Graduate shows 2015: these utensils by Bezalel Academy of Art and Design graduate Dana Douiev enable the ceremonial preparation of traditional Ethiopian injera bread in a contemporary city kitchen (+ movie). (more…)
Graduate shows 2015: these utensils by Bezalel Academy of Art and Design graduate Dana Douiev enable the ceremonial preparation of traditional Ethiopian injera bread in a contemporary city kitchen (+ movie). (more…)
The Broad Museum designed by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro is set to open in September, heralding an architecture boom in Los Angeles. (more…)
The Broad Museum designed by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro is set to open in September, heralding an architecture boom in Los Angeles. (more…)
Photo by David Lauder.
In the early 1950s when he took over the estate he inherited, a former monastery built in the 13th century, Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu of Beaulieu nearly got rid of it. He could barely afford to maintain it, he had spent much of his life away from it, and he had just started a career in advertising. Instead, he turned the estate into one of Britain’s leading automobile museums and became one of the country’s foremost authorities on old cars.
The inspiration for the transformation came from one of the more influential men in early British automobile history, Edward’s father John. The son of the first Lord Montagu, John reportedly introduced King Edward VII to motoring, founded The Car Illustrated magazine, and later commissioned the sculpture that would become Rolls-Royce’s famous Spirit of Ecstasy. John died in 1929 when Edward was two years old, but left to his only son both the peerage and the family home in Hampshire, sitting on a 7,000-acre estate.
Though Edward officially owned the estate on his father’s death, trustees managed it for him until his 25th birthday. Thus in October 1951 and with a £1,500 annual stipend from his inheritance he found himself wrestling with the fate of the estate. “In 1951, to any sensible, rational being, the house was a white elephant,” he said. “The wise solution was to get rid of it. For me, however – neither entirely sensible nor rational – that was unthinkable.” So he not only decided to open the estate to the public – something other estate owners had just started to do at that time – he also determined that it should house an auto museum.
Trouble was, he only had one car at his disposal: a 1903 De Dion Bouton owned by the estate’s electrician. But he had plenty of his father’s literature and memorabilia as well as influence among other collectors of old cars, so a year later he opened what his obituary described as the first automobile museum in the country. Five years later, he moved the museum out of the house’s front hall and into a series of large sheds on the grounds; three years after that, he had a dedicated building erected for the museum; by 1964, attendance and the size of the car collection had grown so much that he began work on the current museum, which opened in 1972 as the National Motor Museum. These days the museum houses more than 250 vehicles, including the Sunbeam 350hp Bluebird, Sydney Allard’s first dragster, the aforementioned De Dion Bouton, and one of those Minis rebodied as an orange for advertising purposes.
Photo courtesy National Motor Museum.
Beyond founding the museum, Montagu has racked up a lifetime’s worth of accomplishments in the old car world. A prolific writer, the Bealieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile draws on the museum’s vast literature collection and is seen by many automotive historians as indispensable. He founded Veterans and Vintage magazine and has taken part in countless London-to-Brighton runs. More recently he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2012 International Historic Motoring Awards. In addition, he’s taken credit for not only introducing the American-style swap meet to Britain, but for redubbing it “autojumble” to suit British audiences.
Montagu, who was 88, leaves behind a wife, Fiona Herbert, and two sons and a daughter. The museum, nowadays run as a charitable trust, will remain open.
Photo by David Lauder.
In the early 1950s when he took over the estate he inherited, a former monastery built in the 13th century, Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu of Beaulieu nearly got rid of it. He could barely afford to maintain it, he had spent much of his life away from it, and he had just started a career in advertising. Instead, he turned the estate into one of Britain’s leading automobile museums and became one of the country’s foremost authorities on old cars.
The inspiration for the transformation came from one of the more influential men in early British automobile history, Edward’s father John. The son of the first Lord Montagu, John reportedly introduced King Edward VII to motoring, founded The Car Illustrated magazine, and later commissioned the sculpture that would become Rolls-Royce’s famous Spirit of Ecstasy. John died in 1929 when Edward was two years old, but left to his only son both the peerage and the family home in Hampshire, sitting on a 7,000-acre estate.
Though Edward officially owned the estate on his father’s death, trustees managed it for him until his 25th birthday. Thus in October 1951 and with a £1,500 annual stipend from his inheritance he found himself wrestling with the fate of the estate. “In 1951, to any sensible, rational being, the house was a white elephant,” he said. “The wise solution was to get rid of it. For me, however – neither entirely sensible nor rational – that was unthinkable.” So he not only decided to open the estate to the public – something other estate owners had just started to do at that time – he also determined that it should house an auto museum.
Trouble was, he only had one car at his disposal: a 1903 De Dion Bouton owned by the estate’s electrician. But he had plenty of his father’s literature and memorabilia as well as influence among other collectors of old cars, so a year later he opened what his obituary described as the first automobile museum in the country. Five years later, he moved the museum out of the house’s front hall and into a series of large sheds on the grounds; three years after that, he had a dedicated building erected for the museum; by 1964, attendance and the size of the car collection had grown so much that he began work on the current museum, which opened in 1972 as the National Motor Museum. These days the museum houses more than 250 vehicles, including the Sunbeam 350hp Bluebird, Sydney Allard’s first dragster, the aforementioned De Dion Bouton, and one of those Minis rebodied as an orange for advertising purposes.
Photo courtesy National Motor Museum.
Beyond founding the museum, Montagu has racked up a lifetime’s worth of accomplishments in the old car world. A prolific writer, the Bealieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile draws on the museum’s vast literature collection and is seen by many automotive historians as indispensable. He founded Veterans and Vintage magazine and has taken part in countless London-to-Brighton runs. More recently he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2012 International Historic Motoring Awards. In addition, he’s taken credit for not only introducing the American-style swap meet to Britain, but for redubbing it “autojumble” to suit British audiences.
Montagu, who was 88, leaves behind a wife, Fiona Herbert, and two sons and a daughter. The museum, nowadays run as a charitable trust, will remain open.
Chinese firm MAD Architects has proposed a futuristic housing scheme for LA that features sculptural towers wrapped in gardens and connected by sky bridges. (more…)
