Christopher Howse

Writer for the Telegraph. Author of Soho in the Eighties and The Train in Spain.

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

Shephard Taylor sketched this coal plate in Gerrard Street in 1863. The same pattern is still to be seen in Belgrave Road, London SW1. #opercula No 74

[The Spectator @spectator]

Norman Balon, who has died at the age of 99, missed the point when he defined himself as 'London's rudest landlord'. There, I think, he mingled self-publicity and self-defence.

People didn't go to the Coach and Horses, Soho, to be shouted at by him; they shouted at each other quite enough. Really he was the actor-manager of a twice-daily claustrophobic, drunken extemporisation in his pub which embodied bohemianism and self-destruction in the last two decades of the 20th century.

Remember that 40 years ago the Coach was thick with cigarette smoke, that many customers were drunk daily, at lunchtime, and that no one was fearful of what they said. Things were not then as they are now.

✍️ Christopher Howse

Article | https://t.co/ulYFDWDwxa

[The Spectator @spectator]

My husband's task was a simple one: to buy a couple of bottles of water from the Morrisons opposite the station in case there was no buffet service on board (which would have made a waterless three-hour journey torture).

If the train had left on time, he'd have missed it, but he came puffing up the steps full of talk about a 'meal deal' and proffering some Walkers crisps.

Luckily for him he had also bought water, but what caught my eye was the labelling on the crisps: 'Grab bag.'.

✍️ Dot Wordsworth

Article | https://t.co/80QMFTJB8U

[Alec Marsh, author and journalist @AlecMarsh]

A marvellous journey down memory lane to the Soho that time forgot by @BeardyHowse ... 'hats off'....

https://t.co/fOwxvn5MGJ

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

@JLeightonPhoto Thanks. I rather liked him.

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

Congrats.

[Lorna Hunting (Pen name) @lornahunting]

The books are here for the Whitehaven launch. Even though this is my seventh publication I still get the same buzz when the first box of author's copies arrives. I'll be at the Exhibition Space on Queen Street, June 23rd at 12pm. Come and meet me. In association with @moonsbookshop and Richardsons of Whitehaven @gerardfinewine
https://t.co/ef2U1dPzLu #authorslife #booklaunch #newbook #histfic

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

@cbnewham @lornahunting In the kitchen there is one with valves. It picks up the Home Service resonantly.

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

@DrMusicale Yes, something like that. The original structure is timber-framed.

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

Older than it looks: the Grape Vaults, 4 Broad Street, Leominster, an 18th-century exterior over a 17th-century core, with timbers visible inside. Listed Grade II.

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

@court_college Yes, the door is 18th-century and the wooden columns old. The interior is more clearly ancient.

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

Mothers' meeting at the cemetery chapel.

[Ian Beavis @iancbeavis]

The moth trap is set up ready for tomorrow's moth morning at Tunbridge Wells (Hawkenbury) Cemetery. Drop in at the cemetery chapel from 10am to see what we've found.

[Calum 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ⛐ @CalumRaasay]

I think it's fair to say Raasay has one of the best football pitch views. Next World Cup host maybe?

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

@XchekaSnowball @NowtbutaLad Trained pigeons spruce it up.

[Stuart Millson @StuartMillson]

Fond memories of the RFH, the one remaining 1951 Festival of Britain structure to have survived into our anti-Britain age. @DerekTurner1964 @RFHOrgan @RSStGeorge @YesterdaysBrit1 @BeardyHowse @simon_schama @Roger_Scruton

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

@JLeightonPhoto Aha! Tudor tunnels all round.

[Nowt but a Lad @NowtbutaLad]

Maudland Junction north of #Preston, with the line to the Fylde Coast off to the left and the West Coast Main Line, right; date, sometime in the mid-1960s. St. Walburge's RC Church, with its 309 foot (34 metre) high spire, dominates the scene. #Lancashire #Railways

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

Built as a house, dated 1600, 18 Broad Street, Leominster, has symmetrical timber framing in small panels. The shop front is late 19th century. Listed Grade II.

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

@hanesyddiaeth I'm glad to hear it.

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

Hi-vis yallow handrails, Chatsworth.

[Zara Handley @zarahandley]

Painted Hall staircase designed and built to impress and it does!
Chatsworth House, Derbyshire

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

Click all squares with Brussels sprouts.

[Richard Morris @ahistoryinart]

'Seven Brussels Sprouts.' (1955)
Delicately painted with meticulous detail, Eliot Hodgkin captures the crisp waxy green beauty of a vegetable that in the year this work was painted was very often boiled to a puree.