17th CENTURY MANOR HOUSE INTERIOR TRASHED

The Manor Houser at Lee, Lewisham AKA Baring House is my local Library. It reopened last Tuesday after a long refurbishment. I was in Strasbourg Tuesday April 28th but the guided tours were this Saturday. Thanks to the Users and Friends of Manor House Library (For whom I was the founding publicity officer) we managed to stop Lewisham council trashing the 17th to 19th century exterior with a huge glass box, and got them to blend in the wing they rebuilt. The law was on our side as the Manor House is Grade II* Listed – however the listing does not protect the interior. The council went to town with dumbed down post Soviet boutique brutalism. It used to look like those blue and white Wedgwood plates. The new main lift is a glass column. The ceilings have quartered lights and rising sun ventilation grills inset Pizza café style. The children’s areas inside and outside look just big enough for an energetic three year old to set off and instantly bounce off the far wall - get some bouncy turf padding please! And gone are the lovely old sustainable wood book cases and the quiet alcoves for study. Now we have Tetley Meccano Shelves – bolted assembly but thousands of perforations, pale green strip lighted easy-wipe metal. At first I though I was looking at New Labours dream – acres of shelves covered in salads. The one good thing is what we have been agitating for, for years – lots of new books. So I shall certainly be visiting. Its just that every time I go in I am going to shudder.

BARING ALL

After the Manor House Tour I and my fiancé Tracy stayed as security for a display of pictures of the Baring Family whilst Peter, the Leader of our User Group, grabbed some lunch. The Barings founded the bank Nick Leeson Trashed. Sir Francis, the founder, presided over the Louisiana Purchase, where Napoleon sold the French Empire in the USA, everything from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Borders (British by then) was sold to the USA, more than doubling their land area for $8m. Napoleon used the money to end the Peace of Amiens, and finance the second half of the Napoleonic Wars. Not a very nice man Sir Francis. On the other hand his grandson became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and at least he was qualified in finance. Our last but one Chancellor, now an unelected PM had no experience at all. And it shows.