Lot 61: John Pollard Seddon (1827-1906)

Design for the Monumental Halls one signed and dated 'John P Seddon...' (lower right), one indistinctly signed 'John P Se[ddon]' (lower right) pencil and watercolour, one heightened with white 13 x 18 in. (33 x 48 cm.) and 17 7/8 x 12 in. (45.4 x 30.5 cm.) (3) NOTES A campaign for a valhalla, a building in which Britain's dead heroes and statesmen could be honoured, was waged through the 19th century. The building traditionally fulfilling the function was Westminster Abbey. In 1890 a Royal Commission was appointed to examine the problem of lack of space in the Abbey. Solutions by J.L. Pearson, Somers Clarke, E.J. Tarver and J.P. Seddon were examined, however the government failed to act. E.B. Lamb exhibited a proposed National Monument to British Heroes at the Royal Academy, 1901, no. 1664. On seeing it Seddon joined with him to produce the most ambitious of all schemes, The Imperial Monumental Halls and Tower. The dominating feature would have been its great tower, 550 ft. tall, 100 ft. higher than Parliament's Victoria Tower. Two of the present drawings are from the river, looking West and seem to show how the Halls and Tower would blend in with the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The other view looks North West from the Chartered Gas Company's Wharf towards the South End of the Houses of Parliament and may well have been designed for the same effect. Four of the finished perspectives executed by John Gaye are in the RIBA, London.