Monday 18^th October 2010

I’m just back from Hastings, where Angus Willis, one of our leading food stylists and writers, flung open his Tudor House for Hastings Bonfire Night, which for reasons not known is held on 16^th October. Some greatnesses attended.

You remember the Tudor House. We’ve heard a lot about it. Five years ago Angus acquired it and has been hacking it back from a reasonably modernised nooky cott to its original Tudor condition  – and beyond – ever since.

It’s still not finished but has now acquired the most extraordinary cupboard beds (see graphs) made out of salvaged groin oak from dismantled beach groins. Rough wood along with newly excavated crude stone floors give a unique outdoor feel indoors. On Saturday, for the party, it was also filled with smoke from the huge open fireplaces in one of which sat a vat of clam chowder kept piping hot by the wood embers.

I know I sound sneering. It’s easy to sneer. Poor Little Rich Gays don’t like beamy, cotty, nooky anyway. But the Tudor House is so staggeringly inconvenient, so utterly uncompromising in look, it works round to glory. Nothing like it will ever be seen again.

It was certainly good enough for the Green and Black’s lady. Oh yes, she was there, founder thereof, £8 million from the Cadbury’s sale, very expensive face and hair – keen on car boot sales apparently.

Let the graphs speak for themselves.

Cupboard Bed in Angus Willis's Tudor House in Hastings to be Slept in by Leading Figures in the Food World

More Cupboard Beds in Angus Willis's Tudor House

Cheeses by Angus Willis in Tin Bath for Saturday's Party

Whelk Stall in Angus Willis's Tudor House for Saturday's Party

Pears from a Car-boot Sale in Angus Willis's Tudor House for Saturday's Party

The Bathroom in Angus Willis's Tudor House in Hastings

The Hastings Bonfire Night Procession as seen from outside Angus Willis's Tudor House