Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
by Nash in 1824, designed as a sort of suburban picturesque village. These two model vil-
lages are in a variety of styles as well as stuccoed Tudor or Gothic.
Lastly, for Late Victorian Gothic, I would recommend the Tower House in Melbury
Road, Kensington, in which the fittings, cupboards, fireplaces, and so on have been pre-
served as they were left by the architect, W. Burges, who built the house for his own oc-
cupation. Autumn is the time to see it, when, mysterious in the dusk, its stained-glass win-
dows glimmer with a faint light from out of the Virginia creeper mantling the conical tower
in red, gold, and amber. Only passers-by and cars break up the period illusion and harmony
created by the architecture, the darkness, and the falling leaves.
The drawing below is of one of the most unbelievable sights in London, of a Gothic
dreariness almost impossible to describe, the working-class dwellings in Columbia Square,
Bethnal Green. These blocks were built by Baroness Burdett Coutts. They were designed
by Darbishire, who also produced some for the Peabody Trust. Columbia Square must
have been depressing when new; today it is of appallingly melancholy aspect. In this huge
open space, the sun seems to burn up the yellowing grass and ragwort. The sun's rays are
reflected back from the innumerable pieces of broken glass, and the square is deserted and
silent apart from a few dead-end kids and the chimes of the choc-ice man. These tene-
ments are now almost empty. Windows are gaping and sightless and the wooden Gothic
pinnacles of the attic storey are decaying and broken - like the monument in the centre of
my drawing. Columbia Square is like a Gothic barracks, a sort of nightmare caricature of
The Stones of Venice
. On the monument can be read:
