Survey of London: Volume 38, South Kensington Museums Area

At the core of this volume is a study of the estate in South Kensington and Westminster acquired under the auspices of Prince Albert by the Commissioners for the Great Exhibition of 1851, and developed as a remarkable cultural centre for the applied arts and sciences. In many ways the great sequence of world-famous institutions described here - such as the Victorian and Albert Museum, the National History Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Imperial Institute - is a memorial to the Prince Consort's vision. The book sets out his role in the creation of South Kensington as a centre for art and scholarship, and the parts played by others, such as Queen Victoria herself, Captain Francis Fowke, and Sir Henry Cole (the dynamic first Superintendent of the South Kensington Museum). The High Victorian memorial eventually erected to the prince in Hyde Park is also considered. Part of the Commissioners' estate was used for house building, and the volume describes the development here and on adjoining lands of the great ranges of Italianate stucco mansions in and around Queen's Gate, Elvaston Place and Cromwell Road, which today give South Kensington its architectural flavour. The emergence after 1870 of the red-brick 'Domestic Revival' idiom in reaction to all this 'builders' classical'-style housing is here exemplified by half-a-dozen important houses and flats by Richard Norman Shaw.

Survey of London. Originally published by London County Council, London, 1975.

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Table of Contents

Title Page(s)
Preface v-vi
Acknowledgments vii-viii
List of plates xi-xx
List of figures xxi-xxv
Estates and houses before 1851: Introduction 1-3
Estates and houses before 1851: The Harrington-Villars Estate 3-8
Estates and houses before 1851: The Alexander Estate 8-11
Estates and houses before 1851: The Gore House Estate 11-13
Estates and houses before 1851: The lesser estates 13-18
Clareville Grove area: The Lee Estate 19-25
Hyde Park Gate and Kensington Gate 26-38
Palace Gate 38-48
The Estate of the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 49-73
'South Kensington' and the Science and Art Department 74-96
Victoria and Albert Museum 97-123
Plan sheet A: The Victoria and Albert Museum
Garden of the Royal Horticultural Society 124-132
The Memorial to the Exhibition of 1851 133-136
The Exhibition Building of 1862 137-147
Albert Memorial: Design and commissioning 148-159
Albert Memorial: The memorial 159-176
Royal Albert Hall 177-195
Eastern and Western Galleries 196-200
Natural History Museum 201-216
Royal College of Organists 217-219
Imperial Institute 220-227
Royal College of Music 228-230
Royal School of Needlework 231-232
Imperial College 233-247
Science Museum 248-256
Geological Museum 257-259
Royal College of Art 260-261
Domestic Buildings after 1851: The Italianate Tradition 262-307
Plan sheet C: Speculative building development
Domestic Buildings after 1851: The house-type of the Queen's Gate area 307-317
Domestic Buildings after 1851: The occupants 317-324
Buildings of the Domestic Revival and later 325-348
Plan sheet B: The area illustrated in this volume
Churches 349-356
Appendix: Residents in 1871 357-364
References 365-425
Index: A - J 427-446
Index: K - L 446-465
Frontispiece 2
Plate 1: Aerial view of South Kensington in 1939. 1
Plate 2: South Kensington in the making 2
Plate 3: South Kensington heyday 3
Plate 4: South Kensington Museum 4
Plate 5: South Kensington Museum. The Iron Museum 5
Plate 6: South Kensington Museum 6
Plate 7: South Kensington Museum 7
Plate 8: South Kensington Museum 8
Plate 9: South Kensington Museum 9
Plate 10: South Kensington Museum. South Court 10
Plate 11: South Kensington Museum 11
Plate 12: South Kensington Museum. Quadrangle 12
Plate 13: South Kensington Museum. Quadrangle 13
Plate 14: South Kensington Museum. Quadrangle 14
Plate 15: South Kensington Museum. Grill Room 15
Plate 16: South Kensington Museum 16
Plate 17: South Kensington Museum 17
Plate 18: South Kensington Museum. Completion schemes 18
Plate 19: South Kensington Museum. Completion scheme models 19
Plate 20: South Kensington Museum 20
Plate 21: South Kensington Museum. Cast Court in 1872. 21
Plate 22: South Kensington Museum 22
Plate 23: South Kensington Museum, Aston Webb competition design 1891. 23
Plate 24: Victoria and Albert Museum in 1920 24
Plate 25: Victoria and Albert Museum in 1920 25
Plate 26: Royal Horticultural Society's Garden 26
Plate 27: Royal Horticultural Society's Garden 27
Plate 28: Royal Horticultural Society's Garden 28
Plate 29: Royal Horticultural Society's Garden. Conservatory 29
Plate 30: Exhibition Building of 1862 30
Plate 31: Exhibition Building of 1862 31
Plate 32: Exhibition Building of 1862 32
Plate 33: Exhibition Building of 1862 33
Plate 34: Exhibition Building of 1862 34
Plate 35: Exhibition Building of 1862 35
Plate 36: Exhibition Building of 1862 36
Plate 37: Exhibition Building of 1862 37
Plate 38: Exhibition Building of 1862 38
Plate 39: Memorial to the 1851 Exhibition 39
Plate 40: Albert Memorial 40
Plate 41: Albert Memorial 41
Plate 42: Albert Memorial 42
Plate 43: Albert Memorial, details in 1869. 43
Plate 44: Albert Memorial, sculptured groups in c. 1872–5. 44
Plate 45: Albert Memorial, sculptured groups in c. 1872–5. 45
Plate 46: Albert Memorial, sculptured reliefs on podium 46
Plate 47: Albert Memorial 47
Plate 48: Royal Albert Hall 48
Plate 49: Royal Albert Hall 49
Plate 50: Royal Albert Hall 50
Plate 51: Royal Albert Hall 51
Plate 52: Royal Albert Hall 52
Plate 53: Royal Albert Hall, exterior details in 1967. 53
Plate 54: Royal Albert Hall 54
Plate 55: Eastern and Western Galleries 55
Plate 56: Eastern and Western Galleries 56