8 Graham Tite has been in the Channel Islands and liked what he saw IRON AGE REMAINS STREETFURNITUREAND ARCHITECTURAL IRON-WORKIN GUERNSEYAND JERSEY Left: 24 Midvale Road, St Helier. Right: Urn on stepsof the VictoriaClub, St Helier. Left: Gatesat 24 Midvale Road,St Helier. Right: Cast-ironpostsat Masonic Club, St Helier. Left: Church of St Joseph and St Mary, La Couperdine. Right: Cast-ironventilation column, Rossmore,Valleeles Vaux. With a small group of followers to accompany me, I was able this Summer to lead a number of architectural walks around the capitals of the Channel Islands. The tours formed part of my seasonal work as a lecturer on a cruise ship. From Malta to the Shetlands our ship called at numerous ports, and it was Naples without doubt which took first prize amid them all for its wealth of monumental great buildings and urban setting. Stupendous cast iron railings surround the garden which the San Carlo Opera House shares with the Royal Palace. The rest of this metropolis abounds in all the qualities which can excite readers of Context. By comparison, the buildings of St Peter Port, Guernsey, are modest. The population is less than 20,000 and elevations rarely reach even four storeys. Bue size is not everything, and the town makes up in quality and in consistency what it lacks in monumentality. The abrupt rise from the water-side of the Harbour to the 200 ft crests of the slopes on which the town is built adds drama to the general scene. Individual streets rise up picturesquely, and the older parts of the town are permeated with narrow and steep alleys. By the year 1275 it had first been called a "ville", and from 1483 the Pope confirmed a treaty between France and England to give the Islands immunity from wars. This provided an opportunity to continue economic development unmolested by the great powers nearby. Sc Peter Port afforded a safe anchorage on the side of Guernsey farthest from Atlantic storms, and close to the water's edge and around its eponymous parish church the town still retains the layout of a mediaeval port. Privateering would subsequently bring much of the wealth which accounts for the many fine buildings added here in later centuries. Widely practised also by the French (by whom it was defined as "the conduct of war at sea by the means most economical to the State"), it consisted of allowing private ships to cake CONTEXT 44
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