Description and History of Site:-

Until 1909 part of South Kensington Museum of Science & Art (see V & A), using improvised buildings on present site, that of the 1862 Exhibition. Present buildings,1914 onwards. Final resting place of many items of industrial equipment and documentation.An article in The Brickbuilder, September 1924, entitled 'South Kensington's ugly duckling', reads in part as follows .. 'No recent addition to London's public buildings has been so roundly abused as the mud-coloured concrete monstrosity in Exhibition Road, which is to house the science section of the South Kensington Museums. And the dismay it stirred in the aesthetic bosom of South Kensington was amply justified. It looked, especially on a bleak winter's day, like nothing so much as a Bolshevik caricature of the Bastille .. All this harrowing of sensitive souls, however, is now seen to have been due to the reserve of the Office of Works. South Kensington's ugly duckling is being transformed and promises to be one of the brightest ornaments of that exclusive centre of the arts and sciences. Already its bare flanks are taking on a rich and ruddy hue that harmonises with the gentle dignity of its surroundings. This facing of red brick, relieved by white stone, will form the whole of the long southern side which stands out so conspicuously as one approaches the building from the Cromwell Road. With its lines of casements in the Wren style there is quite a Hampton Court touch about the general effect. The front, in Exhibition Road, we learn from head-quarters, is to be wholly of white stone, a decision with which we find ourselves unable to agree. Red brick is the keynote of the museum area, as well as of the Royal Borough, and we are satisfied that the new science section would have been more in the picture if the treatment of the southern flank, which so entirely satisfies the eye, had been chosen for the frontage as well.'

Further Reading and References:-

Falconer, Jonathan. 'In the Footsteps of I K Brunel'. Ian Allen Publishing, 2014

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Key Words :- museum

Address :- Exhibition Road, London, Greater London, SW7
Grid Ref :- TQ 268 792
Co-ordinates :- Lat 51.497528 , Long -0.174722
Local Authority :- Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council
Pre 1974 County :- Greater London Council
Site Condition :- Operational site, in use for original purpose
Site Dates :- 1924 -
Contributor :- GLIAS Database - 2 June 2018

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