An afternoon with Pugin ... and friends ... in the Palace of Westminster

Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster ... a triumph of the Victorian Gothic revival in the summer sunshine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Patrick Comerford

I spent Wednesday afternoon [29 June 2011] in the Palace of Westminster, where Caroline Babington and Gerard Linehan introduced me to what is known to most of us as the British Houses of Parliament. This is probably the best-know building in London, and no-one can but be excited by Big Ben and its neighbouring honey-coloured pinnacles, turrets and tracery.

Gerard is an old friend since my teens; Caroline, who is the Preventive Conservator at Palace of Westminster, is the expert in her field. She is the co-author, with Tracy Manning and Sophie Stewart of Our Painted Past: Wall Paintings of English Heritage (1999), and studied the Conservation of Wall Paintings at the Courtalud Institute of Art.

Pugin’s portrait in the Palace of Westminster

I was particularly interested in seeing the Palace of Westminster because of my current research on AWN Pugin and the Gothic Revival in architecture in Britain and Ireland. The Palace of Westminster as we know it today was designed by Sir Charles Barry and AWN Pugin after the great fire of 1834.

Barry won the competition for rebuilding because of the clarity of his plan and his exquisite and minute drawings. But the drawings were by Pugin, and his contribution was crucial from the very beginning. Pugin designed the woodwork for the entire interior detail, and this remained his chief preoccupation until his death in 1852.

During this time, Pugin poured out countless designs for the interior, and they still grace the rooms of the Palace of Westminster today. His designs for furniture in the House of Lords include octagonal tables, X-frame chairs, and – the most ornate of all – the throne.

In the late 1830s, Pugin enlisted the help of manufacturers and craftsmen to realise his creations. He coaxed and he encouraged them, and they interpreted his imagination and his vision.

Pugin designed wallpaper that is singled out by his Rose-and-Portcullis design that became an identifying mark throughout the Palace of Westminster

Pugin designed wallpaper that is singled out by his Rose-and-Portcullis design that became an identifying mark throughout the Palace. Pugin used this and the Tudor rose extensively in the decoration of the whole building.

Pugin-inspired ceramic tiles ... designed by Minton for the Palace of Westminster

He commissioned Minton to make ceramic tiles that are now well-worn underfoot, while Hardman of Birmingham produced metalwork and stained glass – both partnerships also worked on his churches throughout Ireland.

Pugin also used the firm of Crace for decorative painting and gilding. The Thames Bank workshops, under the direction of John Thomas, were employed for stone carvings on the outside of the building – including the lion and unicorn outside Saint Stephen’s Entrance.

But Pugin resented the fact that throughout the project Barry was the guiding spirit who conceived the building we know today. Perhaps the secret of the building’s success lies in the collaboration between these two different and often confrontational men, with its fusion of their two completely different views.

British politicians like to describe this as the “Mother of All Parliaments,” and until recently some even claimed that this was the world’s largest building. All agree that architecturally this is the greatest achievement of the Victorian Gothic Revival.

The Pugin rug ... designed in the early 1850s and now on display off the Main Committee Corridor

Caroline was especially interested in showing me a hand-knotted rug designed in the 1850s by AWN Pugin for the New Palace of Westminster, shortly before his death in 1852. Her work at the Curator’s Office involved researching original correspondence that has led her to see this rug as a significant contribution to understanding what is one of the most important schemes of interior design from the 19th century.

She showed me the rug which is now on display off the Main Committee Corridor of the Palace of Westminster – close to a bust of Charles Stewart Parnell. It was acquired five years ago in 2006 by the Advisory Committee on Works of Art and the Speaker’s Art Fund because of Pugin’s contribution to the original decorative schemes for the building.

But first we entered the Palace through the modern office block that is Portcullis House, and passed through New Palace Yard to Westminster Hall, which dates from 1099. With its massive scale – it measures 240 ft by 60 ft – and its oak hammer-beam roof dating from the late 14th century, this is one of the most magnificent buildings I have ever been in. It was saved from the fire in 1834 through the intervention of the Prime Minister of the day, Lord Melbourne; it is here Thomas More, Guy Fawkes and Charles I were placed on trial; it is here that monarchs and prime ministers lay in state before their funerals; and it was here that most recently President Barack Obama addressed both Houses of Parliament.

From Westminster Hall, we made our way through Saint Stephen’s Hall, designed by Barry, to the Central Lobby, which ;inks the House of Lords and the House of Commons. In the tiling of the lobby, Pugin inscribed a scriptural quote in Latin: “Except the Lord keep the house, they labour in vain that build it.”

The throne designed by Pugin in the House of Lords

We sat for a while in the Strangers’ Gallery in the House of Lord, peering at the throne designed by Pugin, looked in at the Commons, say Pugin’s portrait, looked over at the Victoria Tower and viewed the Thames from the members’ terrace as the sunny afternoon appeared to stretch on and on.

Throughout the visit, there were frescoes and paintings at every turn, wallpaper and fireplaces, carvings and sculptures, oak panelling and furniture, each with a hint of Pugin’s genius, and all the time celebrating in symbols of roses and shamrocks the cultural and political union of these islands.

My only regrets were not being able to take photographs and that I had not arranged to have more time for such a wonderful visit.

An oasis of tranquillity in literary Bloomsbury

The Penn Club in Bedford Place … an oasis of tranquillity in Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am in London for the rest of this week, and tomorrow I am speaking at a one-day conference in Saint Matthew’s Church, Westminster, organised by Affirming Catholicism. Tonight I am staying at the Penn Club in Bedford Place, one of my favourite places to say when I am visiting London.

The Penn Club occupies three inter-linking houses in an early Georgian terrace built in the 1800s and retains many of its original architectural features. But it is also an oasis of tranquillity in London, close to Euston and the West End, with a delightful, relaxing garden at the back.

The club was established in 1920 with funds left over from the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, which was active during World War I. Although it is not a formal Quaker institution, the Penn Club continues to have a Quaker ethos and still has continues to have connections with the Religious Society of Friends throughout these islands and internationally. The club maintains traditional Quaker values of integrity, equality, tolerance and simplicity, honesty and fairness in all its dealings.

Those Quaker links are symbolised in the name of the Edward Cadbury Room, recalling Edward Cadbury (1873-1948) of Woodbrooke and Bourneville, who was instrumental in establishing the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham and the Department of Theology at Birmingham University. The Edward Cadbury Room has an extensive library, including the daily newspapers and many Quaker books, and is a place for guests to sit and read or to relax in quiet surroundings.

No 5 Woburn Walk ... the Bloomsbury home of the Irish poet WB Yeats from 1895 to 1919 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Bloomsbury, the area between Euston Road and Holborn that was developed by the Russell family, Dukes of Bedford, has many literary associations. Writers, poets and philosophers who lived and worked in the surrounding streets include TS Eliot, WB Yeats, Bertrand Russell, Lytton Strachey, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, EM Forster, and Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins (Anthony Hope).

A plaque on No 5 Woburn Walk, between Upper Woburn Place and Duke’s Road, marks the house where WB Yeats lived for more than a quarter of a century from 1895 to 1919. Maud Gonne lived in the house, which is now part of Wot the Dickens, a restaurant, café and food shop. Woburn Walk was designed in 1822 by Thomas Cubitt as the first pedestrianised shopping street. Charles Dickens lived around the corner in Tavistock Square, and the proprietors of No 5 must imagine that Dickens strolled along their street while he lived in Bloomsbury.

TS Eliot’s former offices with Faber and Faber at 24 Russell Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Russell Square, where TS Eliot worked for Faber and Faber, is just a few steps from the Penn Club. The square is the largest of the squares in Bloomsbury and little remains of the original Georgian houses. But the square itself is a delightful green space with shady trees, a café and a fountain.

Gandhi’s statue in Tavistock Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

North of Russell Square is Tavistock Square, which was also laid out by Thomas Cubitt. Leonard and Virginia Woolf lived at No 52 from 1924 until shortly before she died by suicide in 1941, and from there they ran the Hogarth Press. In a typically scathing comment, Virginia Woolf once compared Ulysses to a “bell-boy at Claridges” scratching his pimples. Ulysses remains a classic in modern literature, but the house where she lived has long been demolished.

Lytton Strachey’s house in Gordon Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Gordon Square, to the west of Tavistock Square, is one of the quietest places in Bloomsbury, and includes the houses of Lytton Strachey (No 51) and John Maynard Keynes (No 46), and a plaque at No 50 commemorates the Bloomsbury Group as a whole. In 1922, Virginia Woolf declared, without too much exaggeration: “Everyone in Gordon Square has become famous.”

The most unusual building on the square is the Gothic Revival Church of Christ the King on the south-west corner.

The church was built in the Early English Gothic Revival style between 1850 and 1854 for the Catholic Apostolic Church, a Victorian sect also known as the Irvingites. From 1963 to 1994, the church was used by the Anglican university chaplaincy and was known as the University Church of Christ the King. In 1994, the chaplaincy returned the lease and the church is now used by Forward in Faith.

Bedford Square, built between 1775 and 1783, takes its name from the main title of the Russell family, the Dukes of Bedford. This square is one of the best preserved set pieces of Georgian architecture in London, although most of the houses have now been converted into offices and the central garden remains private.

Both William Butterfield the architect and Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, author of The Prisoner of Zenda, lived in No 41 at different times.

Bloomsbury Square, dating from 1665, is the first open space in London to have been officially called a square. Bedford Place runs between Russell Square and Bloomsbury Square, making the Penn Club an ideal location for exploring Bloomsbury. Three Underground lines and several bus routes are close by, the British Museum in Great Russell Street is just five minutes’ walk away, and the British Library is five minutes by bus. Covent Garden and the West End theatres are also close by, and there is a selection of book shops around every corner.

I have an appointment later this afternoon to meet some friends and hopefully to visit the Palace of Westminster and see another part of the architectural legacy of AWN Pugin. Then it’s off to dinner this evening – perhaps in one of my favourite Greek restaurants in Bloomsbury, Konaki in Coptic Street, off Great Russell Street and facing the main entrance to the British Museum.