After the visiting The Royal Institution, it was on down to Piccadilly to see the offices of the Linnean Society at Burlington House. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any samples from their archives of 200 year old plants or anything nifty like that, but there was a pretty awesome Victorian chair which had been upholstered in a still-unidentified animal skin. We were told that they knew it was a species of crocodile (which is pretty obvious even to a zoological ignoramus like myself), but they didn't know which kind of crocodile it was, and were not sure how to find out.
Final stop of Saturday's Opeb House visits was the spire at St. Anne's Soho, which is pretty much the only bit of the original church that's left after it was bombed in WW2. The staircases to reach the top are both incredibly narrow and steep, and unfortunately there's no view from the top, but we could see the full workings of the clock which was pretty cool, and there was an interesting slideshow on view, from the Museum of Soho (some of which you can see here). More of my St. Anne's photos are here.
On Sunday I'd planned to go start at Bevis Marks Synagogue in the City, but it was too late to get there by the time I'd left the house because it closed early, so I wandered westwards instead, and went to the Rudolph Steiner House, instead, which meant, rather ironically, that I swapped Judaism for Steinerism just like my great-grandmother, Maude.
It's a lovely building, which has often caught my eye as I passed by on the bus. Described as the only Expressionist building in London, it looks like a cross between Art Nouveau and Art Deco, and is quite reminiscent of Antoni Gaudi's architecture, although a lot less exuberant or visually OTT. As I understand it, from what one of the Open House volunteers told me, Steiner took inspiration from plants and natural forms and rejected square lines, preferring to convert them into curves wherever possible. However, it's clear that he didn't reject them completely, because it's not very practical to build a useable urban structure without them. It's these inescapable straight lines combined with the desired curves that gives the building its elegance, especially inside. It's a beautifully strong form, with clean and decisive lines, which is kind of ironic, because so much of the artwork that comes out of Steinerism is awfully wishy-washy.
In fact, it was a lovely place to visit, until I wandered into the newly-built cafe, where a woman behind the counter accosted me as I was taking photos and I asked if I was an architect. Why do I have to be an architect to appreciate architecture? On finding that I wasn't, she insisted on making it her mission to inform me about biodynamic food, refusing to let me leave until I'd taken a leaflet. Annoying woman. It's people like that who give things like Steinerism a bad name. But don't let that put you off having a look at the building if you get a chance. It's rather special, especially the central staircase. More pictures here.
