2386 x 3624 px | 20,2 x 30,7 cm | 8 x 12,1 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
26 dicembre 2010
Ubicazione:
Pitzhanger Manor-House, Ealing Green, Walpole Park, Ealing, London UK
Altre informazioni:
"In 1800, the architect John Soane purchased Pitzhanger Manor-House. At this stage in his illustrious career, as architect and surveyor to the Bank of England and with public buildings and private house to his credit, Soane intended to build his 'dream' house - his own country villa, to be used subsequently as a 'suitable' residence for his sons. Soane demolished most of the existing manor, apart from an extension designed in 1768 by his first employer, George Dance. He then set about building his own home, which he saw as 'a sort of portrait' - an advertisement for his own idiosyncratic architectural style with its stripped classical detail, radical colour schemes and inventive use of space and light. Following its completion in 1804, the Soanes used Pitzhanger Manor-House as a weekend retreat and a place of entertainment. It also accommodated a growing collection of paintings, books, architectural drawings and fragments, later to form the collection which you can now see at Sir John Soane's Museum at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1810 Soane sold the House. With remarkably little alteration, it passed through a succession of owners until 1843 when it became home to the daughters of Britain's only assassinated Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval. In 1901, the building was sold to Ealing District Council and extended to become Ealing's Public Library. The 1940 lending library building on the site of Soane's mock Roman ruins is now the PM Gallery.Soane's ornamental gardens and parkland, including his bridge, entrance arch and lodge, became Walpole Park, today on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Since 1985, when the library moved to the Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre, the interiors of the House have been undergoing restoration to reveal their original splendour. "www.ealing.gov.uk
