HJ final version.pdf (11.19 MB)
The Preservation of Crosby Hall, c. 1830-1850
journal contribution
posted on 2015-12-03, 13:36 authored by Rosemary H. SweetThis article offers a case study of an early preservation campaign to save the remains of the fifteenth-century
Crosby Hall in Bishopsgate, London, threatened with demolition in 1830, in a period before the emergence of
national bodies dedicated to the preservation of historic monuments. It is an unusual and early example of a
successful campaign to save a secular building. The reasons why the Hall’s fate attracted the interest of
antiquaries, architects and campaigners are analysed in the context of the emergence of historical awareness
of the domestic architecture of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as well as wider recognition of the
importance of this period for the development in Britain’s urban and commercial development. The Hall’s
associations with Richard III and other historic figures, including Thomas More and Thomas Gresham, are
shown to have been particularly important in generating wider public interest, thereby allowing the
campaigners to articulate the importance of the Hall in national terms. The history of Crosby Hall illuminates
how a discourse of national heritage emerged from the inherited tradition of eighteenth-century
antiquarianism and highlights the importance of the social, professional and familial networks that sustained
proactive attempts to preserve the nation’s monuments and antiquities.
History
Citation
Historical Journal, 2016Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/School of HistoryVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)