According to Christopher Woodward (Guardian; 2006), Joseph Michael Gandy wrote to The Guardian in 1821 in response to a hard critic: ‘Why should he not show the public the possibilities of architecture? Their imaginative horizons had been lowered by the drudgery of living in a city of commercial development.’
The painting was commissioned 136 years
The Screen Wall
after the Bank of England was founded as a
By Daniela Puga
private cooperation through a Royal Chart
2nd March 2015
in 1964 to ‘promote the publick Good and Benefit of our People,’ 2 , that loaned the In1830 the surveyor of the Bank of England,
amount of ‘Twelve Hundred Thousand
Sir John Soane, commissioned a painting
Pounds’3 to the government in order to be
from his draughtsman1, imagining how the
able to strengthen the public finances after
Bank of England would look as an ancient
the Great Revolution, which brought William
ruin in a hundred years. He imagined that
and Mary to the throne 1688 and with it,
the collection of courtyards, saloons, vaults
political stability over a hundred years. The
and corridors that composed The Bank
stability meant that commerce, precursor of
facilities at the time, would be left free of
banking,
ceilings, with some of their walls standing,
exchange and accumulation4. Because of the
sustaining its unity only by its surrounding
Bank of England’s role as the manager of
wall. This blind screen, built through stages
the national debt during the Napoleonic
between 1796 and 1823, would still be a
wars, the greater the conflict, the more the
continuous
imperceptibly
Bank grew; acquiring the constructions next
interrupted by four entrances, containing the
to it and transforming them. When the
3¼ acres of what would have been The
Gordon Riots of 1780 carried through
Bank. In the painting, the site has been
London, the ensemble was a visible target
transformed into a cliff, showing the ruins as
for the violent anger of the protesters and
an Island emerging from the blurred city of
suffered its consequences. In an attempt to
London. This painting predicted the fate of
explain the riots attack upon the Bank,
the building, as today this wall is the only
Robert Watson explained ‘It is supposed
trace left of John Soane’s work at the Bank
that whoever is the master of the bank and
of England. How was did boundary
the tower will soon become master of the
configured and reconfigured from an
city, and whoever is master of the city will
organic association of buildings, to a
soon be master of Great Britain’5. After this
defence screen and a symbol of cohesion
incident, from a ‘Screen Wall’ was built to
and stability?
protect the Bank’s functions, leaving only
element,
flourished
with
its
forms
of
four defined entrance. ‘The Bank of England
MA History and Critical Thinking
Architectural Association
2
from this point forward stand as an isolated
major financial regulator after the recent
self-enclosed physical identity’.
economic crisis.
Shortly after the Napoleonic wars ended,
It is through the gradual accumulation and
Soane received permission to uniform the
collection
façade by cladding (1823). Until then, the
buildings- that a system of relations is
perimeter had been constituted in different
established, progressively defining a thick
stages, through the work of George
perimeter, the Screen Wall. Because of the
Sampson and Robert Taylor. Now it
exchangeable and translatable character of
required a consistent face that would
its collection, the frame, once defined by the
address its role as the central bank; it had
buildings that it contained, becomes and
started competing with the flourishing joint
independent element, the only constituent of
stocks and clearing banks, but established
its territory. This frozen edge is a recurring
its position as ‘the guardian of the gold
theme in the city of London, where an
reserve, the supplier of liquidity of last
organic
resort’ 6 . The envelope then shifted its
relations between the buildings and a
function of securing defence, towards being
continuous but not uniform perimeter which is
a representation for civic knowledge, in the
now protected and therefore motionless by
sense
law, a frozen façade.
that
symbolized
stability
when
everything else failed. After the First World War, the national debt of England increased up to 7.5 billion pounds, and the responsibilities of the Bank to finance post-war reconstructions and regulate the City’s Financial Market and Institutions required more space, which led to the widely criticised7 refurbishment of Sir Herbert Baker8, that left the ‘Screen Wall’ as the only trace of John Soane’s work, securing its formal cohesion which now parallels its logo: “One Mission, One Bank” 9 currently defines its duties as the
–of
growth
responsibilities,
has
gold
produced
or
closed
Fragment of the wall of Bank of England from Lothbury Street, London
MA History and Critical Thinking
Â
Architectural Association
4
NOTES
9
One Mission (2014) Available at:
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/Pages/one mission/default.aspx (Accessed: February 27th
1
Joseph Michael Gandy 1830 Pen and coloured
2015).
washes on paper Sir John Soane's Museum (2012) Source: Soane's London: The Bank Of England.
IMAGE SOURCE
Available at: http://www.soane.org/collections/soanes_london/b
1 Soane's London: The Bank Of England. Available at:
ankofengland/8 (Accessed: February 27th 2015)
http://www.soane.org/collections/soanes_london/b
2
The Charter of the Corporation of the Governor
ankofengland/8 (Accessed: February 27th 2015)
and Company of the Bank of England (2013)
2 Photograph from the Author. Date: March 2nd
Available at:
2015
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/Documents/ legislation/1694charter.pdf (Accessed: February 27th 2015). 3
Ibid.
4
It is no coincidence that during the same period
Hans Sloane was building his personal collection, which founded the British Museum and the Natural History Museum. Source: The British Museum. (No date) Sir Hans Sloane. Available at: http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/the_museu ms_story/sir_hans_sloane.aspx (Accessed: February 27th 2015). 5
Abramson, Daniel M. (2005) Building the Bank of
England: money, architecture, society 1694-1942. New Haven: Yale University Press. P. 84 6
About the Bank (2013) Available at:
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/Pages/histo ry/timeline.aspx (Accessed: February 27th 2015). 7
One of them says that it was the “greatest
architectural crime” Pevsner N. (As ‘P.F.R. Donner’) (1941) ‘Criticism – Sir Herbert Baker’s Extensions to the Bank of England’ in: Architectural Review, September. 8
Between 1925 and 1942, during the years of the
Modern Movement, when the rupture with traditions was pursued.