Pub in the Middle of Nowhere
2023
The fictional and non-fictional worlds collide, producing a pictorial and literary puzzle where imagined narratives spill into our physical reality. This project embraces the role of the architect as storyteller, using space, sequence and atmosphere to reveal how fragments of myth, history and fiction intersect. The architecture draws from the visual language of graphic storytelling to construct a setting where partial truths, ambiguous origins and narrative gaps become spatial experiences. At the centre of this mystery is the “Bill Stumps” carving on the King Stone monolith at Stanton Moor in Derbyshire, an inscription that echoes a moment in Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers (1836). In the novel, Mr Pickwick encounters this name carved into an ancient rock; in the real landscape, the same inscription exists, yet its origin is unknown. Debate persists over whether Dickens was inspired by the actual carving or whether a fan, perhaps influenced by the newly released book, engraved it afterwards.
