Last week, after I dropped Alma off for her interview at the Architectural Association, I headed for the British Museum.
It’s just on the far side of Bedford Square and then one more short block. I was stunned by these plane (I think) trees in Bedford Square. Even though we have some remarkable ash and birch trees near our house Norway’s climate must be harsh enough that the deciduous trees never become this magnificent. These are perfect , like actors on a stage, and yet when they were planted a couple of hundred years ago who had the foresight to envision this for their great-great grandchildren – or was it just chance?
Currently hovering over the square is this high-tech crane cab. It’s actually located above the British Museum and may be something to do with the new underground line (London is always building a new underground line, it’s a big Swiss cheese down there).
It made a plumed hat for the pedimented row houses:
On either side of the entrance to the Rosetta Stone gallery are these two silent gents:
They are very similar in everything but the stone they are carved from, and that makes all the difference to their appearance.
This gold, ceremonial helmet I showed last time I went to the BM; this time it’s not blurry. It’s inscribed with the name king Meskalamdug (“hero of the good land”) and was discovered at the Royal Cemetery at Ur in 1924 by the archeologist Leonard Wooley. Actually, it’s what the BM calls an electrotype, an exact metal copy of the original. Until recently, the original was living quite happily in the museum in Baghdad, but now it’s missing, a casualty of the war. I wonder what hung from the little holes along the lower rim, possibly some leather padding. I like the idea of wearing a hat decorated with the hair and ears it encloses – wearing your body on the outside – why don’t we do that nowadays? It’s an unexplored fashion theme. If I were a clothes designer I’d spend all my time here, looking for inspiration (and finding it).
This one is also from Ur. A gold head-dress and beads worn by a Sumerian woman in about 2600 BC, apparently:
Some years ago an archeologist and farmer called Basil Brown
dug up a helmet in a field in Suffolk. Part of the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon treasure. This is a recreation made by the Royal Armouries (the decoration on the original was in tiny fragments).
Imagine meeting him coming up the beach. Quite sinister.
Science fiction portrayals – Darth Vader & co. – are pretty feeble when you look at what we have in real life.
A Bad Guide 
What a pity I have no excuse to go into the centre of London on Saturday…I haven’t been to the BM since the manuscripts were removed.
Nice hats!
It’s interesting to go to Sutton Hoo, walk around the site, and look at the contemporary photos in their wee museum. That’s contemporary with the dig rather than ….
It leaves you wondering why nobody else had looked for treasure there in the previous millennium-and-a bit.
I recommend a trip to the BM followed by a cup of tea at the LRB bookshop, across the road in Pied Bull Yard.
I’d love to go to Sutton Hoo one day if I ever finish looking round the British Museum.
Good luck to Alma!
I can’t tell if those trees are plane, but it should be easy to see from another angle.
Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Elmet O. Sutton.
Elmet O. Sutton Hoo?
Thanks. She was given an unconditional place, and she’ll start in September.
What does “unconditional” mean, exactly? Whatever it means, it’s wonderful news.
Good for her.
“unconditional”, Ø, means that there are no conditions – effectively, she doesn’t need to pass more exams before they let her in.
She knows she’s got a place. Most offers are conditional, based on the applicant passing their three A levels with certain grades, so you never quite know if you’ve got in until the A Level results are issued in mid-August. British universities judge her academic performance mostly on her Norwegian grade point average of eight or ten subjects (1.0 = room for improvement, 6.0 = perfect, Oxford requires a 5.0, Edinburgh a 4.7). Boy, I know more about this than I did last year.
Do EEA citizens qualify for English student loans, Crown, or is it just EU citizens?
I don’t know anything about English loans. EEA students don’t pay the very cheap fees that EU students do, so I doubt it. One anomaly I can’t understand is Edinburgh University, where Scottish & EU students pay nothing and English, Welsh & N. Irish pay £12,000-odd p.a. The Architectural Association is private, so Alma pays £15,000ish, but that’s little more than any other British school for most non-EU foreigners.
It’s ’cause there’s an EU rule that anything you offer your own students you must offer to foreign EU students, so the favourable terms for Scots must also be offered to Johnny Dutchman and company.
However there’s no such UK rule, since Universities are a devolved responsibility (indeed the position of Scottish education was protected in the Act of Union) so E, W & NI students don’t get the deal. Or at least so I believe; I am not a student of such arcane and surreal matters, you understand.
By the by, the most surreal thing about Devolution that I’ve learnt is this. For three hundred years the most senior court to which you could appeal under Scots criminal law was in Edinburgh. Under Devolution, the Scottish criminal courts were exposed to appeal to London. What madness.
I just saw a three-bedroom Scottish-style castle for sale in Hungary. Yours, for £1.1m. I’ve never seen a three-bedroom castle advertised before, this is a new housing type.
After London, can’t you then appeal to Brussels or the Hague or somewhere? Scotland is paying for membership of way too many clubs, in my opinion (which is, admittedly, worthless).
I don’t favour Scottish independence, but if people do want it they should go for real independence – no EU, no European Court of Human Rights, and possibly no NATO.
Now, this is my kind of post! I want Basil Brown’s cap, myself. And of course my heartiest congratulations to Alma.
By the way, I was reading Owen Hatherley’s LRB review of Jonathan Meades, and Meades sounded to me like the kind of architectural writer you’d like. On the other hand, maybe you can’t stand him; what do I know? Anyway, I’m curious about your reaction to him.
Thanks, Language, and this post was made with you in mind, of course. I want Basil Brown’s trousers, for my dog.
Meades & Owen Hatherley both combine great insight and breadth of knowledge of the history of architecture (modern architecture in Owen’s case) with deep, peculiar gaps in their knowledge. I’ve never trusted Owen Hatherley since he told me that he thought Alvar Aalto was greatly overrated. I’d say that view was actually impossible to hold if you knew much about Aalto’s work and looks very provincial coming from someone who extols Sir Basil Spence‘s work. He also has a great socialist nostalgic love of giant blocks of British council flats that I can’t really symathise with. Conrad has quite a lot to say about Owen Hatherley, I think he knows him. But as you say, Meades is my kind of guy and his TV programmes (I’ve only seen one) are terrific fun. I’ll have to buy the book.
But as you say, Meades is my kind of guy
Ah, I’m glad I guessed right. The quotes from him sounded cranky and passionate in an irresistible way. Hatherley, on the other hand, sounded supercilious in a way that often puts me off reviewers (especially in the Higher Venues like LRB and TLS).
Yes, I think he is supercilious. He’s only about thirty, and not an academic, unlike most of the LRB crowd, so god knows why. He can be fun to read, though. Most of the Guardian commenters recently wanted either him or Meades as the Architecture section’s new editor (the Guardian got someone else).
Meades is an acquired taste well worth the acquiring.
Is he really an acquired taste? I thought people immediately appreciated his good sense.
Good sense is not fashionable though.
P.S. That’s a very large lunch that your lass seems to be carrying into the AA.
For those who don’t know him here, at random, is a fifteen minute Youtube copy of a BBC programme Jonathan Meades made about Scotland.
That’s her portfolio and computer. Funny you should mention lunch. Apparently the food is very good there and she was thinking of applying for a job there as a cook. We told her she wouldn’t have time during term time. Alma’s very interested in cooking.
I thought you might be interested in news of a Swedish sporting triumph.
P.S. Do you really think hearing a fat chap in a car reel off the names of Scottish Enlightenment philosophers is not an acquired taste?
Now I look again, he was a bit slimmer then.
I had no idea rabbits could yump so high – they seem so much better at it than horses – or that they enjoyed competitive organised events. It just shows how little we know about animals.
I suppose that is a little bit acquired, although very quickly acquired, but his views on architecture I remember as being straightforward, sensible and amusing, unlike Owen Hatherley, who just goes on and on about council flats.
I don’t know about his girth, but I suspect he dyes his hair.
Does the AA have a Hall of Residence for freshers, or will she have to take her chances in the London lodgings market? Or do you have a family solution in mind?
No, the AA doesn’t have any accommodation of its own, so that’s currently a discussion and research topic in this household. Student shares in central London seem to go for about £200 a week. In the event of a disaster she can stay at her grandma’s, by Ham Common, but they work very long hours so in the long run she’ll need a direct route to Bloomsbury.
And now something completely different: Do you remember in which thread I got tourist advice for Paris?
No, you need Ø. He’s the one who can remember things. Paris occasionally comes up in connection with “the whole nine yards” and m-l’s theory that it’s a phrase that comes from buying lengths of ribbon. There was one that was about the renovation of the ground floor at the Galleries Lafayette, and I think you made some speculations about its structure, but I can’t remember the title or subject of the post. It was probably completely unrelated, though. And there was a very interesting one about Le Bon Marché and the heroine of Zola’s novel Au Bonheur des Dames who works long hours in poor conditions at a similar department store.
I only remember some things. All the others I forget. If you mean the thread with the huge department store that was slowly raised or lowered while people went about their business, I can’t remember which post that was. Somebody at LH once told us how to search a web site for stuff, but I can’t remember how you do it or who it was.
Well, I tried to google for “Paris” on your site, but when that didn’t work, I just asked. I’ll try some other string or just sift through the old posts.
Ah, you mean:
(I keep all the useful stuff in a file.)
[site:abadguide.wordpress.com paris] doesn’t give any results, though.
No, it doesn’t. Neither does any other keyword I can think of.
Trond, have you tried putting “paris” into the search just below? I get five post results for that, though I haven’t reviewed the comments.
“the Architectural Association”: How does that work? It looks like it is primarily a school of architecture, but does it have anything to do with some kind of Order of Architects, RIBA or otherwise?
It’s part of the Ancient Order of Architects, designers of bastions, castles, palaces and places of public execution. Or perhaps my memory is at fault.
It’s just an architecture school. They have an enormous room with a bar upstairs for “members”, i.e. former students and teachers, and the AA publishes books, but it’s really just a very good school. It’s the only British architecture school with a big reputation in the US. Well, the Bartlett (part of London University) and Cambridge have good reputations too, but the AA is the best-known perhaps because they have some very famous alumni (Richard Rogers, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid & others).
It’s part of the Ancient Order of Architects, designers of bastions, castles, palaces and places of public execution.
Dearieme, you might have forgotten the masonic temples from your list.
AJP, isn’t AA the Automobile Association, which gives (gave?) its members yellow shiny little fittings to screw to the front of their car?
I know somebody who has recently made an application to get into several universities to study architecture in the UK, but I’m not sure she ever heard about AA. Funny how people can be “unwired” sometimes.
AA = Automobile Association and (especially in the USA) Alcoholics Anonymous. Some people were pretty surprised that she was joining AA at her age.
I’m not sure she ever heard about AA
It’s not just her. Lots of people haven’t heard of it, especially young people in the UK who are applying to schools, which is a real shame. It isn’t listed in most of the books that rate UK universities, because it’s a private school that isn’t part of the official UCAS (university application) system. Most British students wouldn’t be able to justify paying the AA’s fees (it’s around £15,000 a year, whereas state schools cost £3,000), but for foreign students not from the EU there’s very little cost difference.
There is a UCAS agency in Mauritius, or something of that kind, and I don’t think they ever advised the young person mentioned above about AA.
but for foreign students not from the EU there’s very little cost difference
I see what you mean. So it’s a British school mostly for foreign students? And Alma is neither British nor from the European Union? Tough times.
No, UCAS wouldn’t mention the AA. You don’t apply through UCAS, you apply directly. Because it’s independent it’s more flexible than UCAS schools, so if she’s interested in applying she could probably still do so even though the deadline is officially the end of March.
Alma is British, but her parents don’t pay tax in Britain, so she’s not eligible for cheap tuition. But if we lived in Sweden or Denmark she would get free tuition which is slightly nuts if you ask me. I don’t know what the proportion of British students is at the AA, I’d guess it’s probably less than 50%. There are quite a lot of non-British teachers there too. In my opinion this is all a good thing, but I’m a bit worried the proportion of kids from poor backgrounds may be smaller than usual.
Found it!
The reasonable way to think about school fees is as a set of mutual agreements. Sweden and Denmark have a better agreement with England&Wales than Norway. Then, after the mutual agreement of free tuition within the EU was made, Britain decided to abolish it for its own students. That’s the nutty part, if you ask me, but you don’t.
No, I do ask you, and you’re right.
“I’m a bit worried the proportion of kids from poor backgrounds may be smaller than usual”: roars of laughter. They are lower than usual in all good institutions, if by usual you mean “usual in dearieme’s day”. It’s what comes of destroying the system that did the job of identifying and educating the clever children of the poor – the Butler Education Act system – in the greatest Philistine act in British history.
What do you mean, Labour getting rid of the grammar schools? I agree about that. I think the lesson from that is it’s a mistake to destroy something that works very well just because it’s an unfair system (it was unfair to bright children who only showed they were bright after the age of ten). But that would mean leaving the two things I really want to abolish: public schools – the schools Labour ought to have targeted instead of the grammar schools – and the monarchy.
I’d rather wondered whether you might point to city planners, or particular schools of architects, as our greatest Philistines.
Planners & architects do at least try, no matter how ineptly. The BBC is our greatest Philistine. The Antiques Roadshow, assorted property shows, everything is reduced to how much money you can make without doing any work. Not that I watch it, but my wife and daughter like to have it going in the background while they work (don’t ask me why).
Since the Beeb is just an arm of the Labour Party, this makes sense.
Well, apart from the Guardian and maybe The Independent (a bit) the press aren’t Labour supporters, but I hadn’t noticed that the Mail or the Sun or the Express were great culture vultures.
Eh, it was you who identified the Beeb as our greatest Philistine. I don’t see much on the Beeb nowadays except University Challenge, the Six Nations rugby and the football highlights show, and I never listen to their radio so I am taking your word for it. But I must say it rings true, if only because it was true when we gave them up some years ago. We get better music at home from our CDs (not onlythe Classics; a wealth of classical jazz has become available on CD that was inaccessible for decades) so that’s Radio Three in the bin – never again need I hear the dread words “Now for some British music” followed by a farago of bing-dang-ploink. Radios 1 and 2 are not my cuppa and Radio 4 had become the propaganda arm of the Labour Party.
Correction: we recently watched the first episode of I Claudius. That was by the Beeb, but the Beeb of decades ago. (By the way, I had remembered it in black-and-white, but it was undoubtedly in colour – what odd tricks the memory plays.) When I was a youth they broadcast some extraordinarily fine Shakespeare productions, excellent history shows (I remember particularly thjose by A J P Taylor, and by an old soldier named Horrocks, but there were others) and other top class stuff: these were quite wonderful if you were growing up in the country miles, and hills, from any sizeable city.
How and why they came to alienate cultivated folks … oh well, what does it matter? Hell, country, handcart. Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar.
Are Radio 4 really so keen on Labour or are they just anti-Coalition? The latter would make more sense to me, Ed Millyband is about as inspiring as a broken parking meter. I remember Gen. Sir Brian Horrocks, or at least I remember his name. I loved Radio 4 and the Home Service. The one I remember is Edgar Lustgarten and his descriptions of famous trials. Some things are better: I recently heard Desert Island Discs, because I knew someone who was on it, and it was miles better than dreary old Roy Plumbo with his Bible and Shakespeare.
Oh, how I missed all this? Now I spent a wonderful reading time… Thanks!
(I know, this may sound like a typical spam comment… but I assure you I’m not a troll)
A non-troll comment: I spent a wonderful time reading this and the same amount of time envying you for living in Europe!
Was happy Alma after her interview? (I’m not sure if this was discussed above)
One never has time to read everything. I do love the British Museum, but we think you’re tremendously lucky living in Buenos Aires, though perhaps not during the floods.
She was very happy after her interview, because it seemed to her that they liked her artwork (“This is the best painting we’ve seen this year”) and responded positively to the way she presented it. Then came the wait, and she got more and more despondent and grumpy, and when they sent an email saying “Yes” she was hugely relieved. Now she can see light at the end of the tunnel. She loathes her Norwegian school even though she does quite well and works hard. Dyveke and I can’t believe how lucky we’ve been with Alma. Life is so difficult for teenagers!
“Are Radio 4 really so keen on Labour or are they just anti-Coalition?” I can’t tell you because I don’t listen. But they way they used to be was simple: all criticism – sometimes phrased as a question, but intended as criticism – came from the left. Always. Never in the history of Radio 4 did anyone ask “But wouldn’t that be better left to individuals to decide?” Better left to the market? Better left alone? Better left to some institution that’s local, or small-scale or in some way not under the government’s thumb? If a Labour government was in office, it would be criticised a bit but the criticisms all still came from the left.
It just got embarrassing. Even if I happened to agree with what was obviously the questioner’s prejudice, I found the blatant lack of even-handedness and of critical thinking a disgrace. More and more it was clear that there was a BBC “line” on every topic, practically a BBC policy on some topics.
Yes, quite. That sounds awful, and a good reason to stop listening. It’s supposed to be independent. I wonder how it came about and if it’s going to be put right. The Norwegian national broadcaster NRK seems fairly evenhanded to me. It shows a lot of inter-party debates on various issues on tv with a spokesman from each party. I must say I find them pretty boring, but it’s a public service and I don’t have to watch.
The very ropey BBC tv channel we get has started to have long commercials in Norwegian. For programmes, it just shows repeats of Top Gear and quiz shows.
Seen today: daisies.
Cauld blew the bitter-biting north
Upon thy early, humble birth;
Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth
Amid the storm,
Scarce rear’d above the Parent-earth
Thy tender form.
I transplanted some daisies from the Common to the minute new lawn at my mother’s house. I’m waiting to see if they’re going to come up again.
Of course you’re very lucky with Alma! Congratulations to her for the admission at the AA and of course to you for her. I wish my girls may become as lovely as she seems to be…
They already are.
=) Thank you (I know)!
But I meant when they reach Alma’s age..We have all the teenage years ahead… (¡¡aaagghhhhh!!!)
Chin up, Julia; they do emerge at the other side. Eventually.
hahaha! Thanks, dearie, I’m sure you’re right.
People talk about the teen years, but many parents are so lucky as to escape the worst: some of those teenagers who turn out to be fine young adults don’t actually go through a monster stage first.