4. The Swan Hotel, Embankment
Detail of one of the two pairs of Ionic columns flanking the main entrance to this elegant 18th century hotel - built in 1794 for the 5th Duke of Bedford, and which houses a magnificent wooden staircase originally part of the now ruined Houghton House, near Ampthill (and believed to be the original for the "House Beautiful" in Bunyan's Pigrims Progress.
The column capitals are accurate, as in the entablature above; and the stone columns themselves are slim and elegant - though not fluted alas. |
