163
on the north range was designed and built in 1864–69. The style adopted for
this part of the museum was Italian Renaissance, much use was made
of terracotta, brick and mosaic, this north façade was intended as the main
entrance to the museum with its bronze doors designed by James Gamble &
Reuben
Townroe
having
six
panels
depicting: Humphry
Davy (chemistry); Isaac
Newton (astronomy); James
Watt (mechanics); Bramante (architecture); Michelangelo (sculpture); Titian (
painting); thus representing the range of the museums collections,
Godfrey
Sykes also designed the terracotta embellishments and the mosaic in
the pediment of the North Façade commemorating
the Great Exhibition the
profits from which helped to fund the museum, this is flanked by terracotta
statue groups by Percival Ball.
This building replaced Brompton Park House,
which could then be demolished to make way for the south range.
The interiors of the three refreshment rooms were assigned to different
designers. The Green Dining Room 1866–68 was the work of Philip
Webband William Morris,
displays Elizabethan influences, the lower part of
the walls are panelled in wood with a band of paintings depicting fruit and the
occasional figure, with moulded plaster foliage on
the main part of the wall
and a plaster frieze around the decorated ceiling and stained-glass windows
by Edward Burne-Jones.
The Centre Refreshment Room 1865–77 was
designed in a Renaissance style by James Gamble,
[49]
the walls and even
the Ionic columns are covered in decorative and moulded ceramic tile, the
ceiling consists of elaborate designs on enamelled metal sheets and matching
stained-glass windows, the marble fireplace
was designed and sculpted
by Alfred Stevens and was removed from Dorchester
House prior to that
building's demolition in 1929. The Grill Room 1876–81 was designed by
Sir Edward Poynter,
[51]
the lower part of the walls consist of blue and white
tiles with various figures and foliage enclosed by wood panelling, above there
are large tiled scenes with figures depicting the four seasons and the twelve
months these were painted by ladies from the Art School then based in the
museum, the windows are also stained glass, there is an elaborate cast-iron
grill still in place.
With the
death of Captain Francis Fowke, Royal Engineers the next
architect to work at the museum was Colonel (later Major General) Henry
Young Darracott Scott,
also of the Royal Engineers. He designed to the north
west of the garden the five-storey School for Naval Architects (also known as
the science schools),
now the Henry Cole Wing in 1867–72. Scott's
assistant J.W. Wild designed the impressive staircase
that rises the full height
of the building, made from Cadeby stone the steps are 7 feet (2.1 m) in length,
the balustrades and columns are Portland stone. It is now used to jointly house
the prints and architectural drawings of the V&A (prints, drawings, paintings
and photographs) and Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA Drawings
and Archives Collections); and the Sackler Centre for arts education, which
opened in 2008. Continuing the
style of the earlier buildings, various
designers were responsible for the decoration, the terracotta embellishments
were again the work of Godfrey Sykes, although sgraffito was used to
decorate the east side of the building designed by F. W. Moody,
a
final
embellishment were the wrought iron gates made as late as 1885 designed by
Starkie Gardner,
these lead to a passage through the building. Scott also
designed the two Cast Courts 1870–73
to the southeast of the garden (the site
of the "Brompton Boilers"), these vast spaces have ceilings 70 feet (21 m) in
height to accommodate the plaster casts of parts of famous buildings,
including Trajan's Column (in two separate pieces). The final part of the
museum designed by Scott was the Art Library and what is now the sculpture
gallery on the south side of the garden, built 1877–83,
the exterior mosaic
panels in the parapet were designed by Reuben Townroe who also designed
165
the
plaster work in the library,
[60]
Sir John Taylor designed the book shelves
and cases,
also this was the first part of the museum to have electric lighting.
This completed the northern half of the site, creating a quadrangle with the
garden at its centre, but left the museum without a proper façade. In 1890 the
government launched a competition to design new buildings for the museum,
with architect Alfred Waterhouse as one of the judges;
this would give the
museum a new imposing front entrance.
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