Patrick Comerford
The Apple Store at 235 Regent Street is Apple’s flagship store in London, and when the shop opened in 2004, it was Apple’s first store in Europe. It was redesigned by Foster + Partners who removed the shop’s original U-shaped mezzanine floor and glass stair, and pushed back the back of the store to create a large open space that they claim is designed to have the feeling of a town square.
The 7.2m-tall space allows the building’s full-height Portland stone-clad arches to form the front façade while flooding the store with natural light.
I stepped inside the building earlier this week to see the forum with seating for up to 75 people, and the ‘avenues’ along the perimeter walls that display Apple’s products. There are terrazzo floors, a grove of 12 Ficus Ali trees set in planters that double up as seating, and the walls are clad in sandblasted Italian limestone.
But none of these explain why I wanted to visit this building on Regent Street and its enduring façade and arches a few days ago.
Regent Street is named after the Prince Regent, later George IV, and was designed by John Nash ca 1813 as one of the first planned developments in London. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner calls it ‘quite simply the greatest piece of town planning London has ever seen.’
Regent Street was completely redeveloped in a unified style under the control of the Crown Estate in 1895-1927, and none of the original Nash buildings remain.
The central domed building at 235-241 Regent Street was designed in 1898 by the architect George Dennis Martin (1847-1915) and was built on by Sir Thomas Henry Brooke-Hitching (1858-1926) on the site of the former Hanover Chapel.
People walking along Regent Street should look up to see the façade, which is Grade II-listed. Beautiful, colourful mosaics adorn the façade, for this was originally the studio of the business esablished by the Victorian mosaicist Antonio Salviati (1816-1890) from Venice.
The Salviati family were glass makers and makers of mosaics based on the island of Murano in Venice and in London. They worked first as Salviati and Co and later, after 1866, as the Venice and Murano Glass and Mosaic Company.
The founder of the business, Antonio Salviati, was born in Vicenza, 60 km west of Venice, on 18 March 1816. He began in life as a lawyer. However, at an early age he became interested in glasswork after taking part in restoration work by Lorenzo Radi on the mosaics in Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice.
When Venice was at a low point in the early 19th century, John Ruskin visited and drew attention to its plight. He published his The Stones of Venice in three volumes between 1851 and 1853, and revised it after he had witnessed the demolition of important parts of Saint Mark’s Basilica.
Ruskin warned then that Venice ‘is still left for our beholding in the final period of her decline: a ghost upon the sands of the sea, so weak – so quiet, – so bereft of all but her loveliness, that we might well doubt, as we watched her faint reflection in the mirage of the lagoon, which was the City, and which the Shadow. I would endeavour to trace the lines of this image before it be for ever lost, and to record, as far as I may, the warning which seems to me to be uttered by every one of the fast-gaining waves, that beat, like passing bells, against the Stones of Venice.’
Ruskin is credited with preventing the destruction of Venice. The momentum he created inspired the revival of several Venetian crafts, including glass and mosaics, and with the backing of British banks backing them they produced works for export to Britain.
Against this background, Antonio Salviati founded Compagnia Venezia Murano in 1866 with the British diplomat and archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894), who lived in Ca Cappello, a 16th century palazzo on the Grand Canal just behind Campo San Polo.
Murano had been a centre of fine glasswork since the Middle Ages. Murano Glass was lavish and at the time only the wealthy could afford the expensive specialty pieces. Salviati transformed the reputation of Murano glass, opening the first glass factory to employ a large number of skilled workers to mass-produce glass for export. He produced ornamental pieces that could be bought by millions, and so he re-established Murano as a centre of glass-making.
Salviati’s fame and work spread to England and France, where his work was usually in association with architectural designs. His mosaics can be seen in many European churches.
By 1867, the firm had premises on Oxford Street, and Salviati opened showrooms in other fashionable parts of London, including St James’s, Piccadilly, Regent Street and, for a time, New Bond Street. The most impressive showroom was that at 235 Regent Street, which was built in 1898.
The mosaics above the windows have been preserved, and so, like those of the Palazzo Salviati on the Grand Canal in Venice, can still be seen today. The names of the great world cities of the world, ranged above the spandrels, suggest its global standing.
Salviati produced the reredos above the high altar in Westminster Abbey, erected between 1867 and 1873 to Sir George Gilbert Scott’s designs. He produced several mosaics for the grand dome in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London. Five mosaics by Salviati are behind the altar in the east apse in the chapel in Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, his iridescent mosaic glass panels in the reredos were completed in 1887 and form a striking backdrop to the High Altar.
Salviati died in Venice on 25 January 1890. His work can be seen in churches throughout England, and he also worked in Saint David’s Cathedral, Wales, Saint Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, Dundee, and Aachen Cathedral. Mosaics by Salviati and his companies are also in the Central Lobby in the Palace of Westminster, the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, the Council House and the Chamberlain Memorial Fountain in Birmingham, and the Paris Opera House.
Regent House on Regent Street was built in 1898, eight years after Antonio Salviati’s death. The façade displays a series of mosaics produced by the Salviati firm, with the lions of Britain and Venice, civic coats of arms and reminders of the international appeal of Salviati’s work.
On the left are the coats of arms of the City of London and the City Westminster: the red cross of Saint George, with the smaller sword of Saint Paul; and the golden portcullis. Between them stands the British lion, holding up the shield of the royal coat of arms, the initials VR of Queen Victoria, the royal motto, and the red rose of England. The starry sky comes from Saint Mark’s Basilica, Venice.
Four golden spaces once intended to bear the names of cities where Salviati’s work was sold and can be seen were never filled with the planned lettering.
On the right, the dominant figure is the winged lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of Venice. The lion rests his paw on an open book with the words: ‘Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus’ (‘Peace unto you, Mark, my Evangelist’). these words, according to a legend, were uttered by an angel who identified Saint Mark’s body when it was moved from Alexandria to Venice, and became the motto of Venice.
The starry sky behind the lion reflects, once again, Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice. Streamers on either side read ‘Dandolo’ and ‘Loredano’, the names of two powerful patrician families in Venice: the House of Dandolo produced four Doges of Venice, and the Palazzo Dandolo is now part of Hotel Danieli; the House of Loredan produced three doges.
On either side of the lion of Venice are two more heraldic representations of two islands in the Lagoon of Venice known for their glassmaking traditions: a black cockerel biting a snake for Murano; and a mounted white knight for Burano.
The lettering above displays the some of the cities where Salviati’s wares were found: Paris, New York, St Petersburg and Berlin. Below is the crown of the Doges of Venice.
But the façade also hides tells the tragic story of the Salviati family. In 1898, the very year the Salviati studio and shop opened on Regent Street, Salviati’s middle-aged son Guilio shot himself at his desk. According to the inquests, his death was brought about by ‘temporary insanity’. He left a suicide note claiming he had no money left and was in despair, although his lack of funds was a complete delusion. Guilio Salviati was buried in Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey, where his grave is marked by a decorated headstone.
I have often admired the Palazzo Salviati on the Grand Canal, between the Palazzo Barbaro Wolkoff and the Palazzo Orio Semitecolo. It was built as a shop and the furnace of the Salviati family in Venice, and was designed by the architect Giacomo Dell’Olivo. The building underwent a major renovation in 1924, with the addition of an extra floor and the placement of large mosaics on the façade.
As for Salviati’s Compagnia Venezia Murano, it continued as an important producer of Venetian art glass. Today, the company is Pauly & C – Compagnia Venezia Murano, and remains an important producer of Venetian art glass.
Glassmaking remains the main industry of Murano, where the artisans continue to employ centuries-old techniques, crafting items from contemporary art glass and glass jewellery to Murano glass chandeliers and wine stoppers.
