Homing In

A while back, Tim came to London to perform at the Isokon building in Belsize Park, and I managed to catch up with him to record this podcast.  

As a small boy in the Seventies, Tim quietly absorbed the lessons of modernist architecture. He remembers accompanying his parents to a dinner party at a modern house, where the sound of laughter reverberated around the circular lounge; his career seems to have been about trying to recapture that heady moment. 

In 2003, he bought his own modernist house in Sydney, a move which, he says, ‘changed my life for the better’. His fascination with architecture and design had previously been a solitary pursuit, but the house provided a way to meet like-minded people and a launchpad for his TV career. 

Tim is really great company, and we talk about all sorts of things. He explains how he’s an outlier in his family, and what it felt like to perform on stage for the first time.  

He tells me about the day the Beastie Boys came to visit and wouldn’t leave, why he’d rather learn to be a builder than go through the stress of another renovation project, and why he swears by the uplifting effects of tinted moisturiser.

This episode was recorded in person in Brick Lane, London.

For more: 

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode

Discover more about Tim Ross and his live shows

See more of his Sydney home

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young and Ben Tucker

Music: Father

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luke has kindly invited us to his house in the Cotswolds, which he shares with his husband, Duncan Campbell, and a pair of enthusiastic whippets.  

I was intrigued to learn that this modern-day dandy comes from a bog-standard commuter town, and like many of the people I talk to on this podcast, his creative impulses offered a route out of mediocrity. 

He tells me his very personal backstory of being estranged from his father at a young age, and what it was like to come out as gay to his family. 

We talk about his witty, whimsical interpretation of the English Country House Style, why he believes you should invest yourself financially and emotionally in a rental, and why he chose to paint his London flat in ‘Pepto-Bismol pink’ before getting rid of it a few days later.

This episode was recorded in person at Luke’s cottage in the Cotswolds.

For more: 

Check out the work of Luke Edward Hall

See images of the home he shares with Duncan Campbell over on our sister website, Inigo

Visit The Modern House website

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young and Ben Tucker 

Music: Father 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first time we’ve recorded an episode in a hotel suite, and that’s because today’s guest knows more about opening doors to glamorous guesthouses than anyone else. 

James Lohan co-founded the travel company Mr & Mrs Smith with his wife Tamara back in 2003, and since then he’s visited nearly 4,000 hotels in the name of research. 

James is a gregarious character with some brilliant tales to tell.We discuss his earliest experiences as an entrepreneur, from selling cheese toasties at school, to setting up a mobile disco called Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It. 

He tells me about his refurbishment of a Dutch barge on the Thames – complete with flock wallpaper and a freestanding bath – and what he’s learned from hotels that we might apply to our homes.

This episode was recorded in person at The Nomad Hotel, London.

For more:

Check out Mr & Mrs Smith

Visit The Modern House website

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing and mixing: Oscar Crawford

Music: Father

Graphic Design: Tom Young and Ben Tucker

This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During her tenure at Nowness, Claudia commissioned the well-known ‘In Residence’ series, which took us inside the homes of the biggest names in design and architecture. Today, I’m meeting Claudia in her beautiful London home to give her a taste of her own journalistic medicine …

She tells me about what it was like to grow up in an English prototype of the American dream, and talks fondly about her ‘impossibly glamorous’ grandparents’ house, which had shagpile carpet, pink loo roll and a telephone next to the sunken bath.

We discuss why she prefers to define space with furniture rather than architecture, what happened when she broke her hip and couldn’t get down the stairs, why a home is never truly finished, and the power of procrastination.

This episode was recorded at Claudia's home in north west London.

For more:

Visit The Modern House website for images of some the spaces discussed in this episode

Check out Cloakroom

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing and mixing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Philippe designs everything from furniture to lighting, combining modern geometry with a sense of humour and materials that are built to last. I first met him many years ago, when he was doing some work with my wife, Faye Toogood. We’d turned our bedroom into a makeshift design studio, and Philippe and a few others would come round to make maquettes and geek out about ergonomics. 

Nowadays, he’s a burly, bearded bear of a man with an extra 20kg of muscle, but his wit and warmth are the same as I remember. He tells me about what it was like to grow up beside a lake in Canada. From the age of seven, he would take himself off in his boat for the whole day, catching fish and swimming off the islands. 

This independent, practical spirit has continued into adult life. He largely works on his own, because that’s how he likes it. His studio in Hackney, where we met to record this conversation, is the epicentre of his creative output – a place where he can build something, obsess over which type of screw he’s going to use, or just sit and daydream.

He tells me what it’s like to create a home from stuff that others have thrown away, how he saved up to buy his favourite sofa and kept it wrapped in plastic for two years, and why space is the ultimate luxury.

This episode was recorded in person, at Philippe Malouin’s studio in East London.

For more: 

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode

Check out Philippe Malouin’s latest work

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I’m talking to the wonderful Sumayya Vally, founder of the architecture and research practice Counterspace. When in 2020 Sumayya designed the Serpentine pavilion, she joined the ranks of luminaries including Zaha Hadid, Peter Zumthor and Frank Gehry. In 2021, Time Magazine named her one of the ‘100 Leaders of the Future’ and, more recently, she was artistic director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Saudi Arabia.

What really shines through in this conversation is Sumayya’s interest in the notion of home as it relates to place. She was born in an Indian township in Pretoria, just after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and she cites the city of Johannesburg as her biggest inspiration. When she arrived in London, she became interested in the gathering spaces where settlers from other countries and communities have established themselves: churches, synagogues, marketplaces, female community centres, black-music venues and so on. ‘Home is not a physical place,’ she says. ‘It’s a sensibility and a feeling.’

The name ‘Sumayya’ means ‘to rise to the occasion’, and she tells me how she’s an outlier in her family and how her parents made sacrifices to provide her with an education. Very occasionally in life, you meet someone who has an inner light that seems to shine more brightly than other people’s. For me, Sumayya has that. She’s incredibly composed, articulate and wise beyond her years and I’m full of admiration for the work she’s doing to bring disparate cultures together.

This episode was recorded in person in London.

For more:

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode.

Check out Counterspace.

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the time of recording, Tim was knee-deep in building works at home, so I polished up my Chelsea boots for a visit to his London studio. 

As always, I asked him to describe his life story through the lens of the homes he’s lived in over the years. It was particularly interesting to find out more about his current home, which he bought after seeing it on our website and falling instantly in love. It’s a mid-century masterpiece set in splendid isolation near Rye, in East Sussex.  A celebration of craftsmanship comes through in everything that Tim is about. 

His father was a textile manufacturer, and he’s inherited a fascination with how things are made and the excitement of seeing something take shape on the factory floor. He tells me about his background in advertising, when he was given the most thrilling brief of all time: ‘Make Adidas cool again’. Having been given the keys to one of the world’s most established brands, he was inspired to start his eponymous footwear company and ultimately take over Grenson.

Tim is a lovely guy – very humble and grounded – and I really enjoyed getting to know him through the course of this conversation.

This episode was recorded in person at the Grenson Studio in Chelsea.

For more:

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode.

Check out Grenson.

Production: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I first became aware of Jeremy’s food when he was head chef of Terence Conran’s Blueprint Café, which was above the old Design Museum in Shad Thames. Nowadays, of course, he’s in charge of the kitchen at the revered Quo Vadis in Soho.

No one seems to have a bad word to say about Jeremy, and Jay Rayner describes him as ‘one of those rare phenomena in the London food world: a chap everyone agrees is a good thing.

His cookbook is simply called Cooking, which sums up his warm-hearted and simple approach to food. I was fascinated to find out more about Jeremy’s life via the homes he’s lived in, from the modern house his parents built, which was shaped like a wedge of cheese, to the flat in a converted factory where we recorded this episode.

It turns out that his approach to interiors is as artful as his presentation of food – as if each element has been dolloped off a spoon and landed in exactly the right place.

This episode was recorded at Jeremy Lee’s east London home.

For more: 

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode

Watch Homing In, the film series. 

Check out Jeremy’s cookbook, Cooking

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s barely an oilcloth, mug or ironing board cover that hasn’t been embellished with a nostalgic floral print from Cath Kidston. Because of the brand’s ubiquity, it’s easy to forget quite how influential it was when it appeared in the 1990s.

What I love about Cath is that she’s living proof you can be a wildly successful entrepreneur whilst also being a kind, gentle soul. Although her name’s still above the door, she hasn’t been involved with the Cath Kidston business for many years, so I was intrigued to find out what that feels like. 

She’s now set up a bodycare brand called C. Atherley, which makes all of its products using scented geraniums. Despite her love of flowers, life hasn’t always been a bed of David Austin roses for Cath and she talks very honestly about the personal grief she’s suffered through her life. 

She has a great eye for interiors and we had this conversation at her kitchen table in London, with a surprisingly modern backdrop of Danish wood flooring and an Ellsworth Kelly artwork. 

Cath was very generous with her time and emotions and I’m really happy with how this episode has turned out. I hope you enjoy it.

This episode was recorded in person at Cath Kidston’s West London home.

For more: 

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode

Check out Cath Kidston’s latest venture, C.Atherley

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I’m chatting to the swashbuckling artist and restaurateur Jonny Gent. We recorded this episode during a busy lunch service at Sessions Arts Club, Jonny’s inspirational restaurant in Clerkenwell. It’s fair to say that he’d emboldened himself with a few martinis beforehand and what ensued was a conversation that very much represents the man himself: unstructured, poetic and generous. 

Jonny’s a brilliant painter, and his artworks range from the sexualised and salacious to tenderly painted still-lifes that are a tribute to his late mother. After getting himself through art school, he met a casting director who wrote him a cheque for every painting he’d made. What followed was a journey that took him to more than 20 countries around the world, establishing art studios in everything from a cabin in Scotland to a tobacco factory in France. 

Now approaching his late 40s, he’s finally starting to put down some roots. As well as having a permanent home in London, Jonny spends a lot of time in the Scottish Highlands, where he’s opened a retreat for creatives called Boath House. Like Sessions Arts Club, it explores the confluence of art, food and music.  

Jonny says of his childhood, “I felt totally alone in what I found beautiful.” He begins by telling me about the Slow & Easy, the pub he grew up in, and the lasting impact of 500 strangers coming into your home every day. I hope you enjoy it!

This episode was recorded in person at Sessions Arts Club, London.

For more: 

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode

Check out Sessions Arts Club and Boath House

Take a look at Jonny Gent’s latest work

Producer and Editor: Hannah Phillips

Mixing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.