Collections May Vary
Place des Vosges in Paris was the pioneering project kickstarting the whole palace fronted square rage. Bedford Square in London would follow almost two centuries later. Taking form between 1775 and 1782, it was probably masterplanned by Thomas Leverton and definitely built by William Scott and Robert Grews. Each three storey (plus basement and attic) residential urban block facing the garden square was architecturally treated as a single unit: a people’s palace. The central portion on all sides is stuccoed, pilastered and pedimented. Three bays (one house) on the northeast facing terrace. Six bays (two houses) on the northwest facing terrace. Six bays (two houses) on the southeast facing terrace. Five bays (one house) on the southwest facing terrace. The other houses are faced with brown brick enlivened by Coade stone detailing and first floor wrought iron balconies.
Businessperson Eleanor Coade developed the eponymous material which is a highly durable unglazed ceramic. Developed in the 18th century, this weatherproof artificial stone became an instant hit for neoclassical sculpture and ornamentation. The original formula was lost for almost three centuries upon Eleanor’s demise until 1990s laboratory analysis of surviving fragments revealed its constituents. So here goes: a ceramic mixture of 60 to 70 percent Dorset and Devon ball clay, 10 percent crushed fired clay, 10 percent crushed soda lime glass, and five to 10 percent of crushed flint and fine quartz sand. The fortified clay was moulded and fired at 1,000 degrees centigrade for four days.
The 53 Georgian houses (numbered consecutively one to 54 with no number 13) are all but one arranged symmetrically. That pesky three bay central house with its off centre doorcase on the northeast facing terrace! There’s also the glaring neoclassical solecism of a centrally placed pilaster. Those two pesky three bay central houses on the southeast facing terrace! Later cosmetic changes add individual character to the general uniformity of the palace fronts. If windows are the eyes of a building, Victorian blind boxes are the eyebrows. To carry on the anthropomorphic metaphor, wrought iron trellis columns and cornicing wrapping round three first floor windows are the glasses.
On the southeast facing side, 16 Bedford Square has been the home of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, part of Yale University, since 1996. It would expand into number 15 in 2015. Founded in 1970 with an endowment from the American bank heir, philanthropist and racehorse breeder Paul Mellon, the Centre has a library of 26,000 art and architecture publications. It also has 25 archives of eminent art historians such as Brinsley Ford, Oliver Millar and Brian Sewell – the latter’s regular column was the real reason for reading the London Evening Standard.
Number 16 was once the home of James Wildman (1747 to 1816), lawyer to sugar plantations owner William Beckford. James’ brother Thomas was William’s agent. The two brothers leveraged this relationship to amass vast fortunes derived from Caribbean slavery. It is apropos that the Paul Mellon Centre’s in situ collaboration with The Sunderland Collection has a theme of counter colonialism. A hang of Nubian artist Fathi Hassan’s work around the elegant interior spaces of the Centre is arranged by Beth Greenacre, Curator of The Sunderland Collection Art Programme.
The Sunderland Collection (stored in London and Switzerland) includes globes, atlases, maps and geographical books from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its Art Programme, established in 2024, connects cultural heritage with contemporary artistic practice from around the world. Artists are invited to respond to pieces from the Collection in their preferred medium. Fathi explores the layered stories of the cartographic objects, reflecting on displacement and global interconnectedness. The resulting works are richly textured mixed media compositions in combinations of pencil, gouache, print and photography. His work implores the viewer to question is a map more than an embodiment of travelled land and actually a symbol of imposed power?
Trailblazers is a set of nine images hung in the entrance hall of the Centre. It features distinguished people such as Muhammed al Idrisi and Virginia Wolf. The contours of cartographic landmasses and borders dissolve into portraits overlaid with abstract calligraphy and arabesque designs. Fathi’s assemblages create new composite worlds suggesting alternative viewpoints. There’s at once a sense of being nowhere and everywhere, of being nobody and somebody. The artist says, “Nomadism comes from oblivion. That void, which in my life was due to my ancestors’ displacement, has always accompanied my thoughts.” And clearly, his art too.
Beth explains, “This collaboration is driven by a shared belief in the power of artist led research to connect historical objects with contemporary practice. Presenting Fathi’s work across the Centre reflects current thinking around Ongoing Colonial Worlds and uses art to examine the conditions of occupation and unrest, as well as displacement, colonialism, memory and identity.” Back in 1988, Edinburgh based Fathi was one of the first artists of African heritage included in the Venice Biennale.
Sarah Victoria Turner, Director of the Paul Mellon Centre, says, “This exciting collaboration between the Paul Mellon Centre and The Sunderland Collection is built around our shared commitment to using our collections and spaces as platforms for discovery and making new connections. We are delighted to display Fathi Hassan’s work at the Centre and witness the ways in which it uses cartography to make bridges between the historic and contemporary and helps us reflect on questions of mapping, nation and identity.” Bedford Square in all its neoclassical beauty has evolved from being the home of the mercantile and professional classes (some with links to slave colonies) to being the address of leading artistic and academic institutions from the Architectural Association to Yale University Press to the Paul Mellon Centre.
