Tag: Westminster

Posted on Nicole Kresich

Mapping Modern London: The Social Aesthetics of Westminster

The Modern London (1804) Guidebook to Landmarks embodies the civic duties and social atmosphere popular in the City of Westminster wherein the social motivations and priorities surround the promotion of London’s burgeoning culture and the traditions of the professional and those adjacent to the Crown. 

The Society of Arts encapsulates the public spirit of the age through its encouragement of the rapid progress and the prospering condition that contribute to London as a burgeoning Metropolis. Founded by William Shipley and other private gentlemen in 1754, this institution commends and awards Premiums and prizes to individuals who have achieved success in areas encouraging the arts, manufactures, and commerce. Oblong and elegantly proportioned, the meeting room is arranged in an oval form, where portraits of noble lords and The President, his Grace the Duke of Norfolk, are hung with esteem. The Society’s prominence is acknowledged in the seating of the committee, wherein the distinguished attendees include the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary, the Vice-Presidents and Chairmen of Committees, ladies of rank, and duchesses, foreign ministers, and other dignitaries of distinction. 

A sketch of the Society of Arts, located in the Modern London (1904) Guidebook to Landmarks, situated between Covent Garden and Westminster, in a moment of awarding its annual prizes for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce.

In continuing with the Society’s reputation for the encouragement of excellence in the arts and commerce, the walls are decorated with a series of paintings, among the finest productions of the age, to represent man’s progress in civilization. Remarked by the refinement of its taste, these paintings include the Society’s President as part of the Olympic Games, a picture of prominent men in robes distributing the rewards of the Society, and the Triumph of Navigation, where Father Thames, designed with charming extravagance, sits in a car being drawn by river nymphs. The exquisite atmosphere projected by the Society of the Arts infers that the priorities of this guidebook correlate with the notion of leisure, in that, this landmark, considered one of the finest spectacles in Europe, is tailored to describe those who have the luxury and time to promote artistic expression and culture.

A sketch of the three principal offices connected with the government of the country: The Treasury (right), The War-office (center), and The Admiralty (left) from the Modern London (1904) Guidebook to Landmarks. The Parade of the Foot Guards present themselves in the foreground.

The guidebook details the Horse Guards or War-Office, wherein the landmark indicative of these public buildings is one of the finest about the Metropolis. In one view, this landmark beholds three principal offices connected with the government: The Treasury, The War-office, and The Admiralty. The War-Office, located in the center of the three, comprises the station where part of his Majesty’s troops usually perform duty. The Treasury, located to the right of the War-Office and enclosed with a wall, contains the gardens of the house, while the building to its left is The Admiralty, home to the apartments and offices of lords. The significance of government buildings prioritizes a professional, educated attitude surrounding the inhabitants of Westminster.

The Parade of the Foot Guards, another landmark, celebrates tradition and honors achievements, as inferred from the decor of the Turkish piece of ordinance. Brought by British troops from Alexandria, the ordinance is mounted on a carriage of English workmanship and ornamented with very elaborate devices to display London’s successes and global reach.

 

Posted on Nicole Kresich

Populating the Social Elite: The Proliferation of Gardens and Entertainment in the Liberty of Westminster

Neighboring the Queen’s Palace, the demographic of Westminster’s population comes across as less dense than the surrounding area of London as delineated by the red line on Horwood’s Plan (1792-1799). Comparable to the city and its additional boroughs, Westminster gives the impression it is heavily populated. However, the city’s residence next to Saint James’s Park, Green Park, and the Queen’s Gardens, as well as the city’s location, a mere one street from the River Thames, give the illusion of more open space. While London, as a whole, persists upon its placement about the Thames, the institutions of which make up the City of Westminster strongly point to its higher-class residency, who, of which, make up the court, the nobility, and other people of distinction, with a certain composition of tradesmen and artists. Dividing the City of Westminster into subcategories based on points of interest: establishments of leisure and entertainment, institutions of reverence, and buildings that pertain to the adjacent parts of the royal services, we can begin to comprehend the livelihood and professional nature of this upper-crust population. 

A screenshot of Fores’s Guide (C. 1789) indicating the close proximity of The Little Theatre (above) and the Italian Opera (below) on Haymarket Street.

The presence of two theatres on Haymarket Street indicates that those who live in this area can afford leisure activities or comprise the actors that perform at these companies. The seasonal nature of this amusing pastime, The Little Theatre’s summertime availability, and the Italian Opera’s wintertime entertainment emphasizes that this leisure activity is offered only to those who can afford to enjoy the social and cultural amenities of year-round entertainment.

In addition to Saint Martin’s Church, a notable institution of reverence and considered one of the finest churches in London, The Banqueting House of Whitehall demands the same category of distinction. Host to daily divine service, The Banqueting House of Whitehall beholds a statue of James II upon a pedestal, esteemed to be one of the finest of its kind in England, and serves as an area of notoriety, praise, and respect.

The Admiralty is a large office and apartment building occupied by the lords that possess a large hall and seven spacious houses appointed only to the lords and commissioners of The Admiralty. The elegant wall designated in front of the court gives The Admiralty its air of exclusivity and prominence.

With Westminster’s proximity to the Queen’s Palace, The Horse Guards and The Kings Mews are buildings that concern adjoining parts to royal services. The King Mews, or the falconry of the King, was converted into a stable for horses and coach of state by Henry VIII. Constantly on duty as sentinels, the armed troops that constitute The Horse Guards stand watch on horseback. However, this building serves a dual purpose, functioning as a control point to a vaulted passage that leads into Saint James’s Park.

The prominence that these points of interest indicate that the inhabitants of Westminster are educated and affluent, and those employed by these institutions are likely in the service of the Queen.

 

Posted on Nicole Kresich

Leisure and the Social Elite: Color and the Environment in the City of Westminster

The environment surrounding the City of Westminster and its adjacent parts favors the occupation of the social elite as well as the polite and commercial artists. Where the main feature of the natural environment in the City of London gravitates around the River Thames, running centrally through the city, the built environment surrounding the Liberty of Westminster differs from the domains encircling the Tower of London and the Docklands that run along the water. As topographically delineated by the red line separating London proper from the surrounding areas in Horwood’s Plan (1792-1799), the City of London is predominantly impacted by buildings and industry, with a notable lack of surrounding natural environment that exists apart from the River Thames. This contrast is especially distinct when juxtaposed with the surrounding environment outside of this topographical border; wherein the geographics of Westminster possess more freedom for leisure with its numerous fields and gardens than the rest of London’s inherently compact, urban cityscape. Rather than the occupation of industrial warehouses and wharves, as is the case closer to the city surrounding the Tower, the buildings located alongside the River Thames in Westminster cater towards a more dignified and upper crust crowd that persists in this location so close to the Queen’s Palace and Parliament Street. This stretch along the River Thames consists of the Privy Gardens, Westminster Hall, and Northumberland Gardens, with a few wharves recognized by the names Scotland Yard and White Hall Timber Yard.

The area surrounding the intersection of Charing Cross and Cockspur Street is relatively similar in both Horwood’s Plan (1792-1799) and Faden’s 1819 revised mapping of London. The built environment remains the same, favoring the habits of the upper class and persons of notable distinction, such as the royal family and members of Parliament, wherein occupancies of leisure, such as opera houses, gardens, and squares, persist more frequently compared to the more industrialized and mercantile subsection of London that makes up the habitations of tradesmen and the merchant class. While Haymarket Street and its opera houses prevail into Faden’s 1819 revision, Regent Street, running perpendicular to Charles Street outside of Saint James’s Square, is a new addition that had required the tearing down of residences that line Haymarket Street in Horwood’s Plan. The incorporation of color, however, in Faden’s 1819 revision, gives light to the overwhelming presence of gardens. While the existence of gardens persists more frequently in the Liberty of Westminster, as indicated by Horwood’s Plan of London (1792-1799), the color reveals how expansive and frequent these gardens appear to exist. The existence of such gardens alongside the River Thames, in particular, delineated in this stretch that borders Westminster and Covent Garden noted in the 1819 revision, is much more frequent than the showing of gardens located near the Thames in the Docklands. Faden’s attention to color characterizes the Liberty of Westminster by its inhabitants’ accessibility to leisure activities, systematizing London’s burgeoning Metropolis through this geographical assumption by class to suggest that the occupants in this subsection of London concern the social elite.