§ 2. The Rotunda
The guide-books abound with architectural details of the Ranelagh Rotunda.[217] A sufficient idea of its general appearance may be gained by glancing at some of the contemporary prints and by noticing a few salient features. Writers of the time compare it to “the Pantheon at Rome”: the Londoner of to-day will think rather of the British Museum Reading Room which it resembled in size and, to some extent, in general appearance. The circumference was 555 feet and the internal diameter 150 feet. It was entered by four Doric porticoes opposite one another, and the interior architecture corresponded with the exterior.
On the exterior was an arcade encircling the building, and above this arcade was a gallery reached by steps placed at the porticoes.
In the interior was a circle of fifty-two[218] boxes, separated by wainscotting. Each box had its “droll painting” and its bell-lamp with candles; and in each seven or eight people could be accommodated with refreshments. Benches covered with red baize were dispersed about the area, and the plaster floor was covered with matting.
Above the circle of boxes was a gallery containing a similar range of boxes which were entered by folding-doors from the gallery outside the building. The Rotunda was lighted by sixty windows, and the chief material used in its construction was wood.
The ceiling was painted an olive colour, with a rainbow round the extremity, and there hung from it numerous chandeliers, each ornamented with a gilt crown and containing crystal bell-lamps of candles. When all the candles were lighted, the sight, we are told, was “very glorious.”
In the centre of the building was a remarkable square erection supporting the roof, and made up of pillars and arches elaborately decorated. This “grand and elegant structure” was nothing more or less than a fireplace containing a chimney and an open fire. On cold days in February and March the best place was “one of the hot blazing red-cloth benches” by the fire. This fireplace structure had originally contained the orchestra, but after a few years the orchestra was, for acoustic reasons, moved to the side of the Rotunda. Behind the orchestra was an organ by Byfield, set up in 1746.[219]
The Inside View of the Rotunda in Renelagh Gardens with the Company at Breakfast.
Vue de la Compagnie à Dejeuner dans la Rotonde au Mellieux des Jardines de Renelagh.