Mantelpieces

NOTES: Occupying the site of the 12th century Walden Abbey, granted to Sir Thomas Audley in 1538, this is the largest of the Jacobean 'prodigy' houses. It was built by Thomas, Earl of Suffolk and King James I's Lord Chamberlain from c.1605 to c.1614. It was restored and remodelled in the 18th and 19th centuries. In particular, between 1825 and 1835 the third Lord Braybrooke carried out a series of alterations to the state apartment rooms on the first floor.

NOTES: Charleston was the home of the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Bell was respsonsible for the fireplace's decorative tiles and Grant for its painted surrounds.

SOURCE: Building News, vol. 40, 1881 June 24, p. 743

SOURCE: Architect, vol. XXVIII, 1882 Sept. 23, after p. 190

NOTES: While working on King Edward VI Grammar School, Birmingham, Barry collaborated for the first time with Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and the stonecarver J. Thomas, who were later to work with him on the Houses of Parliament.