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The advantages of living in a tip

There is a great deal to be said for living in a tip

Martin Gayford

Wednesday, 21st November 2007

A celebration of British mess and muddle

Of course, tidiness is not necessarily malign. It is more that the two impulses — The World of Interiors calls the corresponding styles ‘minimalism’ and ‘cluttered’ — are like yin and yang. One inclines its devotees to file all their papers, as I do, in a mound on the floor; those of the opposite temperament line up their pens in a row.

It is the same with artist’s studios. Some, Mondrian’s for example, are as spick and span as laboratories. In others, such as Francis Bacon’s, the visitor climbed over a midden of brushes, paper, paint, and heterogeneous junk. Who is to say which environment produces the better results?

My point is simply that slovenliness has its value. In fact, squalor is something we Brits do very well. It is basic to the only aesthetic notion ever invented within these shores: the Picturesque. This mode of landscape requires overgrown vegetation, decaying masonry, tumble-down walls, a touch of grime and decay, a few of the ‘old rotten planks’ and ‘slimy posts’ so beloved by John Constable. Foreigners come here, a wise Londoner once suggested to me, to see a ‘bit of filth’. If the Prime Minister is sincerely interested in discovering the essence of Britishness, perhaps he should consider dirt and mess.

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Once again

November 30th, 2007 7:46pm

If the Prime Minister is sincerely interested in discovering the essence of Britishness, perhaps he should consider dirt and mess. Dirt, mess and their companion - disease.

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