The Old Admiralty and The Admiralty Screen, London
- Address: Whitehall Sw1
The Old Admiralty
The Old Admiralty is a U-shaped building with a portico constructed of brown brick and Portland stone dressings. The three storey edifice is a clumsy classical design, hovering between the Baroque and the Palladian, with a cramped giant portico. Built originally as a home for the Lord of the Admiralty with a board room and a few offices. The interior of Ripley's Admiralty (Old Admiralty) retains a number of good interiors, including an entrance hall with coupled pilasters and central niche containing a nearly life size model of the statue on Nelson's column by Baily and a vaulted corridor behind hall (repeated on 1st floor) with plasterwork panels rather in Vanbrugh manner. The staircase at the south end features stone steps and a wrought iron balustrade, lit by a glazed oval dome of 1785-1787. Next door, the Board Room at the south end has a reset panelled interior probably from the previous Admiralty building built in 1695. The panels feature carved fluted Corinthian pilasters supporting a carved entablature. A marble chimney piece has a windcompass overmantel of c 1695, probably by Robert Norden. iT IS Framed with carved pendant trophies and garlands with nautical instrument motifs probably by Grinling Gibbons. The coved plasterwork ceiling is from of 1789. - AsNotedIn
The Admiralty Screen
The Admiralty Screen is constructed of Portland stone with a severely Roman facade. The central carriage archway is framed by pylon-piers with parapets surmounted by sea horses and flanking screens of Tuscan columns. The pediments containing carved reliefs of man o' war prows in the Roman rostral manner. - AsNotedIn