by James Balston | Feb 9, 2016 | Apartments, Bathrooms, Designers & Architects, Homes
Like the post-war housing estates that replaced them, the tenements of Glasgow were much maligned. Yes they were over crowded, harbouring disease and abject poverty, but then as now the knee-jerk solution always seems to be “pull them down and start... 
by James Balston | Jan 12, 2016 | Art, Artists' Homes, Colour, Decoration, Homes, Studios
I’ve known Katie Wallis since the late eighties, when we both studied at Brighton Polytechnic, as it then was. She was studying illustration, but her output since has been much broader, also covering, interior design, mural painting, textile design and... 
by James Balston | Nov 11, 2014 | 1950s, Antiques, Bedrooms, Homes, Kitchens
Liz’s 1950s style kitchen was the perfect cover for Vinny Lee’s latest book Kitchenalia, but there’s so much more to her Ramsgate cottage that deserves to be seen. For me, some of the most interesting homes I’ve shot, are not necessarily the... 
by James Balston | Sep 8, 2014 | Architecture, Designers & Architects, Homes, Kitchens
When researching the background to the pretty Arts and Crafts house in the Surrey Hills that I shot for The English Home magazine, I was surprised to discover that its architect, Edward Mountford, was also responsible for great works of Edwardian baroque such as the... 
by James Balston | Aug 13, 2014 | Architecture, Classical, Decoration, Homes
Nowadays home cinemas, indoor pools and gyms would appear to be among the more popular status symbols among the uber-rich. But in the 18th and 19th centuries, the citrus fruit was so impossibly exotic, that having the means to grow them in our fickle climate was the...