Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster by Jonathan Wylder, 1998
On the plinth: “When we build let us think we build forever”
Wilton Crescent, Westminster
London, October 2009
“Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labour and wrought substance of them, ‘See! this our fathers did for us.’”
(John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849)
The neighbourhood is so familiar to me...
ReplyDeleteAnd we *do* say that about many of the buildings of that age, because the builders created a style that still stands, pleases, and delights. I can't say that about some of the modern styles. I hope others have better longevity.
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