by Merryn Allingham | Apr 23, 2018 | Uncategorized
Elizabeth Siddal was first seen by Walter Deverell working in a milliner’s shop. She posed for him as a model for Viola in his painting, Twelfth Night, and went on to work for Holman Hunt, posing for him in A Converted British Family, then for Millais in his famous...
by Merryn Allingham | Apr 23, 2018 | Uncategorized
In the early nineteenth century, Hastings was a tiny fishing town. The fishermen were generally very poor and many of them were involved in smuggling in order to make a living, until preventive methods became much fiercer. Gradually, the fishermen found other ways of...
by Merryn Allingham | Apr 22, 2018 | Uncategorized
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal (1829-62 ) is perhaps best known as the model for Millais’ Ophelia. She was almost as well-known, though, by her anguished relationship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the founder members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Siddal was born...
by Merryn Allingham | Nov 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
The building of the Crystal Palace, as it was nicknamed by Punch magazine, together with its grand opening, provide a stunning background for the Victorian strand of House of Glass. This enormous building was designed to house The Great Exhibition of the Works of...
by Merryn Allingham | Nov 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
Men’s and women’s roles became more sharply defined during the Victorian period than arguably at any time in history. In earlier centuries it was usual for women to work alongside husbands and brothers in the family business, but as the nineteenth century progressed,...
by Merryn Allingham | Nov 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
Vauxhall Gardens stood on the south side of the Thames, a short distance east of Vauxhall Bridge, and from the reign of Charles II proved a popular public meeting place. The Gardens, originally called New Spring Gardens, were laid out around 1661. Admission was free...
by Merryn Allingham | Nov 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
Lucas Royde, the Victorian ‘hero’ of House of Glass, is an architect who abhors the contemporary passion for Gothic. In his view it destroys an ancient beauty and replaces it with a style that is ugly, imitative and out of keeping with its surroundings. But he is very...
