{"id":712,"date":"2009-12-03T17:22:51","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T17:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=712"},"modified":"2009-12-03T18:18:04","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T18:18:04","slug":"the-highest-queenaria-yet-known-angus-willis%e2%80%99s-epic-three-year-renovations-in-hastings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=712","title":{"rendered":"The Highest Queenaria Yet Known – Angus Willis\u2019s Epic Three-Year Renovations in Hastings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday 3rd<\/sup> December 2009<\/p>\n

I have to tell you \u2013 I\u2019m just back from Delia\u2019s book-signing at John Lewis. It all fits in. Absolute arch enemy of Angus Willis, my visit to whose demesne in Hastings I was telling you about on Tuesday. Delia will have to wait….although I\u2019m bursting to reveal all.<\/p>\n

So, back to Hastings, last Saturday.\u00a0 As you know, Poor Little Rich Gay life is nothing without builders. They must always be in, preferably under the command of Bruce MacBain. This summer, Edward Jasper, the bed-linen specialist, had an entire floor of his London home re-modelled just for the three-week visit of his mother.<\/p>\n

All the same, nobody, but nobody has reached the heights of the non-Bruce-MacBain-employing, self-designing food stylist, photographer and writer, Angus Willis. After the charity shops and the junk shop last Saturday, I visited his Tudor house in Hastings for what must be the sixth or seventh time. Opera<\/em> have been in progress for at least three years. Never before have 1200 square metres been so exhaustively and minutely remodelled. On purchase there was an Aga, a reasonable builders\u2019 merchant kind of bathroom, carpets, expensive kitchen cupboards \u2013 perfectly habitable, 3-bedroom house.<\/p>\n

Actually it was horrid. Nasty, somehow squalid, with all kinds of idiotic, despoiling modern alterations and additions carried out in what was intended to be the Tudor spirit – such as the kitchen cupboards, now I think of it.<\/p>\n

So it was out, out, out, back to Tudor, no mod cons allowed unless as they would have been when first installed or beyond. So, bakerlite light switches, reclaimed bogs and basins, baths made out of sawn-up barrels, ancient cast-iron radiators. There is one modern lav, masquerading as the kind of rough-hewn bench (see graph) that might have last been seen in the communal craporium of a medieval monastery.<\/p>\n

And so throughout, no new materials permitted, only reclaimed wood, second-hand bricks, lime plaster etc.<\/p>\n

Now at last the house is nearing completion \u2013 maybe another year and Angus and Fergus\u2019s friends the Sir Wilfred Selves will be able to come and stay. Sir Wilfred has already spent an improvised night on a lylo that got punctured. But you can see what it will be and that\u2019s quite something. I know I\u2019ve condemned nooky, wooky, beamy cotty cotts as the last word in non PLRG. Here is the exception. It is a rebirth. That which was contaminated and bastardised has been refound. The house is now ancient again and therefore new. This is the fight against death.<\/p>\n

The only mild drawback is that the insane ward of Hastings hosp is now lined with all the plumbers, leccies, brickies, plasterers etc who have worked on the house.<\/p>\n

But that is a small price to pay.<\/p>\n

And, Angus, you\u2019ll be thrilled to hear, has started the whole process all over again in a shop on the High Street, which I also inspected on Saturday.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019ll be no end to it.<\/p>\n

\"Tudor

Tudor Dining in Angus Willis's Tudor House in Hastings<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The Sir Wilfred Self Bath in Angus Willis's Tudor House in Hastings<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The Very Spot where Sir Wilfred Self lay in Angus Willis's Tudor House in Hastings<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Medieval-style

Medieval-style Craporium in Angus Willis's Tudor House in Hastings<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bakerlite

Bakerlite Switches in Angus Willis's Tudor House in Hastings<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\u00a34000

\u00a34000 door in Angus Willis's Tudor House in Hastings<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tudor

Tudor Lav Cistern in Angus Willis's Tudor House in Hastings<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tudor

Tudor Sink by Angus Willis for his Tudor House in Hastings<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday 3rd December 2009 I have to tell you \u2013 I\u2019m just back from Delia\u2019s book-signing at John Lewis. It all fits in. Absolute arch enemy of Angus Willis, my visit to whose demesne in Hastings I was telling you about on Tuesday. Delia will have to wait….although I\u2019m bursting to reveal all. So, back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}