56-566: Newcastle House is a mansion in Lincoln's Inn Fields in central London , England . It was one of the two largest houses built in London's largest square during its development in the 17th century, the other being Lindsey House. It is the northernmost house on the western side of the square. The house had a complex history. The first version was built in 1641-42 for the Earl of Carlisle . In 1672 it
112-692: A blue plaque was erected by English Heritage at Wildwood Terrace, Pevsner's home since 1936. In 1984, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles acquired the Nikolaus Pevsner Papers, an archive that includes 143 boxes of typed and handwritten notes, clippings, photographs, books, lecture notes, and manuscripts. Research notes by Pevsner (and other editors) for the Buildings of England series are held in
168-520: A doctorate by Leipzig in 1924 for a thesis on the Baroque architecture of Leipzig . In 1923, he married Carola ("Lola") Kurlbaum, the daughter of distinguished Leipzig lawyer Alfred Kurlbaum. He worked as an assistant keeper at the Dresden Gallery between 1924 and 1928. He converted from Judaism to Lutheranism early in his life. During this period he became interested in establishing
224-522: A fire in 1684). It remains substantially in its form of c. 1700, although a remodelling in 1930 by Edwin Lutyens gives it a curiously pastiche appearance. As London fashion moved west, Lincoln's Inn Fields was left to rich lawyers who were attracted by its proximity to the Inns of Court . In this way the former Newcastle House became in 1790 the premises of the firm of solicitors Farrer & Co , which
280-569: A leading set of commercial barristers ' chambers, known as Essex Court Chambers after their own former premises at 4 Essex Court in the Temple . Essex Court Chambers now occupy five buildings, nos. 24–28 Lincoln's Inn Fields. Other barristers' chambers, including leading family law chambers 1GC Family Law, have since then also set up in Lincoln's Inn Fields, but solicitors' firms still outnumber them there. In Charles Dickens ' novel Bleak House ,
336-578: A lifelong interest in Victorian architecture, also influenced by the Architectural Review , appeared in a series written under the pseudonym of "Peter F. R. Donner": Pevsner's "Treasure Hunts" guided readers down selected London streets, pointing out architectural treasures of the 19th century. He was also closely involved with the Review ' s proprietor, H. de C. Hastings , in evolving
392-458: A million copies. In 1942 Pevsner finally secured two regular positions. From 1936 onwards he had been a frequent contributor to the Architectural Review and from 1943 to 1945 he stood in as its acting editor while the regular editor J. M. Richards was on active service. Under the AR ' s influence, Pevsner's approach to modern architecture became more complex and more moderate. Early signs of
448-565: A period of ownership in the 18th century by the earls of Lindsey. Another seventeenth-century survival is now 66 Lincoln's Inn Fields, which was built for Lord Powis and known as Powis House . The charter of the Bank of England was sealed there on 27 July 1694. It was in 1705 acquired by the Duke of Newcastle (whereupon it became known as Newcastle House ) who had it remodelled by Sir John Vanbrugh (following earlier work by Christopher Wren after
504-562: A specialist course on English art and architecture . According to biographers Stephen Games and Susie Harries, Pevsner welcomed many of the economic and cultural policies of the early Hitler regime . However, due to Nazi race laws he was forced to resign his lectureship at Göttingen in 1933. His first intention was to move to Italy, but after failing to find an academic post there, Pevsner moved to England in 1933, settling in Hampstead at 2, Wildwood Terrace , where poet Geoffrey Grigson
560-470: Is no longer topical. Although Pevsner oversaw the publication of the initial volumes of the Scottish, Welsh and Irish counterparts of The Buildings of England (and in each was credited as "Editor-in-Chief", "Founding Editor" and "Editorial Adviser" respectively) he did not write any of them. As with the revisions of his earlier works, many of these volumes were the work of several contributors. Coverage of
616-674: Is still there: their clients include Queen Elizabeth II . The Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre was located in the Fields from 1661 to 1848, when it was demolished. This, originally called the Duke's Theatre, was created by converting Lisle's Tennis Court in 1695. The theatre presented the first paid public performances of Henry Purcell 's Dido and Aeneas in 1700, John Gay 's The Beggar's Opera in January 1728, and George Frideric Handel 's final two operas in 1740 and 1741. Lincoln's Inn Fields
SECTION 10
#1732801502809672-563: Is the largest public square in London . It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes. The original plan for "laying out and planting" these fields, drawn by the hand of Inigo Jones , was said still to be seen in Lord Pembroke's collection at Wilton House in
728-672: The Buildings of England series began in 1945, and the first volume was published in 1951. Pevsner wrote 32 of the books himself and 10 with collaborators, with a further four of the original series written by others. Since his death, work has continued on the series, which has been extended to cover the rest of the United Kingdom, under the title Pevsner Architectural Guides , now published by Yale University Press . After updating and correcting London 1: The Cities of London and Westminster for its reissue in 1962, Pevsner delegated
784-662: The King Penguin series , to suggest ideas for future publications, he proposed a series of comprehensive county guides to rectify this shortcoming. "The volumes of the Buildings of England—and now Scotland, Wales and Ireland as well—will be written by, revised and expanded by others, but they will always be known as 'Pevsners'. They are his memorial" — Gavin Stamp in The Spectator 's obituary of Pevsner Work on
840-535: The 19th century, but its location is now unknown. The grounds, which had remained private property, were acquired by London County Council in 1895 and opened to the public by its chairman, Sir John Hutton , the same year. The square is today managed by the London Borough of Camden and forms part of the southern boundary of that borough with the City of Westminster . Lincoln's Inn Fields takes its name from
896-823: The English national character. His A. W. Mellon lectures in Fine Art at the National Gallery of Art , Washington, D.C., were published in 1976 as A History of Building Types . Pevsner was a founding member in 1957 of the Victorian Society , the national charity for the study and protection of Victorian and Edwardian architecture and other arts. In 1964 he was invited to become its chairman, and steered it through its formative years, fighting alongside John Betjeman , Hugh Casson and others to save houses, churches, railway stations and other monuments of
952-493: The Fields were enclosed within an iron railing, on account of the then Master of the Rolls , Sir Joseph Jekyll , being ridden over by a horse. An alternative version of the story claims that Jekyll was attacked for his support of an Act of Parliament raising the price of gin. From 1750 to 1992, the solicitors Frere Cholmeley were in premises on the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, after which their buildings were taken over by
1008-691: The Victorian age. He served for ten years (1960–70) as a member of the National Advisory Council on Art Education (or Coldstream Committee), campaigning for art history to be a compulsory element in the curriculum of art schools. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1965 and awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1967. Having assumed British citizenship in 1946, Pevsner
1064-415: The adjacent Lincoln's Inn , of which the private gardens are separated from the Fields by a perimeter wall and a large gatehouse. The grassed area in the centre of the Fields contains a court for tennis and netball , and a bandstand. It was previously used for corporate events, which are no longer permitted. Cricket and other sports are thought to have been played here in the 18th century. Lincoln's Inn
1120-420: The building licence was only given if the central area remained an outdoor space open to the public. Quarry pits were discovered in the excavations at No. 64 (see above), probably for building materials, in particular, gravel. In the fill of one was a fragment of a ' fuddling cup ', a drinking vessel which made it deliberately difficult to drink from without spillage. When originally laid out, Lincoln's Inn Fields
1176-774: The construction of Kingsway , a major thoroughfare which was driven through the small streets just to the west of Lincoln's Inn Fields. Farrer & Co commissioned alternations by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the 1930s, but the building still retains much of its late 17th and early 18th century fabric and appearance. In the 17th century there was a mansion called Newcastle House in Clerkenwell , which belonged to an earlier Duke of Newcastle. 51°30′59″N 0°07′08″W / 51.5164°N 0.119°W / 51.5164; -0.119 Lincoln%27s Inn Fields 51°30′58″N 0°07′00″W / 51.5161°N 0.1166°W / 51.5161; -0.1166 Lincoln's Inn Fields
SECTION 20
#17328015028091232-469: The early hours of the morning to take [him] ... I managed, clutching my pyjama trousers, to catch them up with the best parting present I could quickly think of, which was an elegant little edition, a new edition, of Shakespeare's Sonnets ." Pevsner was released after three months on the intervention of, among others, Frank Pick , then Director-General of the Ministry of Information . He spent some time in
1288-597: The first of several broadcasts on the BBC Third Programme , presenting nine talks in all up to 1950, examining painters and European art eras. By 1977 he had presented 78 talks for the BBC, including the Reith Lectures in 1955 – a series of six broadcasts, entitled The Englishness of English Art , for which he explored the qualities of art which he regarded as particularly English, and what they said about
1344-691: The following observation is made by Pevsner on the boat to Dover in October 1933: "The second-class is almost entirely occupied by non- Aryans . Dreadful, dreadful – to think that's where I belong." Nonetheless, he was included in the Nazi Black Book as someone hostile to the Hitler regime. In 1940, Pevsner was taken to the internment camp at Huyton , Liverpool as an enemy alien . Geoffrey Grigson later wrote in his Recollections (1984): "When at last two hard-faced Bow Street runners arrived in
1400-550: The foundation of Pevsner's career in England as an architectural historian. Since its first publication by Faber & Faber in 1936, it has gone through several editions and been translated into many languages. The English-language edition has also been renamed Pioneers of Modern Design . Pevsner was " more German than the Germans " to the extent that he supported " Goebbels in his drive for 'pure' non-decadent German art". He
1456-407: The future better secured." The oldest building from this early period is Lindsey House, 59–60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, which was built in 1640 and has been attributed to Inigo Jones . The builder may have been David Cunningham, 1st Baronet of Auchinhervie , a friend of the mason-sculptor Nicholas Stone , who also supervised the rebuilding of Berkhamsted Place for Charles I. It derives its name from
1512-405: The grounds that they summed up all the essential goals of 20th-century architecture; in England, however, it was widely taken to be the history of England's contribution to international modernism, and a manifesto for Bauhaus (i.e. Weimar ) modernism, which it was not. In spite of that, the book remains an important point of reference in the teaching of the history of modern design, and helped lay
1568-654: The intriguing medical collections of John Hunter ). There is a blue plaque marking the home of the surgeon William Marsden at number 65. On the west side the Royal College of Radiologists has premises at 63 Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the London School of Economics and Political Science owns a number of buildings. Aside from the Royal College of Surgeons, the School will then own the entire south side of
1624-522: The magazine's theories on picturesque planning. In the same year Pevsner was appointed a part-time lecturer at Birkbeck College , London; he would eventually retire from the college in 1969 as its first Professor of Art History. He lectured at Cambridge University for almost 30 years, having been Slade Professor of Fine Art there for a record six years from 1949 to 1955, and was also the Slade Professor at Oxford in 1968. Framing all this
1680-697: The memorial address being given by Alec Clifton-Taylor , a friend of 50 years. He is buried in the churchyard of the Church of St Peter, Clyffe Pypard , in Wiltshire , where he and Lola had a cottage. His elder son, Dieter, was an editor at Penguin Books and co-founder with Oliver Caldecott of the publishing company Wildwood House in the 1970s. His younger son, Tom , was a film producer and director who went on to work on several James Bond films . Pevsner had many notable students including Phoebe Stanton . In 2007,
1736-618: The months after the Blitz clearing bomb debris, and wrote reviews and art criticism for the Ministry of Information's Die Zeitung , an anti-Nazi publication for Germans living in England. He also completed for Penguin Books the Pelican paperback An Outline of European Architecture , which he had begun to develop while in internment. Outline would eventually go into seven editions, be translated into 16 languages, and sell more than half
Newcastle House - Misplaced Pages Continue
1792-495: The neighbouring building at 57–58, which includes some features designed by Sir John Soane , including a geometric staircase. The London School of Economics and Political Science moved onto the square in 2003, taking the leasehold of 50 Lincoln's Inn Fields, on the corner of Sardinia Street. At the end of 2008, a new £71 million state-of-the-art building housing the LSE's Departments of Law and Management (54 Lincoln's Inn Fields)
1848-550: The north side of the square features Sir John Soane's Museum , home of the architect, at numbers 12, 13 and 14. On the same side, at number 7, is Thomas More Chambers, led by Geoffrey Cox QC MP. Organisations with premises on the south side of the square include the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Royal College of Surgeons (including the Hunterian Museum , in which are exhibited
1904-438: The re-opening of Lincoln's Inn Fields with its new railings in 1993, gates have been locked every night at dusk. During the 2008 Muslim holy month of Ramadan , Muslims attended the Fields at sunset to feed the homeless. The nearest London Underground stations are Holborn , Chancery Lane and Temple . Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner CBE FBA (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983)
1960-406: The revision and expansion of further volumes to others, beginning with Enid Radcliffe for Essex (1965). The gazetteer descriptions of revised volumes do not routinely distinguish between Pevsner's original text and any new writing, but more recent books sometimes supply his words in quotation when the revising author's judgement differs, where a building has since been altered, or where the old text
2016-507: The same fields, previously to 1 October in that year, provided that they paid for the public service one year's full value for every such house within one month of its erection; and provided that they should convey the "residue of the said fields" to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, for laying the same into walks for common use and benefit, whereby the annoyances which formerly have been in the same fields will be taken away, and passengers there for
2072-406: The sinister solicitor to the aristocracy, Mr Tulkinghorn, has his offices in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and one of its most dramatic scenes is set there. The description of his building corresponds most closely to Lindsey House. After a spell of being occupied by a firm of patent agents, Lindsey House has become home to the leading civil liberties barristers' chambers, Garden Court Chambers , together with
2128-490: The square. There is a statue by Barry Flanagan , an abstract called Camdonian , in the north-east corner of the square. Also located at 67–69 is the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, the commercial law research and teaching centre of Queen Mary, University of London . During the 1980s Lincoln's Inn Fields attracted many homeless people, who slept there overnight. In 1992, they were cleared out and fences were raised, and since
2184-587: The supremacy of German modernist architecture after becoming aware of Le Corbusier 's Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau at the Paris Exhibition of 1925 . In 1928, he contributed the volume on Italian baroque painting to the Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaft , a multi-volume series providing an overview of the history of European art. He taught at the University of Göttingen between 1929 and 1933, offering
2240-673: The whole of Great Britain was completed in 2023, with the Irish series still in progress. As well as The Buildings of England , Pevsner proposed the Pelican History of Art series (which began in 1953), a multi-volume survey on the model of the German Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaft (English: "Handbook of the Science of Art"), which he would himself edit. Many individual volumes are regarded as classics. In 1946, Pevsner made
2296-410: Was Newcastle House's last aristocratic occupant. His widow sold the house to the banker Henry Kendall for £8,400. He had it divided in two and in 1790 one half was purchased by James Farrer. The solicitors Farrer & Co still occupy the building, and in the early 20th century they purchased the other half and reunited the building. Also in the early 1900s, the rear wings were removed in connection with
Newcastle House - Misplaced Pages Continue
2352-518: Was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England (1951–74). Nikolaus Pevsner was born in Leipzig , Saxony , the son of Anna and her husband Hugo Pevsner, a Russian-Jewish fur merchant. He attended St. Thomas School, Leipzig , and went on to study at several universities, Munich , Berlin , and Frankfurt am Main , before being awarded
2408-508: Was appointed a CBE in 1953 and was knighted in 1969 "for services to art and architecture". Pevsner also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1975. Pevsner died at his home 2, Wildwood Terrace , in August 1983. His wife, Lola, predeceased him by 20 years. His memorial service was held at the Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury , the following December, with
2464-412: Was called Newcastle House. The building was a compact block with three main storeys, plus two storeys of basements below and two storeys of attics above. It was built of brick with bold stone quoins , band courses and cornice . There were two projecting wings to the rear, so a large amount of accommodation was fitted into the compact site. Holles left the house to his nephew Thomas Pelham-Holles , who
2520-571: Was completed by Christopher Wren in 1694. Powis House was designated the official residence of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal . In 1694 the charter of the newly formed Bank of England was sealed there. By 1705 the house had been returned to the Powis family, and in that year they sold it to John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle , who had alterations made by John Vanbrugh . Thereafter it
2576-507: Was confusingly also created 1st Duke of Newcastle (his uncle's was the second creation, his the third). This latter duke was a prominent politician and latterly Prime Minister of Great Britain . He held court at Newcastle House for several decades and died there in 1768. He used it as his premier London residence throughout his life (preferring it to 10 Downing Street when he was Prime Minister), and threw many lavish parties there which were attended by much of London society. The Prime Minister
2632-424: Was his career as a writer and editor. After moving to England, Pevsner had found that the study of architectural history had little status in academic circles, and the amount of information available, especially to travellers wanting to inform themselves about the architecture of a particular district, was limited. Invited by Allen Lane , founder of Penguin Books , for whom he had written his Outline and also edited
2688-672: Was his next-door neighbour at No. 3. Pevsner's first post was an 18-month research fellowship at the University of Birmingham , found for him by friends in Birmingham and partly funded by the Academic Assistance Council . A study of the role of the designer in the industrial process, the research produced a generally critical account of design standards in Britain which he published as An Enquiry into Industrial Art in England (Cambridge University Press, 1937). He
2744-461: Was opened by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Since then it has taken ownership of Sardinia House (2009), the former Land Registry building at 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields (2010), 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields (previously the home of Cancer Research), 5 Lincoln's Inn Fields (2016) and Nuffield House (2017), to expand to seven its portfolio of buildings on the square. Aside from Lindsey House and Powis House,
2800-511: Was part of fashionable London. The completion of the houses that surrounded it proceeded at a leisurely pace, interrupted by the English Civil War . In 1659 James Cooper, Robert Henley, and Francis Finch and other owners of "certain parcels of ground in the fields, commonly called Lincoln's Inn Fields", were exempted from all forfeitures and penalties which they might incur in regard to any new buildings they might erect on three sides of
2856-543: Was purchased by William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis and renamed Powis House, but in 1684 it burned down. Reconstruction of a new house – effectively the one which still stands, albeit greatly altered – to designs by Captain William Winde commenced promptly, but in 1688 the house was ransacked by a mob in consequence of Lord Powis's association with the recently deposed James II . The following year Lord Powis's estates were attainted and he fled to France. The house
SECTION 50
#17328015028092912-461: Was reported as saying of the Nazis (in 1933): "I want this movement to succeed. There is no alternative but chaos... There are things worse than Hitlerism ." Pevsner's political leanings following Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in January 1933 are clearly revealed in several extracts from his diaries and letters that Suzie Harries includes in her 2011 book Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life . For example,
2968-570: Was situated in the county of Middlesex . Up to the 17th century cattle were grazed upon the fields, which were part of the Holborn grassland named Pursefield and belonged to St Giles Hospital. In the report of excavations of 64 Lincoln's Inn Fields, it is noted that one Katherine Smyth, the owner of the White Hart Inn on Drury Lane, leased the land from 1520. It then reverted to the Crown, and
3024-564: Was subsequently employed as a buyer of modern textiles, glass and ceramics for the Gordon Russell furniture showrooms in London. By this time Pevsner had also completed Pioneers of the Modern Movement: from William Morris to Walter Gropius , his influential pre-history of what he saw as Walter Gropius ' dominance of contemporary design. Pioneers ardently championed Gropius's first two buildings (both pre–First World War) on
3080-563: Was the site, in 1683, of the public beheading of Lord William Russell , son of the first Duke of Bedford, following his implication in the Rye House Plot for the attempted assassination of King Charles II . The executioner was Jack Ketch , who made such a poor job of it that four axe blows were required before the head was separated from the body; after the first stroke, Russell looked up and said to him "You dog, did I give you 10 guineas to use me so inhumanely?". Sometime after 1735
3136-655: Was used as pasture and occasionally for an execution. The use of the pastures meant that turnstiles were placed around the square to enable pedestrians to enter without the animals escaping. Shops and other businesses developed along these footpaths, and some of these alleys still exist – the Great and Little Turnstile . Schemes for redevelopment of the fields by Inigo Jones and Charles Cornwallis in 1613 and 1618 were unsuccessful. William Newton gained permission, however, to erect 32 houses in what became known as Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1638 for an annual fee of £5 6s 8d. However,
#808191