The Bank of England: Soane, Baker and the Most Controversial Building of the 20th Century
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The Bank of England: Soane, Baker and the Most Controversial Building of the 20th Century
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2025 celebrates the rebuilding of the Bank of England by Sir Herbert Baker – if celebrate is the right word. It remains one of the most controversial projects in 20th century architecture. Baker’s name has been irredeemably blackened for his presumption in destroying the Bank of England created by Sir John Soane a century before. Clive and John revive the debate, describing the history of this great symbol of British finance and might, asking whether Baker has had a fair press.
While Soane’s vanished interiors were a masterpiece, the financial operations of the British state had hugely expanded during the First World War. Baker admired Soane but what was he to do? The options were not favourable to conservation. Baker was himself a Classicist and saw himself as speaking the same language as Soane. Moreover, although a man of Empire, he was also – paradoxically perhaps – deeply committed to the Arts and Crafts Movement. His Bank of England became one of the greatest commissions for sculpture and the decorative arts of its time.
Baker’s reputation was blackened by his erstwhile friend Lutyens, with whom he fell over over New Delhi. Is now the time to redeem it?