Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM), Exeter, Devon

Dan Cruickshank, the British art historian and BBC tv presenter whose special interest is architectural history, had this to say of RAMM...

"An exquisite jewel box of a building; a Venetian casket. One of the most appealing treasures in Britain."
—Dan Cruickshank, 2006. 

I couldn't agree more, although it's the features that appeal to me a lot more than the overall box, as it were. Unfortunately, I don't have any interior photos, apart from a couple of black & whites, but that's something I can do in a part two when I'm able to visit and take some more.

Built specifically as a museum in memory of Prince Albert, who died in 1861, a fund was begun later that same year and the foundation stone was laid in 1865. The architect, John Haywood - who also designed St Luke's College - won the competition to design RAMM. Interestingly, carvings were produced by Harry Hems, a well-known Exeter church restorer, whose work can be seen on Beer Cemetery Chapel.

 

The original architectural design included a central tower but instead was replaced by a gable and rose window, seen above...just about! The busy road behind me was too dangerous to step back into so I couldn't get a proper view of the gable. It can be seen on the photo at the top of the page, above the central entrance, but not a close-up unfortunately.

Originally called The Devon and Exeter Albert Memorial, the title of Royal Albert Memorial was later granted when extensions were opened by the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Queen Mary) in 1898.

Comprising museum, art gallery, public library and reading room, it also contained the school of art and school of science. The two schools were later moved into a building behind the museum in Bradninch Place - built in 1910 - as part of the University College of the South West, which was the beginnings of the University of Exeter. Meanwhile, the library also transferred to its own building and the school of art also moved and became the Exeter College of Art and Design, then the University of Plymouth's Faculty of Art & Education. 

A beautiful Venetian Gothic style, I was most surprised to find that its status as a Listed Building is only Grade II...and not even with a star! 

Several types of stone were used in its construction, including purple-reddish Pocombe trapstone banded with limestone for most of the walls. It's deliciously attractive.

Delightful trefoils and cinquefoils adorn the tympanums above the entrance windows, with red sandstone from Bishop's Lydeard and pale Bath stone banding surrounding the arch, and red sandstone for the pilasters below.   

Pink Aberdeen granite was used for the entrance columns, seen below left, and Chudleigh limestone for the entrance piers, below right.

Lovely carvings by Harry Hems and his studio adorn the pilasters, piers and columns seen above and one from the side of the building, below.

This side is on the left of Upper Paul Street and I was so enamoured by it that I took rather a lot more photos than anything else.

RAMM has many varied collections - Antiquities, Decorative Art, Fine Art, Ethnography, Natural Sciences, Numismatics, Costume & Textiles and Local History, as well as specific collections within these categories - and it contains over 1,500,000 objects. However, like icebergs, the vast amount is in storage and only the tip is on display at any one time.

Round about or just after the year 2000 I did some volunteer work in the Ethnology department, going in once a week for the day and drawing artefacts  for their records. At that time drawings were better than photographs because they could be rendered with all the details, cutting out any shadows or loss of pattern from curves or softened through use. Nowadays, however, a good digital camera has the ability to do that. 

As part of the training for handling artefacts I was shown the basement where those not on display were stored. The Assistant Curator also pointed out some boxes high upon a top shelf and told me that they contained items used by the Inuit peoples. They were tools deemed to be Man Magic, to be seen by men only, and she asked me not to look into them out of respect for the Inuit beliefs. Even though she was a curator, as a woman it was something she also respected. They didn't have any Woman Magic items but if they did the same rule would apply to her male colleagues.

I thought that was really cool and no, I never looked, as that would destroy the wonder of something magical, and to me it's even cooler to keep the belief going by respecting it. Oddly enough, I discovered many years later through DNA testing that I have an archaic match with Greenland Inuit, along with a lot of other fascinating ancestry...but that's another story, lol.

As well as a permanent art collection there are temporary exhibitions held in the art gallery every few months or so. Named UK's 'Museum of the Year' in 2012 by The Art Fund charity, it also serves as a hub museum under the Renaissance Programme...which I have tried to find out about but seems to be shrouded in gobbledygook. I would say that you need to have a degree in the arts to understand but I've got one of those* and it still doesn't make much sense. Maybe I'm just out of practice!

*At Plymouth University's Faculty of Art in Exeter, no less!

Finally, a rather endearing trait in some grand buildings is how things look so radically different at the rear, which most people don't see. In this case the photo below shows how the extension frontage is literally only a front, whereas part of the actual building is much plainer than the rest.

And there we have it! I haven't put all the photos in as there are a lot of the same views. The one above also shows the Phoenix, which is behind the museum, seen on the far right. That's another article I'm working on so that'll be coming up soon. :)

 

 

Cathedral Close, Exeter, Devon

Comprising two streets circumventing the cathedral green, Cathedral Close runs along the east side and Cathedral Yard to the north. As there is rather a lot to get through, I'm splitting the streets into two separate articles. 

Cathedral Close was once an essential part of the Cathedral, housing various members of the clergy and cathedral activities. Apart from number 10, which still belongs to the cathedral, their history has since run along separate and interesting paths. 

Starting at the eastern entrance to the lane that leads to Cathedral Close, above and below, is the delightful 'Mayor's Bridge'. Built in 1814, it enables the mayor to walk along the top of the city walls during the annual treading of the civic boundaries, without having to descend from one side and ascend again on the other. This delicate iron footbridge is a Grade II* Listed Building.

The photos were taken at different times and with different film but as I like both - and as I don't have all the places photographed with both - I've decided to use a mix of the two. Just in case anyone wondered! ;)

Exeter is one of a small handful of cities in which the cathedral holds its own 'state within a state', a little like the vatican in Rome...albeit on a much smaller scale!

There was always an uneasy alliance between the cathedral and civic authorities, as attested to by some of the delightful stories from the Mediaeval church rolls. In one account, the city men chased a felon into the sanctity of the cathedral itself during a service, whereupon the large body of clergy immediately rose up, drew cudgels and short swords out from beneath their seats, and set upon the trespassers.

Studs can be seen set into the ground along Cathedral Yard and entrances - to show where the cathedral boundaries lie - and during certain occasions chains are drawn across street bollards to prevent access. However, relations with the civic dignitaries are much better these days and the clergy no longer brandish weapons at them! ;)

The little lane leading from Southernhay to Cathedral Close is called the New Cut. At the start of a close that contains Grade I & Grade II* Listed buildings, even the entrance gates have a Grade II listing! The cast iron, spear headed gates and railings are from the mid 19th century.

The next three photos show two buildings on the left side. As the other buildings stop at numbers 12 & 13, and there are listings for 14, 15 & 15A, I think these on the left must belong to No 14. Having seen a photo of 15 & 15A, a much larger and fancier building, it's probably around the corner somewhere, although I don't recall seeing it.

The rest are on the right, opposite the cathedral and running alongside the lovely cathedral green.

The first buildings from this end are numbers 12 and 13, which share a frontage.

 

This building fits in so beautifully with the others that it looks as if it was built at the same time. Unfortunately, all but the stone arch surrounding the door was destroyed during the Beidecker Blitz of WWII in 1942. Originally a gatehouse to the building behind, it was reconstructed in 1953 with local Heavitree Stone - a red sandstone from Heavitree, which is on the eastern outskirts of the city - and over the years has blended in perfectly as it weathered.

Another massive and yet far more ornate door belongs to Number 10, seen below. Made from Devon Oak, it was one of several produced for the city. The coat of arms on the wall above belonged to Bishop William Cotton (1597-1621).

Dated from about 1500, the house still belongs to and has been used by the Cathedral since it was built. The door leads into a courtyard with a wicket gate inserted for easy pedestrian access. It also includes the frontage of number eleven, accessed from the courtyard inside.

It's so impressive that whenever I see another great door I would love to do a 'Crocodile Dundee', whip out a photo of this door and say 'Call that a door? This is a door!' ;)

 

The next block along comprises numbers 8, 9 and 9a, which is a Grade I listed Building.  Once one building it was a courtyard house for Cathedral Canons. Later on the building was separated into the three properties.

Number 8, circa 1450, has no frontage but is only accessed through an arched gateway and an open passage to a Grade I two-storey hall containing the Law Library and a Grade II* Notaries House. Distinctive by its course Heavitree Stone below with black & white timbering above, the top storey juts out over the ground floor, supported on curved oak brackets resting on stone corbels. The gateway entrance is of Beer Stone from the quarry just above Beer village.

Number 7 Cathedral Close now houses the Devon & Exeter Institution, which is a members only society dedicated to preserving books and documents about Exeter as well as promoting the arts and science in the south-west.

Originally a gatehouse to the building behind, this fabulous Grade II* building was altered circa 1814 - after being sold to the Devon and Exeter Institution - to form the top storey with its four windows and strip of half-timbering with painted sundial above and roof cupola. The lovely arched doorway encompasses a fanlight and slender side windows.  

 

I love seeing how buildings have evolved and changed during successive eras of fashion, especially when there are still remains of the former style in evidence. The two adjoining buildings, below, shows a 'mirror image' ghost of an arch on the left one, which was blocked and Georgian sash windows were added.

That one, number 6, was originally the sub Deanery to the cathedral, being a part of the Annuellar's College. Altered circa 18th century, this is another Grade II* building. The sash windows are an absolute delight with their unequal panes.

Number 5 was also originally part of the extensive Annuellars College site and is a Grade I listed building. I don't have a close-up photo of it, but you can see it in the photo below, next to the black and white buildings. One of its more famous encumbents was Charlotte Treadwin, a lace maker and designer, where she lived with her workshop and showrooms for around fifty years.

Again, no close-ups of numbers two, three and four, but they can be partially seen above on the left. They are all Grade II* listed buildings and form a group with Mol's Coffee House (No I next door). All timber framed buildings, circa 17th century or earlier, they were altered later and have late 18th or early 19th century shop fronts on the ground floor.

Which brings us to Mol's Coffee House, above and below, which is probably one of the most photographed buildings in Exeter. Dated 1596, it was originally part of the cathedral building built in 1528 to house the Annuellars. The front facade was added much later circa 19th century, as was the top storey gallery together with the curly gable - curly being the actual description in the listing and not one of my own terms!  

The pointy gable of the building on the right, seen below, belongs to number two - pointy being my own term this time, as it's really called a pitched roof! ;)

Mol's was supposedly the haunt of Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh, among other Elizabethan seafarers, but this may be apocryphal and something that Mol, the Italian owner, may have put about to make his establishment more appealing.

There's a fair bit of history and speculation about this amazing building but I'll leave it for now and I might write a separate article another time. More photos to get first!

Next to Mol's is St Martin's Church, consecrated in 1065. I'll be writing more about this in a separate article too, once I've visited to look inside and take more photos. Meanwhile, the only ones I have are these B&W film photos circa 1991, when I was studying a module of City & Guilds Photography.

And some street musicians. :)

Although not in Cathedral Close I also want to include photos of The Ship Inn which is just around the corner in Martin Lane, plus the two buildings fronting it in Catherine Street. Reputedly another favourite haunt of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake and other swashbuckling notables of the day, it was built circa the 15th century then heavily rebuilt and refurbished in the 19th. There's a rather nice carved overhanging timber front but I couldn't get a decent close-up of it at the time.

Near the corner of Cathedral Green, where the Close and Yard meet, is the statue of Richard Hooker. Born in 1554 in Heavitree on the eastern outskirts of Exeter, he was an influential theologian who helped to develop, and was a founder of, the Church of England.

There he is below...complete with seagull!

Which takes us to the Cathedral Yard, which I'll be writing about in a separate article. Coming up next if I can get to Exeter for more photos soon, but if not I'll finish something else first. Cheers. :)