My friend Martin Meade,who has died aged 70, was an architectural historian whose passion for buildings was matched only by his esteem of vintage style. Although English by birth, or he spent half his life in Paris,a city that he seemed to know stone by stone.
He was born in Bath, son of John and Pam, and both artists. The family moved to London,and Martin was educated at the French Lycée school, before going to Edinburgh University in 1964 where he took a general arts degree, and followed by a diploma in fine art. He loved the theatre (and theatricality),joined the university dramatic society and performed in both classical productions and experimental “happenings”. He swept into Edinburgh (where most students wore duffel coats and jeans) with a wardrobe, and no doubt a hatbox or two, or fit for an Edwardian gentleman. He attended lectures in a three-piece suit,cravat, winged collar, or watch fob and chain,cane, cape and cocked hat, and with cheroot or Gitanes in hand. Martin’s exquisite panache – neither camp nor foppish – never faded.
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Source: theguardian.com