Outside of Norwich all manner of exciting things were going on under the four Georges: the American War of Independence, The French Revolution, The Napoleonic Wars, but we're going to ignore all of that and concentrate on two tetchy old men slagging one another off in print. You can't say I don't get my priorities right.
William Wilkins the Elder, via the interweb.
Enter, in the red corner, stern of visage, slightly out of focus and wearing a marble toga Norwich Architect William Wilkins the Elder (1751 - 1815), presenting a paper in 1795 to the Society of Antiquaries, entertainingly excoriating Soane's new design at the castle. From it I quote:
"The east front, which was the grand entrance, is grossly mutilated and entirely hidden by an additional building that appears to have no kind of connection with it … this unfortunate addition has totally destroyed its symmetry."
Here, in the margin of his own copy, Soane had angrily scribbled, "A most gross falsehood and wilful misrepresentation!"
Ooooooh, tetchy …
Wilkins goes on, " … it is now bereaved of its ancient beauty under pretense of giving more internal convenience for the accommodation of its miserable tenants. The interior has been gutted also and equally ill-managed."
Soane rather cowardly waited until Wilkins had died before taking up his handbag and swinging it at the corpse of his critic. In his "Memoires of the Professional Life of an Architect" (1835) he grabs the Petty Bitchiness Trophy with both hands …
"Mister William Wilkins, of Norwich, an able stuccatore (plasterer … this from a bricklayer's son), who had acquired some facility in drawing, and a smattering of Gothic lore, fancying himself an Architect, feeling much disappointed at not having been intrusted with the alterations and additions to the Castle, gave vent to his feelings in unfounded criticisms …"
John Soane you be-atch! Thought you'd got the last word in, did ya, you pompous prick? Well I do love a poetic denouement and William Wilkins the Elder's son William Wilkins the Younger now stuffed a brick inside his handbag and SMACK-DOWN! Soane was left spuffling with apoplectic rage and a neon "LOSER" sign on his hat.
Step forth the forces of righteousness … Norwich's own wonder woman, the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, aided in parliament by Jeremy Bentham and John Howard. Their demands for prison reform had rendered Soane's design obsolete within fourteen years of its being built.
The city wanted a future-proof prison to take into account the new reforms and the Visiting Justices at Norwich set a competition in 1819 - 20 for a new prison to replace Soane's gaol.
The winning Architect was … you've guessed it … one William Wilkins the Younger, son of the Elder, who promptly (and I would imagine with some degree of glee) demolished Soane's ghastly extension, much to Sir John's purple-faced rage.
Of course in these enlightened times Architects would never behave with such immature petulance … er …
Next time we take a look at the new prison and a delightful machine installed within.
Sources:
The Annual Register: A View of the History, Politicks and Literature of the Year: Edmund Burke (ed) and successors: 1758 to Present
Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society
East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009
The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002
Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996
Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004
Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981
Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983
2 comments:
What kind of gaol would you design, Dive? I'll bet it would have some great workshop areas and an amazing library.
Ooooh, there's a tempting question, Petrea.
I think I'd convert Trump Tower; top floor suites for those who showed real remorse and reformed themselves, as you say a splendid library, workshops for making creative things like musical instruments rather than sewing mailbags and down in the cellars, lots of small, dank brick cells with a wooden bucket and some straw for GOP members and sex offenders.
I'd have a torture chamber, too, but only for use by masochistic prisoners as a good behaviour reward. Misbehave and it's no spanking for you!
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