During a recent trip, Tim took his pencils and paper to Prague to sketch the interiors of three of their stunning Opera Houses.

The first sketch is of the Estates Theatre, where Tim saw the last New Year’s Eve performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

Designed by A.Haffenecker in the 18^th century, this neoclassical building was the first theatre to be built in the capital, and also where Mozart premiered Giovanni.

With the construction having been funded by public donations, The National Theatre first opened its doors in June 1881. However in August 1881, after only 11 performances a fire broke out which destroyed the copper dome, the auditorium and the stage. After a second wave of public determination and generosity, the theatre reopened its doors in August 1883 with a performance of Smetana’s Libuše.

The performance that Tim went to see was The Miracles of Mary by Bohuslav Martinů. He sketched throughout the performance to depict the incredibly elegant and richly decorated interior.

Prague’s State Opera opened in 1888 to critical acclaim, and was designed for the German performers who wished to have their own theatre in the capital. However, after World War II the country became a communist state, where Opera was considered elitist. The building was neglected, and it was only in 1992 that the theatre was restored to its former glory.

Tim sketched the stunning neo-Rococo interior during a performance of Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák.

Front Page, How to Spend It magazine, 7th October 2011. Click to zoom.

Within the article Tim explains the importance of working closely with clients in order to create a truely bespoke and tailor made piece.

Bureaux de Change article, page 53, How to Spend It magazine. Click to zoom.

Nicole Swengley also describes some of the more specific requests that we have received from our clients. Please visit our website www.tgosling.com to see images of all of the designs that feature within the article.

Bureaux de Changearticle, page 54, How to Spend It magazine. Click to zoom.

To read the article in full,  follow this link to the Financial Times website http://bit.ly/nuH8wY

The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy was launched last Thursday with another wonderful party, wonderful because it really is such a melting pot of art, people, press and Britishness.

The Dog in  Bin, by Simon Brundret, was bizarre but true to form it made everyone smile – a lady in a rather loud voice and an even louder dress remarked that she didnt need to buy it as she had one just like it for real at home.

Cathy de Monchaux work was wonderful , this piece called Sweetly The Air Flew Overhead, Battle With Unicorns, No.9, has such depth and emotion and is displayed as a long box, almost as if its a film as opposed to a painting . They are made from twisted wires, fabric, plaster to name a few, and its not until you see the detail do you understand the complexity .

Detail of the Battle of the Unicorns

The rest of the show was well conceived, with some of the real greats of the art world – Anish Kapoor had a magnificent resin ‘Ear ‘ – which was a beautiful piece… but by the time you get to the far end of the exhibition you’re meeting all your friends and it becomes a real party.

It was designed by William Kent  but was completed by his assistant John Vardy in 1755 as Kent died before the project started being constructed.

The room located right in the centre of the building and over the middle arch is still exactly as it was when it was first created and is where the Duke of Wellington led the armed forces from as Commander- in -Chief of the British Army, in fact it is still used to this day as the office for the General commanding the household division.

The desk in the room is of particular interest to me as it’s still in use and was Wellington’s very own desk. A beautiful piece made by Hepplewhite and double sided – in fact almost a quarto partners desk as you can also sit at the sides as well and use it as an oval meeting table .
The reason I mentioned the Royal Wedding at the beginning is because it was used as part of the route to and from the Abbey because it is the state entrance to the palaces .

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The Ashmolean Museum

First of all I would like to point out that I have never stopped to consider the design and way in which we walk through and are given the artefacts to see in a museum. I was also hard pushed to begin telling you what the museum was all about – I had never been but I knew it held some amazing drawings and old masters.

To my delight I found that it held much much more and I can’t begin to say how impressed I was with it. It is also the Oldest Museum in the world –and started as a private collection in a house in Lambeth, known as the Ark – in the 1650’s. The Ashmolean Museum was opened for the first time to the public in 1683 and caused a rumpus of dialogue as the aristocracy couldn’t understand ‘why’ the lower classes and public wanted to see such curiosities and rarities.

The books recording visiting numbers which date back to the 18th Century show a marked difference to the number of people visiting on Wednesdays and Thursdays – which was purely to do with the fact that it was market day in Oxford and that’s when they came in to sell their produce.

The present building in Oxford built in 1845 is a magical Neo Classical facade but lacked a great deal of space and conservation, so the new build behind this facade was started in 2006 and opened by Her Majesty the Queen in Dec 2009 .

After entering the main doorway, you are welcomed into the new space by a 10ft statue that joins the old and the new and opens the atrium of the museum before you.

We were shown the exceptional conservation rooms, which didn’t exist before as most pieces were sent away for conservation – and which now is providing important information on the artefacts they have. Its rather like CSI – looking at this saxon arrow head, the microscope shows the cloth binding that has now become fossilized by the copper – do you remove it to clean the head? – what colour was the fabric, how was it woven and what pattern does it show?

The drawings that we were shown were equally if not even more fascinating – Michelangelo, the sketches for the half carved Prisoners – in Florence .

And the famous studies of the heads of the Two Apostles and their hands by Raphael

I also came across an artist that I know little about, called Matthias Grunwald {1475-1528 } and this charcoal drawing is exceptionally rare as all his works are mainly in oil.

This drawing also interestingly has within the paper the mark where the paper was hung out to dry on a line – it runs from left to right across her hands .

Turner’s Venice and pencil sketches – no glass to block the view and the almost tangible feeling that they have only just stepped outside the door and left their drawings on the table …

If you get a chance – it is so worth a visit to this exceptional museum. I will leave you with some shots of the original staircase – which is definately worth a walk up – beautiful grandeur.

I have been lucky enough to have created a large amount of work with Jeremy Goring, the present owner of the Hotel.

I first worked with Jeremy Goring back in 2005 while I was still at Linley to create the Dining Room, in which I was given the brief to create a light filled room; Sophisticated, English and Classical.

I took inspiration from a famous Cecil Beaton photograph of a group of Debutantes which gave me the strip I used down each chair and onto the curtains.

Vogue models in Charles James gowns in the ornate interior of French & Co, New York. Cecil Beaton

A year later, I was asked to design three of the Garden Suites in a contemporary design, which I used touch–screen technology for, all the time telling myself if my parents couldn’t use it, this wouldn’t work in a hotel.

My team and I also created some amazing bespoke desks and furniture, inlaid with leather and ebony.

In 2008, we were given a brief to create new interiors for the terrace, bar and lounge, the very heart of the Goring Hotel, with strict instructions not to make it look like I’d changed too much! To create the feeling of ‘Lived in Luxury‘ I based the work on Malmaison – Empress Josephine’s Chateau outside Paris. Rich tones of red, gold leaf ceilings and wonderful candle style lamps.

The terrace was based on the John Soane Museum’s Yellow in concept, finally ending up with a more Chinese yellow but with the same concept.

The bar in contrast was created in red lacquer.

The Party was a huge success! Floodlit red from outside and a huge marquee in the garden to take 600 guests. The rooms were all shown at their magical splendour and shining beautifully.

Long live the Goring and its family involvement…

There is nothing quite like the buzz of a fashion show and this week was London Fashion week, fizzing away at Somerset House.

It was staged in the courtyard fountain area just under the Courthauld Galleries, where last week I was at the launch of the Michelangelo Exhibition.

Just as Michelangelo did, Amanda’s collection is still about the human form. Wakeley is a genius at interpreting this into fashion and allowing the fabrics and materials to follow the body line like a pencil sketch .

The fabrics are so beautifully cut and the materials so luxurious that they float with the body without losing shape.

The use of the most extraordinary fur wraps was beautiful too – cut in almost a 40’s style which was interesting as I am seeing so much of a hark back to this period in terms of new furniture design and restoration at the moment.

The drawing The Dream – Il sogno is iconic and has not only been replicated a great deal within its own century {1533} but also by many artists who have all copied this drawing. The exhibition shows this, and the copies with a collection of about 15 other drawings by Michelangelo…. it’s the sheer accuracy and depth of emotion at this scale that is breathtaking.

When you look at a reproduction in a book, most if not all are enlarged, some even fill banners and building boards – but what you don’t see, unless you stand in front of the actual work, is the delicacy and the sensitivity of his work which is so, so breathtakingly small, achieved in Red Chalk or Black Chalk.

The exhibition is in the upstairs gallery of Somerset House, and it’s also magical for me to stand in a room that is so historic – and now goes passed unnoticed. The great room which stands in the centre has been captured in oil paintings and engravings and shows the room on Varnishing Day of the Royal Academy’s Summer Picture Hang. The Royal Academy used to be based here BEFORE it was moved to its new Home in Burlington House { where we now call the Royal Academy of Art }

This drawing shows you the room in the 1770’s, the height of Georgian London, and is now chopped up to make more gallery space.

This part of Somerset house is magnificent – and is worth taking in as an experience as you see this exceptional exhibition – It runs until the 16^th May and I would suggest a morning trip so you can see the work without the Crowds – you need to get close. www.courtauld.ac.uk

I won’t go into the entire hour lecture but here are some rather interesting highlights;

Sycamore House – my home , was built in 1787 , right at the peak of the Robert Adam design movement – A fine three story house and a semi basement double fronted mansion , in grey stock brick with Tri- partite windows and Lunettes. Set back from the Road in its own double entranced gateway with a large stucco portico. A Mr. Benjamin Bentley.

4 Old Town

The Mansion that stood next door and was built at the same time and had the same design elements with the Lunette windows – this postcard of the 1890’s shows the mansion as it stood in its last days having been turned into a show – and just before it was demolished. I have sketched on the left hand side the relationship that it would have had with Sycamore house.

sketch

I also managed to find a wonderful picture of the back of this house from the same period or just before it was demolished in 1900.

19thC Back of Sycamore House

Syacmore house stoped being a private house in 1841 when Mr Daniel Turton Johnson left the house ,like most large houses in Clapham it was turned into a school and in 1880 it was purchased by Alexander Dennis Leman who open it up as Sycamore Laundry- These are the pictures of the Laundry in the early days taken in the house and its gardens in the 1890’s.

2010

1890′s

map of 1864 close up of sycamore house

Map of 1864 showing the extent of gardens

The House continued to have a booming Laundry Business in it , and it grew by turning the gardens into factory spaces; these are some shots from the early 1960’s and 1970’s – including the visit of HRH the Duchess of Gloucester to Sycamore House on st George’s day in 1980.

The Callendar rooms - sycamore house -1970's

The Entrance Hall of Sycamore house with HRH The duchess of Glocester

The front of Old Town , the houses next door turned into Shops – First the shops in the 1920’s – then into the 1960’s and finally into the 1970’s –

1926 clapham old town cropped

1962 clapham old town cropped

1970's Sycamore house - 4 old town

The last picture I have is of Sycamore House in the 1980’s with all of the Royal Warrants on the front of the building – and a photograph I took this week to bring her right up to date.

Sycamore House 1978

As soon as the New Plaster room is finished I will post some amazing pictures of the interior of the restoration project which to date has used over 790 sheets of gold leaf …