The Venetian Parlour is the Lord Mayor’s office; for a non-political and largely ceremonial appointment, the position still generates prodigious levels of paperwork, as seen in the desk trays.
Mansion House is the residence of the Lord Mayor of London and family during his or her year of office, and is also the Lord Mayor’s place of work and official entertaining. It was completed in 1752, and has been described as one of the finest Georgian buildings in London. Situated close to the centre of the City of London, it is best known for hosting the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s annual Mansion House Speech, reporting on the British economy. Its fine array of rooms were refurbished and restored in the 1990s.
The Venetian Parlour is the Lord Mayor’s office; for a non-political and largely ceremonial appointment, the position still generates prodigious levels of paperwork, as seen in the desk trays.
The formal rooms include the Venetian Parlour, which is the Mayor’s office, the Egyptian Hall Ballroom, Long Parlour and drawing rooms and state bedrooms. On the ground floor, the gold and silver vaults contain gifts presented to Lord Mayors and valuable pieces acquired by the Corporation. There was once a Justice Room, where the Lord Mayor, serving in the role of Chief Magistrate of the City, heard criminal cases. This is now called the Esquires’ Office, and the cells in the basement are now wine cellars.
The Lord Mayor’s sword dates from the mid-seventeenth century, and the mace from 1735.
Originally, there had been no official residence, each Lord Mayor working from his own home or lodging in his livery company hall or Guildhall. The need to house the Mayor was raised after the Great Fire of London, reflecting a growing sense of power and prestige in London. Architect George Dance gave the building an impressive silhouette in the English Palladian style, which was becoming extremely fashionable in the early 1700s. The site chosen was a former produce market at the junction of several thoroughfares, opposite the new Bank of England.
The Mansion House has never been immune to change, and has been remodelled in several places, losing and gaining floors, galleries, staircases and window openings over time. Two vast clerestory attics were both soon demolished, and one of its main original features, a central courtyard, lasted for less than fifty years before it was roofed over to create an enclosed saloon. This roof was replaced in 1862, but over the years rot, beetle infestation and fire damage took its toll and in the 1990s a stronger timber and steel roof with central glazing replaced it. If the Mansion House frontage today seems to be separated from the rushing traffic of Bank Place by only a meagre margin, that is because half of its approach steps and a whole front courtyard were swept away for road widening 180 years ago. Although it escaped a direct hit during the Blitz, Bank Underground station close by took a devastating hit and the resulting blast damage to Mansion House was repaired in 1948.
The north state bedroom, with a recreation of the domed bed of 1824. Dragons at the corners hold the arms of the City of London.
Despite extensive work carried out in 1931, it was clear by the end of the 1980s that a fresh start was needed for the Mansion House. Some of the original furniture had gone, decorations had deteriorated and certain carvings were found to have fifty layers of paint, which explained the softening of their outline. An extensive restoration carried out between 1991 and 1993 aimed to recreate the eighteenth-century Regency period, by assembling and sometimes remaking suites of period furniture and fabrics for the room settings. Surface finishes on doors, ceilings and walls were remade after research into the originals. Displayed throughout are paintings and sculpture, including pictures from the Samuel Collection of important Dutch paintings 1600s, bequeathed in 1987.
Out of sight, Mansion House includes a series of structural bracing tie-bars which were built into its walls and floors across all levels during the restoration. At the same time a massive steel frame was fitted behind the colonnade, also coupled to tie-bars. Mansion House had been found to be settling, with its east and west walls sagging, and the movement was increasing. The cause was the tangle of underground rail lines which had existed close below for more than a century, and which were about to be joined by the deep tunnels of the Docklands Light Railway. London Regional Transport authority was persuaded to change the planned direction of some of the linking passageways, and the new pedestrian tunnel between the Waterloo & City line and the DLR was dug with minimal disturbance, largely by hand. The reinforcement and bracing measures adopted in Mansion House are almost impossible for a visitor to spot.
The Mansion House has its share of legends, one of the most persistent of which is that Emmeline Pankhurst, political activist and suffragette leader, was once imprisoned in a cell in the basement, although it is more likely that it was her daughter Sylvia, tried for publishing seditious material in 1920, who was briefly remanded here.
An intriguing object held in the vault is a ‘collar of esses’, reputedly once belonging to Sir Thomas More, bequeathed in 1535. It was worn for centuries as a ceremonial collar by successive Lord Mayors. Today a replica is worn.
The gold and silver vault on the ground floor house pieces given as gifts to Lord Mayors, including the original collar of esses, visible to the right, and the ‘Fire Cup’ of 1662, the only Corporation piece surviving intact dating from before the Great Fire.