Beamish Hall

Last month I stayed at Beamish Hall Hotel in County Durham. It was rather more luxurious compared to the usual places at which I stay and it had a price tag to match, though the North-East is generally cheaper than the rest of England. The room was spacious, the bed large, the dressing table’s top covered in marble and the room was cleaned each day (something which cannot be taken for granted anymore). Unfortunately, the cord of the kettle did not reach any single socket unless one placed it on the floor. It struck me as odd that a luxury hotel should not have thought this through.

The building itself is a typically Georgian affair: large, rectangular windows, classical pillars about the porch and a general symmetry covering the whole. Curiously, there is essentially another, separate building at its rear, built in a similar style, but with noticeable differences. And between the two, below, as though it were the staple holding the two sides together, there is a smaller, cruder building which looks like it is from the late seventeenth century. Although the Georgians preferred everything to match and their sizes and proportions to tally, there is something about Beamish Hall which shows how it changed and altered over a period of time.

Whatever the style, whatever the fashion, whatever the transition from one presentation to another, the main question we ought to ask about a building is this: does it work? If it fulfils the purpose for which it was built or purchased, then the other details do not really matter. My tea-making abilities were retarded by that kettle's cord's length, but I still enjoyed a sound night's sleep. Beamish Hall's three building phases do not quite flow, but they still stand after all these years.

There are some things in churches which I do not like. Sometimes, it is because these practices or teachings are contrary to scripture, but sometimes they are merely contrary to my taste. Taste does not really matter, but scripture really does. Knowing the difference requires wisdom; not knowing the difference dishonours God and risks rupturing His church.

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3, New King James Version