Summary

Author: (Architects' Club)

Title: Resolutions of the Associated Architects ; with the report of a committee by them appointed to consider the cause of the frequent fires, and the best means of preventing the like in future.

Publication: (No publication details, but London, 1793).

Price: Sold

Reference: 08319

Full Description

A pamphlet issued with the aim of encouraging the provision of better party walls between adjoining London properties, so as to diminish fire risk. Although the text of the pamphlet describes the relevant resolutions as having been agreed by the "Association of Architects in London" (seventeen named London architects including John Carr, William Chambers, S.P. Cockerell, George Dance, Henry Holland, Robert Mylne, John Soane, James Wyatt and so on), the issuing organisation is better known as "The Architects' Club", under whose name the pamphlet is listed in the BAL Catalogue (no.127). The Architects' Club, founded in 1791, was the first professional association of architects established in Britain, and this is the only publication issued on its behalf.The pamphlet is therefore of some importance in the history of the architectural profession, and it has a further interest in that the principles laid down in it were "to be adopted in all new houses built on the Duke of Bedford's estates, or houses belonging to His Grace, let on repairing leases" (Henry Holland was acting at this time as surveyor to the Duke of Bedford's London estate). It is today not as uncommon as it once was - a small stock of surviving undistributed copies, preserved since the late eighteenth century, surfaced in the London book trade about thirty years ago - but it is nonetheless well worth having.