I
f, as the Duke of Wellington allegedly said, "The battle of
Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton," one might
say, arguably, that both World Wars were won, in part, on
the racecourse at Brooklands. For Britain's first auto racing
course was the site, during both conflagrations, of intensive
research and production in
aviation.
The Clubhouse at Brooklands,
near Weybridge in Surrey,
England, punctuates an auto
racecourse with aerodrome,
and hearkens back to a
particular era, the 1940s, when
Britain was making it while
making do, an era when a
certain stately shabbiness ruled
while the bombs fell. This style,
sometimes documented in the
pages of The World of Interiors,
still finds favor in Britain, among
all groups. Across the Pond,
style is never so cherished as
when it is well worn, well used and well loved. The 1951
Exhibition, with its slogan, "Britain Can Make It," featuring
Modernist designs made ever so slightly comfy by very
British designers still mindful of their roots, had little impact
on Brooklands, which remains gracefully frozen c.1947 and
earlier.
HYLAND
