Friday, November 13, 2015

Queen's Tower

Queen's Tower by Thomas Edward Collcutt, Imperial College London, South Kensington, London

Queen's Tower by Thomas Edward Collcutt
Imperial College London, South Kensington
London, September 2015

“The tower used to be the central tower of the Imperial Institute, and is now the sole remaining part of that building. The Institute was founded on Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887, and its partial demolition began in 1957. At that time it was generally known as the Collcutt Tower, after its designer, the Victorian architect Thomas Edward Collcutt. The tower itself would have been demolished along with the rest of the Institute, had it not been for a public campaign led by the then Poet Laureate, and supporter of 19th century architecture, John Betjeman. He warned that tastes in architecture change and that the destruction of this building (at a time when Victorian architecture had fallen out of favour) would be a loss.” (Queen's Tower, Wikipedia)

2 comments:

Melissa Baker said...

Beautiful.

Changes in the wind said...

326 steps....wish for a elevator. Magnificent building.