Rotunda, Woolwich

Uncoloured lithograph after a drawing by William Ranwell,

Published by R. Rixon, Library, Woolwich, circa 1860.

Image size: 1 7/8" x 6 1/8” plus small margins. Framed size: 11 3/4” x 8 5/8” x 12 1/4".

Good, clean condition throughout. Ink outline to margins.

A scarce view by William Ranwell, RA (1797-1861), artist and Army Drawing Master who resided at 8 Beresford Terrace (now 42 Hillreach), Woolwich between 1849 and 1861. Richard Rixson's library and bookshop was situated in nearby Beresford Square.

The Rotunda, designed by the Prince Regent's architect John Nash, was originally a temporary structure erected in St James's Park in 1814. It was removed to Woolwich Common, where its tented form was retained and rebuilt in the more permanent materials of brick and lead, and opened as an artillery museum in 1820. In 2001, most of its exhibits were removed to the Firepower exhibition in Woolwich Arsenal, and it was closed to the public. Probably the jolliest architectural curiosity in the borough, The Rotunda now stands in a sad state of repair, shamefully neglected and facing an uncertain future.

£175.00 Mounted and framed.