An architectural visit of Mayfair Part 2

In the previous post we already have seen how a building can tell a lot about a place, a town, and I hope you have enjoyed the visit, So here is the end of this short summary.

Berkeley square is a lovely part of Mayfair that was  originally laid out in the mid 18th century by architect William Kent. It was a residential area with now only one residential building building. No need to mention that the price of a residential property in Berkeley Square is more expensive than in the close neighbourhood!

This lovely house, now a club shows the typical qualities of a Georgian house. We can see again the fan above the entrance door, the very tall first floor...

Some of the famous resident of this place included Winston Churchill (number 48, when he was a child), Robert Clive of India (bought no. 45 in 1761 and committed suicide there in 1774), George Canning...

The Ritz Hotel on Piccadilly. This is the first steel framed building built in the UK. It is known as the best hotel in the world thanks to a worldwide renowned chef (Escoffier) and each bedroom includes a bathroom, a walk in wardrobe and a fire. If you look on the roof you will be amazed by the number of chimney pots, the evidence of a fire place per room. The building is made with Portland stone and Norwegian granite.
Swiss hotelier César Ritz, the dismissed former manager of the Savoy Hotel, opened the hotel on 24 May 1906. The building is neoclassical in the Louis XVI manner, built during the Belle epoque to resemble a stylish Parisian block of flats, over arcades that consciously evoked the Rue de Tivoli. Its architects were Charles Mewès, who had previously designed Ritz's Hotel in Paris, and Arthur Davis, with engineering collaboration by the Swedish engineer Sven Bylander.

Then we passed the tailor's street, Savile Row with its number three known thanks to the Beatles as the offices of The Beattles' Apple Corp were at 3 Savile Row; The Beatles, Badfinger, Mary Hopkins and others recorded in the Apple Studios basement.

 The Beatles' final live performance was on the roof, on 30 January 1969. The "Rooftop Concert" concludes the documentary film Let It Be.
There are style many tailors in Savile Row, offering bespoke costumes.

Built in 1879 the Victorian shopping arcade  is smaller than the nearby Burlington Arcade

The Burlington arcade were the first shopping mall in the UK. They were opened in 1819 with originally about 90 shops, of which only about 40 remains now.  The arcade were a safe place to go shopping at that time, as the arcade had their own police force, who were ex soldiers from the Burlington regiment.

The windows of the first floor were at the time occupied by Ladies providing what our guide called "emergency love".
The Royal Academy also known as the Burlington house is the most Palladian building in the area. It was originally a private Palladian mansion, and was expanded in the mid 19th century after being purchased by the British government.

Another gem one cab pass without noticing it is Albany house, with all its Georgian characteristics
(http://www.georgianindex.net/albany/Rooms_at_the_Albany.html)

This of course is a very short summary of this very interesting visit. I would encourage anybody interested in the subject to book a tour and enjoy it as much as I have!


Emmanuelle Lemoine

An architectural visit of Mayfair Part1

The good thing when you are a member of the BIID (British Institute Interior Design) is that every year you have to ensure that you are keeping up to date with all the novelties and keep yourself educated about all the subjects linked to Interior Design. As I am a learner, I love this very much, and this is why a few weeks ago I decided to join a tour on architectural London. What a great opportunity to walk in London (Mayfair more precisely) and have some explanations about the buildings we all see, but can't refer to exactly.
The tour was organised by the BIID and was done by a knowledgeable gentleman, Anthony Thompson, who does all sorts of interesting tour (have a look at his website if you are interested by the subject: anthonytompsonarttours.co.uk)

Here is a short summary of the interesting things I discovered during the tour.

Who hasn't walked in front and visited Selfridges, high end department store? Well, this building has an interesting story. The building was was designed by Daniel Burnham and built in phases.  Also involved in the design of the store were American architect Francis Swales, who worked on decorative details, and British architects R. Frank Atkinson and Thomas Smith Tait.^[8][9] The distinctive polychrome sculpture above the Oxford Street entrance is the work of British sculptor Gilbert Bayes

Selfridge is the second largest store after Harrods. It was a revolutionary sort of store as it is the first to put the merchandise on view. It was attracting people with its educational aspect with the display of Berlioz's plane after the first crossing of the Chanel. More interestingly it also was the first shop where women were allowed to come on their own without a chaperon! The building was damaged during the war and herefore was rebuilt.

With Stratford House (built in 1773 by  Edward Stratford, architect Robert Adam) we have one of the numerous example of a classical Georgian building. With the fan above the door, the very tall first floor...

Stratfort house has been the Oriental club since 1824 http://www.orientalclub.org.uk/html/abouthistory.html

Another interesting building was Handel's house, the place where he lived and composed for a big part of his life. It is said that the ground floor was painted in lead grey, which is not the colour we think for interior. The street was so full of dust and dirt that painting the inside in grey was a way to keep the paint "clean-looking" a bit longer.

When you go at the back of the building, you can see the two chimney stacks delimiting the house. It appears that when houses were first built on their own (the place was quite empty at the time) the two chimney stacks were the assurance that the house would keep together, and this is a typical feature for Georgian houses.

The history and stories behind the Connaught hotel are quite fascinating and revealing what the life in London was at that time.

The Connaught hotel was first opened  opened in 1815 as the Prince of Saxe Coburg Hotel.

It was first a "pied a terre" and not fully lived in.

In the time when there were no hotel in London, staying in London was not an easy thing to do. When people were staying in a house, they had to be in their room at darkness, as the owner of the house would then lock all the guests in their rooms, afraid that the guests could be robbers or worth. If you were not in your room then... you'd have to find another solution in a not very friendly environment. Not to mention that in case of a fire, the locked guests would burnt in their rooms.... Hum... Lovely!

In the second part we'll see more about Berkeley square, the Ritz and he first shopping mall....

Emmanuelle Lemoine