Preface

PREFACE

This volume, on one of the most notable pieces of architecture in England, takes its place in the series of monographs issued by the London Survey Committee by virtue of a very happy collaboration of several friendly forces. The Trustees of the newly formed National Maritime Museum wished to secure a record worthy of their beautiful home and its remarkable history. H.M. Office of Works were in their turn very ready, in the person of Mr. Chettle (a member of the Survey Committee), to communicate all they knew of the house which they had restored with so much care. And the Survey Committee welcomed the opportunity of attaining a long–desired end by producing a work on a London house of such distinction. The collaboration was effected by Professor Callender, the Honorary Treasurer of the Committee and Director of the Museum; and the success, which it is hoped will be recognised to have attended this essay, should both encourage and justify similar projects in the future.

The London Survey Committee was founded in 1894 to call attention to London's architectural treasures, to record them faithfully and to defend them when threatened. The Committee has been aided in its work most signally by the London County Council which has printed the fine series of parish volumes, as well as taking its share in preparing them. To-day the Committee needs every ally it can secure, for London is fast losing its treasures, and the Committee's records too often rank as obituary notices. It is with all the greater pleasure that we memorialise in this instance a building with a secure future, and our thanks, as well as those of our readers, are due to Sir James Caird, Bart., the generous benefactor who has provided the Trustees with the funds necessary to produce, and worthily to illustrate, this book.

Walter H. Godfrey.