Historic explorers bequeathed their countries something more intangible
and lasting than wealth resources and tales of derring-do. They brought
back descriptions in diaries or official accounts of how new-found peoples
actually lived alongside trunks laden with captivatingly unfamiliar fabrics
and furniture art and objects. Each fresh discovery ignited a blaze of de-
sign assimilation and transformation that explain perhaps our own pick-
and-mix approach whereby our homes are melting pots of products from
all corners of the globe. So the history of travel goes hand in hand with the
history of decoration and cultural cross-fertilisation has brought a whole
world of interiors within easy domestic reach.
An issue celebrating travel in its many guises is therefore long overdue.
Well no more. The following 211 pages are conceived as a voyage of de-
sign discovery with stop-offs everywhere from Venice to Bhutan Mexico
to Africa inner London to outer space... with no queuing at the airport.
Some stories such as the slick country pad embedded in the Chilterns show
how objects of different ethnicity can sit comfortably together; others like
the train carriage designed for Napoleon III take up the theme more obvi-
ously. Here too is the tent-shaped tomb of that quintessential Victorian
explorer Richard Burton (erected by his widow in deepest darkest south-
west London) and the studio of Julian Barrow â the painterâs exotic views
giving global reach to his little corner of Chelsea. The 18th-century Swiss
artist Jean-Etienne Liotard used his time in Turkey to shrewd commercial
advantage while Josef and Anni Albers would have remained ignorant of
the correspondence between Modernist and ancient pre-Columbian pat-
terns had they not journeyed south of the Rio Grande.
Naturally our styling and shopping features are also on board with a
roundup of accessories for travellers who donât want to stint on creature
comforts fabrics for decorators who refuse to be penned indoors and
container-loads of furniture and accessories just docked from Scandi-
navia India and the East. Elements of national dress have even been wit-
tily reimagined as upholstery. After all why settle for a plain slipcover
when you could have one with a turban?
Thereâs a sense of travelling back in time at the restored palazzo over-
looking the Grand Canal and you will be rocketed to the future by the
otherworldly pictures of the European Space Agency. Yes travel contin-
ues to inform inspire and broaden the horizons even if today we bring
back our quarry using iPhones and easy-stow holdalls rather than the
notebooks and packing crates of old.
To some extent all the interiors we create represent a sort of journey- a quest to create a place where we can be ourselves. The fashion photo-
grapher Deborah Turbeville found her spiritual home in a semi-derelict
Mexican town house: Casa No Name. And who knows what Miss Shep-
herd thought of her surroundings ensconced in a custard-yellow van in
the small Camden Town driveway of writer Alan Bennett. She certainly
felt at home as the new film of his memoir reveals (having come for three
months she stayed for 15 years). Their unconventional relationship was
its own voyage of discovery Bennett only finding out after her death that
this hard-to-like vagrant had once been a concert pianist. The only irony
of her appearance in this travel issue? The fact that once parked in the
drive the wheels of her van never rolled again $
RUPERT THOMAS EDITOR
INTRODUCTION
THE TRAVEL ISSUE