TALK & BOOK SIGNING: Philippa Stockley ‘Restoration Stories: Patina and Paint in Old London Houses’

Tuesday 29 October, 6:45pm, £10

Join us for an illustrated talk by the award-winning journalist, novelist and painter Philippa Stockley discussing her new book Restoration Stories: Patina and Paint in Old London Houses. The book features interviews with the owners of sixteen restored London period properties, one of which is her own, alongside ravishing photographs taken by Charlie Hopkinson.

The majority of dwellings in this book began as ordinary terrace houses, built to a pattern, often in pairs or small groups. Clusters exist in the East End of London: in Spitalfields, Whitechapel, Shadwell, Mile End. They are mostly Grade II-listed, and some are approaching their 300 th birthday.

Their owners, who come from all walks of life, are proud of the rare beauty of the houses they live in, and find that modern life easily coexists with Georgian beauty and practicality. Through Stockley’s evocative and informative text and Hopkinson’s over 250 beautiful new photographs, Restoration Stories gives us a rare glimpse of life in these private houses.

Philippa Stockley is an award-winning journalist renowned for her writing on London architecture and interiors, and a critically acclaimed novelist whose latest novel, Black Lily is set in seventeenth century London. Stockley holds MAs in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and in English from Oxford University. She lives in London, in a house featured in the book.

Charlie Hopkinson is an award-winning photographer of interiors, gardens and portraits, whose latest book, Head Gardeners, won the Garden Media Guild’s Inspirational Book of the Year award (2017). He lives in London.