 1 904966 50 0, £6.00 (accompanying DVD and additional DVD Story of Phoebe Anna Traquair Centre Edinburgh, produced by the Mansfield Traquair Trust). This exquisitely produced multi-media package celebrates the rescue of the murals within the former Catholic Apostolic Church, Edinburgh (now the Mansfield Traquair Centre). It is the final output of an extremely successful heritage lottery funded project and a joy to possess. ‘We catch our breath at surroundings so rich and so little anticipated… the whole chapel scintillates and glows like a jewelled crown.’ The reaction of contemporaries viewing the murals when first completed in 1901 is echoed by today’s visitors, thanks to the efforts of numerous conservators (working in various campaigns from 1993 to 2005). They have successfully returned the delaminating murals, darkened by dirt and discoloured varnish, to their original splendour. Although the book and the two DVDs are stand-alone works in themselves, they overlap and complement each other. I feel that they should be essential CPD reading (and easy viewing) for all those involved in the conservation of historic interiors: planners, conservation architects, inspectors, curators and conservators. The conservation of the murals is placed in the broader context of securing the building and finding a new use.The ‘story of…’ DVD provides a conventional documentary overview of the project as a whole. Once the building was restored, the basement adapted for new office use, and duly opened by the Prince ofWales, work on the murals began in earnest. The second DVD focuses on the conservation of the murals and is truly magical. It has a stillness and calm found in high-art movies. It presents a range of problem areas and selected treatments, such as the consolidation of delaminated plaster and varnish removal. These are then carried out, filmed in real time with a fluent commentary by various conservators. It is totally
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