Nº 37: Matthew Roberts
The architectural historian recommends sites of ancient Christian pilgrimage, the best Mexican restaurant in London, and the joys of a hot Bovril.
We’re back with Matthew Roberts. Read on to find out what he’s into, and if you’re new here, hit subscribe for secret recommendations once a week.
Matthew Lloyd Roberts is an architectural historian and PhD candidate living in Cambridge but often in London. He also edits the podcast About Buildings and Cities which covers anything architectural from Zaha Hadid to Akira via Nicholas Hawksmoor.
☞ SITES OF ANCIENT CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE: I feel like going on Camino is having a resurgence, but you can always get a taste of pilgrimage slightly closer to home. Little Walsingham in Norfolk was the site of a replica of Mary’s house in Nazareth; amongst the most visited pilgrimage destinations in medieval England until Thomas Cromwell had it burnt. The much contested revival of the pilgrimage by Anglicans and Catholics alike has been going for a century. I found the relics of masonry from various dissolved monasteries embedded in the walls at the Anglican shrine a particularly moving expression of iconoclast’s remorse. You can just about cycle there and back in a day from Norwich. Go via Denys Lasdun’s UEA, a pilgrimage site for concrete-fondlers. Slightly further afield is Holywell, a remarkable north Welsh shrine, site of the miraculous un-beheading of St Winifride. When I visited a man was dipping his arm in the water to cure his eczema as the rain fell hard.
☞ EBAY SUITS: I got my first proper non-family wedding invitation this summer. I immediately freaked out that I had nothing to wear. Since then I’ve become addicted to buying vintage suits at ridiculously low prices on eBay. A highlight was a green moleskine 70s Austin Reed number for just £29, but the triumph was a double-breasted woollen navy Dior suit (see top pic) from the late 80s for <£100. It was somewhat moth-eaten but very fixable.
☞ DAWSON'S HEIGHTS: This south London housing estate was designed by the extraordinary architect Kate Macintosh when she was still in her 20s. Placed anywhere it would be amongst the best housing in the city, but it sits majestically atop a redoubt of railway slag. From the top you can see all of the metropolis, from Wembley Arena to the O2. Parliament Hill could never.
☞ LA CHINGADA: In part because it’s one of the few places on Earth that Britain never attempted to colonise, London has a surprising dearth of good Mexican restaurants. But have no fear, La Chingada in Surrey Quays is perfect, whether you want a low-key lunch, or to get everything on the menu and have frozen margaritas. Must order: Micheladas (Mexican Bloody Mary with a thick, umami-condiment vibe and a spicy rim), Chicken tostadas, prawn baja tacos.
☞ UNGENTLE: Incredible new film by Huw Lemmey and Onyeka Igwe, narrated by Ben Whishaw, showing till January at Studio Voltaire, Clapham. Espionage, hegemony, homosexuality and class-war intertwine in this fictive autobiography of a double agent working for the NKVD in Cold War London. Think Waugh meets Le Carré with Patrick Keiller-ish cinematography.
☞ LANARK: A LIFE IN FOUR BOOKS: This genuinely deranged novel by Alasdair Gray truly changed my life. It’s half a gritty not-quite social-realist tale a young working class artist in post-war Glasgow fighting a losing war against society and his own mind. The other half is a truly hallucinogenic vision of a dystopia via Huxley, Soylent Green and Bellamy. It’s the only novel I’ve read that cites all its plagiarism at the end, and Gray’s recent passing makes it even more poignant.
☞ POLITICS THEORY OTHER: Without a doubt the best left-wing podcast being made right now, properly global in scope, often harrowing but always with a firm view to where we might go instead. Worth catching are the recent eps with Richard Seymour, who is one of the sharpest analysts of the current crisis.
☞ BOVRIL: As the cold nights draw in nothing sorts me out after a long draining day like a mug of hot Bovril. (Did you know ‘Bovril’ gets its name from a marketing tie-in with a blockbuster Victorian sci-fi novel?) For vegetarians, I find a the waxy-sheen of marmite makes for an unpleasantly thin and oily yeast tea, but a steaming cup of bouillon makes for an admirable substitute to the beefy original.
☞ LISTENING TO: Mountain Goats, We Shall All Be Healed
I started listening to Mountain Goats during lockdown and can safely say I owe John Darnielle my sanity. These vast, childlike songs that deal tenderly and fiercely with addiction and loss are a balm to the soul. As a lyricist he is second only to MF Doom in my book. I will be screaming as much from the front row of their gig at the Roundhouse in November, for which tickets are still bafflingly available.
☞ HATES:
Corporate TikToks which doubly disavow authenticity
That skinny jeans might be coming back in
Lots of recent new packaging but particularly the new mr Pringle he seems like a dick
TY Matthew! Follow Matthew on Twitter and Instagram to see pictures of buildings. Listen to About Buildings and Cities to hear about buildings.
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