Tour IV: Victorian London: Kensington & Chelsea
Victorian London: Kensington & Chelsea. The late 19th century – WWI
Queen Victoria was on the throne from 1837-1901. Britain was the dominant monarch during this time period. The first part of the century was the Napoleonic wars and following her victory, the British Empire was established. Asia, India, and Africa all under British control therefore there is an influence of foreign design and goods. Material and technological advancements take place during this period. The steam factories in the midlands are turning out massive amounts of goods. Industrial development means that wealth spreads. The middle class rises to the top. New men of trade and business challenging the legacy of aristocratic power. The manual labor force is worsening as people came into work in the factories. Overcrowding promotes pollution and coal power pollutes everything. This pushes the wealthy west toward Kensington to cleaner spots. Kensington is archetypal Victorian. There is unrest though: the French and American revolutions are challenging the British Empire during the late 18th century. Karl Marx is living in London and writing Ex Capital. There is also artistic turmoil. Classicism is out; Pugin brings in gothicism; pre-Raphaelites in painting; revivals of Renaissance. Art Nouveau and Modernism arise.
1. ALBERT MEMORIAL. mid 19th century. Sir George Gilbert Scott.
Built for Albert by Victoria following Albert’s death. Albert’s life mission was to improve the arts so this monument was a big statement. Scott was a popular architect. The memorial has a gothic canopy of granite clad in mosaics ad gold leaf. The form is from gothic shrines. Scott is depicted looking over Pugin’s shoulder at his drawings in the freeze on the memorial. The memorial looks out over “Albertopolis”: buildings representing what he loved and cherished. CRYSTAL PALACE used to be right next to the memorial. It was built in 1851 by Sir Joseph Paxton. It was huge and intended to be the biggest it could be with the least materials and the most light. It was built with steel and glass.
2. ROYAL ALBERT HALL. 1867-71.
The hall has Roman themes. Its inspiration comes from amphitheaters of Rome and theaters like The Globe. It has freezes that are imitations of the British museum’s Parthenon freezes. Freeze itself is a mosaic; an art form from Greek and eastern Byzantium. The building is clad in terracotta and brick. The inspiration for the building is the Parthenon, it had a dome like Royal Albert Hall. The style is northern Italian Renaissance. It was built with money raised from the exhibition in the Crystal Palace. The stone with decoration was baked in oven and resistant to pollution. Burmantoft terracotta.
3. ALBERT MANSIONS. 1879- . Richard Norman Shaw.
Built of red brick in a more Victorian style than Georgian. The door and window dressings are of smooth brick. The Georgian housing has continuous roofline, parapets to the street. Victorian housing has gables with extra large chimneys. The gables are in a Flemish style, Queen Anne Revival kicked off by Richard Norman. The Queen Anne Revival style has taller and thinner windows with larger panes of glass because now larger pieces of glass can be easily transported; sash windows are used less and less. The building is also taller than normal because buildings construction can be out of iron. Apartments now have lifts (from Paris) but most Londoners like their homes separate but these apartments housed the more posh.
4. ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC. 1890.
Built in a northern Italian Renaissance style with Flemish hints.
5. IMPERIAL COLLEGE. 1850s.
Baroque style with terracotta imitating portland stone.
6. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. 1873-81. Alfred Waterhouse (contemporary with Scott). Waterhouse also built Town Hall in Manchester and the University there.
Scientific side of Victorian building. The building houses new scientific discoveries. Built during the time period that Charles Darwin is writing his Origin of Species. Darwin disturbed Victorian thinking and christian revival. The shear scale of the building is impressive, possible because of the metal frame. Terracotta facing: brown with veins of grey/blue representing structural polychromy. Waterhouse is suggesting strata of geology. Ruskin is a critic of this period. Italian gothic and Naturalistic inspiration. There are actual animals in the sculptures on the building. Ruskin said that the natural world should be the inspiration for building NOT reliance on mechanical inputs. He has major doubts about industrialism and its effects on the craftsman. The style represents a variety of things: early medieval and Norman/Romanesqu with the thin towers and arch leading in. German Romanesque/ French too with some gothic style in the tracery. Medieval building built industrially evoking modernity and scientific discovery is housed here. LORD TENNYSON wonders about all of this in his poetry.
7. VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM.
The museum of design and interiors.
8. EMPIRE HOUSE. 1911-1920.
Tire manufacturing building. Medici tombs are echoed on the pediment with them leaning on the tire! Funny!
9. THE ORATORY OF ST. PHILLIP NERI. 1884.
Very showy display in the middle of London. Catholics no longer had to hide. Catholic architecture, interior, and design was very important, not just religion. Italian counter-Reformation style. Continental Catholic baroque church.
Chelsea area… Victorian town planning, suburbs for the first time. Irregular pet picturesque features. Lots of green space and curvy streets. Informal town planning: as if they grew that way, contrived formality.
10. MICHELIN BUILDING. 1905-1911.
Architecture of advertising. Terracotta in every color with curving pediments looking forward to newness of future. Art Deco style (20s/30s style of diners in the U.S.) which is French in origin. This building is ahead of its time, selling cars to Edwardian London.
11. SAMUEL LEWIS FOUNDATION FLATS. 1914.
This foundation was a Jewish housing foundation. They were built as tenement flats for working class by charitable trust to give inexpensive but decent housing to working class. 1889 marked the beginning of London Country Council which meant London was managing itself; it was the first regional council. Beginning to use public money for public housing which becomes controversial.
12. ST. LUKE’S. 1824. James Savage.
Gothic revival church. Gothic always held a sort of reverence because of its age. During the 1820’s lots of churches were built in with the profits from Napoleonic wars. Flying buttresses supporting the ribbed vaulted ceiling interior: gallery. Gothic architecture becomes a scholarly science rather than folk tradition. The cue is from 15th century. Gothic in form and detail but the gallery is a 17th and 18th century concept. Pugin thought they galleries were evil. Plan with a gallery is more Protestant, more like auditoriums than temples. Chancel and altar are late 19th century. Anglo-Catholicism: Anglican but want to be Catholic; Keble college is a classic example of this. The roof here is actually out of plaster, not stone at all. Savage wanted the look without the work or engineering.
13. CHELSEA BOROUGH TOWN HALL.
Borough councils govern the distinctive regional bodies within the city of London. The city government is taking greater responsibility for their local people.
Example of bucranium over house entrance:
14. STUDIOS OF CHELSEA: Chelsea is the artists district of London and the apartments were built to suit. The apartments were typically domestic on the ground floor and studios on the above floors with north facing windows, ideal lighting for painting.
The house below is a studio house with northern window. Built in the art nouveau style which is very organic.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh house
15. WEST HOUSE. 1868. Philip Webb.
Webb was friends with William Morris, whose vision was to fuse gothic architecture with other styles to create a unique and distinctive style all his own. Morris was an advocate of the small guild and reviving the craftsman. The house was built for an artist. Queen Anne Revival style is represented in the brickwork and moldings. It is barely classical with its columns on either side of the door, although they’re not rounded columns. Under the classical Queen Anne pediment there a gothic window. The building is broken into pieces. The porch projects so far that you can barely see the house at all. No facade. Strange alleyway with a tucked-away arch. The building is hiding itself. It has strange gables with tiles that are more vernacular in style. The projecting face of brick: classical style but unprecedented in brick. This house exhibits the versatility of brick which is an aim of the Arts and Crafts Movement (William Morris): to exhibit the versatile nature of materials. This house is a collaboration of many different styles.
16. # 38 & 39 CHELSEA WALK.
Red brick with tall windows in the Queen Anne Revival style. A-symmetrical gable. The sticky/rough stucco is more Scottish than English. The circular window is a totally new device. The little baby windows to the left represent no specific unity. The ironwork is also strange. These apartments are undoubtably representative of the Arts and Crafts Movement or “free-style”.
17. CHELSEA EMBANKMENT.
The embankment represents the River Engineering Movement making Chelsea less secluded and quiet, more industrial and man-made.
18. CHELSEA OLD CHURCH.
This church was at the center of the old medieval fishing village.
