Own work: Grant's Iron Foundry

     As avid readers of this blog will know I am very much a fan of Bryan Browning - south Lincolnshire's finest, and provincial architect extraordinaire. It is an architecture of power and emotion with roots in the English Baroque school and French Neo-classicism. Anyway here is my latest painting a mixed media effort. It depicts the monumental entrance to the former Grant's Iron Foundry on Wharf Rd in Stamford. Quite the thing.

Own work: The House of Correction, Folkingham

     The first big piece of art I have done in a long while. The House of Correction, Folkingham, Lincolnshire, by that excellent provincial Georgian architect Bryan Browning. A favourite of this blog. Here is the real thing.  Perhaps a little more restrained than I would have liked, but maybe that is a reflection of how I'm feeling at present. Usual mixed-media.

Bryan Browning: Grant's Iron Foundry

     Another in my occasional series highlighting the work of that excellent local architect Bryan Browning (1755-1856): the great portal of the former Grant's Iron Foundry.  What a powerful piece of architecture it is, combining the English Baroque school of Vanbrugh and visionary French Neo-classicism of, say, Ledoux. Heady stuff. An heroic, Romantic celebration of industrial power.

     It was built in 1845, the contractors being Gregory & Tinkler.  A late example, then, of Georgian architecture.  For a while, at the end of the 19th century, it was part of Blashfield's terracotta works.  At some point in the 20th century it was painted grey and white, possibly when it was owned by Chas Grey. In the last few years it has been incorporated into a new residential development. Sad to say that this work has not been handled with quite enough sensitivity.

Own work: The Baptist Chapel, Bourne

     Here is something I prepared earlier when I was in a very John Piper mood.  It's of the Baptist Chapel in west St Bourne, Lincolnshire. It is a rather powerful piece of architecture and I've always been inclined to credit Bryan Browning, beloved of this parish, with the design. I have no documentary evidence for this, unhappily. I've asked at the chapel a couple of times but nobody had a clue. I did the painting Wednesday and it probably took about three hours - perhaps less.  Thankfully less than half that time was actually spend siting in the cold drawing. Mixed media - pen and ink, watercolour, gouache oil pastel over pencil underdrawing on Acid free, Archival, 300gsm watercolour paper.  The most Piperesque thing I've done to date.

Bryan Browning V: Barn Hill House

   Continuing my occasional series on the buildings of that remarkable local architect Bryan Browning. Over two years, commencing in 1843 and working for the Earl of Exeter, Browning undertook extensive renovations of the existing late 17th century house, making a complete transformation of the entrance front into one of the most monumental and masculine in Stamford.

Bryan Browning IV: The Stamford Institution

   After looking around Bourne Town Hall I popped over to Stamford and the Book Fair being held in the Assembly Room, taking the opportunity to photograph another building by Browning, the former Stamford Institute.
   Sadly now disfigured with rubbish bins and cctv monitors (it deserves better!) this rather imposing building was built in 1842 by Moses Peal at the cost of £1,724.  It contained reading rooms, a museum and concert hall, even a laboratory. The roof boasted a cupola that served as both observatory and camera obscura.  Some of the interiors apparently survive.
   The façade is more decorative than is usual with Browning's work, a reflection perhaps of the changing tastes in classical architecture in the 19th century from Greek to Roman and finally Renaissance. Perhaps also reflecting an interest in the eclectic approach of an architect like C R Cockerell, who happily, and skilfully, blended various forms of classicism into a powerful and convincing whole.  There are indeed some lovely details.  I'm particularly impressed not only with the skilful layering of the façade but also the treatment of the basement windows with their blunt primitivist pediments.

Bryan Browning III The interior of Bourne Town Hall

   Yesterday I had the opportunity to have a look around the interior of one of Browning's most interesting buildings: Bourne Town Hall.  After lying neglected in recent years after the council had moved out a group of locals have got together to restore the building and open it as a community arts  venue.  They have other plans too such as the restoration of the wooden cupola which burned down between the Wars, and the restoration of the original clock mechanism.  I really hope they succeed.  The town hall is a unique and clever building that deserves, in fact, needs to be preserved and used.  It would also be very good for the town.

   Anyway this was my first visit and it was delightful.  There is one main space upstairs and that is the courtroom/council chamber.  It had many of its fittings intact.  I love the chairs with the town coat of arms on and the immense and beautifully lettered Benefaction Board.  To me it looks like the court room could be based upon the Inigo Jones's Queen's Chapel at St James's Palace. I could be wrong! Most lovely of all however was the Magistrates' room (parlour? retiring room?).  It still has some wonderful furniture left.  Quite atmospheric.  Downstairs is the former market hall known as a 'shambles'.  The plan is to use it as an exhibition/market space.  Anyway here are the images I took.

Bryan Browning II Bourne Town Hall

   It's a long time, (nearly two years) since my last post on that very interesting provincial Georgian architect Bryan Browning.  Here is the remarkable town hall he designed in Bourne, dating from 1821, from the very end of the Georgian tradition.  Alas its setting which is unduly scruffy, does it no favours.

   However, as you can see, it is a powerful composition with a Baroque feeling of movement.  Like the 'House of Correction' in Folkingham the influences are the English Baroque of Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor and (rather French) Neo-classicism.  And like the House of Correction it is a nationally important building.  A very sophisticated, and original, effort all round.  The masonry is excellent. Originally the ground floor was open on both sides - the present window and door in the left hand arch date, I think, from the 1980s - and there was a cupola behind the pediment, but this burnt down in the 1920s and was not replaced.  On the first floor was the council chamber and the magistrates court.  Presently the building is unoccupied and its future uncertain.

Bryan Browning I The House of Correction

   The bf was not sure what to expect when standing in Folkingham church yard I told we should go and see 'The House of Correction'.  I don't whether or not he was disappointed, or perhaps relieved, (what was he imagining?!) when we took the road to Billingborough and stopped on the very edge of the village to look at this.

   What you're looking at this the remaining portion of a gaol built in 1825 by the remarkable local architect Bryan Browning. (I have already mentioned his son Edward in connection with Folkingham church.) Browning was born in Lincolnshire in Northorpe, just south of Bourne, and really not much else is known about him.  He trained in London under, I think, Thomas Hardwick.  He lived in Brunswick Square in Bloomsbury for a while and then returned to Lincolnshire, practicing in Stamford.  He built a small number of powerful buildings in and around south Lincolnshire: Bourne Town Hall, the Stamford Institute, the workhouses in Bourne and Stamford, and a number of rectories such as at Deeping St James, and this 'The House of Correction'.  It shows the influence of Vanbrugh and Ledoux - English Baroque and French Neo-classicism - not a bad mix for a provincial English architect.  It is now a holiday let owned by the 'Landmark Trust'.