What: The Queen's House
Where: Romney Rd, Greenwich, London
Design: Inigo Jones
Date: 1616
The Queen's House has one of the most beautiful spiral staircases and is widely for it. The Tulip staircase was just mesmerizing to stare up and take in the details from the iron railing to the light flooding in from above. It makes the person standing directly below feel and look angelic.
Upon arriving there we heard that there was some new installments happening so it would be difficult for us to see a lot but we started up a conversation with one of the employees of the house. Discussing the portrait of the Virgin Queen while we were at the Queen’s House was very informative, and allowed us to talk and understand the place were about to see a bit better.
The house was originally to be built for Anne of Denmark, the wife of King James I. She died before the completion and it was halted. The work resumed when King James I's son gave the house to his wife, Henrietta Maria. The house was a standout from others in the time for its large white block walls in comparison to the red brick tudor style that was popular at the time. The house was also praised for the high quality of it's interior spaces.
The ornate design aspects of the staircase follows throughout the house into the frames and the ceilings of several rooms. The use of gold showed the power and wealth of the house and felt like part of the Aesthetic movement. The opulence of the design allowed viewers to feel the power structure and the placement of the house to the Greenwich Observatory made it feel even more important. The design is very much a turning point for the architecture of Britain being purely classical.
Citations:
Giedion, Sigfried. Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press, 2008.
The Queen's House. "The Queen's House." Historic Houses | Historic Houses. Accessed May 1, 2019. https://www.historichouses.org/houses/house-listing/the-queens-house.html.
UNESCO. "History of the Queen's House." Royal Museums Greenwich | UNESCO World Heritage Site In London. Last modified January 11, 2017. https://www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house/history.
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