British Museum, Montagu House, Great Russell Street, London: the hall and staircase

SOURCE: R. Ackermann. The Microcosm of London (London, 1835), vol. I, pl. 13 NOTES: Montagu House was built for Ralph Montagu, first Duke of Montagu, to designs by Robert Hooke, 1675-1679. A fire in 1686 appears to have gutted the building and it was rebuilt in 1687 by an otherwise unidentified French architect called Pouget, but perhaps by Hooke himself. From 1755 the re-built house was home to the Sloane, Cotton and Harley collections of the British Museum and opened to the public in 1759. Montagu House was demolished in the 1840s to make way for the present British Museum building.