Researcher in Architectural History. Associate @WorcCollegeOx. Editor of @WalpoleSociety annual volume. I work on C18th buildings. More often on Instagram.
Joined February 2009
- Tweets 756
- Following 966
- Followers 390
- Likes 17,033
13 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
3 Nov 2022
Despite the many reasonable objections to the contrary, @CityWestminster still pursuing their misguided plan to get rid of their historic gas lamps. Here’s something I wrote on them earlier in the year. Sadly, they have already started to disappear
30 Jan 2022
London‘s oldest streetlamps were designed to be beautiful as well as useful – so why is Westminster Council trying to remove them? apollo-magazine.com/westmins…
9
27
William Aslet retweeted
Jun 12
Shocked to hear David Hockney has died. His huge achievement was to make serious painting look effortless. He carried forward one of the most sustained investigations into vision, space and representation by any post-war artist. British art has lost a giant.
108
1,405
5,619
157,336
William Aslet retweeted
Looking up in the Radcliffe Camera
9
151
1,894
William Aslet retweeted
May 1
Glad this is being discussed.
We have lost so much
May 1
There's a common misconception that Brutalist buildings were unpainted, but thanks to microscopic analysis of the exteriors we can now recreate what they looked like in their prime.
180
2,540
43,517
3,915,473
William Aslet retweeted
Apr 10
‘Mind your head’? Seriously? Too soon.
Apr 10
They have put me in the room King Charles I occupied after the fall of Oxford in April of 1646. It is a massively incredible feeling.
21
239
2,995
111,563
William Aslet retweeted
Stanley Spencer recorded in his 1938 Desk Diary that he began 'Magnolias,' in March of that year. On 5th April 1938, he wrote to his dealer Dudley Tooth saying that the painting was 'as good as anything I have done.'
24
318
1,682
25,385
William Aslet retweeted
Mar 22
Splendid streetware! An electrical distribution cabinet of 1926.
10
64
680
102,300
William Aslet retweeted
Mar 18
There's vaulting, and then there's vaulting. The ante-chapel to the Order of the Thistle Chapel in the High Kirk of St Giles, Edinburgh. Commissioned by Edward VII in 1906, it was the work of Robert Lorimer, 1909-10. Unsurprisingly, he received a knighthood for it. 1/3
5
26
205
2,990
William Aslet retweeted
Mar 15
Incredible detail in Portrait of a Woman by William Larkin, painted between 1615–1619.
74
909
5,606
128,261
William Aslet retweeted
Mar 7
“Do you, Sir John, feel yourself to be arbitrary and irrelevant?”
Sir John Betjeman
19
141
623
83,762
William Aslet retweeted
For anyone who missed the inaugural Colvin Lecture, here’s Professor Anthony Geraghty youtu.be/P2lkNgnIVsc?si=HDqo… via @YouTube
1
4
11
1,195
William Aslet retweeted
Feb 21
Delighted by this @chilternrailway toilet tribute to Disraeli
11
9
130
9,880
William Aslet retweeted
Feb 13
Calling all classicists in or near Cambridge: the 2nd hand department of Heffers has for sale a complete New Pauly and Cambridge Ancient History. Only recently come in
6
15
154
9,796
William Aslet retweeted
Feb 13
Soldier, spy, playwright, courtier — and architect of Blenheim Palace; Sir John Vanbrugh lived several lives in one. @Waslet reviews a lively new biography captures the drama behind the drama
thecritic.co.uk/an-elegant-a…
2
3
560
William Aslet retweeted
Jan 31
At last an AI tool I can get behind
“Upload an architectural render. Get back what it'll actually look like on a random Tuesday in November.”
antirender.com
184
1,024
14,996
1,964,281
William Aslet retweeted
The headstone of Hannah Twynnoy the first English woman killed by a tiger- 1703- Malmesbury
21
136
1,304
52,371
William Aslet retweeted
Such sad news. An outstanding historian & a wonderful man; he will be terribly missed. ברוך דיין האמת cai.cam.ac.uk/news/david-abu…
6
33
194
59,416
William Aslet retweeted
UK institution sought for 18th century Bouchardon sculpture being sold by Scottish Highland council:
buff.ly/DAfBLDQ
3
2
340
Jan 8
RT @ianduhig: This is how enjambment can work in a poem. Bridge 77 on the Macclesfield Canal allows a horse to cross the canal without havi…
439
William Aslet retweeted
2 Dec 2025
😯 ✨St John’s Court in Malmesbury: a 17th-century almshouse wrapped around a stunning 12th-century doorway from a former chapel. One of the most characterful gables in the country.
6
103
715
10,381