Old Parliament House Canberra & museum

Duke and Duchess of York 

opened Parliament House May 1927.    

                                   

The need for a national capital city arose when the colonies united to form the Comm­onwealth of Australia in 1901. The constitution provided that a new national capital should be built half way between Melbourne and Sydney, to avoid jealousy and conflict. The new Australian capital city of Can­berra was fixed in 1908 and the area was formally ceded to the Federal Government in 1911. However the Parliament couldn’t relocate from its interim location, Melbourne, to Can­berra until the new building was ready.

Parliament House was designed by Scottish John Smith Murdoch (1862–1945), the first Common­wealth Government archit­ect in Australia, and a team of assist­ants from the Dept of Works & Railways. The building wasn't int­ended to be permanent or elaborate; rather a provisional building to serve Parliament for 50 years max. It would be a classical building like the Parthenon, but with­out all the ornate details. And it was to look out over Lake Burley Griffin.

Murdoch’s provisional parliament building was to be modest & funct­ional. It was designed on a basic square, which provided the building with regular pro­p­or­t­ions. It was a 3 storey brick building with the principal floor on the middle level. The funct­ional aspect was reflected in all the des­ign, extending to the interior fit­t­ings & furnishings. The faç­ade originally included a grid of recessed openings and balcon­ies, with four bays having arched bronze windows and stepped parapets. The building’s front façade had strong horizontal lines, display­ing only 2 storeys, with higher massed elements behind the faç­ade, indicating the loc­ation of the debating chambers. The lower mass in the centre was where King’s Hall was. As a result, with its now enclosed verandas and colonnades, and strong horiz­ontal lines, the building was not as some people expected a proper Par­liament House to be.

Front entrance

It didn't include cl­assical arch­itectural elements like columns or pedim­ents, but did have the necessary sym­metry. In the end, he had designed what is now considered a significant, nation­ally-listed heritage building with fine classical simplicity, order & proportion. And the design ex­tended from the building to include its gard­ens, dé­cor and furn­ishings.

Murdoch designed both the exterior of the building AND the int­er­iors. He had to integrate all the spaces required of a parliament including: chambers, King’s Hall, party rooms, library, offices, members’ dining rooms and kit­chens. And he designed a distinctive set of furniture that shared the architecture’s design language.

Everything was pre-planned. Old Parliament House was designed in the Strip­ped Classical Style, commonly used for most Aust­ralian government build­ings built in Can­b­erra in the 1920s-30s. It was also recognisable in Murd­och’s other Can­ber­ra buildings eg Hyatt Hotel Canberra and Hotel Kurrajong.

Parliament House and Old Parliament House are the most significant features in the area covered by the National Triangle. Other build­ings key to the design and symmetry of the Triangle are the High Court and the National Gallery near Lake Burley Griffin, and the National Libr­ary.

Note that some of the integrity of Canberran architecture came after John Murdoch persuaded archit­ect Walter Burley Griffin to come to Australia from the USA. He was very busy.

Old Parliament House was the seat of the Parliament of Australia from 1927-88. In the 63 years that the building served, there were changes in the size and nature of the Federal Parliam­ent. During those years, the House of Representatives grew from 76 to 148 members and the Senate from 36 to 76 members. In 1927, only the Speaker of the House, President of the Senate, Prime Minister, Lead­er of the Government in the Senate and ministers had their own offices. But in the next 60 years, great changes took place in Australian social and political life, and democracy matured.

In 1927 the bush landscape in Canberra stood in stark contrast to the estab­lish­ed lush gardens of Parliament House in Melbourne. So throughout the 1930s, gardens were established to the east and west of Old Parliament House, patterned rose and annuals display beds, set in lawns and trees. Located on either side of Old Parliament House today are the rebuilt House of Representatives Garden and the Senate Garden so that when Parliament moved, the old gardens could be opened to the public.

By the 1980s, the building had exceeded its capacity with 3,000 people crowded into a building intended for a few hun­dred. Members and senators had tiny, overcrowded offices. In June 1988, mem­bers sat for the last time after 61 years in the old building, as Parl­iament trans­ferred to the completed New Par­l­iament House on Capital Hill.

Senate chamber

House of Reps chamber

Was King's Hall,

now Museum of Australian Democracy

So the sig­nif­icance of Old Parliament House today lies in its hist­or­ical value. In May 2008 King’s Hall became the Mus­eum of Austral­ian Democracy. It tells the herit­age of the build­ing and the story of Australia’s democracy. During its life as a work­ing parliament, the building was the setting for many of Aus­tral­ia’s major polit­ical events. Debates that influenced the future of the nation took place here, key decisions were taken, pol­itical careers were made and ended.

The Museum of Australian Democracy displays Aust­ralia’s pol­itical heritage. Old Parl­iament House is open daily, for either a guided tour or a self-tour where we can visit nearly all areas of the Old Parliament. See, for example, Kings Hall, House of Representatives Chamber, Prime Ministers Office, Cabinet Room and Senate Chamber.

In 1998 Old Parliament House became home to The National Port­rait Gallery which holds a range of changing exhibitions. And it serves as a venue for lectures and con­certs.

Image credits: Mildenhall images of Old Parliament House

St Louis' epic Union Station Missouri 1894->

Built in 1892-4, this Romanesque Revival project was designed by arch­itect Theodore Link for the Terminal Railroad Associat­ion of St Louis Mo. It was to serve as a Union Station for the multiple railroads that off­ered passenger services back then. The first train pul­led into Union St­ation in Sept 1894, ushering in a new and exciting time for the city, known as The Gateway To The West. Sud­denly it bec­ame a gateway to all of U.S. Over the next few years, Union Station bec­ame one of the largest, busiest passenger rail terminals in the world

                                    

Grand Hall, 1909, 

Wiki

The station saw its highest traffic during the World’s Fairs of 1902-04 and into WW2. At its peak in WW2, the station was a central hub for the country; 2+ million soldiers travelled through the st­ation mon­th­ly. Each day saw 100,000+ people at the station; people like Pres Harry Truman, Joe Di-Maggio, Joan Crawford and St Louis baseballers all came there.         

              

The building con­sists of three sections, those being:
1. The head house is granite-clad with a rough-hewn rusticat­ed base with hipped, gab­l­­ed and conical red terra cotta tile roofs, cylindrical tur­r­ets and a clock tower with an octagonal turret and pyramid-hipped roof. The ar­ch­ed window bays on the 2nd floor and the 3rd floor, Chat­eau­ wall dormers, stone terr­aces with stone railings and metal lampposts along the main entr­ance at the Grand Hall/large waiting room, a large suspend­ed metal canopy at the main ent­rance, and buff brick and brown brick cladding on the rear and side fac­ades. The in­terior originally housed a hotel, lunchroom, tick­et­ing fac­il­ities and offices. 

Grand Hall now, 

Groupon

 

Grand Hall feat­ured a 65’ barrel vaulted ceil­ing with de­cor­ative stencils and plaster work, arches with decorative sc­ulptural reliefs, walls with arched bays, green tile wainscoting, stain­ed gl­ass windows, terazzo floors, marble columns with decorat­ive cap­it­als, and fancy fire­places.The lovely Grand Hall feat­ured an elegant two-ton wrought-iron chand­elier. Inspired by the walled city of Carcassone in Sth France, Link designed an el­egant and modern version of a feudal passageway. The plat­form, surrounded by a much admired steel and glass wall decorated with ornate wrought iron gates, held an ex­citing view of moving trains. The sweeping archway reaches 65’, with fresco and gold leaf detailing, mos­aics and art-glass windows. The Grand Hall recently renovated and rest­ored, the iconic site re-opened with lounge seating and a great bar. And the Grand Hall provides beers, wines, and railroad-themed cocktails.

Just off the Grand Hall was a 75-room hotel serving railroad staff, bus­inessmen and travellers passing through town. Rooms were furn­ished only with a bed, nightstand, water jug and wash-bowl. Guests shared a comm­un­al bathroom on the 1st floor, a quiet relief from the station’s bustle.

2. The large Train Shed, a metal-frame structure with a barrel-vaulted roof, sky lights and roof monitors, orig­inally housed many train plat­forms. Today the train shed houses restaurants and a carou­sel, and central to the entire Union Station project is the str­ik­ing St Louis Aquarium. The 120,000-sq ft attraction exhibits thou­sands of aquatic species from global riv­ers and oceans. It will be cert­ified in the Ass­ociation of Zoos & Aquariums.  

St Louis Aquarium,

opened in Dec 2019

St Louis Post-Dispatch

3. The Midway, between the 2 larger structures, has a metal tr­uss roof with skylights, brick walls, marble floors, foun­tains & bal­conies. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Nat­ional His­t­oric Landmark in 1970.

After a long de­c­line, the last pass­enger train service left in 1978. The building remained empty until 1985, when it was ren­ovated for reuse as a shop­p­ing mall, food court and ho­t­el. To stop the impressive ar­chit­ecture of Union Station being wasted, the building was given a new life.

In Aug 1985, Union Station was reopened, with retail sh­ops, event spaces and rest­aurants where tourists could en­joy St Louis. The stylish, sophisticated Grand Hall features elegant hist­oric touches like the original terrazzo floor, green glazed terrac­otta bricks, st­ain­ed glass windows and wooden carpentry. Among carefully re­stored de­tails, see the hand-crafted design of stained glass window. 3 women are depict­ed in Tiffany glass, representing the expanse of 1890s train travel from New York to St Louis to San Francisco, all linked.

The Train Shed, renovated

Now the hotel has fully re­n­ovated 539 spacious historical and modern suit­es. Many of the rooms acknow­ledge Union Stat­ion’s history with art and décor, depicting rail­road themes. And some suites offer views of the building’s historic side out over Market St. Another major upd­at­e is the restoration of the massive steel train shed. And enjoy a sky view from the neighb­our­ing 200’ St Louis Wheel, the wheel having 42 encl­os­ed gondola­s, each seating 8 adults.

The renewed Union St­ation is surrounded by St Louis’ loveliest att­ractions eg Peabody Opera House, Campbell House Museum, City Museum, Kiener Plaza and Gateway Arch. But the station is a treasure in its own right.

Union Station was the entrance for visitors to St. Louis, from 1894. 

Wiki

40 Objects 40 Years display, Freud Museum

In his essay Civilisation & its Discont­ents 1929, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) had analysed the aggressive cruelty that changed men into sa­vages. Aft­er Hit­ler took power in Germany in 1933, as much as he recog­nised these trends, Freud was reluctant to apply them to Vienna. Even when the Nazis burnt all the books in 1933 by hated authors, including Freud! Yet he supported his sons Oliver (1891–1969) & Ernst (1892–1970), to leave Ber­lin and to move to London in 1933.

I invite you to reread Freud's escape: Nazi Vienna->London 1938. Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Doll­fuss DID ban the Nazi Party in June 1933, but he was assassinated by local Nazis a year later. Even then desperately hoped that Doll­fuss’ succ­ess­or would continue policies of ind­ep­end­ence and basic decency. Why? Freud’s revol­u­t­ionary visions into the uncharted sub­conscious mind SHOULD have prepared him for the dark forces moving ahead.

Anna and dad Sigmund Freud, Vienna, 1920

Freud Museum, London

Sigmund didn't believe that Aus­tria would come under German rule! Yet in 1938 German soldiers were massing on Austria's border, annexing Austria into the 3rd Reich. Many Jews urgently fled to safety, but Freud was 81 and very ill with cancer; and U.K migration quotas remained inflex­ible.

Why had Freud not left Vienna quickly? Because he’d spent his apol­it­­ical life­ claiming that Nazi sturm and drang was mere noise, the outward man­i­festation of messy inner liv­es. Note Hitler appeared on the balcony of Vienna’s imper­ial Hof­­burg Palace to declare the Anschluss in March 1938 i.e absorption of Austria into the 3rd Reich. Vienna was fill­ed with excited Nazi sup­p­orters, thugs looted Jewish shops, damaged synagog­ues and attacked Jews. And ruined Freud’s International Psychoanalytic pub­lish­ing house.

While Freud believed in­sight would return to his be­loved cult­ur­ed Vienna, everyone in Freud’s circle tried to get him to leave. Note these fol­low­ers risked their OWN political capital, personal income and physic­al safety to save him. Anna Freud (1894-1982) had ministered to all her father’s needs while man­aging her own pioneering child psycho-analyst pract­ice. She dealt with the new Nazi overlords who were extort­ing money from notable Jews seeking to emig­rate. But she would never have left her dad. Physician-neurologist Ernest Jones (1879-1958) tire­lessly pro­moted Freud’s ideas in Europe. When he heard the threat to Freud, Jones flew to Vien­na to bend British immigration rules. US’s ambassador to France William Bullitt Jr (1891-1967) had been Freud’s patient in the 1920s. Their friendship devel­oped later, through collaborating on a Pres Wood­row Wilson biography; the U.S even demanded Freud’s safe release. Dr Max Schur was treating Freud’s jaw can­c­er. Schur’s loyalty was clear when he delayed his own family’s exit! 

Marie Bonaparte (1882-1962), grandniece of Napoleon & wife of Prince George of Greece-Denmark, had been Freud’s pat­ient be­fore she too became a psychoanalyst. She rushed to Vienna, paying the Nazis for Freud’s huge flight tax.

The refugees boarded the Orient Express in June 1938, 3 months after Hitler annexed Austria, and they noted that tension inten­sified as the train rolled through Ger­many via Munich and Dachau. At 3AM the train reached the border where the Ger­man bor­der guards glan­ced at his docum­ents, then into France with Bonaparte, then continuing to London.

Freud's four sisters in Vienna 1941

Holocaust Historical Society

Of Freud’s children, Anna and Martin had been taken by the Gestapo, but lived. Freud’s 4 sisters Rosa, Marie, Pauline & Adolfine stayed and were exterm­inated.

Freud's home in Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead

Later the Freud Museum

Note the Blue Heritage Plaques

The remaining Freuds moving to London, in Maresfield Gardens Hampstead in July. They brought their belongings, AND an amazing intellectual world. Freud spent the last year of his life with the objects that shaped his views about mental health. His London study has been preserved just as he left it, including thousands of books. And he avidly collected 2,500 Egyptian, Greek & Roman figures, & Asian artefacts that showed his interest in ancient life.

In London Freud was too ill to work and died with a year. Anna, a pioneering child psychologist, continued to live there until her death in 1982. According to her wishes, it opened as a permanent Museum in July 1986, with the entire contents of her father’s study and library left intact. So let’s visit Freud’s home-museum in London this year.

Freud's psychoanalytic couch surrounded by his books and art objects

Freud Museum

 

Freud’s couch from Vienna came in 1938 because it had been the centre of his psycho-analysis practice, blurring the line between work and home. Thus the couch had been essential in recreating end-of-century atmosphere Vienna, remaining in Freud’s study in the London Museum today. And explore the amazing books and collectibles next to the couch.

The exhibition, Protected: 40 Objects 40 Years, displays the life & work of the great Freud family marking the Museum’s 40th anniversary. Novelist Esther Freud and others from the world of culture & psychoanalysis have chosen objects from Museum archives to celebrate the event. These objects tell the story of the Museum, the history of psychoanalysis and of exiled family life. Esther Freud chose a young letter from her dad-artist Lucian Freud (Sigmund’s grandson), who wrote to his parents (Ernst Freud & Lucie Brasch) whilst he was away at English boarding school. Some of the artefacts were hidden from sight in the museum’s attic and are being shown for the first time in a collection curated by Briony Davis. One of the pieces on display is a metal porcupine, a momento of Freud’s trip to the USA in 1909, picked as a reflection on confusions of intimacy. See animal figures in relief, chosen by Neuberger, who was fascinated to find such an item in Freud’s personal collection.

One wall of Freud's library

Freud Museum, London

 

See a C13th copper Chanukah lamp, featuring a Hebrew inscription about light from Proverbs. The psychoanalyst was famously ambivalent about his Jewish heritage so this lamp was probably never lit by him; rather it was and appreciated as a cultural and historical artefact, not religious.

 

Chanukah lamp with 3 animal medals and Hebrew letters in relief

13th century, Northern France or Germany

The Freud Museum London

Following Freud’s own vision, the Museum Director’s aim was to create chances for everyone to learn about and from psychoanalysis. They urged the cultural commentators to be wide-ranging in their choices, about the past of course and also about the contemporary relevance of their chosen object. Other objects on display include a battered leather suitcase belonging to the Freuds’ live-in maid Paula Fichtel and the hand-written recipe book belonging to Freud’s wife Martha for Viennese apple strudel etc. And see Anna’s sewing machine and her patterns for cardigans, plus her embroidery and lacework. She saw weaving and embroidery invaluable crafts, alongside the serious work of psychoanalysis.

The exhibition is presenting lectures and tours in the anniversary year, and they are also building the Freuds’ beloved garden into a mental health refuge.

 

Captain Eric Ravilious, WW2 art

London-born Eric Ravilious (1903-42) spent his early years in Eastbourne E. Sussex and won a scholarship to attend the Eastbourne School of Art in 1919. Later he enrolled at Royal College of Art London where he studied under Paul Nash, a War Artist in WW1. Later Ravilious worked as a painter, book illustrator and Wedgwood pottery designer.

With war starting in 1939, he joined the Royal Observer Corps based in Castle Hedingham Essex. Ravilious was one of the first official War Artists to be appointed by War Artists Advisory Committee-WAAC in Dec 1939, and in 1940 as a Captain. Established by the Ministry of Information, WAAC was a government body commissioning artists to record WW2 events. From 1940-2, Ravilious produced dramatic water colours & drawings of ships, aircraft and coastal defences, 50 of them now in the Imperial War Museums/IWM. 

A warship in dock, 1940

In Feb 1940, Ravilious was posted to Chatham Dockyard Kent to document the naval barracks’ factories & buildings. In A Warship in Dock 1940, Ravilious showed the bow of a destroyer in a flooded dry dock, tied down with many ropes. A man on deck holds one of the ropes while three other men board the ship via a gang-way on the port side. Shown from ground level, the warship looks menacing with angular marine camouflage and intimidating colossal scale. In the background there were many structures eg a ship crane and a factory with a smoking chimney. Despite the scene’s calming water in the flooded dock and vivid blue of the sky overhead, they were preparing for a country at war.

After Germany invaded Norway in Ap 1940, seizing Oslo and the main ports, the Allied forces tried to counter-attack on land but were under-equipped and out-numbered. In May troop evacuation from the Narvik port, Operation Alphabet, was authorised. Aircraft carriers HMS Glorious and HMS Ark Royal left Scapa Flow in Scotland in late May to assist with the withdrawal, escorted by 5 destroyers.

Ravilious was aboard HMS Highlander where the carrier’s dazzling camouflage was mimicked in the sea under the Arctic light. RAF Hurricanes from 2 squadrons flew around, riskily preparing to land on the deck of HMS Glorious, evacuated from the Norwegian Air Station. Next day HMS Glorious returned to Scapa Flow but was attacked by German battleships and sunk. 1,500+ souls tragically died.

Coastal Defences, 1940

The artist travelled to E.Newhaven Sussex in late 1940, to paint coastal defences. The port was targeted in Operation Sea Lion, a planned invasion of Britain by German forces, and needed heavy fortific-ation. In this scene, he depicted the semi-circular curve of the Coastline Defences 1940 in dark greens and blues, colours repeated in the sea and sky. In contrast, the searchlight was stark white, cutting through the night sky looking for enemy aircraft. See a row of boats speeding out to sea at the centre of the scene, leaving a stream of white as they moved in the water. The constant threat to Newhaven from above and below was clear.

He showed the moment a 9.2” naval gun fired from Dover's front port, a portrayal of spectacle and awe. A group of 5 artillerymen were shown as ghost-like figures, compared to the luscious greens of the front landscape. Ravilious spent mid 1941 in Dover before moving to Dundee Scotland.

Ravilious arrived at the Royal Naval Air Station/RNAS in Dundee in autumn 1941 and was quickly interested in the Supermarine Walrus seaplane. In this scene, 3 Walrus aircraft were floating on the river outside the station’s sick bay. The artist showed the interior which was not overly comfortable; just for convalescence. But the blue and white bedding with anchor motif conveyed a sense of homeliness in this stark environment. During his time at the RNAS, the pilots allowed Ravilious to fly in the air craft. After he successfully transferred from the Admiralty to the RAF.

De-Icing Aircraft, 1942

In March 1942 Ravilious was based at RAF Clifton airfield in York. He enjoyed flying over the city, observing York Minster from above and spotting abbeys and ruins. In De-Icing Aircraft 1942, Ravilious showed the airfield under endless snow. Men were scraping the ice layers from the wing of a de Havilland Dragon Rapide, a twin-engine biplane used for training purposes. Each engine had a fitted cover, protecting against harsh temperatures. And see another plane’s tail also covered in ice & snow, waiting to be fixed by the crew.

5 Spitfires at Sawbridgeworth, 1942.

In Mar 1942, Eric Ravilious’ wife and fellow artist Tirzah Garwood developed serious health problems, returning towards home. He went to RAF Sawbridgeworth Airfield Herts which was relatively close to their family home. Despite his terrible living conditions, Ravilious enjoyed painting everyday life on the airfield in early 1942, including aircraft in flight, never using oil paints in the war. Ravilious depicted Five Spitfires at Sawbridgeworth, 1942 at the base, but Spitfires were not at the site then.

Operation Room, 1942

Operations Room 1942 was a key war painting, acquired by IWM decades later. The watercolour depicted the interior of the airfield’s mobile operations room. It is decorated with light yellows and blue-greens, synonymous with functional WW2 buildings. Relaxing colour palettes were selected to be easy for workers inside for long periods. Large windows enabled a panoramic view of the airfield and a sector clock hung on the wall helped track air craft movements. There was no human in The Operations Room but human activity was detected; pinned notices under the clock, writing pen and ink on one table, and a blue reference folder on the other. Interestingly while at Sawbridgeworth, Ravilious wrote to his wife Tirzah in May 1942 stating “the weather gets finer all the time but I’m bored of pictures of planes on the ground and want to go flying.”

Ravilious soon flew to Reykjavik, driving to the RAF Kaldadarnes Airfield in Sept. From there he & 4 airmen flew on a rescue mission in a Lockheed Hudson and were lost off the Icelandic coast. Because his body wasn’t recovered, he had no grave; instead he was honoured at Chatham Navel Memorial Kent (above). Ravilious was one of three War Artists who died when his plane crashed, at 39. 

Thank you to the Imperial War Museum for the artworks and to the BBC for history.