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Top Ten
Essential Architecture |
top ten London Museums |
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| The British compulsion to collect
artifacts means that Britain has the best museums in the world - we had
a whole empire to plunder. Below is a shortlist of the main museums, but
whatever your interest, from 17th Century fans, to fan engines, there's
a museum specifically catering to your taste. And virtually all of them
are free.... |
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For a more complete list, see the
main list |
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| 1 |
The British Museum |
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The central quadrangle of the British Museum in London was
redeveloped to become the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, commonly referred to
simply as the Great Court, during the late 1990s. It was opened by Queen
Elizabeth II in 2000. The court has a tessellated glass roof by Foster and
Partners (Architects) and Buro Happold (Engineers) covering the entire court and
surrounds the original circular British Museum Reading Room in the centre, now a
museum. It is the largest covered square in Europe. The glass and steel roof is
made up of 1,656 pairs of glass windowpanes; each of a unique shape because of
the undulating nature of the roof. |
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| 2 |
The Victoria and Albert Museum |
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architect
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location
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on the corner of Cromwell
Gardens and Exhibition Road in South Kensington, west London |
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date
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1900 |
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style
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Victorian and Edwardian |
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construction
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stone |
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type
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Museum |
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated
as the V&A) is on the corner of Cromwell Gardens and Exhibition Road in South
Kensington, west London, England. It specialises in applied and decorative arts.
The museum was established in 1852 as
the South Kensington Museum under the control of the Science and Art Department,
following the success of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Its first director was
Sir Henry Cole, a utilitarian and joint organiser of the Great Exhibition who
acquired some of the objects from the exhibition for the collection. Over the
years the museum attracted many important collections to it. Originally, it
contained both arts and sciences and was designed to inspire visitors with
examples of achievement in both fields. It was believed at the time that this
would help improve the tastes of consumers, manufacturers and designers,
creating a virtuous circle that would benefit the culture and the economy. |
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| 3 |
Museum of Natural History |
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architect
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Alfred Waterhouse |
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location
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London |
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date
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1860 to 1880 |
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style
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Victorian German
Romanesque, Romanesque Revival
Romanesque symmetrical facade. |
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construction
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iron frame, concrete vaults, terra cotta
cladding |
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type
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Museum |
One of the grand Victorian museums of the 19th
century, Alfred Waterhouse's Museum of Natural History had roots in designs by
Sir Richard Owen, the museum's creator, and an 1864 competition won by Francis
Fowke. The building integrates the romantic and the practical in an eclectic
whole: German Romanesque stylistic use of dramatic arches and towers, decorated
with a rich sculptural program of terra cotta, and a practical use of structural
iron and contemporary mechanical systems. |
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| 4 |
The Tate Modern |
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Bankside Power Station is located on the south bank
of the Thames in the Bankside district of London. Since 2000 it has been used to
house the Tate Modern art museum.
Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the building is brick-clad
steel, 200 m long, with a substantial central chimney of 99 m. The height was
limited to less than that of St Paul's Cathedral on the opposite side of the
river. |
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| 5 |
The National Gallery |
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architect
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William Wilkins, Sir John Taylor ,Robert
Venturi |
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location
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Trafalgar Square, London WC2 Nearest tube
station(s) Charing Cross, Embankment, Leicester Square |
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date
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1824 |
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style
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NeoClassical |
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construction
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stone |
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type
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Gallery |
The National Gallery is an art gallery in London,
located on the north side of Trafalgar Square. It houses Western European
paintings from 1250 to 1900 from the national art collection of Great Britain.
The collection of 2,300 paintings belongs to the British public, and entry to
the main collection is free, although there are charges for entry to special
exhibitions. |
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| 6 |
Imperial War Museum |
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architect
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Sydney Smirke |
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location
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Lambeth North |
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date
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c. 1890 |
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style
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NeoClassical |
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construction
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brick, stone |
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type
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Museum |
The Museum features military vehicles, weapons, war
memorabilia, a library, a photographic archive, and an art collection. Items in
the Museum are not necessarily British, and include other nations at war at the
time, primarily France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Russia. Its vast
collection contains over 15,000 paintings, drawings, and sculptures, and over
30,000 posters. According to the Museum, its collection includes "objects
ranging from aircraft, armoured fighting vehicles and naval vessels to uniforms,
badges, personal equipment, and medals and decorations; documents, both British
and foreign; printed books comprising a national reference library of over
155,000 items; 120 million feet of cine film and over 6,500 hours of video tape;
over 6 million photographs and photographic negatives." The grandeur of its
collection has transformed the museum into an archive and art museum, as well.
Outside the main entrance of the museum are mounted two 15" naval guns from
former Royal Navy warships. The left-hand gun was mounted in HMS Ramillies, a
Revenge-class battleship, from 1916 to 1941. The right-hand gun was mounted in
another Revenge-class battleship, HMS Resolution, from 1915 to 1938, and then in
the monitor HMS Roberts, where it took part in the D-Day bombardments. |
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| 7 |
National Portrait Gallery |
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architect
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Ewan Christian, built by Shillitoe & Son |
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location
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Trafalgar Square - St Martin's Place, WC2,
England Nearest tube station(s) Charing Cross, Embankment, Leicester Square |
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date
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1896 |
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style
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Neo-Renaissance
NeoClassical |
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construction
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stone |
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type
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Gallery |
The gallery opened to the public in 1856. It houses
portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the
basis of the significance of the sitter. The collection includes photographs and
caricatures as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture. The National Portrait
Gallery also houses the Chandos portrait, arguably the most famous portrait of
William Shakespeare.
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| 8 |
Tate Britain |
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architect
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Sidney R. J. Smith |
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location
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Millbank, London SW1, England, United
Kingdom (Pimlico tube station) |
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date
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1897 as National Gallery of British Art; became Tate Britain
in 2000 |
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style
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NeoClassical |
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construction
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stone |
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type
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Gallery |
Tate Britain is a part of the Tate gallery network
in Britain, along with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is
housed in the Tate's original premises on Millbank on the site of Millbank
Prison. The front part of the building was designed by Sidney R. J. Smith with a
classical portico and dome behind. Construction commenced in 1893 and the
gallery originally opened on 21 July 1897 as the National Gallery of British
Art. There have been several extensions over the years. The central sculpture
gallery was designed by John Russell Pope. The gallery was renamed "Tate
Britain",in March 2000 before the launch of Tate Modern. It is now dedicated to
the display of historical and contemporary British art. It includes the Clore
Gallery of 1987, designed by James Stirling, which houses work by J.M.W. Turner. |
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| 9 |
Soane Museum |
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Sir John Soane's Museum (often abbreviated to the
Soane Museum) is a museum of architecture, and was formerly the house and studio
of the neo-classical architect Sir John Soane. It holds many drawings and models
of his projects and the collections of paintings, drawings and antiquities that
he assembled. The Museum is located in the Holborn district of central London,
England, overlooking Lincoln's Inn Fields. |
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| 10 |
Whitechapel Art Gallery |
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The distinctive façade of the Whitechapel Gallery,
designed by C. Harrison Townsend.The Whitechapel Gallery, founded 1901, was one
of the first publicly-funded galleries for temporary exhibitions in London.
Located on Whitechapel High Street, Tower Hamlets, the Gallery has a strong
track record for education and outreach projects, now focused on the Whitechapel
area's Asian population. It exhibits the work of contemporary artists, as well
as organizing retrospective exhibitions and shows that are of interest to the
local community. |
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| 11 |
Dulwich Gallery
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architect
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Sir John Soane
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location
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College Road, Dulwich,
southeast London. Telephone: 0181-693-8000. |
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date
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1811 to 1814 |
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style
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Electic
NeoClassical |
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construction
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masonry |
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type
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Gallery |
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in
Dulwich, London. It was the world's first purpose-built art gallery (the
Foundling Hospital, which contained a permanent art exhibition, being primarily
for another purpose) and opened in 1817. Its basic architecture of a series of
interlinked rooms lit by overhead skylights has been the primary influence on
art gallery design ever since. |
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