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A short stay in the Yorkshire Dales.
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The late C13th arboreal Chapter House at Wells Cathedral is such a wonderful evocation of medieval architecture.
"In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realized, through it all, that in the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger-something better, pushing right back."
Words inspired by Albert Camus
To Dwell.
It was an architectural historian John Archer who gave me (as a novice photographer) some of the best advice on photographing buildings. He told me to imagine that the building wasn’t there and to capture one defining image of it that might explain to an alien what its meaning and its structural logic might be.
Today, whilst walking through Sir John Soane’s Museum I’m cursing that very proposition for this building has no architectural logic. If I were to try and explain it to an alien I would tell it that this building were as if Soane had covered his house in glue and dragged it through Rome..
I was much younger on my first visit here. Wide-eyed, I wandered from room to room, delighting in the clever tricks of light and the curious fragments tucked into every corner. I even promised myself that I’d furnish my house like Soane’s. At the time, the thought of living in such a way seemed deliciously novel and entirely possible.
In fact, I did try - not in a house, but in Woody the van. I filled it like a travelling cabinet of curiosities: casts from Stowe House, a green man from Lincoln, a boss from Exeter and (quite literally) a rattle bag of more besides. For a while it looked like I’d (oh yeah!) covered my van in glue and ram-raided Soane’s house. But eventually my mind grew too caught up in it all, restless in the ceaseless detail, and I pared it back, expunging the rattle. In doing so I came to value the grace of the space, the freedom to think of nothing.
That lesson has stayed with me. I’ve since been long schooled in the logic behind a building and the component parts for how we need to live well - to dwell. So to return to Soane’s house now, and arrive once more within the ordered chaos of an individual’s oeuvre, is both exciting and a touch overwhelming. I think this shift from spatial logic to material fiction is the bitter-sweet undercurrent that makes this place so compelling: the fancy of the low-hanging architectural fruit set against the structured order of the building that makes it all possible.
If an alien did walk these rooms, it might wonder whether human beings build in a fever-dream of fragments: Rome bouncing off Egypt, staircases dissolving into domes, shape-shifting walls unfolding into mirrors that multiply the complexity. To such a visitor, our architecture (through Soane’s eye) might appear less a guide than a puzzle - an architectural fascinator, a mesmerising surface that never quite settles into order.
Awe is the first sensation for me, but, after walking its rooms the place doesn’t settle into a single whole. And it isn’t meant to, of course - this isn’t a place where humans can dwell.
Whilst walking around the building, I’m caught by the extraterrestrials. I have a fanciful thought about my alien visitors rolling around the floor laughing like the ones in the SMASH advert. So I sit my metal friends down and try to explain what this place means - that it is one man’s vision, a theatre of fragments and spectacle, not a mirror of how we truly are. I would then lead them outside through a doorway that steadies the line, where windows find their measure and the facade resumes its rhythm. Out here the building reads like a sentence, its words carrying across the street with clarity.
I will always be grateful for the career I’ve had as a photographer - immersed in remarkable buildings and locations - but perhaps the most remarkable thing has been the dialogue that has unfolded between myself and the places I’ve visited. It has gifted me a curious and questioning mind.
What here bears the load and what here is but veneer? What here speaks for structure and what here for ornament? I’m grateful for this quirk of history - for the strange abundance born of one man’s obsession - and equally grateful that I can step outside and see it for what it is. Beyond the mesmerising kaleidoscope, I find I can return to the presence of absence - to spaces that let my mind rest, and seek the quiet fundamentals of a life well lived, in places that harbour the priceless wisdom of the everyday.
At the Soane Museum, it was not about choosing between puzzle and order, but about sensing the difference: knowing when I was in the realm of spectacle and when I was standing on structure. It sounds obvious, yet sometimes, when caught within the dazzle of spectacle and artifice, it is the hardest thing to see.
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Membership Offer
The first person to sign up for membership this week will get a copy of the substantial Sir John Soane's Museum book (A Complete Description). The second person to sign up will get a Sir John Soane's Museum goody bag - including the Museum guide booklet and a brick styles card. Subsequent memberships this week will receive a post card.
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Sir John Soane's Museum, London. (Pure Scroll No Words)
Sir John Soane’s Museum in London is a treasure house of architecture, art, and antiquities. Once Soane’s home (!), it grew incrementally over the years, obtaining the texture and patina of a rock face. It is a cabinet of curiosities that includes some priceless artefacts inspiring wonder and imagination. Free entry - but you might have to queue.
For Members - Richard Rogers: Talking Buildings
Photos from the wonderful Exhibition at the Sir John Soane's Museum which finishes this weekend.
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For Members: The Dome Area in glorious VR
At the Sir John Soane's Museum (viewable on any device)
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Kind words from a subscriber:
Andy your work is becoming wonderful, remarkable. A so-called breakdown has been milled into its constituent parts, becoming profound construction: through perception, architecture, the lens and the pen. In your Repton crypt essay a deep description of our social anxiety - and our reason to be....
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Photographs and words by Andy Marshall (unless otherwise stated). Most photographs are taken with Iphone 16 Pro and DJI Mini 3 Pro.
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