The Palace Theatre on Cambridge Circus is a landmark no doubt familiar to you even if you are not planning on going to the Harry Potter show currently running.
It has a magnificent terracotta exterior but on the few occasions I have been inside it seemed a bit crumbly. The Savoy Hotel and the Wigmore Hall are both in better nick. All three are the work of Victorian/Edwardian architect TE Collcutt but they are not his most important commission; that is the neo-renaissance Imperial Institute, now the site of Imperial College. All that remains of Collcutt’s work is an impressive tower: the Queen’s Tower.
It is 287 feet tall and there 324 steps leading up to the copper dome. I was not altogether sorry only to be able to admire the tower from the outside as it is temporarily closed for repair work although the views should be spectacular. There are bells at the top that are rung to mark royal birthdays and special occasions. There used to be an annual performance of the 1812 Overture – a custom that I think should be revived.
As sometimes happens the tower was not the object of my excursion on Wednesday morning, although it proved to be of great interest. The Imperial College architecture is less flashy than the London School of Economics. An early building (1906) is the Royal School of Mines on Prince Consort Road, funded by Julius Wernher and Alfred Beit.
Wernher’s bust is on the left and Beit’s on the right. Fortunately the Imperial students haven’t twigged that Beit employed Cecil Rhodes in South Africa while amassing a fortune mining gold and diamonds. Nor was this the object of my visit; that must wait until another day.
