Issue 164 also includes an Art Special that puts collectors, galleries and this year’s Art Basel in the frame.
Plus: a guide to the Venice Architecture Biennale and a rare venture into Syria.
Ever dreamed of ditching the rat race for a life on the land?
A former waterside inn in a quiet fishing village north of Amsterdam is now a cosy hotel and restaurant where good food, nice design and big views all entice you to linger. Monocle takes a first look.ByJosh FehnertPhotographyJulie Mayfeng
For the third annual Monocle Design Awards, we’ve scoured the globe for the best in architecture, furniture, graphic design and more, to celebrate projects improving our lives – while looking good.Edited byNic MonissePhotographyBenjamin Swanson
“I was a motorcycle hater,” says Stefan Ytterborn. That is, before the Swedish entrepreneur tried a few electric ones and got so hooked that he decided to design his own. Cake’s first model, Kalk, put competitors to shame with a design weighing 40 per cent less than the average motorbike. In 2021 Cake started shipping out Kalk &, an upgrade engineered for both commutes and off-road escapades. “During the week you ride the bike from home to work, and during the weekend you bring it out to the countryside,”…
COTSWOLD LIFE MAGAZINE – MAY 2023: The issue features the folklore, sayings and celebrations of Maytime; 24-hours in Burford; @Benfogle on health scares, hope & homesickness; from Elgar to Beatlemania at @AbbeyRoad; an illustrated guide to #Uley; a folkloric walk by the River Severn.
EDITOR’S LETTER – Bricks-and-mortar retail, from tiny independent shops to giant malls, can shape and inspire the community around it. Andrew Tuck finds Monocle’s Retail Survey reflecting what we’ve always believed: that in-person experiences are the most valuable. There’s plenty more too.
Once derelict, Gurney Manor Mill was rescued in the early 1990s and transformed into a lovely family home.
Any property that is surrounded by water is guaranteed to be impressive. It’s sort of an unwritten rule. Naturally, as a former watermill, Gurney Manor Mill falls into this category: the mill and its 1.2 acres of gardens are surrounded by the historicwater system, creating a bucolic setting.
Amelia Thorpe selects watering cans for the home and garden
Don’t know your potassium from your phosphorus? Fear not, as Steven Desmond explains what to feed your plants and when
There’s more to ornamental apple trees than merely fruit, reveals Charles Quest-Ritson
Meet the ‘gentleman in velvet’—Harry Pearson unearths the underground world of the mole
Giardino dell’Iris, Florence, Italy
Jo Rodgers feels right at home in glamorous Paris, and we pick our favourite European hotels
Here’s where to bed down after watching the Olympics in 2024
Seven spectacular islands—from Menorca to Manhattan
Rosalyn Wikeley gets away from it all in the ‘Hawaii of Europe’
Glasshouses can be havens for people as well as their plants, Caroline Donald discovers
Alan Titchmarsh speaks out in defence of the privet hedge
In the first of a two-part series Marcus Binney explores the park of Fawley Hill, Berkshire
Ian Morton lauds the intelligence of the much-maligned corvid
SURVIVING WINTER: Joe Gibbs summons the fortitude of our forebears in a bid to survive the cold season in an old house with rattling windows, draughty chimneys and a leaky roof.
NEWS: What impact will inflation and the cost-of-living crisis have on our historic houses and churches?
MASTERPIECE: The Forstye Saga‘s enduring appeal.
ARCHITECTURE: Drapers’ Hall: An enduring force for good.
FURNITURE: The joys of gilded furniture.
INTERIORS: Fat, often glistening metallic tassels, fringes, cords and braids—known as passementerie—have been beautifying interiors for centuries, reveals an admiring Matthew Dennison.
Boomers Daily 