Rick Steves' London 2014 by Steves Rick & Openshaw Gene

Author:Steves, Rick & Openshaw, Gene [Steves, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avalon Travel
Published: 2013-09-03T04:00:00+00:00

Hereford Screen (1862)

In the 1800s, just as Britain was steaming into the future on the cutting edge of the Industrial Revolution, the public’s taste went retro. This 35-by-35-foot, eight-ton rood screen (built for the Hereford Cathedral’s sacred altar area) looks medieval, but it was created with the most modern materials the Industrial Revolution could produce. The metal parts were not hammered and hand-worked as in olden days, but are made of electroformed copper. The parts were first cast in plaster, then bathed in molten copper with an electric current running through it, leaving a metal skin around the plaster. The entire project—which might have taken years in medieval times—was completed in five months.

George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), who built the screen, redesigned all of London in the Neo-Gothic style, restoring old churches such as Westminster Abbey, renovating the Houses of Parliament, and building new structures like St. Pancras Station and the Albert Memorial—some 700 buildings in all.

The world turns, and a century later (1960s), the Gothic style was “out” again, modernism was in, and this screen was neglected and ridiculed. Considering that the V&A was originally called the Museum of Manufactures (1857), it’s appropriate that the screen was brought here, where it shows off the technical advances of the Industrial Revolution.

• To the right of the Grand Entrance lobby, look into a large hall of statues (Room 50a), including a spiraling statue of two battling men.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.