The Buildings and Estates of the Royal Academy of Music

Transcription

1 The Buildings and Estates of the Royal Academy of Music A Brief Introduction The Academy s original home ( ) was at 4-5 Tenterden Street, off Hanover Square. This present building was officially opened in The architects were Sir Ernest George and Alfred Yeates. Proposed Facade for a new Royal Academy of Music in Regent s Park. With a French baronial central roof. The pilasters between the wings are topped with with fourteen large individual statues around and between the balustrading. With signature in ink of the architect, Frederick William Porter. Faded sepia photograph of a drawing

2 In 1912 the Royal Academy of Music officially opened its doors to its new Marylebone Road premises, having moved from the cramped conditions of Tenterden Street, near Hanover Square, which it had occupied since its foundation in Teaching had already begun in the new building (see previous page), designed by architects Sir Ernest George and Alfred Yeates, the year before. Sir Ernest George was notable for his use of red brick and terracotta, and his attention to details such as ironmongery was perhaps inherited from his father, a prosperous ironmonger. President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1908 to 1910, he was knighted in He is perhaps best-known for designing the Golders Green Crematorium and many houses for the Cadogan Estate, including one for W. S. Gilbert, artistic partner of one of the Academy s most famous pupils, Sir Arthur Sullivan. Sir Ernest was also an artist who in particular excelled at etching. Macfarren Place, on the right of the building, alongside the Duke s Hall, is named after a former Principal, Sir George Macfarren. Some of the beautiful architectural drawings relating to this building, on paper and linen and with colour wash, are framed and on display in the main foyer. These include those of the facade (see below), the interior of the entrance hallway, and details of joinery for the external doors and various floor plans. A separate document relates to the recent restoration in the entrance foyer, to the lunettes and spandrels, of the original wall-paintings by Baron Arild Rosenkrantz, which were commissioned from the artist and hung for a brief period until the official opening of the building. They were located in Rosenholm Castle in Denmark in 2005 and have been re-installed to their original site on 30-year initial loan, with kind permission of Baron Erik Rosenkrantz and the Rosenholm Foundation (see above). A separate document on the website explains this project, and the restoration of the scheme was the subject of a talk by the painting conservators Jonathan Bush and Alan Berry for the British Association of Painting Conservators and Restorers at the Art Workers Guild on 23rd November The stained glass windows (below) are by Leonard Walker, They were designed and executed at the suggestion of Sir Stanley Marchant, then Principal of the Academy, and were unveiled by Dame Myra Hess on 25 July They show the characteristic bright colours used by the artist, who made the glass himself. The windows were provided through the generosity of the late Baron Profumo, a benefactor to the Academy, as a permanent token of thanks-giving for the preservation of the building during the years of war, Sir Stanley wrote: There is a touch of romance about these windows. I am a great believer in the effect of beautiful things on the minds of young people. My friend the late Baron Profumo knew this and, just before his death, gave me a substantial sum of money to mark our personal friendship and said that I could use it for anything I liked to beautify the Academy. These windows were designed and the work

3 carried out... secretly, at a very late hour one night, I got my friend Mr Walker to come... I shewed (sic) him the site. He readily understood the idea that was in my mind and got to work at once. The theme is as follows: Central panel - the figure of Victory is shown arising with the morning sun of a new era. Having sounded a victorious note on her trumpet, she greets the Dove of Peace. Crowning the side windows are two damsels contributing their music to the chorus of thankfulness. On the left are the Royal Arms and on the right the crest of the Royal Academy of Music, with a lyre. The upward tendencies of the sun s rays add their share to the general elation. From a flower-bedecked base arise rocky prominences symbolic of the difficulties of life to be surmounted, and in the foreground of the three windows landscape is shown, with trees and foliage. The Duke s Hall, the Academy s main Concert Hall (left), was named after the Duke of Connaught. Famous names who have conducted or performed in the Hall include Richard Strauss and former pupils Sir Henry Wood, associated with the historic development of the Proms, and Sir John Barbirolli. It also houses some of the Academy s most beautiful portraits; a separate leaflet is available. In , the Hall underwent a radical programme of renovation - the floor was raised about 80cm, and ventilation ducts, heating and others services were placed beneath it. Problems with sound from the underground trains were overcome by making the new floor one-and-a-half inches thick and by resting the supporting walls on rubber pads. London Underground obliged by fitting long, continuously welded rails and also resilient pads beneath the sleepers on the track immediately beneath the Academy buildings. The raising of the floor of the auditorium reduced the previous rather excessive gap (some four feet) between it and the level of the stage by about half. New storage space (though not for pianos) was made available below the risers at the back of the stage. Acoustic tests carried out by the architects, Bickerdike Allen and Partners, had suggested that it was the semi-circular vault of the original top-lit ceiling that focused the sound from the stage at the front of the balcony, which resulted in an unusually loud sound in that area but a distant sound in other areas (it was said that the wind was always too loud, and the violins too soft ); also, the sound was reflected back to the stage too late to be of any help to the performers. A flat ceiling was therefore fitted beneath the vault. This could have reduced the effective volume of the Hall, bringing it below the level necessary to achieve reverberation. To correct this, large adjustable openings in the new flat ceiling enable the reverberation to be controlled to suit different tuning requirements. The new ceiling also contains a sophisticated, adjustable, lighting system. A new and much larger stage was also created. The conductor s rostrum is exactly in the centre of the Hall. The back of the stage was extended, at high level only, to accommodate a new organ, replacing the old instrument which was installed in The original builders were Messrs G. E. Wallis & Sons Ltd (who also executed the reinforced concrete roof over the Concert Hall). The sculpture and carving on the facade was executed by Albert Hodge (see the image of Harmony or Melody, right - its companion represents Rhythm) and the iron gates, grilles, and balustrade to the staircase was made by J. Starkie Gardner (see example left, with a horn and a representation of the music for God Save the King, left). The original mosaic floors were by Diespeker & Co and plasterwork by J. Priestley (see panel below from the Board Room representing the garlanded god Apollo, with putti, below right. Apollo with his lyre was also the subject of the Academy s medal for young students, instituted in 1823). Sound-proofing of the teaching and practice rooms was of great concern, and the original structure has double glass doors and the divisions between the rooms are double Frazzi partitions (along with fire-resistant floors also by The Frazzi Construction Company Ltd).

4 The building is, however, constantly changing. For instance, in summer 2009 the 1960s black and white marble floor which replaced the original cracked hallway mosaic floor was itself replaced with a replica of the original mosaic one, and the bronze and glass doors from 1960s, which had replaced the original dark wooden ones, were themselves replaced with the clear glazing you can see today. The main building has also been the subject of various additions over the years, including the doubling of the site in the past decade, and each project is briefly described below. Some 30 large photographic archive images are on display in the staff room, canteen and walls of the bar on the lower floor of the main building, and these also contribute to understanding the development of the site, and include famous performers and students using the building. By the 1920s, the Academy had become too small for its purpose, in particular for the training and performance of opera. The photographic exhibition shows an advertisement in the press for fund-raising for an opera theatre. For some years the Academy had been in discussion, on and off, about the purchase of the Royal York Gate Baths designed by Decimus Burton (see engraving on the right from a drawing by Thomas Shepherd) at the rear of the building in York Terrace East, the lease of which was then owned by Sir George Donaldson who at various times had offered it to the Academy at the price he had paid for it many years previously. In May 1921 it was agreed to purchase the lease for the remaining period and plans were drawn up by the architect Geoffrey Norman FRIBA for a small opera house with a maximum height of 40 feet on the York Terrace East front with no openings except for fire and emergency exits and with the wall to be architecturally treated so as not to form an eyesore to the adjoining premises. In hindsight and with our greater awareness of conservation issues, it is fortunate that this was not built, and that the terrace was left well alone (see damaged drawing on the left, itself the subject of recent conservation). A survey of the property carried out at the time provides an interesting description of what remained of the Turkish Baths and their heating systems, and also how restrictions in the lease would not have made the property suitable for purpose. It appears that the left hand corner of the site of the Baths (as you face the building) was demolished in late In 1921, arrangements were made for the Academy s Library to move into No.1 York Gate, the adjacent building to the main premises (designed by John Nash as one of the palaces to the entrance to Regent s Park) on a 21 year lease. The drawing (elevation) on the left, by the Surveyors Messrs Eiloart and Sons, February 1921, shows a plan for a building linking York Gate and the main Academy - a shade of things to come. The library would later move into the area occupied by the Baths in York Terrace East, where it is still housed. The area was rebuilt internally in 1967 by the architects Darlow and Platt and opened officially by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in The library and surrounding rooms (the Accounts Department, for instance) which have been most altered internally, now considered as typical of 1960s office design and bearing no connection with the original Georgian statement, although there is the occasional beautiful original fireplace and ceiling mouldings in the library area. The Academy celebrated its Centenary in A further development of the site occurred in 1926 when, as The Musical Times of 1st November reported: The new rehearsal theatre, lecture hall and a group of well-proportioned studios are at last out of the builders hands, and on Tuesday afternoon, October 19th, the Duke of Connaught declared the extension open.

5 When the buildings at Marylebone Road were originally erected, some five hundred students were on the books; at the present moment the number is over a thousand. The rehearsal theatre (see above) will seat three hundred [200 was perhaps more accurate], and it has a sunk orchestra fashioned after the Bayreuth plan. In declaring the buildings open, the Duke very happily remarked that his connection with the Royal Academy had been of such a long and intimate nature that he was very glad to associate himself with everything happening within its walls. The new theatre is to be known as the Duke s Rehearsal Theatre. The lecture room was said to seat 150; and a caretaker s flat was established. The Musical Times of 1st December 1926 noted that Dancing classes and exhibitions of dancing will be held in it, and attached are shower-baths of the latest design. The architects, Swan and Norman, are not mentioned in any reports in the musical press! The scheme, however, seems to have replaced the idea for the provision of an opera house. The drawing above, by the architects, shows a scaled plan of the Academy s Marylebone Road building basement. The proposed areas are marked up as Rehearsal Room, 198 seats, marked as showing its apron stage, and Lecture Room, 168 seats. Behind the stage is an area which was titled Scenery store, which has been crossed through by hand with the words Orch. Pit in its place. It is interesting to read this image against that of the newly-built Void (see over) In 1976 the Sir Jack Lyons Theatre was opened as part of the celebration of the Academy s 150 th Anniversary. This involved the demolition of the whole of the 1926 build, but the added provision of what we now call the Concert Room, the latter on the lower floor beneath the main theatre. The architects were Bickerdie, Allen, Rich and Partners and the main building contractor was Harry Neal Limited.. The building works were to be split into two stages owing to cost - and extensive escalating costs ensued. The plan (right) shows an early idea for a planned second hall. An article written for the opening programme brochure by the architect John Bickerdike described the problems of fitting a theatre into the awkward space available between the main building in Marylebone Road and York Terrace East. He wrote: There is a need to relate the different levels between the two buildings and to achieve means of escape within what is almost a totally sealed-off space. The theatre itself is at the uppermost level of the development, to use the full length and width of the space... One primary objective was to achieve as large a stage area as possible. The acting area is some 58 feet wide by 38 feet deep - far larger than the average professional drama stage. The proscenium width of 34 feet can be widened to 50 feet. The pit below the stage can accommodate up to sixty musicians, and has a pit-lift which can be raised electrically to form a fore-stage. It was the intention to provide a full fly-tower but this would have produced an external structure in view of Regent s Park Terraces and, rather than risk endless delays in trying to obtain planning approvals, including that of the Royal Fine Arts Commission, we compromised, and the effective height for flying scenery was kept down to approximately 26 feet, related to a proscenium height of 17 feet 6 inches. This enables some scenery to be flown and some to be winched across the stage from the wings. The auditorium has fixed seating for an audience of nearly three hundred, almost all in ten curved rows never more than 40 feet from the proscenium. Mid-gangways are omitted by adopting the Continental type layout, which requires a larger space between rows of seats, leading, incidentally, to greater comfort. The auditorium floor is a gentle stepped rake calculated to give good sight-lines. At the rear of the theatre are sound and lighting control rooms flanked by balconies providing

6 some seating. As audience and stage areas are almost equal the design aims at reducing one s awareness of the unusual balance. The smallness of the auditorium breeds some acoustical problems also. It is recognised that opera needs a fuller sound - a longer reverberation time - than purely orchestral music and certainly fuller than drama. A prime factor in achieving a good opera sound is large volume, which large opera houses never lack. So, within the constraints of the site, the design provided a maximum volume, the greatest clear height in the auditorium being 26 feet. The other acoustic factor is to create a form which reinforces the direct sound without large areas of corrective soundabsorbent material. Thus, despite the soft appearance of the walls, they are in fact hard and reverberant. Sound transmission is another major problem, nowhere more accentuated than in an Academy of music. The need to isolate as well as possible all playing spaces from each other leads to very considerable complications in design and construction. Similarly, the isolation of all mechanical plant noise is crucial. The solutions to this problem have been most acute in the new works. The theatre is totally mechanically ventilated, and because of the shortage of space is served by several plant rooms. One is immediately over the stage proscenium and another is immediately at the rear of the theatre. Complex isolation techniques have been employed to ensure their sound does not penetrate the auditorium or any other playing spaces. Similar sound transmission design problems occur for example where the orchestra pit is located immediately over a rehearsal studio and the auditorium over another. In 1976 Bickerdike, Allen carried out the fire-proofing of the corridors on all levels of the Marylebone Road building, with glass fire doors, and the refurbishment of the WC facilities on the upper floors. In 1978 additional rehearsal spaces were added to the basement and in the percussion and recital rooms were built on the lower ground floor - a further percussion room added to the same lower floor in 1996, and the cafeteria and dining area were refubished in The theatre was the subject of further work in 2001, when a new wooden floor and new, comfortable blue seats were installed. A central aisle was added at this stage, and a major job of rewiring and upgrading of the lighting, pulley systems, winches and other equipment took place, greatly adding to safety issues at the same time. Surtitles are now able to be used. In 1999 the Academy was fortunate to be able to acquire, through the Heritage Lottery Fund, the whole of John Nash s 1-5 York Gate, dated 1823 (left). Nash had, in the 180s, himself been a director of the Academy. As previously mentioned, No 1 York Gate had once been occupied by the Academy s library from 1921 on a 21-year lease, and this was vacated in 1939 just prior to a damage from an unexploded bomb in A separate sheet shows images of the historic development of this site and its previous conversion from five houses to a single building. This new major project by architects John McAslan and Partners incorporated a sitewide campus strategy and alterations to the interior of the 1820s Grade I listed building to form the Academy s new museum, practice and teaching facilities, and a centre for the Academy s historic archives and famous instrument collections, as well as the later addition of the music shop, Chimes. Within the courtyard between the two buildings - formerly a car park - a bold new barrel-vaulted concert hall, the David Josefowitz Hall, has been inserted, which connects both buildings belowground. Award for Architecture in Illustrations show the digger at work between the two buildings, taking out the car park (left) to allow for the building of the Hall, and the resultant building (next page). The completed project received an RIBA The illustration (right) shows the plan of the ground floor of the

7 museum and teaching areas, with the large Music Theatre dance studio on the right, and also the juxtaposition of the main building with the Nash building. At the rear of the building and within York Terrace East is another building which now houses the Academy s Development Office. It should be noted that the lease of York Terrace East, which the Academy had acquired in 1924, and which was let out, expired in In that same year a flat was created for the Principal within the terrace. In the 1960s, this greater area was re-acquired by the Academy - hence the development of the present Library on that site. In new seating and flooring, as well as re-wiring, was carried out to the Sir Jack Lyons Theatre. Following the building of the Sir Jack Lyons Theatre in the 1970s, a large open and completely land-locked space was left within the site, between the library and the theatre, as there were no funds to continue with the original plans for area. In summer 2009, when the flooring, reproduced from the original mosaics remaining within the Marylebone Road building, and new glass front doors were installed in the main foyer, within the shortest envelope of time to enable the work to be done within a busy working building, John McAslan and Partners also completed the latest building project, locally called The Void, within the small enclosed land-locked space Much like a giant light well, as well as the Theatre, this space was and remains surrounded by various Listed buildings including the Grade II Sir Ernest George and Alfred Yeates site, the Grade York Gate John Nash site and the Grade II Decimus Burton-designed York Terrace East. To minimise noise pollution, the construction was completed within three months. The design concept was simple; fully enveloped in bronze, it relates colour-wise to the adjacent historical brick walls, enclosing the practice rooms and an opera studio - the colour will of course oxidise over the years. Requiring minimum maintenance and being corrosion-resistant, this material solution is also a very sustainable one. The structure of the Void is held slightly away from the listed structures around it and only connects to the western circulation area of the Jack Lyons Theatre. Apart from the penetration of two columns into secondary rooms in the existing RAM building, the Void s structure is independent - it can be extended or demounted as required in the future. The design had to, of course, respond very sensitively to planning issues associated with the listed buildings in the Conservation Area around it. The steel frame of the building (see diagram on the right) was constructed on site, and the rooms on the lower three levels comprising 12 prefabricated pods (rooms) all of different shapes, were craned into position, along with an opera studio within the roof area. An extra 330 sq m of space was added to the Academy. The project cost 1.4 million and came in under budget. Andy Meira, the project architect, writes that We were working to millimetre precision - there was no room for error because the site was so tight. The bronze cladding was chosen to be sustainable and low maintenance, with a lifespan of some 200 years. Finally, the Thorn-EMI recording studio attached to the Concert Room The Academy s site today, with the Void on the lower floor of the main building has been, along with the remaining recording and other studios music studios, and the T-rooms, as they are called, outlined in red. refurbished over the past few years and in 2009 a show relay was added to the Duke s Hall enabling concerts to be relayed into the main foyer of the Academy, and the canteen area. The Manson Room has also been refurbished.

8 The museum, in the York Gate building, houses the Academy s famous collection of stringed instruments, as well as a playing collection of historic pianos both from the Mobbs collections and the Academy s own. It regularly hosts soirées, seminars, school and family workshops and other public events, and also provides gallery-based activities for children and families. Admission is free to all exhibitions and events. The Academy s collections, including the catalogues of historic pianos and stringed instruments, archive photographs and much else besides, is available on - and then go to SEARCH APOLLO Purpose-built building for the Royal Academy of Music on this site - Architects Sir Ernest George and Alfred Yeates. Wall paintings in foyer placed in situ 1911, taken down s Thoughts about building a small opera house (not done). Development of new concert and chamber music halls as a rear extension; also, Academy s Library moves on a lease to 1 York Gate. Early 1940s Removal of Academy Library from 1 York Gate back to main building Library (York Terrace East) refurbished and opened by the Queen Mother. 1970s SUMMARY OF THE MAIN DEVELOPMENTS ON THIS SITE Development of Sir Jack Lyons Theatre, new recital and concert rooms; removal of previous 1920s venues - Bickerdike Allen and Partners Development of recital rooms and percussion studios 1991/2 Major refurbishment of Duke s Hall, and the canteen area - Bickerdike Allen and Partners Acquisition and development of 1-5 York Gate and Museum (Heritage Lottery Fund grant) - John McAslan and Partners with museum designers Applebaum Associates. Refurbishment of the Sir Jack Lyons Theatre - including seating and a central aisle, new flooring, re-wiring, new pulleys etc 2009 The Void building - John McAslan and Partners; refurbishment of the front hall by Ian Ritchie Architects Feasibility study for a new fly tower for the Sir Jack Lyons Theatre - Ian Ritchie Architects. A NOTE OF HISTORY FROM YORK TERRACE EAST The Royal York Swimming Baths, York Terrace East, Regent¹s Park. Source: The Swimming Baths of London By Dr RE Dudgeon. There are two swimming baths, one for gentlemen, the other for ladies. The gentleman¹s bath is of an irregular shape, about 22 yards long by 7 wide. Depth from 3 to 5 feet. A spring-board at each end. The bath is floored with tiles of a dusky reddish-brown colour, the sides of white bricks. The bathing boxes, 20 in number, very narrow, with half doors, run along the top and down a part of one side. The walls, whitewashed, support a low ridge and furrow ceiling, with dimmed panes of glass let into it. A narrow ledge runs along one side of the bath. Small jets of water run in at one end. At my visit the plaster was peeling off the walls in patches, and green mould was creeping up the walls. This, with the low ceiling, the dim illumination, and the dismal colour of the material of which the bath is constructed, gave a gloomy and uninviting aspect to the place. Still, I am bound to say, the water was clear and pleasant. The ladies¹ bath is smaller, 10 yards by 7. Depth 4 ft 6 in. Lined with white porcelain tiles. Platform and 6 boxes with curtains at one end. The walls, whitewashed, rise up from the bath at the other three sides, and support a not very lofty ridge and furrow ceiling pierced with a few windows. This bath, which is the only one I know of in London exclusively devoted to ladies, deserves attention on that account. It is far from being everything that is desirable, but the water is clear, and there is just room enough to learn swimming. This document is a brief outline only of the Academy s buildings; for further information on the history of the Tenterden Street and Marylebone Road buildings and for building plans, architectural and engineering drawings etc, please contact the Academy s Estates Manager, Peter Smith. The RAM Library holds the official archive for the Academy, which also includes Governing Body and House Minutes, items of which also contain information on past building schemes. Apollo holds further drawings and other items relevant to this subject. Janet Snowman, 2011