The butterfly bush thrives in London | Letter

Gavin Weightman responds to a column by Adrian Chiles about buddleia

So Adrian Chiles (G2, 4 April) has noticed buddleia bushes growing out of derelict buildings and judges them to signify industrial neglect. He suggests the plant does not grow so much in London because land is too expensive. In fact buddleia grows everywhere in London, sprouting from the tops of many buildings that are not abandoned and forming great thickets along railway lines. It is also a prized garden plant, attracting a great variety of insects, and is commonly called “the butterfly bush”. And though it is from China and was brought to Europe by a Frenchman, Linnaeus named it after the Rev Adam Buddle of Hadleigh rectory, Essex, in honour of observations he had made of local plants. Buddle never saw the butterfly bush, as he died more than a century before it was introduced in the last decade of Victoria’s reign.
Gavin Weightman
London

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The butterfly bush thrives in London | Letter

Gavin Weightman responds to a column by Adrian Chiles about buddleia

So Adrian Chiles (G2, 4 April) has noticed buddleia bushes growing out of derelict buildings and judges them to signify industrial neglect. He suggests the plant does not grow so much in London because land is too expensive. In fact buddleia grows everywhere in London, sprouting from the tops of many buildings that are not abandoned and forming great thickets along railway lines. It is also a prized garden plant, attracting a great variety of insects, and is commonly called “the butterfly bush”. And though it is from China and was brought to Europe by a Frenchman, Linnaeus named it after the Rev Adam Buddle of Hadleigh rectory, Essex, in honour of observations he had made of local plants. Buddle never saw the butterfly bush, as he died more than a century before it was introduced in the last decade of Victoria’s reign.
Gavin Weightman
London

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Let’s move to Whitstable, Kent: pockets of peace on the gentrified seaside

The town still manages to balance quite-posh delis with men’s outfitters from the age of Perry Como

What’s going for it? I’m an old hand at Whitstable. Not as old as some of the seadogs nursing pints in the Neptune. But I’ve been coming here since the days when, if fortune smiled, you might spy the elderly Peter Cushing – then the town’s starriest resident – pottering along the high street. What a difference 30 years makes. My latest trip confirms that Whitstable has reached stage four of gentrification. We’ve had the Shabby Artists stage, the Cute Vintage Shop stage, the Actually Quite Posh Delis Have Opened stage. Now some serious money has arrived: The Building Of Fancy New Houses That Look As If Their Owners Have Watched Too Many Episodes Of Grand Designs stage. This lot aren’t content with discreet renovations of weatherboarded fishermen’s cottages. They want swagger. They want bling. I hope it’s not the town’s downfall. The place still, just, manages to balance quite-posh delis with men’s outfitters from the age of Perry Como, and its community is still as strong as they come. Its working harbour, graced by a gravel processing plant, is still wonderfully unpretty. Long may it continue.

The case against… On the threshold of change. Already too cutesy for some. Holiday and weekend homes have brought hefty cultural change.

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from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Vl2Ili
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Let’s move to Whitstable, Kent: pockets of peace on the gentrified seaside

The town still manages to balance quite-posh delis with men’s outfitters from the age of Perry Como

What’s going for it? I’m an old hand at Whitstable. Not as old as some of the seadogs nursing pints in the Neptune. But I’ve been coming here since the days when, if fortune smiled, you might spy the elderly Peter Cushing – then the town’s starriest resident – pottering along the high street. What a difference 30 years makes. My latest trip confirms that Whitstable has reached stage four of gentrification. We’ve had the Shabby Artists stage, the Cute Vintage Shop stage, the Actually Quite Posh Delis Have Opened stage. Now some serious money has arrived: The Building Of Fancy New Houses That Look As If Their Owners Have Watched Too Many Episodes Of Grand Designs stage. This lot aren’t content with discreet renovations of weatherboarded fishermen’s cottages. They want swagger. They want bling. I hope it’s not the town’s downfall. The place still, just, manages to balance quite-posh delis with men’s outfitters from the age of Perry Como, and its community is still as strong as they come. Its working harbour, graced by a gravel processing plant, is still wonderfully unpretty. Long may it continue.

The case against… On the threshold of change. Already too cutesy for some. Holiday and weekend homes have brought hefty cultural change.

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The 10 best ceramic vases – in pictures

Show off spring blooms in green and white

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The 10 best ceramic vases – in pictures

Show off spring blooms in green and white

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House prices hold up better than forecast amid Brexit chaos

Drop in March from February but UK prices up in first quarter compared to 2018 – Halifax

British house prices held up more than expected in March as supply constraints outweighed uncertainty over the Brexit process, according to figures from Halifax.

The high street lender said house prices rose by 3.2% in the three months to March compared with the same period last year. The increase, the fastest since August, was above than the 2.3% annual rise predicted in a Reuters poll of economists.

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