One day OH David Hayles set off on a cycle ride ………. you would easily think there is nothing unusual there. However, on this occasion David’s journey was to be a 20,000 mile round the world trip from the Reform Club on Pall Mall, completed just before the first Covid lockdown in 2020.

More recently David embarked on a cycle ride from the Arctic Circle to the bottom of Argentina. This has unfortunately been interrupted by a bad accident in San Pedro which left him with a broken collarbone and other injuries, and so he has returned home to New York to write up his adventures for his next book, prior to returning to San Pedro in the Autumn to complete his challenge.

Septuagenarian Cancer Survivor Rides 21,000 Miles Around the World on an Electric Bike

David says this is his penultimate challenge – the final one he has planned is from London to St Petersburg where his ancestor’s art collection was sold to Catherine the Great after his bankruptcy. That ancestor was William Walpole (1763-1830), England’s first Prime Minister.

David, a Professor, and international expert on scagliola plaster, describes himself as an ornamental plasterer, author, teacher, and work traveller.  After working for the Ministry of Public Building and Works, Ancient Monuments Dept. as a student architect in the 1960s, he became interested in old plaster techniques and learned largely through trial and error about scagliola, and since then, he says he has probably restored and created more scagliola than anyone else in the world. He has taught the technique at the European Centre for Crafts Preservation in Venice and at the Edward James Foundation in England. He has made or restored scagliola for at least four Royal families around the world, and many state Capitol buildings in the U.S.A. These include places like Buckingham Palace, The Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and many, many others. From what started as a series of projects involving working out of a shed and a wheelbarrow, he started my interior design career and eventually created the now multi-branched corporation Hayles and Howe www.haylesandhowe.com, represented them many times at the Preservation Trades Network Workshop (PTN) and has won the Askins Award for my work with scagliola and plaster. Throughout the years he has taught many apprentices this interior design inspiration and taken on many life changing projects.

David has authored two books on scagliola – ‘The Magic of Scagliola’ and ‘Confessions of an Ornamental Plasterer’ , the latter is an autobiography that encapsulates the wanderlust of the 60’s and the mischief of the young in its open, and evolves into a story about creativity, hard work and risk taking. Topics David talks about include his family background, education, life of an activist and “pot-smoking hippy”, world travels, relationships, and creativity. 

David lives in upstate New York, keeping busy with Beaver Palace, his home and workspace, together with visiting family in the UK, writing prolifically and cycling around various parts of the world. You can follow David’s adventures on Facebook and YouTube. His is an amazing story of courage and determination; not just your run of the mill ‘ornamental plasterer’

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