tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post6012968022017590874..comments2024-03-28T01:39:53.154-04:00Comments on The Peak of Chic®: Lady Diana Cooper in Little VeniceThe Peak of Chichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811933436075145329noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-39839108189862381972015-02-03T17:31:53.257-05:002015-02-03T17:31:53.257-05:00Really enjoy seeing this glimpse into Lady Dian...Really enjoy seeing this glimpse into Lady Dian's personal life. She certainly lived in a beautiful home!Valeriehttp://archlouvers.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-54535690547480391352015-01-30T18:00:35.267-05:002015-01-30T18:00:35.267-05:00Luke is absolutely correct-- the loo is featured i...Luke is absolutely correct-- the loo is featured in the pages of The English Room by Derry Moore and Michael Pick, and it's quite wonderful!Toby Worthingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04494294732826925579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-84099279206353912702015-01-30T12:01:54.661-05:002015-01-30T12:01:54.661-05:00Just noticed the military medal with rosette just ...Just noticed the military medal with rosette just stuck onto one of the murals with a pin!<br /><br />Priceless.southern dochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01776088660401232570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-16970512035705569382015-01-30T10:19:45.291-05:002015-01-30T10:19:45.291-05:00I’ll dig out some photos and send them to you- thi...I’ll dig out some photos and send them to you- think the loo’s also featured in “The English Room”, tho’ I may have made that up. Ah, Little Venice: yours truly spent the first few months of his life in Blomfield Road, which runs off Warwick Avenue. It’s one of my favourite areas of London. Just north of Paddington and Hyde Park. Full of white stucco early Victorian villas, lovely gardens (Clifton Nurseries, very famous garden centre there). Interesting residents, including Lanning Roper, the garden designer. It’s called “Little Venice” because the stucco villas look on to the Grand Union Canal, and there’s a canal basin- if you stretch your imagination, it might, just, possibly be like Venice. Sort of. Think it was called that by Robert Browning, the poet- will have to check.Luke Honeyhttp://www.lukehoney.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-53807709748074329352015-01-30T10:04:50.608-05:002015-01-30T10:04:50.608-05:00Thank you for the wonderful pictures. Can't he...Thank you for the wonderful pictures. Can't help but contrast these rooms with those in the "Little Versailles" post - the Paris apartment looks so heavy, so impersonal, so over-done by comparison.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-61431870395442207502015-01-30T09:01:39.982-05:002015-01-30T09:01:39.982-05:00Luke, I must track down photos of that loo. I'...Luke, I must track down photos of that loo. I'm intrigued! Also, I'm not at all familiar with Little Venice. Where exactly is it?The Peak of Chichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811933436075145329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-89942764703768678702015-01-30T08:45:10.398-05:002015-01-30T08:45:10.398-05:00 I have a feeling that the Battersby panels may ha... I have a feeling that the Battersby panels may have been re-installed in John Julius’s (son) house next door.Luke Honeyhttp://www.lukehoney.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-91921309009987026012015-01-30T04:12:22.446-05:002015-01-30T04:12:22.446-05:00Jennifer, thank you for this. I’ve always loved th...Jennifer, thank you for this. I’ve always loved this house, since I first saw it in (I think) the very first edition of Interiors, back in 1981. The downstairs loo was especially grand with Empire wallpaper and a portrait of the young Queen Victoria. In the second volume of her autobiography there are photographs of her Gower Street house in the then unfashionable Bloomsbury. I gather that Lady D was one of the first pioneers to champion the Empire style in her Bloomsbury house. <br /><br />I couldn’t agree with you more about it- there’s no attempt at a ‘style’ (the very idea!), it’s not very considered. She just surrounded herself with things she liked- both inherited and bought and created a slightly countrified London house, with a French twist. I seem to remember from the Interiors feature that the back garden looked like woodland, with old trees. You can sometimes get this in London houses, especially in Little Venice, which has some lovely gardens: french windows which open onto a semi-rural setting. If you shut your ears to the noise of cars and aeroplanes, you could almost be in Oxfordshire- or somewhere. And that fabulous Shannon portrait, plus the Ambrose McEvoy in the Hall.Luke Honeyhttp://www.lukehoney.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-53714231175040445572015-01-29T16:04:32.995-05:002015-01-29T16:04:32.995-05:00Does anyone know what became of the Battersby pane...Does anyone know what became of the Battersby panels??? Were they painted directly onto the wall??? Lordy!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-13068542034778655212015-01-29T16:00:58.208-05:002015-01-29T16:00:58.208-05:00lt is one of my favorites ever!lt is one of my favorites ever!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-81665006941156800532015-01-29T16:00:14.626-05:002015-01-29T16:00:14.626-05:00I adore every inch of it! ADORE!!!!!I adore every inch of it! ADORE!!!!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-59182160729504993352015-01-29T15:59:46.979-05:002015-01-29T15:59:46.979-05:00Perfectly said. Beautiful!Perfectly said. Beautiful!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-92178607165504146332015-01-29T15:04:15.280-05:002015-01-29T15:04:15.280-05:00srb- You are quite right. This style of decoratin...srb- You are quite right. This style of decorating (although, like you, I hesitate to call it a style) never looks dated.<br /><br />Thank you for the YouTube suggestion. I know what I will be watching this evening.The Peak of Chichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811933436075145329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-71472173389850502112015-01-29T14:59:39.747-05:002015-01-29T14:59:39.747-05:00Valerie, You obviously have quite a nice collecti...Valerie, You obviously have quite a nice collection of Cooper-related books. I'm envious. :)The Peak of Chichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811933436075145329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-24370299701938097372015-01-29T14:59:08.131-05:002015-01-29T14:59:08.131-05:00I believe that I checked that book out from my loc...I believe that I checked that book out from my local library many years ago. I should buy a copy of it for my own collection.The Peak of Chichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811933436075145329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-65363558828975018192015-01-29T14:58:27.122-05:002015-01-29T14:58:27.122-05:00Karena, Aren't those Battersby panels divine?Karena, Aren't those Battersby panels divine?The Peak of Chichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811933436075145329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-45529261528807294522015-01-29T14:57:58.542-05:002015-01-29T14:57:58.542-05:00Anon- Well said! I agree with you 100%.Anon- Well said! I agree with you 100%.The Peak of Chichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811933436075145329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-72392872306510392062015-01-29T14:57:24.502-05:002015-01-29T14:57:24.502-05:00Toby, knowing you, I'm not surprised in the le...Toby, knowing you, I'm not surprised in the least! There is so much to admire about this home.The Peak of Chichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811933436075145329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-13340271957783029672015-01-29T12:17:24.629-05:002015-01-29T12:17:24.629-05:00Ah, the English. Only they understand how to crea...Ah, the English. Only they understand how to create an interior filled with museum quality furnishings and then make it into a comfortable, warm, personal room with chintz slipcovers on comfortable chairs and sofas. Such rooms never look dated or contrived. I'm afraid that even the younger English no longer appreciate such rooms, if the homes featured in the British House & Garden are a true example. <br /><br /><br />If you want to see (in the background) more of this kind of design (is it even really "design"?), go on YouTube and pull up a documentary about debutantes in the last "Season" of 1939. Various debutantes and young men from that era are interviewed in their homes, all of which have exactly this same feeling - priceless objects used with comfort and warmth.srbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02856563845261571825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-47681929380205864932015-01-29T11:36:08.112-05:002015-01-29T11:36:08.112-05:00LOVE Lady Diana! Just secured her 3 volume memoir...LOVE Lady Diana! Just secured her 3 volume memoir from Heywood Hill, as well as the Lady Diana Cooper Scrapbook, and have Darling Monster, all Duff's diaries, letters, and memoir, and John Julius' memoir too - soooo interesting. Love seeing how she lived - thanks so much for this! I shall print and slip in the bookshelf.....Valerie in Washington DCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-32136534914926869492015-01-29T11:32:15.596-05:002015-01-29T11:32:15.596-05:00More pictures of this house plus commentary in &qu...More pictures of this house plus commentary in "the Englishwoman's House" edited by Alvilde Lees-Milne, 1984.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-61126546159537084382015-01-29T11:07:51.369-05:002015-01-29T11:07:51.369-05:00The portraits and Battersby panels are wonderful. ...The portraits and Battersby panels are wonderful. This is such a chic, comforting home!<br /><br />xoxo<br />Karena<br />The Arts by KarenaKarenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05206642885608991170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-76465145597932934932015-01-29T10:58:54.388-05:002015-01-29T10:58:54.388-05:00well done + hip, hip, hooray. xxpeggybraswelldesig...well done + hip, hip, hooray. xxpeggybraswelldesign.compeggybraswellhttp://peggybraswelldesign.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-5144372647150734112015-01-29T10:51:29.720-05:002015-01-29T10:51:29.720-05:00These rooms are as timeless now as they were then....These rooms are as timeless now as they were then. And Jennifer, I appreciate your comment on ".....ill-advised efforts of originality." I think too many designers today try to "force" new concepts into a room, thinking their placement of an object or piece of furniture will "pop," when itstead it "flops." These rooms look formal, but very inviting, and not at all "too precious" to use. Thanks much for sharing them. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34961211.post-70184950722179069942015-01-29T09:33:56.372-05:002015-01-29T09:33:56.372-05:00"These photos might be forty years old, but i..."These photos might be forty years old, but isn't it refreshing to see a home whose interiors don't seek to impress through impertinence, flamboyance, or ill-advised efforts at originality? " <br /><br />It won't surprise you that this post and that last line, pretty much made my day! Thanks for sharing these seldom seen photographs.Toby Worthingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04494294732826925579noreply@blogger.com