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62-554: Northumberland House (also known as Suffolk House when owned by the Earls of Suffolk) was a large Jacobean townhouse in London , so-called because it was, for most of its history, the London residence of the Percy family , who were the Earls and later Dukes of Northumberland and one of England's richest and most prominent aristocratic dynasties for many centuries. It stood at the far western end of

124-557: A Royal Commission investigation. By this time, the MBW had the moniker the "Metropolitan Board of Perks". The knub of the scandal arose from the MBW's purchase of the old Pavilion music hall in Piccadilly Circus in 1879, when the site was thought necessary for the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue . As the street was still in the early stage, the site was leased to music hall proprietor R.E. Villiers. In addition to this, Villiers paid

186-421: A joint board insulated its members from any influence of popular opinion, though all property owners had to pay for its work as part of their local government rates . Worse, the very many building contracts issued by the MBW made membership of it desirable for anyone wishing to bid for them. The MBW took most of its decisions in secret. There were a succession of corruption scandals in the late 1880s, which led to

248-658: A metonym for the MBW), designed by its first chief architect Frederick Marrable and built in an Italianate style in 1859. When John Thwaites died (8 August 1870), he was eventually replaced by James Macnaghten Hogg , later Lord Magheramorne, who remained chairman until the MBW was abolished. There was an increase in the membership to 59 in 1885 when some district boards were divided and others were given more members. Few ratepayers and construction contractors thought MBW were transparently rewarded or that their property deals and tendering amounted to fair price and competition. Its status as

310-517: A district board for nominating members to the MBW. There were 45 members, who would then elect a Chairman who was to become a member ex officio . The first nominations took place in December and the Board held its first preliminary meeting on 22 December 1855 where John Thwaites was elected as chairman. The board formally came into being on 1 January 1856 when it took over the powers, duties and liabilities of

372-567: A fire in 1780. In 1819 Thomas Cundy was employed to rebuild the Garden (South) Front, which had become unstable, moving it 5 feet (1.5 m) south; he subsequently added the final main staircase. By the end of the mid-19th century the other mansions on the Strand had been demolished. The area was largely commercial and its entertainment industry had grown, meaning it was no longer a fashionable place for aristocracy to live. The then Duke of Northumberland

434-474: A local style of architecture popular in Northeast England in the early to mid 17th century. Historians often classify this architecture as a subtype of colonial American architecture, called First Period architecture, however there is an enormous amount of overlap between the architecture of the commoner class in early 17th century England and colonial America architecture, where some of the key features of

496-401: A parks and open spaces committee which set aside and opened up several landmark parks. The metropolis, which the board served, included substantial parts of Middlesex , Surrey , and Kent throughout the 33 years leading up to the advent of county councils . This urban zone lay around the medieval-sized City of London but plans to enact a similar body in 1837 failed. Parliament finally passed

558-437: A reliable contract source when some of its members and staff engaged in embezzlement , bribery and breach of fiduciary duty (unfair contract procurement and mismanagement). However the national proliferation of such a tier of government on its demise recognised the advantages of economies of scale in uniting districts in procuring, improving and maintaining energy, street lighting, fire fighting, sanitation, and transport in

620-430: A small sub rosa amount to F.W. Goddard, who was Chief Valuer for the Board, for favourable treatment. In 1883 Villiers met with Goddard and Thomas James Robertson (MBW Assistant Surveyor) to ensure that the remainder of the site was granted to him for a new Pavilion. They agreed to help him, in return for one corner becoming a public house under the landlordship of W.W. Grey who was the brother of Robertson, though this

682-474: Is an example of the later extension of the Elizabethan prodigy house , with turreted Tudor-style wings at each end with their mullioned windows but the two wings linked by an Italianate Renaissance facade. This central facade, originally an open loggia , has been attributed to Inigo Jones himself; however, the central porch carries a heavier quasi-gatehouse emphasis, so the attribution is probably false. Inside

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744-459: The Earl of Northumberland , at the discounted price of £15,000, as part of the marriage settlement when he married a Howard. Regular alterations were made over the next two centuries in response to fashion and to make the layout more convenient for the lifestyle of the day. John Webb was employed from 1657 to 1660 to relocate the family's living accommodation from the Strand front to the garden front. In

806-629: The Metropolis Management Act 1855 which created the Metropolitan Board of Works (which took over the responsibilities of the short-lived Metropolitan Buildings Office and Metropolitan Commission of Sewers , established in 1845 and 1848 respectively). It covered "the Metropolis", the area designated London in the 1851 census (an enlarged variant of the Bills of mortality area fixed in 1726),

868-509: The Metropolis Management Act 1855 which dissolved a short-lived building office and a sewers commission and made the Board effective as of December that year. The board endured until it was succeeded by London County Council , as its directly elected, direct successor, in March 1889. Its principal responsibility was to provide infrastructure to cope with the rapid growth of the metropolis, which it accomplished with varying degrees of success. The MBW

930-478: The Metropolitan Fire Brigade . Architects employed by the MBW who specialised in fire stations included Robert Pearsall , responsible for Fulham Fire Station and Woolwich Fire Station. In 1856 the MBW obtained an amending act of parliament giving them the power to provide "parks, pleasure-grounds and open spaces", subject to parliamentary approval. Among the parks and open spaces acquired or laid by

992-511: The River Thames e.g. Durham House . In around 1605 Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton cleared a site at Charing Cross on the site of a convent and built himself a mansion, at first known as Northampton House. The Strand facade was 162 feet (49 m) wide and the house's depth was marginally greater. It had a single central courtyard and turrets in each corner. The balustrade of the Strand front carried an inscription in stone letters. During

1054-506: The Strand from around 1605 until it was demolished in 1874 . In its later years it overlooked Trafalgar Square . In the 16th century the Strand, which connects the City of London with the royal centre of Westminster , was lined with the mansions of some of England's richest prelates and noblemen . Most of the grandest houses were on the southern side of the road and had gardens stretching down to

1116-504: The funeral of Anne of Denmark in May 1619, a large stone letter 'S' fell from the façade onto spectators of the procession, killing one William Appleyard. According to Nathaniel Brent , the stone was part of a motto and was "thrust down by a gentlewoman who put her foot against it, not thinking it had been so brickle [brittle]". The garden was 160 feet (49 m) wide and over 300 feet (91 m) long, but unlike those of neighbouring mansions to

1178-419: The 1740s and 1750s the Strand front was largely reconstructed and two wings were added which projected from the ends of the garden front at right angles. These were over 100 feet (30 m) long, in late palladian style, and contained a ballroom and a picture gallery, the latter itself 106 feet (32 m) long. The architects were Daniel Garrett , until his death in 1753; and then the better known James Paine . In

1240-409: The Board that "Mr. Goddard and Mr. Robertson were Mr. Vulliamy"). They prepared a report valuing the ground rent at £3,000, which Villiers immediately accepted; this was then hurriedly pushed through the Board which agreed it despite a higher offer of £4,000. Ground rent was paid £2,650 for the largest part, and £350 for the corner. Goddard continued collecting secret sums from Villiers, and Grey took up

1302-650: The Commission of Sewers and the Buildings Office. A major problem was sewage: most of London's waste was allowed to flow into the Thames resulting in a horrendous smell in the summer months. In 1855 and 1858 there were especially bad summers with the latter being known as " The Great Stink ". A notable achievement of the Board was the creation of the core London sewerage system , including 75 miles (120 km) of main and 1000 miles (1650 km) of street sewers, which solved

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1364-689: The Jacobean era often outlived James I and VI owing to less contact between the American colonists and the fashions of England. When the Puritans arrived in the winter of 1620 in New England, there was very little time to waste owing to the bitterly cold weather and the fact that many of the occupants of the ship that brought them, the Mayflower , were very ill and needed to get into housing before circumstances could allow

1426-576: The MBW a lame duck, its last weeks were its most inglorious period. The LCC were due to assume financial responsibility; and the MBW began to award large pensions to the retiring officers and large salaries to those who would transfer. The MBW then decided to allow the Samaritan Hospital in Marylebone to use an additional 12 feet of pavement, which the LCC opposed. The LCC wrote to the MBW asking it not to take

1488-436: The MBW and bring the LCC into existence on 21 March 1889. The magazine Punch printed a cartoon to mark the abolition of the MBW entitled 'Peace to its Hashes', representing the MBW by a black suit of armour (i.e. blackmail ). The citation lauded the MBW for showing 'how jobbery may be elevated to the level of the fine arts'. The MBW's headquarters by Admiralty Arch off The Mall were taken over by LCC until County Hall

1550-479: The MBW bought all the private bridges across its section of the Tideway (Thames) and freed them of tolls. It also rebuilt Putney , Battersea , Waterloo and Hammersmith Bridges . The board wanted to build a new bridge east of London Bridge , discussed for many years. In 1878 Bazalgette drew up plans which were estimated at £1.25 million (equivalent to £153,000,000 in 2023). The Treasury refused to help by upping

1612-461: The New World, the men and women that built the homes and buildings that formed the infrastructure of these towns and the others that followed over the coming century often built edifices that were consistent with Jacobean vernacular architecture in the portion of England that they originated from: for example, the clapboard common to houses in New England and later Nova Scotia to this day are derived from

1674-556: The Pavilion, on the Grand Hotel and Metropole Hotel on Northumberland Avenue , on land owned by the Board did little design and oversight. Francis Hayman Fowler , although he had done much other work as a board member, had taken money from site owners and lessees in circumstances which clearly indicated bribery. At lowest level, MBW's Assistant Architect, John Hebb, had responsibility for inspecting theatres for safety. He began to write to

1736-543: The West and North sides of the quadrangle of Hobart College in Geneva, NY . Other notable collegiate examples include The University of Florida and Florida State University both designed by William Augustus Edwards . Metropolitan Board of Works The Metropolitan Board of Works ( MBW ) was the upper tier of local government for London between 1856 and 1889, primarily responsible for upgrading infrastructure. It also had

1798-612: The alternative proposals had been the Metropolitan Police District ; the coal tax area; or that used for the Metropolitan Interments Act 1852 . It was not to be a directly elected body, but instead to consist of members nominated by the vestries who were the principal local authorities. The larger vestries had two members and the City of London had three. A few vestries were for tiny parishes who co-convened into

1860-720: The author deemed it advisable to publish a letter from a canon of the Church, stating that there was nothing in his architectural designs that was contrary to religion. It is to publications of this kind that Jacobean architecture owes the perversion of its forms and the introduction of strap work and pierced crestings, which appear for the first time at Wollaton Hall (1580); at Bramshill House , Hampshire (1607–1612), and in Holland House , Kensington (1624), it receives its fullest development. Hatfield House , built in its entirety by Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury , between 1607 and 1611,

1922-711: The board were: Under the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878 the MBW obtained the right to purchase and hold saleable rights in common lands in the Metropolis, in order to preserve the right of public access. The board also purchased the manorial rights in Streatham Common and Tooting Common . The MBW at first had its meetings in the Guildhall of the City of London and its headquarters at Greek Street in Soho . It then built its own headquarters at Spring Gardens (which became

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1984-439: The cheap corner plot – he sold his existing public house on Tichborn Street and divided the £10,000 profit between Goddard and Robertson. In December 1886, Villiers sold the Pavilion and gave £5,000 to Goddard. For years, vague hints had been made that the Board tended to encourage those applying for leases to employ members of the Board as architects. In particular, James Ebenezer Saunders had been appointed as chief architect on

2046-483: The coal and wine duties (most of the board's income). The MBW advanced its plans, but saw its private bill which included negotiated payments and similar rejected by the House of Commons for lack of headroom for light shipping. The Board funded the tree-studded surface in the three sections of its contractor-designer Joseph Bazalgette 's Thames Embankment from 1864. From 1865 the MBW became responsible for administering

2108-459: The commencement of Wollaton Hall , a copybook of the orders was brought out in Antwerp by Hans Vredeman de Vries . Although nominally based on the description of the orders by Vitruvius , the author indulged freely not only in his rendering of them, but in suggestions of his own, showing how the orders might be employed in various buildings. Those suggestions were of a most decadent type, so that even

2170-770: The corruption of architects who were members of the Board. However, the Commission repudiated the view of critics that corruption was endemic in the Board. While the Royal Commission was still preparing its hearings, the President of the Local Government Board Charles Ritchie announced that elected County Councils were to be created throughout the United Kingdom. Without much opposition the Bill had clauses that, on passage into an Act, divorced MBW's ambit from

2232-493: The decision; the MBW did not reply and gave the permission. Finally, the MBW received the tenders for the Blackwall Tunnel and decided to take a decision to award the contract at its final meeting. The LCC again wrote asking the MBW to leave the decision to them. The Chairman of the MBW replied (18 March 1889) that it intended to continue. At this the LCC decided to appeal to the government which exercised its power to abolish

2294-462: The diseases on board to spread further. Those that were still able bodied had to act quickly and as a result the first buildings of New England most resembled the wattle and daub cottages of the common people back home, especially of places like East Anglia and Devonshire , with the thatched roofs that remained common in England until the 1660s differing only in that the main material chosen for thatching

2356-497: The east, it did not reach all the way down to the river. In 1614 the house passed from Lord Northampton to the Earls of Suffolk , another branch of the powerful Howard family headed by the Dukes of Norfolk . Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk inherited the house, but his wife, Catherine Howard, Countess of Suffolk , had to pay £5000 for the in situ furnishings. In the 1640s it was sold to

2418-405: The general lines of Elizabethan design remained, there was a more consistent and unified application of formal design, both in plan and elevation. Much use was made of columns and pilasters , round-arch arcades , and flat roofs with openwork parapets . These and other classical elements appeared in a free and fanciful vernacular rather than with any true classical purity. With them were mixed

2480-869: The house, the elaborately carved staircase demonstrates the Renaissance influence on English ornament. Other Jacobean buildings of note are Crewe Hall , Cheshire ; Knole House , near Sevenoaks in Kent ; Charlton House in Charlton, London ; Holland House by John Thorpe ; Plas Teg near Pontblyddyn , between Wrexham and Mold in Wales; Bank Hall in Bretherton; Castle Bromwich Hall near Solihull; Lilford Hall in Northamptonshire and Chastleton House in Oxfordshire. Although

2542-404: The managers of theatres with upcoming inspections to suggest that they might want to send him free tickets. Given the power of the board to close theatres, most complied. However, displeased by the inspections themselves, and by the attempt to extract gifts, the managers tended to send Hebb tickets for seats that were at the back of the house or hidden behind a pillar. The Goddard-Robertson scandal

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2604-528: The metropolis: Middlesex north of the Thames and west of the Lea up to several miles from the City, Surrey to the south and south-west, and Kent as to the south east. In 1837 an attempt was made to set up an elected authority covering the whole of the metropolis; however, the wealthier districts of Marylebone and Westminster resisted this, as some of their own local powers and low rates would have been lost. They defeated

2666-583: The mid nineteenth and the mid twentieth century in Duxbury, Massachusetts, a town across the harbor from Plymouth, also settled by the original Pilgrim Fathers, and inhabited just eight years later, reveal that the original homes were very narrow and small, averaging approximately forty feet long by fifteen feet wide. This concurs with the dimensions of houses that would have been found amongst the English commoner classes (specifically yeoman and small farmers) as evidenced by

2728-476: The mid-1760s Robert Mylne was employed to reface the courtyard in stone; he may also have been responsible for extensions to the two garden wings which were made at that time. In the 1770s Robert Adam was commissioned to redecorate the state rooms on the garden front, and the Glass Drawing Room at Northumberland House was one of his most celebrated interiors. Part of the Strand front had to be rebuilt after

2790-534: The motion. In 1854 the Royal Commission on the Corporation of the City of London proposed to divide an urban area around the City of London into seven boroughs, each represented on a Metropolitan Board of Works. This proposal was abandoned, but the next year the board of works was set up to cover all this. To empower this body to coordinate work to plan and build infrastructure of the metropolis, Parliament passed

2852-638: The power-weak Quarter Sessions and other Courts of Surrey , Middlesex and Kent to turn it into a county with an elected London County Council. This matched the aims of anti-Board campaigners, principally the London Municipal Reform League . The Metropolitan Board of Works was abolished by the Local Government Act 1888 ; and the London County Council had been elected on 21 January 1889, to assume its new powers on 1 April. With

2914-502: The pressure. On the motion of Lord Randolph Churchill (who represented Paddington South where anti-Board feeling was at its highest), the House of Commons voted on 16 February 1888 to establish a Royal Commission to inquire into the Board. The commission was headed by Lord Herschell and found the main allegations of the Financial News to have been correct, and indeed understated. Some other scandals were also discovered including

2976-479: The previous reign. There continued to be very little building of new churches, although there was a considerable amount of modifications to old ones and a great deal of secular building. The reign of James VI of Scotland (also James I of England from 1603 to 1625), a disciple of the new scholarship, saw the first decisive adoption of Renaissance motifs in a free form communicated to England through German and Flemish carvers rather than directly from Italy . Although

3038-560: The prismatic rustications and ornamental detail of scrolls, straps , and lozenges also characteristic of Elizabethan design. The style influenced furniture design and other decorative arts . Reproductions of the Classical orders had already found their way into English architecture during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I , frequently based upon John Shute 's The First and Chief Grounds of Architecture , published in 1563, with two other editions in 1579 and 1584. In 1577, three years before

3100-552: The problem. A large part of the work of the MBW was under the charge of the Chief Engineer, Joseph Bazalgette , previously engineer with the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers. Activities included slum clearance and making new streets to relieve traffic congestion. The most important streets built were Charing Cross Road , Garrick Street, Southwark Street and Northumberland and Shaftesbury Avenues . From 1869

3162-515: The same way as large, well-funded, democratic, ministerially and accounting-regulated Municipal Corporations had widely done since 1835. The growth of the city around the commercial City of London was continuing apace; as the British Empire grew so the London Docks had grown in trade, population sharply grew and demand for housing rose as did the building of homes. Half of the population of

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3224-622: The surviving tax rolls of the Jacobean era. Examples of original Jacobean architecture in the Americas include Drax Hall Great House and St. Nicholas Abbey , both located in Barbados , and Bacon's Castle in Surry County, Virginia . In the 19th century, the Jacobean Gothic or " Jacobethan " style was briefly popular. Excellent examples are Coxe Hall, Williams Hall, and Medbury Hall, which define

3286-574: The term is generally employed of the style which prevailed in England during the first quarter of the 17th century, its peculiar decadent detail will be found nearly twenty years earlier at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham , and in Oxford and Cambridge examples exist up to 1660, notwithstanding the introduction of the purer Italian style by Inigo Jones in 1619 at Whitehall . In 1607 and 1620, England founded her first successful colonies: Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth, Massachusetts . As with other settlers in

3348-532: The two of the three counties that adjoined that medieval-walled city definition were within a few miles of it. However the government of this metropolis was chaotic, with over 100 key authorities having statutory or customary powers and much overlapping territory. Specifically, providing a rate-paid service or capital improvement in a given place sometimes needed the co-ordination or consent of many of these. In 1835 elected municipal boroughs had been set up covering every major city except London. The City of London ,

3410-490: The very core of the sprawling metropolis which keeps its medieval boundaries, was untouched by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 and resisted all moves to expand its borders to include the generally poorer districts surrounding it. This meant that commissions (justices) of the peace of three counties, key landowners, and powerful parish council vestries beneath them, had authority over the clearly urban area,

3472-554: Was built in its place. One of the largest buildings on the newly built Northumberland Avenue was the 500-bedroom Hotel Victoria, which in its arched entrance, and oriel window above it, imitated Northumberland House. During the Second World War it was taken over by the Ministry of Defence and renamed Northumberland House. It is now known as No. 8 Northumberland Avenue. An archway from Northumberland House, designed by William Kent ,

3534-444: Was co-opted from boards, districts of vestries who were elected by their ratepayers rather than directly elected, but which during its period were separated into civil parishes removing many residual Church of England ties. It was accountable to Parliament but not to a particular ministry to supervise accounts. This democratic deficit vexed journal critics and rate-paying Londoners, especially having grown in budget and been seen as

3596-413: Was grass found in the local salt marshes. Most of these would have been hall and parlor dwellings with a simple central chimney, a feature of British architecture since the earlier Elizabethan era, a timber frame, a squat lower floor and an upper floor with bare beams and a space to be used for storage. Measurements of the archaeological remains of houses owned by Myles Standish and John Alden done in

3658-463: Was not apparent. In November 1884 Robertson told Villiers that the time had come to make a formal offer to the MBW to rent the new site. Villiers offered £2,700 ground rent per year. The Board instructed its superintending architect, George Vulliamy , to value the site: he was old and left practically all of the work to his subordinates – Goddard and Robertson (it was said by the Deputy Chairman of

3720-622: Was reluctant to leave his generations-held home, although he was pressured to do so by the Metropolitan Board of Works , which wished to build a road through the middle of the site to connect to the new roads by the Embankment. After a fire which caused substantial damage, the Duke accepted an offer of £500,000 in 1874 (equivalent to £58,600,000 in 2023). Northumberland House was demolished and Northumberland Avenue , including its buildings fronting,

3782-532: Was revealed by a series of articles in the Financial News beginning on 25 October 1886. The Board itself undertook an incompetent investigation under the Chairmanship of Magheramorne, which found Robertson was "injudicious in allowing relatives to become tenants of the Board without informing the Board" but could not find anything worthy "of more severe censure". Anti-Board campaigners were not pleased and kept up

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3844-913: Was sold for the entrance to the garden of Tudor House, which formerly stood in Bromley-by-Bow . It was moved in 1998 to form the principal entrance to the Bromley by Bow Centre . A section of the panelling from the 1770s glass drawing room survives in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum . 51°30′27″N 0°7′36″W  /  51.50750°N 0.12667°W  / 51.50750; -0.12667 Jacobean architecture Courtiers continued to build large prodigy houses , even though James spent less time on summer progresses around his realm than Elizabeth had. The influence of Flemish and German Northern Mannerism increased, now often executed by recruited craftsmen and artists, rather than obtained from books as in

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