PREFACE
This volume, on one of the most notable pieces of architecture
in England, takes its place in the series of monographs issued
by the London Survey Committee by virtue of a very happy
collaboration of several friendly forces. The Trustees of the newly
formed National Maritime Museum wished to secure a record worthy
of their beautiful home and its remarkable history. H.M. Office of
Works were in their turn very ready, in the person of Mr. Chettle (a
member of the Survey Committee), to communicate all they knew
of the house which they had restored with so much care. And the
Survey Committee welcomed the opportunity of attaining a long–desired end by producing a work on a London house of such
distinction. The collaboration was effected by Professor Callender,
the Honorary Treasurer of the Committee and Director of the Museum;
and the success, which it is hoped will be recognised to have attended
this essay, should both encourage and justify similar projects in the
future.
The London Survey Committee was founded in 1894 to call
attention to London's architectural treasures, to record them faithfully
and to defend them when threatened. The Committee has been
aided in its work most signally by the London County Council which
has printed the fine series of parish volumes, as well as taking its
share in preparing them. To-day the Committee needs every ally
it can secure, for London is fast losing its treasures, and the
Committee's records too often rank as obituary notices. It is with all
the greater pleasure that we memorialise in this instance a building
with a secure future, and our thanks, as well as those of our readers,
are due to Sir James Caird, Bart., the generous benefactor who has
provided the Trustees with the funds necessary to produce, and
worthily to illustrate, this book.
Walter H. Godfrey.