Chips Channon: diarist, elitist, pro-Nazi

Chips and Lady Honor Guinness
married in 1933

I didn’t enjoy the 1967 diary of Channon, so I will reblog Nigel Jones’ review of Henry Chips Channon: The Diaries 1918-38 Vol 1 (ed Simon Heffer). And Rachel Cooke’s review. Then I will add my own comments.

The writers of British political and social diaries tended to wit­ness great events, rather than be the main players. Disraeli and Gladstone, Lloyd George, Churchill and Thatcher left no daily journ­als, because they were too busy making history. The best diarists eg Harold Nich­ol­son were certainly close enough to power, but sufficiently detached to observe with a cynical eye.

Henry Chips Channon (1897–1958) grew up in a wealthy Chicago family. His mother had connections in Paris, and the first Chips diar­y began in Paris in 1918, where he became an hon­orary attache at the US embassy. He had dinners with Marcel Proust and Jean Cocteau, and drove to Ypres to see the trenches. Then he mov­ed to Oxford to study and to make useful conn­ections; and then to Lon­don, where he shared a house with Paul of Yug­oslavia and Viscount Gage, and set about attracting Lord Curzon, the foreign secretary.

Channon loved royal and aristocratic soc­iety, and had a minor polit­ic­al career as a Tory MP. He increased his income by mar­ry­ing Honor, daughter of Lord Iveagh of the Guinness brew­ing dynasty. With their marriage in 1933, the gates to a lavish world were flung fully open. His father-in-law help­ed him to buy his house in Belgrav­ia, with its grand dining room, decorated to resemble Amalienburg, the rococo royal hunting lodge near Munich. The couple’s son Paul inherited the South­end parl­iamentary seat and became a Min­is­ter in Thatcher’s gov­ernment.

But Chips’ chief legacy was his voluminous diaries. Snobbish to a gl­aring fault, his hatreds and his loves were equally intense. An ap­os­t­le of appeasement with Germany and a loather of his native land to an insane deg­ree, Channon was a diff­icult man to like. Such was the vit­riol of his poison pen that the only previous edition of his diar­ies, pub­lished in 1967 when most of his subjects were still alive, was a heavily redacted ver­sion. It was edited by Tory MP Robert James, in one slim volume that caused a sens­at­ion.

Now journalist Simon Heffer completed a huge task, assembling the sur­viving diar­ies and editing them. In 2018 Heffer was asked by Channon’s grand­children to open grandpa’s un­fash­ionable, racist and reactionary pol­it­ical views, and his in­­discreet glimpses into his own private life and those of his friends. The mam­moth job took Heffer 3 years! The first large volume was published in March 2021; the second and third will follow.

Read of the frequent visits to Lon­don brothels accompanied by his buddy Lord Gage, with whom he was cloyingly besotted. Channon samp­l­ed le vice anglais via a birching from a German dominatrix and by a paed­ophile occultist scholar. He also had a gay aff­air with Prince Paul, pro-Nazi regent of Yugo­sl­avia.

Channon’ sympathy for the Nazi regime was seen when he attended the 1936 Berlin Olympics with wife Honor and their smart friends. They enjoyed lavish parties thrown by Goering & Goebbels and “visited a labour camp which looked tidy: the boys fair, heal­thy and sunburned. England could learn many a lesson from Nazi Germ­any. I cannot understand the English dis­like and suspicion of the Nazi regime. O England wake up! Germany was fighting our battle.”

At home Channon was engulfed in the Abdication crisis. A friend of  King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, he had an insider’s view of events and mourned the king’s dep­arture. De­spite the au­th­or’s snobbery and nasty opinions, the diaries were vital for those interested in interwar Britain’s political-social history. 

From left: Terence Rattigan, Lady Juliet Duff, John Julius Norwich, Lord Audley, Channon
in Channon’s house, Belgrave Square, 1947
TLS 

King George VI, Channon wrote, was a well-meaning bore and no patch at all on his brother King Edward VIII/Duke of Windsor. Edward was unint­ellectual, uneducated and badly bred, but would have made a brilliant King notwithstanding his Nazi leanings. How did Channon know? He and Wallis Simpson were both Americans who be­came friends, both working their way into high society. In 1935, the noted hostess Emerald Cunard was trying to recruit friends for Wallis; Chips was her first choice.

He was a natural journalist and had lots of highly privileged in­form­ation. Heffer’s footnotes often resem­bled a page of Burke’s peerage eg he had a fling with actress Tallulah Bankhead and dined with HG Wells, Evelyn Waugh, Gore Vidal and Tennessee Williams.

Channon never thrived in politics. The peak of his success was to be parliamentary private secretary to Rab Butler, when he was Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. His real genius was for friendship and he was desper­ately keen to be liked.

But his loyalty also led him astray. He was raving about Neville Ch­am­berlain, before Chamberlain travelled to meet Hitler in 1938 as a bulwark against Bolsh­evism; Channon believed his hero had saved the wor­ld. What about Chan­n­on’s attitude to the Nazis? It was appalling to see the full extent of the enthusiasm of the British ruling classes for that regime in the 1930s.

Henry Chips Channon: The Diaries 1918-38,
Ed by Simon Heffer, 

 published by Hutchinson 2021

My concerns
Edited by Simon Heffer without redaction, the 2021 diary revealed more sordid detail about British high society and their sex lives. But _I_ need to know much more about what Channon thought the dynamism and organisation of Nazi Germ­any and what he thought their future would be. He was not an ignor­ant man but he expected Hitler to bring back the Kaiser and his Hohenzollern dynasty. By Nov 1935, he asked himself as an MP: “Shall I have the courage to raise my lonely voice in favour of Germany in the House?” After dinner with anti-appeasers like Duff Cooper, he told his diary: “I longed to cry out Heil Hitler! Secretly, I am pro-German and prefer even the Nazis to the French.” 

Read NewStatesman.

Stonington - late Victorian Melbourne

Before 1888, the Malvern site has been used for the Salvation Army's first meetings in Melbourne. John Wagner purchased the majority of the property in Glen­ferrie Road in 1888, with additional parcels of land around the main allotment. In 1890 Wagner developed this estate, naming the estate Ston­ington Mansion after Stonington in Connecticut, his wife Mary’s home town.

  

Stonington's carriage drive and front entrance

Wagner was already a partner in Cobb and Co Coaches which dominated the coach and mail business in northern and central Victoria. His coach line service was so inf­luent­ial in the growth of the Victorian colony that Wagner made a for­t­une. He also made impressive wealth from gold mining.

Stonington was designed by London-born architect, engineer and surveyor Charles D’Ebro. Together with his business partner John Grainger, D’Ebro was involved in the design of different Melbourne buildings eg Princes Bridge and the MCG grandstand and pavilion. Clearly D’Ebro loved Late Boom Style Classicism that was prevalent in Melbourne in the 1880s and early 1890s.

Stonington is a mixture of French Second Empire and Italian Renaissance Revival. See a large two storey brick and stucco classical mansion with steep French Second Empire roof forms and concentrated Baroque detail and bulk. It's an asymmetrical compos­ition with arcaded loggia at ground floor level and adjoining 2 storey servants and service wing.

The original decorative scheme and the stained glass were created by the firm Lyon Cottier and Wells, of Melbourne and Sydney. The staircase windows are a fine example of C19th domestic stained glass. Some of the original Wagner furniture pieces were manufactured by W. Walker & Sons, one of London's leading firms. The finely detailed and crafted interiors were notable, especially the great hall, stair case and glazed lant­ern.

An elaborate gate house, with impressive entrance gates and iron fence, was designed in a similar style to the house, reflecting the wealth and importance of the owner. A very large orig­inal stable building has also been retained on the estate and much of the orig­inal fabric re­mains.

 Stonington's gate house and main gates

Much of the landscaping has been retained. Note the 1890 carriage drive, front fence and gates, sweeping lawns enc­l­osed by large shrubberies, steps framed by a pair of oaks, a coll­ection of pines and winding gravel paths. Although smaller due to being covered with new buildings, sufficient gar­den sur­vives to apprec­iate its characteristics; it was typ­ical of C19th city mansion gardens.

Wagner and his family lived in the house until his death in 1901. The residence’s past high society guests included Dame Nellie Melba, King George VI and the Queen Mother as the Duke and Duchess of York, King Edward VIII as the Prince of Wales, Sir John Monash, Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, Lord Kitchener, Keith Murdoch and Ernest Shackleton.

Australia became an independent nation with Federation on 1st Jan 1901. After Federation, the central Government sat in the State Parliament building in Melbourne (until Canberra could be built) and served as the governor-general's official residence. So Stoning­ton was immediately acquired for Victoria's vice-regal res­idence, from 1901-1930s. For these state governors, British gentlemen all, the finely detailed and crafted int­eriors, great hall and staircase were perfect.

The 7 Victorian Governors who resided at Stonington were:
· 1901-3: Sir George Sydenham Clarke
· 1904-8: Sir Reginald Arthur James Talbot
· 1908-11: Sir Thomas David Gibson Carmichael
· 1911-3: Sir John Michael Fleetwood Fuller
· 1914-20: Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley
· 1921-6: Colonel George Mowbray, Earl of Stradbroke
· 1926-31: Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Tennyson, Lord Somers

At first the Victorian Government leased the property. Then in 1928 Stonington was subdivided into two sections and the Victorian Govern­ment acquired the developed western portion, containing the mans­ion, gate house & stables. So for 30 years, until 1931, Stonington had been the State Gov­ernor's residence.

Staircase

Stained glass front door

Interior decoration

BalanceArchitecture

The Modern Era
The estate was used as St Margaret's Girls' School until 1938, post-hospital care for child polio victims until 1940 and then as a Red Cross convalescent hospital in WW2 and af­t­er. Its last health care in­car­n­ation was as the Health Department’s administ­ration from 1953-1957.

With the enormous expansion of education during the post-war baby boom, Stonington was trans­fer­red to the Ed­uc­ation Dept in 1957 and continued to be utilised by Toorak Teachers' College and the Toorak campus of State College of Victoria from 1973-1992. Then it was Deakin Univers­ity's admin­istrative headquarters, until 1995.

The most extensive building works were undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s as the property was redevel­oped for the Toorak Teachers' Coll­ege. And modifications were also made to the landscape to the east and south of the mansion, for the student teachers. The mansion inter­iors remained intact but the exterior loggias were enclosed.

By 2006 the campus became sur­plus to Deakin Uni's needs and was put up for sale to private interests. This created intense lob­bying from locals who bel­ieved the property should be retained by the government, but the government did nothing. The prop­er­ty was sold for $18 million.

In 2008 art dealer Rod Menzies purchased a smaller Stonington estate from developers who'd sliced off large sections of the yard on which they had built homes. In 2018 Mr Menzies on-sold Stonington for a new house price record of $52.5 million! Appar­ently it was sold to an Asia-based buyer and is now awaiting approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Note that stunning Stonington Mansion lived through, and was involved in, the important phases of early Victoria - Federation, state governors and the development of Victorian social institut­ions.

Stonington gardens

Sydney Morning Herald

Thank you to the Victorian Heritage Database Report.

"The Library: a World History" - great book

The Library: A World History is a great book, with Will Pryce’s images and architectural librarian historian James Campbell’s text. It analysed global library architecture in 1 volume, from ancient Mesopotamia to modern China and from the beginnings of writing, to the present day. The photos noted that each age and culture reinvented the library, moulding it to reflect priorities and civilisations.

Melk Abbey Library, Austria

A Benedictine monastery

Libraries can be divided into academic, administrative or private types, some of which were rooted in the ancient world. The first writing system arose 5,500 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, secured on fragile papyrus or clay when academics realised they had to archive and protect them. Rulers created libraries to consolidate and expand their influence, and to display their political power to citizens. The majestic Library of Alexandria was created in c300 BCE by ?Alexander the Great and lasted until damaged by secular-Roman and religious-Christian enemies.

First chapters traced the destroyed libraries of Rome, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Eastern and Islamic worlds, so the authors the data had to infer from references and archaeology. But great photos of library remain at Pergamon & Ephesus. Over centuries, key concerns outdid place and time: structure, iconography, function. But each era took a particular style specific to the materials and technology, plus the era’s world view.

The two men surveyed many libraries, from the expansive new National Library of China to the Tripitaka Koreana 1251 in South Korea, one of the oldest intact libraries anywhere. The photographs were perfect, and they gave purpose to the text, taking a great look into the decorative and educational history of library buildings.

Library of Congress, Washington DC

A library consisted of books and the buildings that housed them, more than the dark wooden shelves in academia. From the Library of Congress’ great dome, to the white façade of Seinäjoki Library Finland, to the ancient ruins of Turkey’s Library of Pergamum, Campbell and Pryce travelled the globe together, detailing 80+ libraries that demonstrated the many approaches to design. Library architecture showed its builders’ wealth, culture and learning. Note that libraries were open to the public back in the Renaissance!

In Korea, wooden character blocks were created in c1011 to print the Tripitaka Koreana, a central Buddhist text. The idea didn’t progress until Johannes Guttenberg created a very similar technology 450 years later, in the very different socio-economic setting of Early Modern Europe. In the next centuries, innovations in printing technology and the declining cost of books led to rapid proliferations of knowledge, and then to the emergence the modern scientific and industrial world. Thus the modern public library emerged in the mid-C19th.

The writing should have covered the wide set of professions: librarians, scholars and patrons; they played key roles in creating this institution. Some critics said the book largely neglected the different roles and instead focused on the architectural history of libraries. It DID chronicle a flexible architectural history, especially of the wealthy and powerful: from the ruins of multi-storeyed covered walkways of ancient Greece to the sutra stores of C11th Buddhist temples; from the Middle Ages’ Gothic cloisters to the functional modern age. But I liked that.

Theft remained an enduring threat, so books were regularly chained to monasterial walls in the Middle Ages and early modern period. The earl-iest monastic libraries housed the sets that showed the internal struggle between religiosity and human nature. So in those libraries, books were chained to desk-mounted rods, to prevent monks being tempted to sell books to outsiders, despite poverty vows. Read how other aspects of pre-serving books’ physical integrity have confounded librarians for centuries. In China mineral gypsum was placed beneath shelves to stop the damp.

The photos showed sumptuous swirls of marble, golden gilding and a rain-bow of Rococo frescoes that recalled the exquisite beauty. Campbell’s captions illuminated architectural tricks invisible to us normals eg the stone elephant, perched on a portal in the Biblioteca Malatestiana Library of Cesena Italy, was the Malatesta dynasty’s symbol.

The library tour went from the clay tablet storehouses of ancient Mesopotamia and beautiful Buddhist sutra blocks, to the paper prints in Korea and Japan, to the grandiose designs and multi-media C21st spectaculars. The book put such sites into long perspective, seeing book technology, readers' needs and architectural solutions.

But why the focus on institutions created specifically for the privileged with no place for local, ordinary libraries. Clearly this was a study of libraries designed to be admired. See Osaka’s soaring book wall at Shiba Ryotaro Museum, its triple-height, Japanese oak shelves. Yale's Beinecke Library was walled with Vermont marble, and the honey glow. At Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, the library has one-person desks, each with private sunny windows. This library was built in the 1970s by Louis Khan. Campbell's commentary noted that Khan had a theory to plan a brand-new library in New Hampshire. Holland’s Delft Library grew with a concrete cone to use as a reading room. Its solid sides allowed no view out and the enclosed space was inadequate.

Old Bodlien Library, Oxford

The British Library was referred to, but there were no photos. Instead examine the British facilities eg Wells Cathedral Library, Cambridge Public Library, Thomas Bodley's Bodleian Oxford  and John Radcliffe's Camera Oxford. The superb buildings were erected, not to celebrate books, but rather for architects to stretch their vision; for universities to spend money; and to honour  benefactors. 

The book has heaps of pictures of old and modern libraries, but also a balanced resumé of the history of library-architecture. The focus was on the buildings, but information about the evolution of books and of collections themselves emerged. Readers can look at the position of bookcases and tables, distribution of space, illuminance, all have their own background, value and history!

George Peabody Library (1878) is linked to Johns Hopkins University, focused on research into C19th. Formerly the Library of the Peabody Music Institute, it was in Mt Vernon-Belvedere historic cultural neighbourhood of Baltimore. The collections are free for use by the general public, in keeping with the Baltimorean merchant/philanthropist George Peabody's creation of a community library.

George Peabody Library

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

The book focused on how people collected, protected and catalogued knowledge in writing. But the underlying themes were presented in such a subtle way as to go unnoticed amongst all the data that is presented. Be certain that Campbell's work was not simply recounting the many buildings that made up history’s libraries. It was a map of the ever-changing ideas of privilege, interface between civilisation and nature, egalitarianism, interplay between trust in man’s good and the fear of man's greed.

Then the book described medieval libraries and explained how libraries evolved, beginning with the Renaissance. The photos of libraries in monasteries, universities, palaces and cities are gorgeous. They showed the gradual evolution of storage and reading spaces from books fixed to a one-person lectern space, to stalls, walls, stacks and the modern mix of media and hard copy. The authors discussed the rise of librarians in design, lauding their practical insights as a necessary corrective to earlier architectural neglect of operating and preservation issues.

The stunning photos and texts came mostly from the U.S and Europe, with some modern examples from China and Japan. Qere the 300-odd local libraries that have closed since 2010 ever examined? or the 400 more that might close? Campbell's history knew libraries were always at risk. Fires have gutted them since Rome, plus struggles with damp, beetles, bombs. A plane crashed into a Slovenian reading room!

In considering the future library, Campbell stated that the future will be as a museum for books that are curated, displayed and preserved for posterity, and a workspace for the general public. But consider Google’s project of digitising world libraries. In his limited mentioning of the giant internet, people might neglect the immaterial aspects of the history. But history wasn’t just architectural.

In Britain now THE significant element to the story were those libraries closed or thinking of closing. Campbell noted that public libraries are being closed in Europe etc, and criticised the university that changed its library to an Information, Communications and Media Centre in 2004.

La Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice

note the imposing sculpture of Petrarch, created in 1904

venezia blog

Summary
Campbell is an architectural historian, so his writing on the building of libraries was fine. The two men combined their talents and gave the reader a look at the history of libraries from 20+ different countries. Some were very old and others newer, but all were unique and original.    

Now something quite separate. The 1000 Library Awards named the most beautiful ones in 2025, based on 200,000+ votes from global booklovers on line. The results of the 2025 Top 10 Most Beautiful Libraries globally included international libraries, showcasing both modern & historic architectural styles: 

South Australia State Library

State Library Victoria, Australia 

 1.Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

 2.South Australia State, Australia

 3.St Gallen Abbey, Switzerland

 4.Duke Humfrey's, Oxford Uni, Britain
 5.Admont Abbey, Austria
 6.Cuypers Library, Amsterdam, Netherlands

 7.State Library Victoria, Australia 
 8.Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, Rio, Brazil
 9.Wiblingen Abbey Ulm, Germany
10.Sainte-Geneviève, France

Classy pod homes for Australia's homeless

Antenly Tiny House with expansive glass elements

S.A Tiny Home Expo

The NSW government agreed to set up 58 pod homes for 2022 flood survivors in Brunswick Heads, homes to be available for key workers. They also promised to deliver 350+ new Social Housing properties in the Northern Rivers over a few years. Byron's mayor said a feasibility study would be completed to examine how best offer the housing and decide who’d be eligible. Teachers, police and other key workers looking to move into the Byron Shire would be offered accommodation in pods, originally built for flood survivors.

Byron's Mayor believed the homes for key workers was great news. They really needed a home as soon as possible; when many people that were homeless, they had to deliver long term affordable housing options quickly and not let this expensive resource to go to waste.

Interior view of single pod

Studio Nine Architects and Treehouse 3D 

Pod with 2 bedrooms, 

Instagram

NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson wanted Regional Councils to follow Byron's lead, to a future for everyone of those pods. The offer was still available for other Councils if they want to revisit it. Tweed Shire Council had earlier rejected an offer for a similar plan at its Kingscliff pod village, but the councillors could still rethink it. The move was announced as the NSW government unveiled plans for a historic pipeline of housing which included 35+ social housing to be built across the Northern Rivers by mid 2027.

The Tweed Shire will get 133 new homes, Richmond Valley will receive 69, while Lismore, Ballina and the Clarence Valley will get c50 each. It is actually the largest housing run in any part of regional NSW, so there’ll be more homes in this region than in the rest of the state. The state government announced it would transform a former Tweed Heads retirement village into 70 supported housing units, already bought under its Housing Innovation Fund.

Elderly couples who were verging on homelessness found they had to move out of their rental home of 30 years, until space was found in a temporary accommodation facility. If the couples were on a pension, they could not afford to rent a place for c$900/week. NSW Premier Chris Minns said innovative projects were crucial in a region with 4,100+ people on the social housing waiting list, including 1,200+ on the priority list.

Theresa Mitchell manager of homelessness outreach service Agape, said 133 new social housing properties in the Tweed was nothing compared to the number of homeless people. Some clients recently entered social housing after 21 years on the waiting list! It is clearly not going to solve the problem; it's not even going to halve the problem. Breaking the cycle of homelessness by providing real change through an innovative, sustainable and integrated housing solution, in a community. There is a current shortage of affordable housing for in Australians experiencing homelessness.

Forage Built is a social enterprise and partnership made between S9 Director Andrew Steele, Forage Supply Co founders Scott Rogasch and Justin Westhoff, Zoe Steele of Otello and Tim Pearce of Frame Creative. Aiming to have the smallest impact on the environment, and biggest impact on the community the group united to break the home-lessness cycle. The Calyx Project aims to fight homelessness, creating villages where needy people can find safe accommodation and a sense of community.

The Cupitt's Estate, Ulladulla NSW.
Prefabulous

Pod villages were set up across the Northern Rivers after the 2022 floods,  

ABC News

The solution begins with the design of the Calyx-16 by Andrew Steele: a 16sq m, safe, affordable, transportable, energy efficient and eco-friendly dwelling. Unlike past solutions such as the temporary use of motels, the Calyx-16 concept promotes a protective layer around a core, creating its own protective haven around the occupant, to sleep safely and to store belongings.

Each pod has a kitchenette-living room, porch, ensuite and storage space - compact and dignified. The pod design includes all materials that are recycled, cost-effective, carbon neutral and robust. The Calyx-16 can be configured in multiple ways eg additional family sleeping quarters and living space.

porch and sunchairs

Forage Calyx 16

City Mag

Using white externally was environmentally sound due to its solar reflection, standing out in an urban setting and symbolising new beginnings. The interior is unexpected, generous in space and successful in achieving a homely feeling. The Calyx homes are not designed to exist in isolation but are placed in a community in a larger village. To successfully pilot the first village and succeed in the overarching vision, 5 factors are needed:

1. a socially conscious developer or landowner,
2. a financier,
3. services provider,
4. management by a non-for-profit housing provider and
5. employment opportunities by a social enterprise.  

The team ran an extensive consultation and survey process, speaking to the intended clients, to know how they would best use the space and interact in the village. Collaboration with the Council was also required re how any social impact might be managed. A village will include a cluster of pods, with the agency placing people into homes in cohorts, to manage social risks. One pod is allocated to a case worker to reside onsite and provide 24 hour support to the residents, and managed by the non-for-profits. This allows residents to safely: form a community, access services, skills training and transition back into permanent housing, and the workforce through employment with an aligned company. The goal is to help people sustain long term housing with this skill development, ending repeated homelessness.

A larger communal pod will be located in the centre of the site, housing a kitchen, laundry, space for events and skill workshops. Utilising S9 and Forage Built’s network, in-kind donations, financial contributions & strategic partnerships have been crucial, resulting in the model pod construction. Awareness campaigns enable the community, individuals and businesses to become involved.

Through community partnerships, the prototype pod has been displayed at Tasting Australia, Fringe Festival, Rundle Mall and IKEA, supporting the enterprise’s sustainability.

A flood recovery pod village in Brunswick Heads Byron Shire
ABC News

I would happily live in a pod if I was alone, but it would have to have a front garden with a couple of trees, small lawn and flowers.