Where to begin with eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture in London? The city is stuffed full of it! This isn’t a guide, just a place to put my photographs.
Please see my other posts on Art Deco Architecture, Brutalist Architecture and Postmodern Architecture. Also dedicated posts on Kings Cross and Clerkenwell. You’ll find my map here.
One of my favourite buildings is the Kimpton Fitzroy London Hotel (aka Principal Hotel, formerly known as the Russell Hotel) which overlooks Russell Square. It began construction in 1898 and opened in 1900.
It’s said that the design was so over the top that it gave rise to the expression “all dolled up“, after the name of the architect, Charles Fitzroy Doll, but I think that’s a load of codswallop. The architectural style can be decribed as Renaissance-revival. The terracotta cladding is known as thé-au-lait (“tea with milk”).
I’m told the interior is amazing as well.
T.J. Boulting & Sons on Riding House Street in Fitzrovia is an example of Arts and Crafts Architecture.
The green mosaic panels are emblazoned with the firm’s name in elongated Edwardian gold lettering.
I’m guessing the nice building on the corner of Harley Street and Queen Anne Street is from a similar period. It’s now the London Ophthalmology Centre.
All Souls Church in Langham Place is an example of early nineteenth century Regency Style; the late phase of Georgian architecture, which followed on from neo-classical style.
It was designed by John Nash who was also the architect for the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, Marble Arch, and Buckingham Palace amongst others.
King’s Cross railway station was designed by Lewis Cubitt. It was the biggest station in England when it opened in 1852.
The Burlington Arcade is a covered shopping arcade in Mayfair which opened in 1819. It preceded other mid-19th-century European shopping galleries such as the Galleria Umberto I in Naples (post here), and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (post here) and so can be considered as one of the precursors to the modern shopping mall.
The arcade is patrolled by beadles in top hats who enforce the ban on singing, humming, hurrying, and “behaving boisterously”.
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