Lot n° 26
Estimation :
5000 - 6000
EUR
Andrew MACLURE & Archibald Gray MACDONALD (actifs au XIXe siècle)
View of the front of Cannon Street Station, London, ca. 1866
Oil on copper
21 x 32 cm.
Our view of the magnificent Victorian front of Cannon Street Station, now gone, is a vivid reminder of London's golden age of railroading at a time of fierce competition from private companies.
This station, inaugurated in 1866 by the South Eastern Railway, is located on the north bank of the Thames, in the east of the city. Its purpose was to link the City of London and the West End. Not far away, we find the headquarters of the Bank of England and Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor.
The facade, designed by Edward Middleton Barry (1830-1880), the architect of the Royal Opera House, in an Italianate style, housed a luxurious hotel, the City Terminus Hotel, opened in 1867. However, the hotel was not well attended, and a few years later it was already heavily in debt and never paid off, so much so that it closed in 1931.
Already weakened by the cessation of activities during the First World War, the station was the target of the Blitz bombings. The nationalisation of the railways in 1948 encouraged the authorities to consider a plan to revive the station's traffic. In an ambitious modernisation project in 1962, the old facade was demolished and replaced by a colossal modernist glass and steel wall by the architect John Poulson (1910-1993).
Our view was reproduced in lithograph form as an illustration in the supplement to the famous book Old and New London (Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London, 1873-1878). The letter of the lithograph states "Drawn and lithographed by Maclure & Macdonald", the important lithographic firm that enjoyed the title of "Ornamental printers to the Queen".
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