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Art Lib.

NA
3900
V666p
1922
v.5

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM

DEPARTMENT OF WOODWORK

HE PANELLED ROOMS
THE HATTON GARDEN ROOM

PRICE ONE SHILLING AND SIXPENCE

 THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM.

THE PANELLED ROOMS.

V. THE HATTON GARDEN ROOM.

PUPLICATION No. 134 W.

 Pint printed, March, 1920.

Crown Copyright Reserved.

x (51)9640 Wt 31286-Am 2138 1500 4/20 E& S

 -

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Frontispiece.
 VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
DEPARTMENT OF WOODWORK

THE PANELLED ROOMS

V. THE HATTON GARDEN ROOM

LONDON PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF

:

HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE 1920.

 Art
Libran

11ZZ

PREFATORY NOTE.

panelled room, formerly in No. 26 Hatton Garden,

London, was presented to the Museum in 1912 by the
THE National Art-Collections Fund, assisted by a body of
subscribers composed of Lord Leverhulme, Lord Riddell,
" "
the Proprietors of Country Life newspaper, Mr. H. Avray
Tipping, Mr. Emile S. Mond, Lady Mond, Mr. J. E. Drower
and Mr. W. W. Simpson. The room was previously the property
of Messrs. White, Allom & Co., who exhibited it in 1908 in the
Palace of Decorative Art at the Franco-British Exhibition and
generously sold it to the National Art-Collections Fund for the
price which they had paid for it.
The following history of the room has been compiled and
the description written by Mr. Oliver Brackett, Assistant in the

Department of Woodwork. The authorities consulted are referred

to in the
Bibliography. Thanks
are due to Messrs. Brighten
and Lemon, Messrs. Beachcroft, Thompson &
Co., and to
Mr. Hubert Garle for assistance in consulting the records relating
to the house. The measured drawings have been made by
Mr. J. Scott Lawson, A.R.I.B.A.
The panelling (No. W. 4 1912) is exhibited in Room 56,
on the ground floor of the Museum.

Victoria and Albert Museum, CECIL H. SMITH.

March, 1920.

1290028
 CONTENTS.

LIST OF PLATES

HISTORY OF THE ROOM ... ... ... ... ... ... ... g
DESCRIPTION ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 12

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 16

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... ... ... ... .., ... ... ... 17

 LIST OF PLATES.

Frontispiece. The Room in its original position at Hatton Garden.

PLATE i. The Room as set up in the Museum.

PLATE 2. Measured drawing of wall with chimney-piece and cupboard:

PLATE 3. Measured drawing of wall with doorways.

PLATE 4. Measured drawing of wall with windows

PLATE 5. Chimney-piece.

PLATE 6. Measured drawing of chimney-piece.

PLATE 7. Doorway.

PLATE 8. Measured drawing of portion of doorwav.

PLATE 9. Measured drawings of details.

PANELLED ROOM OF CARVED PINEWOOD
FROM No. 26 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON.
DATE ABOUT 1730.

HISTORY.
CHRISTOPHER HATTON, Lord Chancellor in the

Queen Elizabeth, possessed two great houses, the

reign of
SIR one called Hatton House in Holborn and the other Kirby
Hall in Northamptonshire, the latter having been pur-
chased from Sir Humphrey Stafford. Hatton House was pulled
down in the I yth century, but Kirby Hall is still standing, perhaps
the most noble English building of its time, though now half-
ruined. On the site of Hatton House and on the gardens
belonging to it, there was laid out in the second half of the xyth
century a network of streets, Hatton Street, Charles Street, Cross
Street and Kirby Street. These were at first the dwelling houses
of rich merchants and others of the city, but represent to-day a

populous business quarter. This work was set on foot just before
the Restoration and carried on during the reign of Charles II, as
is shown
by an entry in the Diary of John Evelyn for 1659 :

'

To London, ... to see ye foundations now laying for a long

streete and buildings in Hatton Garden, design'd for a little
towne, lately an ample Garden." There is little doubt that No. 26
Hatton Garden was built at this date, although the panelling now
in the Museum was added in the first half of the i8th century,
when changes were made in the building.
9640
 After Hatton House was destroyed, the descendants of Sir

Christopher Hatton remained landlords of the estate until 1785,

when it was sold .by auction. The two last members of the
family, William Viscount Hatton and his brother Henry Viscount
Hatton, were both unmarried, and after the death of the latter
in 1762 the title became extinct. The William Viscount
will of

Hatton, who died in 1760, shows that No. 26 was a house of

no little size with stables and offices attached it was
occupied
;

at that date by a certain Mr. Clare, and had before then been
in the tenure of Sir George Treby and afterwards of Sir Thomas
Lee, the leasehold being held from 1 729 by Mr. Thomas Milner.
A notice of the sale of the property in 1785 refers again to
"
Mr. Clare as tenant and describes the house as a substantial
brick dwelling-house, offices and back-court, No. 26, on the
east of Hatton Street." The property at the sale was bought
by Mr. Thomas Garle, one of whose descendants, Mr. Hubert
Garle, has kindly allowed the Museum to inspect the documents
referred to above. About the middle of the I9th century the
City Orthopaedic Hospital rented and afterwards bought the house,
remaining there till towards 1907, about which date the house was
pulled down and the panelling taken away.
That Hatton Garden in the i8th century was a street of
good proportion is shown from writings of the time. A dictionary
"
called London and its Environs," published in 1761, describes
"
it thus : Hatton Garden, Holborn, a broad straight and long
street in which the houses are but tho' they are
pretty lofty ;

plain and unadorned on the outside yet there being something

like
regularity in the buildings they appear to great advantage ;

and the street affording a fine vista may justly be reckoned

among the handsomest within the liberties of the city." It does
not seem that its occupants were
people of much fame in the
world of fashion or of politics. Writers on the history of London
make much of the fact that Wycherley the play-writer courted
and afterwards married the Countess of Drogheda, who was
10
living in lodgings in Hatton Garden. But for the most part
the names found in the records suggest men and women of the
wealthy middle class, whose lives are seldom read in the pages
of history. These families continued to have their homes in
Hatton Garden till the I9th century, though a change then began
'
to show itself in the character of the place. Hatton Garden,"
wrote Miss Hawkins in 1824, "was then an esteemed situation
for the gentry no shops were permitted but at the lower end,
;

and few parts of the town could vie with it. We lived in a part
of it which afforded us, besides a wide street in front and a sharp
descent within a few yards, an opening behind overlooking a
good garden, and, without the intervention even of a chimney,
a view of the fields where Pentonville was afterwards built ;
but
this situation, like all others in succession, is ruined by trades and
low associations."
It would have been difficult, if not impossible, to have
described No. 26 Hatton Garden in detail were it not for the
fact that a number of measured drawings, made before its
destruction by the late Mr. J. M. W. Halley and Mr. H. A.
" "
McQueen, were published in the Architectural Review for

1907 and 1909. Photographs were also taken by this Museum

about the same time. These drawings and photographs show
that the house had two important panelled rooms of the first
half of the i8th century. One of them (known as the dining
room) is the room now in the Museum and here described the;

other has been put up in a private house in London. The upper

rooms had walls covered with plain panelling and marble chimney-
pieces of bolection section such as
were commonly found in houses
of the time of Charles II and William III. This fact is worth
as if not that the house was
noting probable evidence, proof,
built towards the end of the iyth century. The panelling added
in the first half of the i8th century is more likely to be the work
of a builder than the design of a well-known architect, although
the drawings of Gibbs, Kent and others show similar features

1 1
 "
of decoration. In his notes on the subject in the Architectural
"
Review Mr. Halley stated that the floor of the hall had a
similar to a design shown in a book by Batty Langley,
pavement
a designer of interior decoration working in the middle of the
1 8th century.Batty Langley was the type of man who might
also have designed the panelling, but much time could be spent
in speculating on its probable authorship with but shadowy
chances of success in the present case.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ROOM.

THE measurements of the room are as follows :

Height : 1 1 f t. 9 in. Length : 21 ft.

9 in. Width : 21 ft. 4 in.

As set up in the Museum the room In the middle

has three walls.
of the longest wall is placed the chimney-piece with a round-
arched cupboard on each side. The two other walls have, in one
case, a pair of doors, unevenly balanced, and in the other case
three windows arranged at regular intervals. Panelling divided
by a chair-rail covers the rest of the surface and is formed of
recessed panels within framework. Jambs and architrave of
white marble surround the fire-place. The fourth wall, shown
" "
in Mr. Halley's drawings in the Architectural Review and
now put up in a house in London, had a door at one end and
panelling of the same type as the rest of the room. The irregular
placing of the doors is unusual at a time when symmetry and
balance were inflexible laws and lends colour to the theory that
the panelling was put up in a house of earlier date and was not

part of the design of the building.

Some restoration has been done to the panelling since it has
been in the Museum. The niche over the fire-place and the
two cupboards have been copied from the originals, though the
latter(see Frontispiece) had mahogany doors with glass panels.
The cornice has been moulded in plaster from the wooden section
12
over the fireplace ;
and the mouldings framing the windows
have been added.
Both the panelling and the carvings are worked in pinewood.
When first brought to the Museum the surface was covered with
England pinewood panelling of the i8th century was almost
always painted. Olive green was the colour most often found,
but blue, brown, buff and white were also used. An added
richness was sometimes gained by partly gilding the carvings and

mouldings. These facts must be remembered in order to realize

the original effect. And the room must be pictured with
paintings and sconces on the walls and with curtains of velvet or
damask hanging at the windows. The drawings of Hogarth,
Hayman, Pugh and others, allowing for some artistic license, are
valuable records of furnished rooms of the time and can be studied
to advantage side by side with the examples which remain to-day.

CHARACTER OF THE EARLY GEORGIAN STYLE.

THE Hatton Garden Room has been placed in the Museum
between the Clifford's Inn Room and the room from Great
George Street, Westminster, so that the changes of style between
1660 and 1760 can be easily studied. In the Clifford's Inn Room,
of the time of Charles II, is seen the character of the work done
in the school of Sir Christopher Wren and Grinling Gibbons ;

the Hatton Garden Room, of the time of George II, marks a

return to the influence of Inigo Jones ;
while the Room from
Great George Street shows the later and foreign influences which
began little
by little to sap the strength of the native style. Inigo
Jones, as far back as the time of Charles I, was the first man to

place English building on a scientific footing, basing his style

on the Palladian principles of architectural design. Different
influences, among which the Dutch was conspicuous, acted on
his successor, Sir Christopher Wren. Then followed the architects
of the early Georgian period. The latter were inclined to turn
their backs on the work of Wren, though still a living tradition,
in favour of the earlier master Inigo Jones, whose designs they

closely followed not only in plan and elevation but in detail of

ornament. Features of decoration in the Hatton Garden Room
H
can be traced to the influence of Inigo Jones. Human masks
with pendants, decorative shields, round-arched niches, bold and
conventional carving as compared with the realistic treatment of
Grinling Gibbons, such things reflect both the manner and the
spirit of the master-architect
of the iyth century. Knowledge
of thework of Inigo Jones and Palladio was made general in the
half of the i8th century by the publishing of their drawings
first

under the patronage of wealthy noblemen like the Earl of Burl-

ington. In moulding their style the architects of the day, Gibbs,
Kent, Campbell, Morris and others were evidently much influ-
enced by these designs. Thus it came to pass that a group of
men possessed of but little imagination though much industry,
by the fortunate choice of good models, succeeded in raising the
standard of English building and decoration to a higher pitch of
technical efficiency than it had before enjoyed, bequeathing a

legacy which their descendants dissipated in the confused tangle

of conflicting fashions.
OLIVER BRACKETT.
 PHOTOGRAPHS.
THE following photographs are in the Museum Collection, and
can be seen on application in the Library. Prints from the
official negativesmay be purchased at the Photograph Stall in
the Museum. The numbers, in parentheses are those of the
official negatives :

VIEW OF ROOM, with chimney-piece and windows (35925).

VIEW OF ROOM, with chimney-piece and doors (35926, 48265).
DOORWAY (35927, 48266).
CHIMNEY-PIECE (35928).

The following photographs of the room were taken by the

Museum before the house was demolished :

DOORWAY (30815).
WALL AND Two DOORWAYS (30816).
VIEW OF ROOM (30817).
CHIMNEY-PIECE (30818).
CHIMNEY-PIECE (30819).
CUPBOARD WITH DOORS (30820).
OTHER VIEWS OF THE HOUSE (30813 and 4, 30821 to 8}.

16
 BIBLIOGRAPHY.
ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW :

Vol. XXII, July-Dec. 1907 ; Vol. XXV, Jan.-June 1909. (Measured

drawings and notes.)
BLOMFIELD, Sir Reginald :

A History of Renaissance Architecture in England. Vol. II. London,

1897. (History.)

COKAYNE, G. E. :

Complete Peerage. London, 1887-9.* (Genealogy of the Hatton

Family.)
COUNTRY LIFE :

April 26th, 1913. (Article on the Hatton Garden Room.)

EVELYN, John :

Diary, 1659. (Reference to the building of Hatton Garden.)

GIBBS, James :

A Book of Architecture. London, 1728. (Style.)

GOTCH, J. Alfred, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. :

The English Home from Charles I. to George IV. London. (History.)

The Growth of the English House. London, 1909. (History.)
HALLEY, J. M. W. :

See " Architectural Review."

HAWKINS, Laetitia Matilda :

Anecdotes, Bibliographical Sketches and Memoirs. London, 1822.

(Reference to Hatton Garden.)

LENYGON, Francis :

Decoration in England from 1660 to 1770. London, 1914. (History.)

LONDON :

London and jits [Environs. London, 1761. (Reference to Hatton

Garden.)
MACQUOID, Percy
"
:

See Country Life."

* 9640 f
McQuEEN, H." A. :

See Architectural Review."

NATIONAL ART-COLLECTIONS FUND':
Annual Report, 1912, p. 59.

PASTON, George :

Social Caricature of the i8th century. London 1905. (Interiors of

the 1 8th century.)

WALFORD, Edmund :

Old and New

London. London, 1877. (Reference to Hatton Garden.)
WHEATLEY, H. B. :

'London Past and Present. London, 1891. (Reference to Hatton

Garden.)

18
 NOTICE.

monograph may be obtained either direct from the

Director and Secretary, Victoria and Albert Museum,
THISLondon S.W.7, or through any bookseller; price is. 6d.
Orders should be accompanied by
(By post, is. 9</.).
a remittance.
Other publications of the Department of Woodwork are
shown below.
Publication
No. Monographs on the Panelled Rooms.

104 w I. THE BROMLEY ROOM. pp. 23; 17 plates. Crown 410. Paper
boards. 1914. 6</.
[By post 9^.]
105 w II. THE CLIFFORD'S INN ROOM. pp. 16; 13 plates. Crown 410
Paper boards. 1914. 6^. [By post 9^.]
109 w III. THE BOUDOIR OF MADAME DE SERILLY. pp. 26; 12 plates.
Crown 4to. Paper boards. 1915. 6d. [By post 9</.J

n6w IV. THE SIZERGH CASTLE ROOM. pp. 34; 16 plates. Crown 4to.
Paper boards. 1915. bd. [By post g^d.]

Handbook.

58 w MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. By Carl Engel. [Out of print.']

125 w THE ACCOUNTS OF CHIPPENDALE, HAIG AND Co. FOR THE FURNISHING
OF DAVID GARRICK'S HOUSE IN THE ADELPHI. [In the press :
ready shortly.']

Catalogues.

2W MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. Small edition, pp.82; 1 8 illustrations.

Demy
8vo. 1870. is. 6d. [By post is. ~]\d.~]

9 w MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. By 402 6 photographs

Carl Engel. pp. ;

and 143 woodcuts. Roy. 8vo. 12s.

[By post I2.r. 6d.]
1874.
122 w FURNITURE FROM MONTAGU HOUSE, DEVONSHIRE HOUSE AND GROS-
VENOR HOUSE, 1917. (Loan collection.) Second edition, pp. iv
and 15. 15 plates. Crown 8vo. Paper boards. 1919. is. [By
post is. i\d.\

'9
PLATE I.

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 PLATE II.

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 PLATE III.

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 PLATE IV.

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 PLATE V.

Chimney-piece.
PLATE VI.
 PLATE VII.

Doorway.
 PLATE VIII.

JS.L. '19.

SCALl FEET.
Of -'iff

Measured drawing of portion of doorway.

PLATE IX.

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