Photographs from yesterday’s Closer Look talk:

Dr Elizabeth Grant, Closer Look talk, Victoria and Albert Museum

Visitors to the Closer Look talk

Books and drawings from the RIBA Library, Closer Look talk

Dr Elizabeth Grant, Closer Look talk

Maps and guidebooks from the RIBA Library, Closer Look talk

Street Views
Dr Elizabeth Grant, Library Education Curator, gave a talk on the factors that shaped 19th century London. The dramatic changes the capital underwent during the period at street level and in the wider urban landscape were revealed using drawings, rare prints, guidebooks and maps from the collections of the RIBA British Architectural Library. It was a chance for the public to look at material normally held in store and to ask questions about the objects on show and about how architects of the time saw London.

What was shown at the talk?
Among items on show were several of the unexecuted proposals by Cuthbert Brodrick in 1866 to redesign the National Gallery, London, which would have replaced the current building by William Wilkins. Other material included a drawing dating from 1844 of the façade of the Carlton Club designed Sydney Smirke, and a book of Tallis’s London street views showing the details of London’s commercial street life. See these and similar images on RIBApix, or search the Library’s online catalogue for a more detailed look at what is held in the Library’s collections.

Cuthbert Brodrick design for the National Gallery. From the RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections

Drawing of the Carlton Club, Pall Mall, London. Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections

A page from Tallis's London street views. Copyright: RIBA Library Photographs Collection

The next talk
The Closer Look talks are free and organised by the V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership. Check What’s On for future dates, the next talk is on 26 July 2011. ‘Avenues of Death: Designs of Funerary Architecture’, by the RIBA’s Catriona Cornelius, will look at funerary architecture using material from the RIBA Library.

About Wilson Yau

I work for the British Architectural Library at the RIBA as part of a team to share news, images and information online about the activities of the Library and the fascinating items we have in our architectural collections – it contains over four million items, so there's plenty to see! If you’re curious about what we do at the Library and with the collections, or want to discover the latest about our education programmes, public events and exhibitions at the RIBA, please visit www.architecture.com

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