- 232
James Bunstone Bunning fl.1819-1848
Description
- James Bunstone Bunning
- The New Coal Exchange, St Mary-at-Hill, Lower Thames Street, London
- inscribed on original label attached to the backboard: Interior of The New Coal Exchange/now erecting in Lower Thames Street/for the Corporation of the City of/London by their Architect/J S Bunning F.S.A.
- watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour, arched top
Exhibited
Catalogue Note
The Coal Exchange in Lower Thames Street was one of the earliest cast iron buildings in London and was opened to great acclaim by Prince Albert. The fine rotunda and the adjacent one hundred foot tower were designed by James Bunstone Bunning and decorated by Frederick Sang in 1847-9. The floor of the exchange was made of wood inlaid in the shape of a mariner's compass. Auctioneers calculated the arrival of coal shipments with the help of an elaborate wind dial. Three tiers of balconies with dealers offices rose up above the floor and it was roofed by a glass dome. Despite great protest, the building was demolished in the 1960's and the present watercolour, therefore, provides an important historical record of the appearance of the interior of the Coal Exchange in the 1840's.
Although this watercolour was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1848 as being by the architect, James Bunstone Bunning, it is possible that it was done in collaboration with the artist George Scharf (1788-1860). The rounded figures compare closely to those in many of Scharf's drawings, particularly the 'London types' illustrated in an album in the British Museum (1862-6-14/1900-7-25).
A drawing by Bunning of the City of London School is also known to exist, as a coloured lithograph of the subject was with Sabin in 1938