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PODCAST

Your Places or Mine

Clive Aslet & John Goodall

A podcast about places and buildings, with tales about history and people. From author and publisher Clive Aslet and the architectural editor of Country Life, & John Goodall

history places & travel

All Episodes

60:32

Detmar Blow: Disciple of Ruskin, Champion of the Arts...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/02/06

Send us a text Detmar Blow was one of the brightest stars of the Arts and Crafts Movement – but his story is also dark and mysterious. A pupil of the Kensington School of Art, where he met Lutyens – a lifelong friend – he won a travelling scholarship to draw cathedrals in France. At Abbeville, he had a chance encounter with the great Victorian sage aesthete John Ruskin, then in the decline of his old age. Blow escorted Ruskin to the Alps and imbibed his radical philosophy.&n...

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62:44

THE HISTORY OF WINDSOR CASTLE (PART 2) – FROM CHARLES...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/01/30

Send us a text This week John takes Clive through Windsor Castle, a creation not just of the Middle Ages (subject of part 1 of this series) but of successive monarchs since the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. George III, a King who had been trained in architecture, made it into a family home, before being confined here during his years of madness. Typically, his eldest son George IV had bigger ideas, employing Jeffry Wyatt to revamp the castle after 1824. This included a ...

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57:09

The Crisis of Liverpool Street Station (EMERGENCY...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/01/23

Send us a text This week John and Clive are frothing with disapproval at Network Rail’s plan to upgrade Liverpool Street Station. It is proposed that this will be funded by a development which will impose an out-of-scale tower at the entrance to the station, which will deprive the concourse of natural light and destroy the surroundings. What a pity. Liverpool Street was brilliantly reimagined in the late 1980s, to make a virtually new station so much in the spirit of the old...

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59:32

Flushed with Pride: The History of the Lavatory

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/01/16

Send us a text This week John and Clive present their long-awaited podcast on one of the most essential but least discussed rooms in any dwelling – the lavatory. Or (because no object in English or any other language is subject to so many euphemisms and circumlocutions) the necessary, the little house, the smallest room, the going place, the jakes, the john, the pissing place, the bog, the toilet…the list goes on. Although it fulfils a universal need, the loo has taken many forms ...

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57:03

Sin, Sculpture and Scandal: What is the Truth about...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/01/08

Send us a text Sir Francis Dashwood, who used to dress as a Franciscan monk and allegedly took part in orgies in the ruins of Medmenham Abbey, was one of the most notorious libertines of the 18th century. Is this a correct depiction of his character? John thinks not. Instead, he acquired his dubious reputation as a result of slurs cast by his political enemies, which Sir Francis, who didn’t care what anyone else thought about him, chose to ignore. His refusal to stoop ...

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58:22

The History of Exeter Cathedral: From Norman to Now

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/12/25

Send us a text In this episode of Your Places or Mine, Clive Aslet and John Goodall head west to Exeter Cathedral, one of England’s most distinctive medieval churches. From its extraordinary uninterrupted Gothic vault — the longest of its kind in the world — to its weathered towers and richly layered history, they explore how this cathedral grew, adapted and survived centuries of change. Along the way, they swap stories about bishops, builders and bold design choices, uncovering why Exeter fe...

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52:03

The Bank of England: Soane, Baker and the Most...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/12/19

Send us a text 2025 celebrates the rebuilding of the Bank of England by Sir Herbert Baker – if celebrate is the right word. It remains one of the most controversial projects in 20th century architecture. Baker’s name has been irredeemably blackened for his presumption in destroying the Bank of England created by Sir John Soane a century before. Clive and John revive the debate, describing the history of this great symbol of British finance and might, asking whether Baker has...

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62:30

Chim-Chiminee: The History of the Chimney

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/12/11

Send us a text This is the time of year when thoughts turn to mince pies, Christmas shopping, mulled wine – and chimneys, whether it is to settle around a roaring hearth or hope that Father Christmas pays a visit. So John and Clive are turning their attention to the development of this architectural form, beginning with the appearance of walled fireplaces in the Norman period. Chimneys reached a zenith of fantasy under the Tudors, when astounding feats of decoration were achieved ...

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61:41

Vanbrugh at 300: Celebrating The Life and Times of...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/12/04

Send us a text In today's episode of Your Places or Mine, John is joined by the inimitable Charles Saumarez Smith who divulges all he knows about the architect Sir John Vanbrugh in anticipation of the 300th anniversary of his death. Discover the remarkable life and legacy of Sir John Vanbrugh — playwright, architect, and one of the most unconventional figures of the English Baroque. From his daring comedies to his groundbreaking designs like Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, John and Charles...

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74:21

Journalists and Gentlemen: How the Georgian Group...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/11/28

Send us a text The founding of the Georgian Group in 1937 was a milestone in the movement to save beautiful architecture. With an anniversary around the corner, Clive and John discuss how the Group emerged from the parent organisation, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and why it was needed. They reveal the extraordinary extent to the destruction inflicted on Georgian London after the First World War. Not even town palaces, Georgian square or the works of ...

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62:44

The Tale of Parliament Part 2 - The House of Lords

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/11/20

Send us a text Last week’s Your Places of Mine celebrated the rebuilding of the House of Commons after the original interior was bombed during one of the last raids of the Blitz. This week, Clive and John consider the Palace of Westminster, otherwise known as the Houses of Parliament, as a whole. After the old Palace had been all but destroyed by fire in 1834, Charles Barry won the competition to rebuild it, producing a building that may have shortened his life but is surely one of the ...

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62:24

The History of The House of Commons - A Venerable...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/11/14

Send us a text On May 10, 1941, an incendiary bomb destroyed the seat of British democracy, the chamber of the House of Commons. This was not the first time fire had struck the Palace of Westminster: most of it had already been rebuilt after a disastrous fire of 1834, caused not by enemy action but the burning of obsolete tally sticks – a medieval system of accounting which symbolised the antiquated nature of the place. Seventy-five years ago the House of Commons reopened, and Joh...

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56:20

Albi Cathedral: The Greatest Brick Building in the World

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/11/06

Send us a text This week John and Clive are bowled over by Albi Cathedral, a towering, outwardly austere edifice of rosy brick which is ‘quite unlike any other medieval structure that you will see – a work of abstract modernism made in the 13th century’. They discuss the background to its construction, in particular the merciless crusade against the Albigensian Heresy which takes its name from the city. Externally the cathedral appears to be as much a fortress as a religious build...

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68:42

Magnates and Mansions: Who Were The American...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/10/30

Send us a text Phipps, Carnegie and Old Westbury Gardens In its turn of the 20th-century heyday, Long Island could boast no fewer than 900 country houses. Since then, most have disappeared, leaving Old Westbury Gardens in a unique position – the only house to have survived complete with its collections, garden and archive. Clive has just been there and shares its wonder with John, asking why the American country house is such a different beast form its counterparts in the UK. &nbs...

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55:12

A Spymaster's Lair: The Unmissable Splendour of...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/10/23

Send us a text Clive has just been to an event at Hatfield House, the palace to the North of London which stands as a monument to the political gene of the Cecil family. John is more than equal to discussing this great country house and its treasures, which the present Marquess and Marchioness of Salisbury are subtly making even more special. In the 16th-century, Robert Cecil inherited it from his father Lord Burghley, whom he followed as Queen Elizabeth’s chief minister. I...

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54:08

Cathedral on Fire: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/10/17

Send us a text In 2019 a devastating fire consumed the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, one of the towering symbols of French identity, and it seemed that one of the greatest cultural monuments in Europe had, literally, gone up in smoke. But after only two short years, it has now been restored and John has been to see – and celebrate – the result. The old Notre Dame had evolved over many centuries and lived through dramatic times. Sacked during the Revolution, it was returned to...

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56:26

The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry: A Threaded Tale of...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/10/09

Send us a text An extraordinary cultural loan is about to take place: soon, while its home in France is being improved, the Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed in the British Museum for two years. This will give members of the British public, along with visitors to London from overseas, the chance to get up close to one of the founding documents of England’s story. One of the foremost medievalists in the country, John is in a prime position to lead the discussion with Clive on this ...

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58:40

War Memorials Of WW1: The Secret Meaning of The Stone

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/10/02

Send us a text In advance of Remembrance Sunday on November 11, Clive has been visiting the Commonwealth War Graves in France. The Imperial War Graves Commission, as it was called when established in 1917, was the brain child of Fabian Ware, a civil servant turned newspaper editor who commanded a Red Cross dressing station during the First World War and was therefore saw the horror at first hand. Ware realised that the hundreds of thousands of young men who died for Britain deserv...

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53:07

The History of Salisbury Cathedral: How Did They Move...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/09/25

Send us a text Which cathedral is closest to the English heart? Impossible to say but it may be Salisbury, the subject of this week’s Your Places or Mine. On September 28 a special service will be held to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the dedication of the altars at Salisbury’s east end in 1225. To many people, Salisbury Cathedral approaches architectural perfection more nearly than any of the other cathedrals in England. It is the most harmonious; the spire is t...

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54:10

Stucco and Style: John Nash’s Regent Street

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/09/18

Send us a text The creation of Regent Street under the Prince Regent is a rare instance of a master plan that reshaped London. It linked North and South, starting in the new Regent’s Park and ending at the Prince’s Carlton House on the edge of St James’s Park. Clive and John celebrate this extraordinary achievement, which sprang from the brain of the no less extraordinary John Nash. A triumph of the Picturesque Movement, the line of the Regent Street scheme remains unchanged and the Nash terr...

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43 results

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