The concert-hall owner on proving the sceptics wrong, female composers and farming
SCOTLAND’S single biggest development in a decade is under way on 43 acres at Edinburgh Park. On a rare day off, most men in charge would put their feet up, but not Peter Millican. The chairman of property group Parabola has many unexpected lives.
To the community around Corbridge, Northumberland, he is a quiet gentleman farmer, with 200 beef cattle and 1,000-odd lambs. Down in London, another set of friends and colleagues looks forward to Thursdays, when Mr Millican arrives for two days at his very own concert hall, Kings Place, N1. At 69, he feels a way off retirement, but he has achieved a lifetime ambition in opening the much-garlanded venue in 2008.
Others have talked up undeliverable plans for new Arts venues in 21st-century London amid cuts in Government funding, but Mr Millican simply got on with it, ploughing in £100 million with no public subsidy. He was confident he’d get his money back, but not overly worried if he didn’t.
Alan Rusbridger, fellow music buff and former editor of The Guardian, credited him with ‘responding to the collective responsibility that all developers share, but which very few take seriously’. In 2015, he received an OBE for services to the Arts.
Kings Place is now a major cog in our capital’s musical life, the equal of the Southbank Centre and Wigmore Hall, although striving not to copy them. ‘Of everything I’ve built, Kings Place still gives me a buzz,’ Mr Millican says.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 20, 2019-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 20, 2019-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
