OPEN HOUSE LONDON 2011: APSLEY HOUSE

  Front elevation of Apsley House, 149 Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner, London Photo: English Heritage Number One London is Apsley House, home of the Duke of Wellington.  Little has changed in the home’s interior since he lived there in the 19th century.  The Duke of Wellington moved into the house after his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. Apsley House was built for Lord Apsley and originally was a red brick

OPEN HOUSE LONDON 2011: ST GEORGE’S BLOOMSBURY

        Front Elevation of St George’s Bloomsbury, 6-7 Little Russell Street, London Photo © Heather Shimmin   In 1711, worried about England’s spirituality and the deplorable lack of churches, Queen Anne ordered 50 churches to be “built of stone and other proper materials, with Towers or Steeples to each of them” in the City of London and Westminster.  Only 12 were constructed, 6 of which were by

OPEN HOUSE LONDON 2011: SIR JOHN SOANE MUSEUM

Sir John Soane Museum & House 12-14 Lincoln’s Inn Fields The Soane Museum is a set of three houses, Numbers 12, 13, and 14, on the north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London.  Soane designed the house as both a home to live in and as a space to display his vast collection of plaster casts, statues, artifacts, drawings, paintings, and much more.  Not all of the spaces are open

freemason hall london

OPEN HOUSE LONDON 2011: FREEMASONS HALL

  Front entrance to the Freemason’s Hall 60 Great Queen’s Street, London © Heather Shimmin DESCRIPTION The Freemasonʼs Hall is the headquarters for the United Grand Lodge of England. This is the third Freemasonʼs Hall to be built on this site. The Freemasonʼs Hall is designed in an irregular pentagon pattern with the Grand Temple at the centre. The architects were H V Ashely and F Winton Newman, who also designed the Council House extension and Art Gallery

swiss church london

OPEN HOUSE LONDON 2011: SWISS CHURCH, LONDON

  Swiss Church London, 79 Endell Street.  Photo © 2011 Heather Shimmin DESCRIPTION The Swiss Church London was built on Endell Street in the 1850s (the original church was built on Moor Street, Soho in 1775) and was listed Grade II by English Heritage in 1973. The Swiss Church has just recently completed a major multi-million pound makeover. The redesign was done by Swiss Architects Christ & Gantenbein and was completed right before Open House London. The aim