Imperial London sketches from the history of a great city
 
London in 1900

 

Geological Museum

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Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of London with this look at the Geological Museum:

In Piccadilly itself (1903) there is the somewhat gloomy-looking geological museum, with entrance in Jermyn Street, open free to all comers.

(The Geological Museum transferred from Jermyn Street to Exhibition Road, South Kensington in 1935.)

The church of St James's, which comes shortly after, was built by Sir Christopher Wren at the cost of Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, and consecrated at first as a chapel of ease to St. Martin's.

The first rector was Tenison, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.

Wren considered this one of his best works. He says: "In this church...though very broad and the nave arched, yet there are no walls of a second order, nor lantherns, nor buttresses, but the whole roof rests upon the pillars, as do also the galleries; I think it may be found beautiful and convenient, and as such the cheapest of any form I could invent."

Next: St James' Piccadilly