Monocle Weekend
Edition: Saturday

When in Rome, do as the Monocle Concierge does. At least, that’s our plan for a weekend in the Eternal City. On the way we try to avoid Frankfurt’s parking vigilantes, snare a spectator’s seat in Turin to examine the ATP Tour’s latest fashion trend and enjoy musical accompaniment courtesy of Gabriel Prokofiev. Andrew Tuck opens the serving with an inside look at one of London’s grandest addresses.

How our homes look somehow feels important. Done well, they can reflect our tastes and the times that we move in. We buy interior-design magazines, visit endless stores in search of the most apposite furnishings because it seems to matter. Yet it’s this very connection to a person and a time that in the end is the undoing of all interior design. Because as our tastes shift, fashions move on (or someone else takes up residence in our former home), then all those carefully chosen paint shades, all those once-yearned-for pieces of furniture, suddenly feel wrong. The writer and historian Steven Brindle talks about the “mortality” of interior design; how even the most elevated examples are doomed almost the moment that they are completed.

On Tuesday night, I walked down through Mayfair, past the overly lit hedge-fund offices and the dubious art that fills their lobbies. On past the grand houses whose tightly bolted shutters await the arrival of distant owners and, finally, popped out at Hyde Park Corner. Steven Brindle has a new, thumpingly large, book out called London Lost Interiors which has an introduction by the Duke of Wellington (whose sign off is simply, “Wellington”). What’s more, Brindle was hosting the launch party in the Duke’s family home, Apsley House, that sits right on the park’s corner.

While Brindle’s book offers a photographic tour of lost interiors from the 1880s to 1950, Apsley House is included – and made the perfect party venue – because it survived. Built in the 1770s, the 1st Duke initially moved into the house in 1817 and filled it with paintings and other art that are still on show. In the 1940s the then Duke gave the house and contents to the nation while the family retained the private apartments, where they continue to live. So, while so many grand London interiors, and buildings, have vanished, Apsley House still functions as an aristocratic (and now open to the public) home.

The book reception’s crowd was dotted with lots of historians, publishing types and a sprinkling of aristocrats (during Brindle’s speech a phone rang – twice – and its ringtone made clear who was in the room: it was the sound of a hunting bugle). Anyway, I loved it; champagne, a chance to wander around the house (how had I never been before?) and I always enjoy a good speech. Brindle’s was touching when he thanked his husband for all of his support. His husband’s name? Nelson. Disappointingly, no eye patch.

And I bought the book. Most of the images were taken by two celebrated companies focused on architectural photography, Bedford Lemere & Company and Millar & Harris, their archives now held by Historic England. Brindle trawled through thousands of pictures to select just 650. These are the homes of the middle classes, the wealthy and the plutocrats but no matter how much money was lavished on the interiors they were all buffeted and, in the end, torn asunder by changing times, financial mayhem or war.

While you can see why the brocades, heavy drapes and ornate furnishings of the Victorian era were doomed (you needed a lot of staff just to keep on top of the dusting), there are other homes that still look contemporary, that you wish had persisted. Take 5 Connaught Place, a modernist apartment that belonged to Commander Edward Heywood-Lonsdale and his wife June Shakespeare. It has a vast double-height living space with just a few select pieces of furniture that you would still desire, a Picasso on the wall (which you’d also want) and a large hipster cactus on the windowsill. The house was heavily damaged during a Second World War bombing raid. But at the party was the commander’s daughter, the Duchess of Devonshire, who I saw chatting with Brindle about her parents’ residence.

Perhaps we just must accept that our homes are reflections of passing moments and so are inevitably fragile. Unless you want to live in a time capsule, embrace this ephemerality, the fleeting moments of hopefully satisfying completeness before the tide comes in and takes it all away. Lives change. Homes change.

‘London Lost Interiors’ (Atlantic Publishing in association with Historic England) by Steven Brindle is out now. To hear an interview with Brindle, listen to this week’s episode of‘The Urbanist’.

It seems that Carlos Alcaraz has been in a purple patch ever since he won his first title in 2021 (writes Jack Simpson). However, following a straight-sets defeat in the past week while suffering from a bout of illness, Alcaraz took to court in Turin on Wednesday donning a more literal purple patch – or “marginal gains nasal strip” – in his victory over Russia’s Andrey Rublev. “For me, it helped a lot today,” said the Spaniard about the fuchsia piece of tape bridging his snout that supposedly helps his breathing and provided the vital edge.

It’s a look that many athletes have trialled over the years – but none for long. If you flit through an album of Panini football stickers or catch highlights of the 1996 Olympics, you’re bound to find a couple of rogue examples. Nobody, however, has stuck with it. Perhaps the placebo effect wears off or maybe the wearer just takes a long, hard look at themselves.

What the strip does achieve for Alcaraz is a needed injection of cult, a bit of edge and identity. He recently dispatched the world number one, Jannik Sinner, in the China Open final. Yet the Gucci-backed Sinner – the South Tyrolean whose clay-hued curls have launched a thousand magazine covers – has the sartorial advantage. While both have the backing of major fashion houses, neither yet have the baseline style of a Roger Federer. As the world’s most well-turned-out sport, tennis will always want more from its starlets. This court of opinion believes that both need to be braver with their style. Balls, please!

Nobody likes a snitch (writes Andrew Mueller). And nobody much cares for a thoughtless motorist either. Frankfurt has embarked, if inadvertently, on an experiment to determine which of these two is loathed most. In February the city launched a website enabling anybody armed with a smartphone to report parking violations. Take-up has been enthusiastic: more than 25,000 complaints have been lodged.

It’s good news for Frankfurt’s coffers: the initiative has raised nearly €2m in fines since. It is, probably, also conducive to orderly parking, as motorists internalise the likelihood that they’ll be caught and therefore behave themselves. But is effectively deputising every citizen as a parking warden good for Frankfurters – and, given the likelihood of similar set-ups being established elsewhere, for any of us?

In this specific scenario, it’s probably harmless. Motorists should keep off the double-yellows and should be stung if they don’t. But somewhere inside all of us there’s probably a version of Niclas Matthei, the German teenager who has personally reported 10,000 errant parkers and earned himself the moniker Anzeigenhauptmeister (Reporting Master). It may not be parking that turns us vigilante: this correspondent, for example, might be tempted by a platform that calls drone strikes upon e-scooter riders.

It is not necessary to invoke unhappy eras of specifically German history to evoke concern about where this might lead. As we are all more intimately embraced by the online panopticon, it will doubtless become ever easier to shop our neighbours for infractions small or great – and the proportion of humanity who would revel vindictively in this power is comfortably higher than zero.

Japanese label Beams Plus opened its first US shop in Los Angeles this week. While the store at 620 Imperial Street is temporary, open from now until 24 December, many are hoping that it signals an intention for growth in the region come the New Year. While the brand boasts more than 150 outlets across Japan, Taipei, Hong Kong and Bangkok, this is its first dedicated opening outside Asia.

And yet, considering its line-up of knits, tailoring and outerwear inspired by vintage American style, this foray into the US is something of a homecoming. After a spot of shopping, why not make a day of it by strolling north through the Arts District to Little Tokyo for lunch. Extra points if you check out the Japanese American National Museum as well.
beams.co.jp

The Monocle Concierge is our purveyor of top tips and delectable recommendations for your next trip. If you’re planning to go somewhere nice and would like some advice, click here. We will publish one answer each week.

Dear Concierge,
We’re heading to Rome for three days at the end of November. We found a cool apartment but need some special tips on bars and restaurants, please.

Thanks in advance,
Nigel Mortimer
United Kingdom

Dear Nigel,

While many of Rome’s sights may be getting a lick of paint ahead of the 2025 Jubilee, a Catholic celebration that takes place every 25 years, the city’s bars and restaurants will be as bustling as ever.

Start the day with a classic Roman sweet bun, the maritozzo. Every café will claim to make the best ones, but Roscioli Caffè is a clear favourite among Romans – so do as they do. From there, it’s only a short walk to the small but beautiful Santa Barbara dei Librai church.

Deciding where to eat in Rome can be difficult. For that dark mahogany and white-tablecloth ristorante experience, head to Nino just off the Piazza di Spagna. The excellent food pairs well with the restaurant’s first-rate people watching; coiffured signore and signori abound – even if they don’t have quite the name recognition of past diners including Sophia Loren, Michelangelo Antonioni and Audrey Hepburn.

As the sun sets on the Eternal City, swing by Il Vinaietto. This winery between Largo Torre Argentina and Campo di Fiori has been a local institution for more than 25 years. Occupying a former vini e oli shop (the Roman precursor to the convenience store), what the place lacks in size it makes up for with its excellent wine selection and cosy atmosphere. Try a glass before you buy, find a spot outside and enjoy your tipple as Romanesco chatter and cigarette smoke mingles in the evening air.

Buon appetito

Gabriel Prokofiev – yes, grandson of that other virtuosic Prokofiev – is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his record label, Nonclassical, this year. To mark the occasion, we sat down with Prokofiev to talk about the genesis of the label, streaming algorithms and sticky floors.

Congratulations on your 20th anniversary. How did Nonclassical come about?
As a composer, I felt that there weren’t enough performance opportunities and that all of us living composers weren’t really having a dialogue with our peers. The contemporary classical scene felt so inward-looking. I wanted to share my music with others.

You’re well known for pushing the envelope with the venues you choose. Was that a conscious decision or just the nature of the music?
I had this idea that I wanted to put on a classical ensemble – such as a string quartet, solo harp or flute trio – in the last possible venue you’d expect. The stickier the carpet, the better. I thought it would really shake up people’s expectations and it’s amazing what happens. You can put on music that’s quite challenging and yet it feels much more at home in those venues than it does in a concert hall.

The Spotify algorithm is often criticised by musicians. But does it help the label reach different audiences?
People’s listening habits have changed. What I like about the streaming generation is that they move fluidly between genres. Often it’s mood-based listening. In the past, when it was about going to record shops, you’d be stuck in a genre. Now there’s not that categorisation. Previously, Nonclassical could fall between the cracks. A lot of what we released wasn’t strictly contemporary classical, old classical, electronic nor experimental; it was in between all of them. So for us, it’s a good thing that we can slide between different categories now.

For more articles and insights that strike the right note, pick up a copy of Monocle’sNovember issue, which is on newsstands now. Or better yet,subscribetoday so that you never miss an issue. Have a super Saturday.