I shed a tear at the party at Agnews in Old Bond Street last week. It was its farewell to premises that it had occupied for more than 130 years. This most distinguished of art dealers, founded in 1817, now finds that the building it has occupied since 1876 is unsuited to the modern trade. I’m told that it was once an inn, the courtyard of which became the first-floor gallery the scene of many scholarly exhibitions.
The new owner is the Italian fashion house Etro. This is in line with recent trends. Bond Street is changing. The dealers in art and furniture that used to set the tone are folding their tents, squeezed by the aggressive policies of the salerooms, the lurch of taste from English watercolours and the like to the avant garde, and the disappearance of connoisseurs from the City of London (imagine a hedge-fund manager having the time to cultivate a taste in Watteau drawings). In come the fashion brands. How long will they stay?
The outlook for the British high street at any level doesn’t look particularly bright at the moment, but there seems to be a growing number of billionaires. Perhaps their sons and daughters will have the leisure and money to collect and a new golden age for Bond Street picture dealers will be born.
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Alan Titchmarsh: My garden is as pretty as I've ever known it, thanks to an idea I've rediscovered after 50 yearsThinking about an article he wrote almost half a century ago prompted Alan Titchmarsh to get sowing — and he's now reaping summer loveliness.
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Water you're waiting for? Britain's best heritage lidos were built to save swimmers from polluted seas full of potato peelings, oil and coal — and they're still in action todayThe seaside lido continues to offer safe swimming for holidaymakers irrespective of the tide, but they're also architectural gems worthy of our admiration.
