Iron and Glass: Scott, Paxton, Labrouste and the Oxford Museum

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Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878)

The Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens, London (1863-72)

St Pancras Station with the Grand Midland Hotel (1868-74)

Exterior   Plan and elevation

    Train shed 

Sir Joseph Paxton (1801-1865)

Greenhouse at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, for the Duke of Devonshire

Committee's Design for the Exhibition Hall for the 1851 Great Exhibition

   Paxton's alternative design, 1850

   The Crystal Palace under construction

   Exterior and interior views during the Great Exhibition

    As reconstructed, with Paxton's landscaping, at Sydenham

The Oxford Museum by Deane and Woodward

     Exterior   Iron and glass roofed court

Henri Labrouste (1801-75)

Labrouste's reconstruction of the Temple of Hera at Paestum as a Civic Hall or Basilica. His envoi sent back to Paris while a pensionnaire at the French Academy in Rome inverted the accepted chronology of the Paestum temples, suggesting that the Doric order used by the colonists became increasingly primitive as time passed.

Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve, Paris (1838-50)

   Elevation

  Street facade and detail of ornament

Detail showing the names of authors inscribed on the facade and the bronze paterae

Entrance vestibule with arcadian murals and philosopher's busts; note the contrast between the light iron superstructure and the square and fluted heavy masonry piers.

   Reading room with central iron colonnade supporting the arched ceiling