| 6 Burlington Gardens | |
|---|---|
 6 Burlington Gardens in 2022 | |
| Coordinates | 51°30′35″N 0°08′25″W / 51.5097°N 0.1402°W |
| Built | 1867–1870 |
| Architect | Sir James Pennethorne |
| Architectural style(s) | Italianate |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Official name | Ethnography Department of the British Museum |
| Designated | 9 January 1970 |
| Reference no. | 1291018[1] |
6 Burlington Gardens is a Grade II*-listed building in Mayfair, London. Built for the University of London, it has been used by various institutions in the course of its history, including the Civil Service Commission, the British Museum and, currently, the Royal Academy of Arts.
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London Video Tour: The West End (Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Convent Garden, Soho)
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Transcription
Hi, I'm David Hill with New York Habitat. Welcome to our video tour of London's thriving and fashionable West End. Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Covent Garden, and Soho: this is the thriving and lively centre of London's West End - an area synonymous with entertainment, theatre, and shopping. The West End refers to the area of central London to the West of the original 'City of London'. With no official boundaries the West End stretches from Charing Cross in the East to Hyde Park Corner in the West and from the banks of the river Thames as far as Euston Road. This is the renowned Covent Garden. The 'Convent Garden' was once the fruit and vegetable gardens to Westminster Abbey. In the mid 1600s following the Great Fire of London it became the most important fruit, vegetable, and flower market in the country until the market was officially moved in 1974. Covent Garden is now a popular shopping area and home to London's Royal Opera House. The Royal Opera House has been on this site since the mid 1700s. Handel's Messiah was performed here in 1743. Destroyed by fire the building we see is the 3rd Royal Opera House which was built in 1858. With a licence for street entertainment, Covent Garden is a wonderful location to relax. There are restaurants galore in the main square and in the nearby streets! Why not try Rules, London's oldest restaurant specialising in traditional British food and game. Or make a visit to London's oldest pub, the Lamb and Flag, once the haunt of bare knuckle fighters! You'll also want to check out Leicester Square - the centre of London's cinema land! This pedestrianized square revolves around entertainment with the statue of Shakespeare in the centre, the street artists in the park and the cinemas surrounding it. Get your theatre tickets from TKTS and secure a bargain for a West End production! Our next stop: SOHO, the entertainment centre of London. A vibrant and bohemian hub in the heart of the West End, Soho has something for everyone. Full of restaurants of every origin, pubs, bars, and shops this is must-see when visiting London. Soho has become the centre of London's gay scene. Oxford Street is the northern boundary of Soho. At 1.5 miles long and with around 300 shops this is considered to be Europe's busiest shopping street. If you'd like live like a local and experience the nightlife and hustle and bustle of London's West End then you should consider booking a vacation rental or furnished apartment from New York Habitat. There's no better way to experience this city than to live in a real London apartment. Piccadilly Circus has become a tourist attraction with its neon lights, its central location, and its variety of shops. Along Piccadilly you can take tea at the Richoux, enjoy the shopping arcades such as Burlington Arcade, or cut across to Savile Row, famous for bespoke tailoring. If you don't have time to wait for the tailor then take a walk along Jermyn Street to appreciate Ladies and Gentlemen's clothing outfitters. Of course, the West End is not all about shopping and entertainment. It is also known for the arts and education. Not far from Oxford Street, you'll come to the British Museum, considered to be one of the greatest and the oldest public museums in the world. Trafalgar Square is hard to miss if you're coming to London. A great meeting place and unofficial venue for New Years Eve celebrations, Trafalgar Square is just a short walk from Leicester Square. In the heart of London, this large pedestrianized terrace is home to Nelson's column, the National Gallery, and is opposite Admiralty Arch which links Trafalgar Square via The Mall to Buckingham Palace. We finish our tour of the West End at Seven Dials. Once a slum renowned for gin shops and prostitution, Seven Dials today epitomises the West End of the 21st century with its combination of theatre, entertainment, and shopping! Well, that is it for our video tour of the West End, here in London. If we've missed any of your favourite hotspots, make sure you share them with us in the comments below. And if you're coming to London, be sure to visit our website at nyhabitat.com and book a vacation rental or furnished apartment with New York Habitat. You'll find furnished apartments all over this great city of London. I'm David Hill with New York Habitat. Thanks for watching our video tour of the West End and we hope to see you soon in the London!
History
University of London and the Civil Service Commission
The Italianate building was designed by Sir James Pennethorne between 1867 and 1870 as headquarters for the University of London. It occupied the northernmost section of the former garden of Burlington House. It was a grand building, but not especially large. The University of London is a federal university and this early central building contained little besides examination halls and a few offices; the premises of several of the constituent colleges were larger. The university vacated Burlington Gardens in 1900 for the Imperial Institute building in South Kensington. Briefly the headquarters of the National Antarctic Expedition, in 1902 it was given to the Civil Service Commission.[2]
Museum of Mankind
In 1970, this was the site of the Department of Ethnography of the British Museum, which housed its collections from the Americas, Africa, the Pacific and Australia, as well as tribal Asia and Europe, because of lack of space in the museum's main building in Bloomsbury. Between 1970 and 1997, the building, as the Museum of Mankind, hosted around 75 exhibitions, including many famous ones such as Nomad and City, 1976, and Living Arctic, 1987. It was created by Keeper of Ethnography Adrian Digby in the 1960s, and opened by his successor William Fagg. Fagg was succeeded by Malcolm Mcleod in 1974, and by John Mack in 1990. The museum ceased exhibiting at Burlington Gardens in 1997 and the Department of Ethnography moved back to the British Museum in Bloomsbury in 2004.[3]
Royal Academy and private tenants
After the ethnography collection's return to Bloomsbury the building was purchased by the Royal Academy. In 1998 an architectural competition was held to connect it with Burlington House, which was won by Michael Hopkins & Partners. This was abandoned as the Heritage Lottery Fund was not persuaded that there was sufficient need for the project, which would have cost £80 million.[4]
In about 2005 the building was brought back into use by the Royal Academy, the tenant of the original wing of Burlington House and the wing which lies between the two buildings. It was used mainly by the Royal Academy Schools. On 29 August 2006, the building was damaged by a fire, but there was no loss of academy artworks as it was being prepared for a future exhibition.[5]
In 2006 Colin St John Wilson drew up a masterplan for the whole complex, which included a more modest link between the buildings than that proposed by Hopkins. However, Wilson died the following year, which led to another competition being held in 2008, won by David Chipperfield Architects. In order to raise capital for Chipperfield's design, the building was lent to the commercial gallery Haunch of Venison, which occupied the site from 2009 to 2011 while their existing building was being renovated. In 2012 space in the building was lent to the Pace Gallery, which occupies it on a 15-year lease.[4] A second application to the HLF for £12.7m to go towards a £36 million project, was successful in 2013.[6] This included a sculpture court in the bridge between the buildings, a lecture hall where that of the University of London originally stood[4] and a permanent home for Giampietrino’s full-size copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. The redevelopment was completed in 2018, in time for the academy's 250th anniversary that year.[6]
See also
References
- ^ Historic England. "Ethnography Department of the British Museum (1291018)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
- ^ Sheppard, F. H. W., ed. (1963). "The University of London at No. 6 Burlington Gardens". Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
- ^ Africa, Oceania, Americas: History of the collection, British Museum, Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ a b c Woodman, Ellis (5 October 2012). "6 Burlington Gardens by David Chipperfield". Building Design. Retrieved 5 February 2013. (subscription required)
- ^ "Royal Academy evacuated in fire". BBC News. 29 August 2006. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
- ^ a b Brown, Mark (8 November 2013). "Royal Academy of Arts secures £12.7m lottery funds for redevelopment". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
External links
Media related to 6 Burlington Gardens at Wikimedia Commons
- Architectural history from the Survey of London
- British Museum: Department of Africa, Oceania, the Americas
This page was last edited on 17 November 2023, at 16:55