THE ST. MARYLEBONE SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Number 333 Registered Charity 274082 Autumn 2011

Work in progress. View of substation from Chapel Street. TRANSFORMATION AT EDGWARE ROAD STATION Rising from the hoardings on Chapel together with TfL and Art on the function. The new structure could Street, the exposed concrete walls of Underground, St Marylebone Society overpower what is already there it’s so the new substation at Edgware Road members attended discussions and large a volume. To fragment it will help Station are taking shape. The workshops with local residents to to integrate it with its neighbours so it machinery will be housed within a contribute their ideas to the project. can contribute to the whole rather than series of three different sized structural The result is a series of patterns derived dominate.” boxes and is part of an essential from elements Jacqui discovered All art is subjective and public art engineering and infrastructure upgrade researching the site’s locality, its history especially has a duty to bring benefits to which will allow the introduction and its people. Colour, symbol, geometry those who will live and work in its of state-of-the-art trains onto the and scale are exploited to create a range presence. Over and above the normal Underground network. This necessarily of decorative enamelled steel panels large, brutal and bulky edifice will planning procedures we have all been which will clad the perimeter walls of eventually be contained, masked and invited to actively contribute and be the substation. The artwork will be seen protected by perhaps the largest public involved in this project from the outset. both close up and at a distance; it will be art commission currently on site in We therefore look forward with great to ensure that it makes a a constant view for residents and interest to the installation of this major positive contribution to the street workers on Chapel Street but just a artwork in Marylebone, which aims to context. fleeting glimpse when seen at speed reflect us, our environment and our from the Westway. lives. We hope that here at least the At our 2009 AGM, artist Jacqueline Poncelet spoke to us about her ideas for Jacqui explains: Society really does get the art it this exciting but somewhat daunting “My proposal is about people and the deserves. project and her final designs have pleasure of place; how we choose what To see the proposed artwork for recently been submitted for planning we see in a complex and busy the panels in detail visit: approval. Involving the local community environment. Chapel Street has a www.westminster.gov.uk/services/envir and responding to site context are diversity of existing buildings and there onment/planning/searchapplications/ important elements of her work and is no continuity of scale, architecture or and search using Ref: 11/08711/APAD FROM THE CHAIR Memorial Garden Update & Proposal to Commission a Statue of Charles Dickens Following months of discussion we have at Dickens lived opposite the church yard at whether our Society can muster the last received the Faculty from the Diocese of 1 Devonshire Terrace (demolished in 1965) enthusiasm needed to proceed with the London to go ahead with the restoration and was only 27 years old when he moved to proposal. We hope to discuss this further at works at the Wesley Memorial Garden. We Marylebone in 1839 and started work on the AGM on 23rd November. Please put the recently met Westminster Parks Managers some of his most famous novels; The Old date in your diary and return the enclosed and are putting together the details and Curiosity Shop, Dombey & Son, Martin attendance form – I shall look forward to specification to allow them to tender this to Chuzzlewit, A Christmas Carol and David hearing your views then. their approved contractors. To agree the Copperfield. There is an existing relief on final proposals I have put together a sub- Heron House, 15 Marylebone Road, [email protected] committee including: Ian Wylie, Cynthia depicting many of his characters but Thanks to Roger Button for his input. Poole and Roger Button (all architects) and apparently the only figurative statues of also local residents, Mike Sibley and Ted Dickens are in Philadelphia and Sydney. Emerson. The site’s proximity to the school All this is encouraging as an early proposal, requires that the works must take place however, the actual process of during the summer holidays so we are implementation is long and complex. aiming to achieve completion in September Westminster has a list of pre-requirements 2012 with planting following on that Autumn. before even a planning permission can be With the Wesley Memorial moved back to its applied for; these include discussions with rightful place, close to the High Street, an the Public Art Advisory Panel, the ideal place is created for a sculpture or Department of Culture, Media & Sport, monument at the focus of the curved section approval and commissioning of an artist and of railings in the northwest corner of the subsequent maquette. Further information garden. would be needed such as drawings, Society member Roger Button believes that photographs, details of plinth and any Charles Dickens would be an ideal subject inscriptions, arrangement and possibly a for such a work of art in this location and set financial deposit for maintenance in out to investigate the idea. He met Dickens perpetuity. Finally, after more bureaucracy Museum curator, Florian Schwezer, who and draft legal agreements, the application stated that the Dickens Society, in will be considered by Westminster planning conjunction with the family, would certainly committee, with advice from English welcome a monument, preferably of Dickens Heritage.The moderate cost to this Dickens and Little Nell (1890), a statue by Francis Edwin Elwell in Philadelphia, USA. at a young age and that they had been stage would have to be funded by the looking for a suitable London site. He agreed St Marylebone Society, but finally that although it is said that Dickens did not commissioning an artist of standing and THE ST. MARYLEBONE want to have a representation of himself in having a bronze casting of perhaps a bust SOCIETY public, the prevailing opinion is that his on a stone, inscribed plinth would be greatness obliges this to be overridden. In considerable. With the support of the AGM 2011 fact Mary Calvert, one of the few surviving Dickens Society an appeal, possibly 23 November descendants and niece of Monica Dickens, international, would seem likely to raise a The Council House, Marylebone Road has given the idea her blessing. large sum of capital. We would be interested Chair – Colin Amery The Memorial Garden site seems ideal as to know members’ views and to test from 6.00 – Meeting starts 6.30 Refreshments

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY 2011 Patron: Lord Montagu of Beaulieu Vice President: Colin Amery Chair: Gaby Higgs Vice Chairman: Mike Wood Hon.Treasurer: Keith Evans Membership Secretary: Sarah Clark Email: [email protected]. Council Members: Dorian Aroyo (Social Secretary) Cynthia Poole

. (Planning Committee Chairman) 0 6

9 Robert McAulay (Newsletter) 1

S Douglas Temple (Events) B

R Mike Wood (Local History) F k

c Alan Wurtzel (Planning) a l

C Ian Wylie (Planning)

J t r u o c t s www.stmarylebonesociety.org E 2 PLANNING ROUNDUP - SUMMER 2011 case, such provision is more important than the usual requirement that the developer make a contribution to affordable housing. Finally, there is a project to convert 66 Chiltern Street – the 14 storey, 1960s building with dark pink cladding on the corner with Paddington Street – into a residential tower, with terracotta cladding and a corner restaurant with a canopy replacing the big planting box. There will be a short exhibition of this proposal during October, and we will notify members by email. . l i a r s Cynthia Poole for the St Marylebone Society s o r Planning Subcommittee C f o y s e t r u o c ARK OAD

127-129 P R e g a m

I The block of 29 flats, called The Atrium, was Cutaway section through the new Paddington Station entrance, from Eastbourne Terrace. designed by PDD Architects and the 95 week contract started in April 2011. It is a Since our last newsletter, we have 1967 Sea Lion building, and part of the old high-end developers' scheme in a style commented on 82 planning applications. sea lion pool will become a new tiger pool. presumably designed to sell from the Most of them were relatively small: during As tigers are extremely proficient at drawing-board. this recession there are many domestic climbing, any unroofed vertical barriers would have to be 5-10metres high, so the Situated at 127-129 Park Road NW8, it projects where people are upgrading their replaces a mixed use development of 23 houses, and there were 22 such applications. Zoo is proposing a stainless steel mesh tent which covers the entire area, supported by a flats, builder's yard, motor repair workshop There were also quite a number of café- and petrol filling station. related proposals, mainly in the Church few tall posts in the middle and some shorter Street/ Edgware Road area; either for chairs ones around the edge. Landscaping and It is a trophy site, the last one vacant on Park and tables on the pavement, and/or for the plants will attempt to mimic the Sumatran Road offering views over Regent's Park to installation of extractor ducts. Nine of these rainforest! This is located near the south the east. Immediately to the north, the block applications were retrospective, and there is perimeter of the zoo, west of the old Casson overlooks Regent's Canal at Chapel Bridge. an ongoing problem in the Edgware Road Elephant House, so perhaps we will be lucky A trophy site with park views deserves area with such businesses simply not enough to glimpse a tiger from the park. trophy architecture, a scheme as significant bothering with the proper permissions, and The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre will be as other similarly sited flats such as 26 St considerable noise and nuisance for undergoing some refurbishments when the James's Place SW1, by Denys Lasdun & residents being generated as a result. season finishes, and their latest application Partners overlooking Green Park, 125 Park BT is upgrading its broadband provision in is for improvements to the practice studio – Road NW8, by Farrell/Grimshaw our area, and we saw 15 applications for new a new and attractive entrance is also going to Partnership, Oslo Court and Stockleigh Hall, broadband boxes which will be installed be constructed. Prince Albert Road NW8, both by Robert alongside the existing pavement boxes. We There are several projects at Paddington Atkinson all overlooking Regent's Park and 10 Regent's Park Road NW1 by Erno only objected to one, which would cause an Station; although this is outside of our area, Goldfinger, one street north of Regent's obstruction for pedestrians. it is a vitally important local transport hub. Park. There are several projects for Marylebone Large-scale works are underway both east Station: new information signage on both and west of the station: the new crossrail entrances, and the second design improves station will be beneath Eastbourne Terrace, on the cluttered appearance of the existing and there are works on the east side of the signage. In addition, there will be a new PA station to provide improved underground system, and a new control room building access and an eastern taxi way with a ramp inside the station shed, which is currently from Bishops Bridge. We commented on the being designed. architectural elements of the proposed crossrail station: the entrance building and The University of Westminster is planning a ticket hall are in an elegant modern style, major upgrade to its Marylebone Road but felt that the proposed vents for the train campus, which involves roofing over the tunnels were not acceptable in the context of internal courtyard and improving both the listed station building, and there is no entrances and the access to the P3 reason why their forms cannot be better exhibition space in the basement. designed. The three tubular props, currently There have been several applications for The old Post Office sorting office in Praed dominating the site during excavation of the London Zoo, including the construction of Street is now being redeveloped, and this double basement, are designed to ensure the three fabric canopies near the Penguin offers an opportunity for a new entrance to safety of traffic on the Metropolitan Line enclosure, to protect staff from the weather, the Bakerloo line, which is seriously which bounds the site to the west and Park and this has been approved, and also the congested at rush hour. We supported Road to the east. Surveyors acting for a creation of a new Sumatran Tiger enclosure, PRACT in their demand for passive to hold more tigers and to assist with the provision for a future entrance in this neighbouring site were recently advised that breeding program, (decision pending). project, as such an opportunity is unlikely to London Underground's disruption costs The new tiger enclosure will make use of the arise again for years, and we feel that in this were between £4,500 and £15,000 a minute. 3 R E G E N T S T R E E T : I T S C R E AT I O N A N D R E C R E AT I O N The creation of , as part of the For the Prince Regent Carlton House had developed they got larger and, with grand route from the Prince Regent’s been the inspiration behind the project, but developments in public transport, drew their Carlton House to his never-built summer he had it demolished in the 1820s after he customers from a much wider geographical palace in Regent’s Park, was one of the became king, judging it was not sufficiently area. There was a move away from speciality most ambitious building schemes ever grand. Part of the reason for demolition was stores to ones selling a much wider range of undertaken in central London. The Crown that the sale of leases from the two blocks of goods and often volume manufactured owned Marylebone Park and much of the Carlton House Terrace, which were built in goods, as opposed to the bespoke variety. land at the southern end, while part of the the grounds of the former Carlton House, These changes led many of the shops to expand into neighbouring premises. For route, Portland Place, already existed. But went into financing the conversion of example, Swan and Edgar, the oldest drapery the central section involved a massive Buckingham House into a palace. Most of the paintings and furniture from Carlton business in the street, started at No. 9 & 10 programme of compulsory purchase and the and then expanded into the southern Circus whole enterprise involved the construction House were transferred to Buckingham Palace, some of the doors were reused at (later Circus) and the Quadrant. In of hundreds of fine buildings. They were 1841 they had built a much-admired new designed by the leading architects of the day, Windsor and the columns were recycled in building the National Gallery (they were shop front with plate glass windows, but but were subject to scrutiny and approval by really too short and there was much they were among increasing numbers of John Nash, who acted as architect for the criticism of the long low building that stores pushing for redevelopment when Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues resulted). their 99-year leases expired. By 1886 Swan (WFLR) – the forerunner of the Crown & Edgar had passed out of private hands and Estate. Nash himself was the architect and The next significant demolition was the at the beginning of the 20th century they indeed the developer for many of the removal in 1848 of the iconic colonnades on were to face the competition of the buildings. What an extraordinary thing it is the Nash-designed buildings (1818-1820) department stores of Oxford Street. that made up the Quadrant at the southern One of the early examples of rebuilding was the replacement of the no longer fit for purpose St James’s Hall complex between Regent Street and Piccadilly. It was to be replaced by the Piccadilly (1908), designed by Norman Shaw, which it was hoped would set the pattern for the development of the rest of the street. The WFLR’s chief architect, Arthur Cates, had, shortly before his retirement in 1898, set out guidelines for the rebuilding programme – a limit of 60 ft from pavement to parapet (very much taller than the existing Figure 1 Elevation of Nash’s house at 14 (Lower) Regent Street (adapted from Tallis 1847). NB: Nash’s front door was on the right, through the right-hand gate. buildings), the surfacing of all buildings in Portland stone**, each block to follow the that, with the single exception of All Souls end of Regent Street (see Figure 2). They design of the first built section (essentially Church, not a single building survives south were said to shelter undesirable loungers of one architect per city block). Cates’s of Park Crescent from this massive building all types – from “moustachioed foreigners” successor, John Murray, who presided over effort*, and it is only thanks to the to prostitutes, gamblers and pickpockets. most of the rebuilding (chief architect from campaigning of the SMS and others that the But the clinching objection Nash Terraces in Regent’s Park were not came from the shopkeepers, also demolished. who complained of loss of light. The architectural scars were Many of the lost buildings were of excellent made good with an enriched architectural quality and of much historical string course and slim-line interest. For example, Nash built himself balconies, but much of the (and his cousin) a palatial double property, Quadrant’s picturesque which looked more like an Italian palazzo character had been lost. than a pair of terraced houses (see Figure 1). It was situated at what would now be called Regent Street was essentially built as a shopping street 14-16 Lower Regent Street and, on Nash’s and, like much London side, included enormous galleries of development, it was done using “architecture” and “painting and sculpture”, the building lease system Figure 2 Nash’s Quadrant (c1827) with his colonnades in place. The old Swan as well as offices from where he could keep which made it largely self- an eye on his unfolding project. A sense of all & Edgar building is on the far left. On the right is the County Fire Office (a financing. Leases were granted, replica of an Inigo Jones façade from the old Somerset House), which closed the vanished buildings can be obtained from in this case for 99 years, after the view from Carlton House. a 19th century equivalent of Google Street which the properties reverted to the ground View – a long strip of elevations of all the 1904-1929) walked into a storm of landlord (i.e. the WFLR/Crown Estate). In opposition from all sides about following properties published by John Tallis in 1838- the century during which the first leases 40 (with a revised version in 1847). Shaw’s general design for the rest of the ran, the nature of shopping had undergone Piccadilly Circus/Regent Street Quadrant Engravings by Thomas Shepherd of a subset major changes. The original stores tended to site, not least from shopkeepers who of the original buildings can be seen in be bespoke businesses, catering to an thought very little of the hotel’s design as a “Metropolitan Improvements”, published by aristocratic clientele from neighbouring James Elmes in 1827, to celebrate these Mayfair. As the 19th century wore on prototype for the rebuilding of their shops. developments and others. Two of these relatively less wealth was in the hands of the Suffice it to say, after the appointment of engravings are reproduced here (Figures 2 aristocracy and more in the hands of the various experts to advise, a resignation by & 5). expanding middle class. As the businesses Norman Shaw and even the involvement of 4 R E AT I O N A N D R E C R E AT I O N So where does this leave Nash? His own house in Lower Regent Street lived on for a while in the hands of various minor clubs (the long gallery became at one point the Royal Gallery of Illustration – which specialised in Figure 5 The original early 19th century building at No. humorous musical 224-240 Regent Street shows many features associated sketches). But in 1924, with Sir John Soane. his former home was replaced by Dorland additions to the front of his house in House, a Portland- Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Hobhouse too has stone-clad giant of a commented on the Soanian look of No. 224- building in a bland, 240 Regent Street. However, the Crown simplified Neo-classical Figure 3 The rebuilt former County Fire Office (right) and former Swan & Edgar’s Estate’s conservation study can find no Piccadilly façade (left) – the architect was Ernest Newton, supervised by Blomfield design, which now record of an architect associated with the (completed 1928). In the centre the Quadrant is being redeveloped again, this time behind houses the Mitsukoshi original No. 224-240 and it speculates that the listed façade. Japanese restaurant. the developer, Samuel Baxter, may have Clearly the new breed acted as his own architect. All one can say is, the Cabinet, it was Sir Reginald Blomfield, of early 20th century steel-frame buildings if Soane was not the architect, he would have ex-RIBA President, who oversaw new are much taller, offer vastly more floor area every right to feel aggrieved at the designs for the Quadrant, Piccadilly Circus and have few listing problems internally, purloining of his intellectual property.*** and related work, and it was he who largely which no doubt appeals to large corporate set the tone for the rest of the rebuilding. lessees, but it is a matter of some regret that Once the basic approach had been agreed the they should have so completely swept away rebuilding took on a momentum of its own. all that came before them. During the period 1904-1928 virtually all the In conclusion, I leave the reader to compare buildings were rebuilt. Their front a couple of examples from the original elevations being “show facades” and scheme, taken from Elmes’s Metropolitan variations of a monumental form that, Improvements, with their present-day although uniform for each city block, varied replacements. Figure 2 shows Nash’s from block to block because they were Quadrant, while Figures 3 and 4 show its generally designed by different architects. replacements. Figure 3 shows the Piccadilly Many have elements of French Neo-classical Circus end of the Quadrant, while Figure 4 Beaux Arts/16th century French shows the Quadrant looking south towards Figure 6 The rebuilt No. 224-244 Regent Street, by Henry Renaissance style (as opposed to Shaw’s Piccadilly. Figure 5 shows the original Tanner (1922), Neo-classicism with Egyptian rather than Neo-baroque Piccadilly Hotel – now the building at No. 224-240 Regent Street, Soanian details. Meridien), because a number of the architects had trained in Figure 6 shows No. 224-244 Regent Street Paris, and others were as rebuilt in 1922 for Dickins & Jones, to the influenced by the buildings designs of Henry Tanner, who was also already built in such styles. responsible for the buildings making up The Prince Regent had Oxford Circus (1912-1923). Tanner’s No. thought the original Regent 224-244 (Figure 6) has broad similarities to Street would “quite most of the other monumental Neo-classical eclipse” Napoleon’s Paris, buildings that make up the rebuilt Regent so it is ironic that we should Street. Where it is unusual is that its central have ended up reimporting bays are stepped out in the centre and it has elements of grandiloquent a range of Egyptian motifs – an early French style in the street’s example of a fashion for Egyptian revival rebuilding. Ironic too that architecture which followed the rediscovery Nash was pilloried as of Tutankhamun’s tomb. being all about façade, and Mike Wood yet the Crown Estate’s own conservation study Figure 4 The rebuilt Quadrant in Regent Street showing, in the centre the 9 highly rusticated bays of the back of the Piccadilly Hotel (Norman Shaw, completed in * Not part of the original scheme, two early colonisers of the describes the rebuilt 1908). To either side are the rather plainer Blomfield-designed sections of the site of Carlton House (demolished 1826) have thankfully Regent Street as a series of Quadrant (completed 1928). escaped the early 20th century rebuilding mania: Decimus “show façades” and it Burton’s Athenaeum (1828-30) and opposite it, Nash’s United takes the view that there is very little of a building that looks as if it was designed by Service Club (1827, remodelled by Burton in 1842, now the architectural merit behind these façades. Sir John Soane and Figure 6 shows its Institute of Directors). As it puts the matter: “it may well be present-day replacement. The original No. ** A few early buildings were approved before the guidelines were adopted, see for example the 1897 mosaic on No. 235-241 argued that mediocre early 20th century 224-240 Regent Street (Figure 5) has roof- (now the Apple store) and the red Swedish granite (approved fabric might be replaced by better quality level anthemion motifs in semi-circular 1898) used for No. 156-170 (the Robinson & Cleaver building). early 21st century fabric”. The façades are, projections and rectangular incised designs *** Sir John Soane was unequivocally responsible for the of course, listed. on the façade, which both feature on Soane’s original No. 156-170 Regent Street. 5 Marylebone Society, what grounds could WESTMINSTER IT NATIONAL have been found within that piece of legislation to protect and preserve those SUPPORT FORUM PLANNING POLICY splendid Nash Terraces that ensure the very CHANGES distinctive atmosphere of Regent’s Park? The editor is pleased to have received the Yes indeed, there is paragraph 183 ‘giving following contribution from a former member weight to… Conservation’ and there is and Planning Co-ordinator of our Society. The acknowledgement that historic assets are author's views are not necessarily the same as ‘irreplaceable’. But then there is paragraph those members of the Society currently on 184, ’Where the application will lead to our Planning Subcommittee. substantial harm or total loss, of significance The legislative changes are currently being of a designated heritage asset local planning Gaby Higgs and Cynthia Poole at the top of the BT Tower. debated in Parliament, and are changing week authorities should refuse consent, unless it by week.We are monitoring progress.There is can be demonstrated (note, not proved) that A chance to see Marylebone from its tallest no doubt, whatever the scope of these the substantial harm or loss is necessary to building was the fantastic climax to an debates, that the changes will affect the way in achieve substantial public benefits that extremely informative conference hosted by which planning reviews operate in our area, outweigh that harm or loss…’And, as if that BT for charities working in Westminster. leading to changes in the way our Society’s is not clear, there is paragraph 185 which Volunteer organisations can be much more planning committee operates. We have looks at non-designated heritage assets effective if they use the latest technology to initiated discussions both within our Society which is, I believe, what the Nash Terraces contact their members, communicate with and with others, but we are not yet ready to were at the time of their proposed stakeholders and spread a wider net for report on this activity, not least because of the demolition. Paragraph 13 states ‘without raising funds and awareness of their fluidity of the present legislative proposals. growth a sustainable future cannot be campaigns. If any member is able to support our efforts in achieved’ and paragraph 19 states ‘Decision Howard Bashford spoke about social this area, help would be greatly welcomed. takers should assume that the default networking for the elderly and his own answer to development proposals is yes.’ version of Facebook, called 'Finerday' is WHAT WOULD A POST Protected and preserved? If you are being introduced throughout care homes FRAMEWORK MARYLEBONE concerned please write to your MP. nationally and will eventually connect with LOOK LIKE? Verina Glaessner the NHS and other public services. Kim Under the new draft proposals for the Townsend explained how her company National Planning Policy Framework the Media Trust can advise charities on the best claim of “wider public benefit” could make it way to use the media to get their message impossible for City Council to refuse a across and Sisu Berhane of Third Sector IT planning application. The default position explained that there are many 'blue-chip' proposed by this document is after all companies prepared to give a small “permission” and rising oil prices might percentage of their time, skills and output to bring in ‘strategic needs of the wider local good causes for free. The St Marylebone area’ that may overturn ‘the neighbourhood Society needs to embrace these advances in requirement for peaceful enjoyment’. communications which can improve our What about all those occasions when the St lives in many ways. Marylebone Society was able to work with Westminster has a programme of free City Council to persuade developers to Dorset Square by Bede Young. e-learning courses which residents can modify their designs to fit into Marylebone’s Spring in Dorset Square access at their local library. Councillor very specific and characteristic architectural London’s hidden little gem, guarded, rocked Melvyn Caplan has been appointed as context? In the future there would be no by graceful, gnarled old trees. Westminster’s Digital Champion with the incentive to do so, so long as wider benefit aim to get all Westminster residents online can be demonstrated, not proved. Evidence Shafts of eager sun now cutting through the by the end of 2012. How can this be is not required. tender canopy… achieved? Had the Framework been in place a decade to a rare vision of cascading yellow, blushing pink… Through initiatives such as the Community or so ago we would have two shiny, glass- Computers scheme Westminster Council fronted buildings (as initially submitted) on and from a variety of reaching shrubs, has been recycling its own computers and Marylebone Road to house the new Cancer masses of dazzling, ephemeral scarlet has given over 400 computers free to Clinic and the new Magistrates Court. flowers… voluntary organisations and residents since They would, of course, contrast their powerful scent spreading beyond the May 2009. uncomfortably with the weathered gates, along the street from every stem, sandstone of the finely designed facades of every frond, new life beaming, calling as A website called Westminster InTouch Harley and Manor Houses but there would morning grew still like a praying soul. (www.westminsterintouch.org.uk) will give have been no incentive for developers to residents, support agencies, voluntary And I, a solitary passer-by, suddenly take local opinion into account. The wider arrested by some unknown glory, tugging at organisations and local businesses a place to social gains would have been undeniably my heart. find information on digital inclusion, present in both cases, so, as speed would be how to exchange IT resources and support the essence, no discussion. Rubber stamped. Mesmerised… Westminster residents to get online. What would we have lost? A sense of our I stood… If you would like more information contact: exciting and decidedly unbland, historic devouring the scent like nectar with the Irene McWilliams at context and its gradual evolution, with blue, vivid air… [email protected] or on buildings of different times and functions hush… 020 7641 6293. amicably co-existing. a blackbird song now soaring above Dorset Find out more at: Most of all, had the Framework been in place Square. www.westminsterintouch.com at the founding moment of The St Clara Silvolli 6 EVENTS CHILDREN’S ART “PUTTIN’ ON THE GLITZ”: COMPETITION THE GOLDEN YEARS OF ART DECO ARCHITECTURE IN BRITAIN An exhibition of photographs from the RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection The term Art Deco was only coined in and gallery talk on 20th October, hosted the late 1960s. Contemporaries by curator Robert Elwall, make sure you confronted with this brash, shimmering see this fascinating collection of new style during the inter-war years photographs before the exhibition referred to it, often sneeringly, as Jazz closes on 26th November, which Moderne or simply Moderne. A heady illustrates the style’s mass appeal and cocktail of many different sources, enduring popularity. St Mary’s Church in the future by Misha Melman. Art Deco emphasized geometrical Gallery 2 at the RIBA, 66 Portland Place, abstraction, streamlining but also floral Now in its fourth year, the Children's London W1 motifs. It captured the hedonistic spirit Art Exhibition took place on 16th of an age determined to escape the October at Marylebone Station. This rigours of the Depression. Its use of year the theme was ‘Marylebone in the new reflective materials such as Future’ and the youngster's ideas chromium and exploitation of innovative ranged from wildly imaginative lighting methods such as neon architecture to a city overtaken by afforded photographers dramatic new aliens and scenes of dereliction and possibilities evident in this wonderful devastation. exhibition of archive photographs at the RIBA. Just what happens to Marylebone in the future will actually depend on these Just how ubiquitous the Art Deco style young people taking an interest in their was is illustrated by the wide range of building types featured; from private environment and local issues. The art houses to blocks of flats, cinemas, competition was started to try to theatres, shop fronts and factories. involve them in the work of the Society Many of these buildings have been and despite sending out over 2,000 demolished but in Marylebone we are entry forms to local schools and at the fortunate to have wonderful examples of Marylebone Village fayre, we only Art Deco architecture which we can received approximately 50 entries. visit and get a sense of its decorative Luckily those that do enter are keen, extravagance, joie de vivre and talented artists and evidently enjoy optimism, such as Dorset House and the BBC, Langham Place, London (1932). Architects: George creating the wonderful work that was on BBC headquarters on Portland Place. Val Myer & Francis James Watson-Hart. Photographer: Sydney Newbery RIBApix 11178. RIBA Library show. If you missed the Society’s private view Photographs Collection

ST MARYLEBONE SOCIETY PROGRAMME AUTUMN 2011 Friday 28th October, 1pm Monday 21st November, 12pm Friday 20th January 2012, 12.00pm Lunchtime Classical Guitar Recital Dennis Severs House 18 Folgate The Cartoon Museum, 35 Little ‘Baroque to Spanish Romance’ Street E1. A fascinating time capsule of Russell Street WC1. Cartoons, comics and caricatures through the centuries, Idit Gold – Guitar and Rachel Seghers – 18th century life. Meet outside at the work of Gilray and Rowlandson Soprano, Hampstead Garden Suburb 11.55am – £7.00. amongst them. Meet outside at 11.55am Free Church, Central Square NW11 Wednesday 23rd November, 6.00pm – £5.50, £4.00 (concs). 7AG – Free. for 6.30pm Friday 17th February 2012, 11.00am Monday 7th November, 6.45pm St Marylebone Society AGM, The The Order of St John, St Johns Lane St Marylebone Parish Church Multi Council House, Marylebone Road. EC1. The history of the order since the 11th century. Tour visits 12th century Faiths Service, Marylebone Road. Thursday 8th December, 2.00pm crypt and the new galleries opened in Followed by Reception. Doctor Johnson's House, 17 Gough 2010. Meet outside at 10.55am – £5.00 Wednesday 16th November, 6.45pm Square EC4. Built in 1700, the house Donation. Drinks and supper at the Swan & where Samuel Johnson lived and For more information and late bookings Edgar, Linhope Street, NW1. Please worked 1748-1759 and where he please contact: St Marylebone Society Events Secretary, Douglas Temple, Flat 1, book via Douglas Temple (see right), compiled his dictionary. Meet outside at 7 Seymour Place, London W1H 5AS – pay your own way. 1.55pm – £3.50. 020 7723 6417. 7 VISITS With plain white walls, natural timber evening. There were interesting parallels WESTMINSTER finishes, modern furniture and elegant with the present day: there had been a lighting a feeling of authority, firm but fair, banking collapse in 1346-7 and they were MAGISTRATES’ is conveyed in a totally modern idiom. struggling with climate change (it was OURTS ISIT This is emphasised by the architects’ getting colder and wetter) which led to C V decision to revert to panelled doors and widespread famine. A major problem in ‘Farrow & Ball colours’ in the restored responding to the added disaster of plague building at 179 Marylebone Road, which is was they had no idea why it arrived. One now the only original county court chronicler thought the French were to building still operating as such in London. blame, but the consensus among Initial concerns about pigeons fouling the university professors was that the answer brise-soleil screen have been allayed by lay in astrology. There was also a failure to the installation of a sonic deterrent understand how the plague was spread. system and to date seem to be working. Some believed in the miasma theory (that The other problem which residents raised it was caused by bad air), others that it was the likely increase in congestion spread by contagion. Parliament seems to around the red route junction, especially have given credence to the contagion view when high profile cases bring an because they ended the practice of paying entourage of press and outside broadcast feudal homage by kissing the King on the vehicles. This remains to be seen once the mouth. Something no doubt our present courts are operating at full capacity when Queen is eternally grateful for. the associated housing development in Mike Wood Seymour Place is complete. With the Magistrates’ Courts costing an estimated £50 million and following over VISIT TO THE Members outside the new courts. two years on site we hope that this With the Magistrates’ Courts operational important civic building will prove ARCH HOTEL from 27th September, we were lucky to be functional, bring social and economic given a behind the scenes tour of what will benefits to Marylebone and become a be the most important court in the future local landmark for Westminster. country by Mark Emblen of HMCS, who Gaby Higgs explained that both Chief Magistrates for England and Wales will be based here. From the moment one steps into the WESTMINSTER building from the busy, noisy, bustle of the Marylebone Road, a sense of calm, quiet HISTORY CLUB decorum descends. The public spaces are GETS UNDERWAY open, shiny, smooth and brightly lit. Natural light floods down the atrium which together with large areas of glass Elegance was the order of the day as about allow views in and out and a feeling of a dozen of us made our way in glorious transparency. Mark explained that it was sunshine to The Arch Hotel just south of intentional; to put people at ease in what Bryanston Square. Vess Fieldmanis, the for most is an upsetting and stressful maitre d’, was on hand to greet us and situation. show us to the coffee lounge. Situated on the ground floor and partially screened from the main bar area, the lounge has a number of coffee tables and easy chairs. Vess had arranged an impressive array of coffee cups, coffee pots, a wide variety of teas and a very tempting selection of bite-sized pastries. Professor Tom Beaumont James at the Westminster His staff were also very attentive and History Club. hospitable. On 27th September the Westminster As usual when the SMS get together History Club got off to an entertaining conversation was lively and entertaining. Interior of the courts public areas. start with a very well-illustrated inaugural It was particularly good to welcome lecture on the plague in the 14th century members of the Marylebone Association Court No 1 is the largest and with security Book Club to our coffee morning, and also screens between defendant and public by Professor Tom Beaumont James. Although an ancient pestilence that wiped to introduce a new member of the Society, gallery will deal with the most sensitive John Kirkwood, to the other SMS folk. terrorist and extradition work. Non out a third of Westminster’s population reflective glass allows good eye contact may seem a grim subject, Professor This is a delightful venue for a coffee for the judges and the acoustics are so Beaumont James’s dry sense of humour morning and we look forward to another well detailed that an early concern is that and vividly painted portrait of those visit, when this can be arranged. ‘private whispers’ will be audible to all. troubled times made it a very enjoyable Dorian Aroyo Published by the St. Marylebone Society, October 2011. ©St Marylebone Society.