Inigo Jones and the Queen’s House at Greenwich
Bev Miles

Despite regimes that would seem to us unbelievably repressive, Elizabethan and Jacobean England seems to have afforded space for larger-than-life characters whose lives and works scintillate down the centuries. Sir Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Sir Francis Drake, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Walter Ralegh have all left their marks. Another of this company was Inigo Jones (1573–1652), the first noteable British architect in the days when architects were also artists, civil engineers, builders, handymen, stage designers, and more.

Some of the more lasting monuments to Jones’ architectural genius are the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall, the Queen’s House at Greenwich, and parts of Wilton House in Salisbury. [PICTURE 1] The Queen for whom Jones designed the house was Anne of Denmark, consort of James I, but she died before it was finished, and it was enjoyed after its completion in 1635 by Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I.

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Image above right:
PICTURE 5 Reproduced under the GNU Free Documentation Licence.
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/TulipStair_QueensHouse_Greenwich.jpg

The Queen’s House is stunning, both inside and out. Jones designed it according to the principles of the Italian Palladio, which Jones introduced into England after travelling and studying on the Continent. Palladianism is all about proportion, relation and balance. [PICTURE 2] The proportions of the rusticated ground floor and the first floor are satisfying and do not break the façade in half vertically. The window left and right of the central doorway are symmetrical, but the advanced section with the balcony in the centre again makes it impossible to break the building in half

The right angles of the south façade are moderated by the curves of the external staircases from the basement level. [PICTURE 3] The stone balustrade against the sky provides a transitional zone between building and sky that is both building and sky.

Arguably the most spectacular part of the Queen’s House is the helical staircase known as the Tulip Stair from the pattern of tulips (extremely fashionable in the seventeenth century) on the wrought iron balustrading. [PICTURE 4] A helical staircase ascends in circles or ellipses, but differs from a spiral staircase in not being mounted around a single central pole providing central support. The steps of the Tulip Stair are supported at the outside, cantilevered from the wall of the circular stairwell (and each step gaining some extra support from the step below). This was the first staircase built in England without central support. The effect is light, airy and beautiful, and the Queen’s House has a circular lantern (a kind of skylight) above the stairwell, illuminating and etherealising the staircase. [PICTURE 5]

PICTURE 1
Reproduced under the GNU Free Documentation Licence.
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Queen%27s_house_from_the_South.jpg

PICTURE 2
In the public domain.
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Queen%27s_House_Vit_Brit_edited.jpg


PICTURE 3
© Bill Bertram 2006, CC-BY-2.5
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Queens_House.jpg



PICTURE 4
In the public domain.
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Queen%27s_House_plan.jpg

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