Soane Sunday

 

As it was such a sunny day last Sunday that we decided to hop on a train and meet our Daughter (whose studying in London) somewhere in town. Since it's on our train line and somewhere we'd never really explored we opted for Ealing in West London, Ealing Broadway is an easy 30 minutes from us and only 20 from her so we made a date for lunch and a stroll!

After a nice light lunch at a little Spanish tapas place in Dickens Yard (Reineta) we headed over to Walpole park and the Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery which is a short walk from the station. The manor house there was designed and constructed by architect Sir John Soane in 1800, the house was built as a country retreat for him and his family but also as a showcase for the kind of neo-classical architecture for which he was famous (a live-in advertisement!). 

Even though the designs are now over 200 years old the house has a very modern feel to it, many of the paint colours used would sit happily in a "Farrow & Ball" catalogue (maybe that's where they get them from?) and the layout functional as well as impressive. In the picture above you can see the interior of the entrance hall, the amber glass bathed the space in an orange glow as the sun's rays shone through into the marble stairwell all very well thought out.

Much of the plasterwork on the ceilings and walls is very "Wedgwood Jasperware" looking, I guess it was all the rage back then as Josiah Wedgewood's product had only been going a few years (1775) prior to Pitzhanger being designed. 

One of the good friends of John Soanes was JMW Turner whose relationship centred largely around a mutual love for fishing. The ponds at the back of the Manor house hosted the famous English landscape painter many times, they're still there, but I suspect not as good for fishing as when Ealing was considered "countryside"!

The view above is the rear of the Manor, the conservatory windows can be seen which overlook one of the "fishing" ponds, it was a sunny warm day so the surrounding parkland was filled with people enjoying a relaxing Sunday, lot's of kids running around chasing pigeons, a nice day out!

Interestingly I discovered later (after some Googling) that Soanes was commissioned to create a monument in Reading, it's in the Market Square and one of those things that you see all the time but never notice. It was paid for by a wealthy Reading merchant (Edward Simeon) back in 1804 and is called the "Soane Obelisk", I must take a closer look when I'm next in town (see picture below).