Source Description:

 The Coliseum, Regent's Park, London.

This is the source print used for the tureen stand shown above and a sauce tureen lid seen below.  It was not pictured in the engravings for the book, Metropolitan Improvements.  It appears, instead, on the back cover of the original engravings as sold in "Numbers" of four or "Parts" of twenty engravings with a number of pages of text.

In 1821, Sir Christopher Wren's Ball and Cross on the top of the Dome of Saint Paul's Cathedral was being replaced. An enterprising surveyor Mr. Thomas Horner took the opportunity to use the workman's platform to make some 2,000 drawings for a Panoramic view of London centered from that viewpoint, at a total cost of £5,000. " Mr. Horner was aided by his topographical knowledge of the country as a skilful land-surveyor, by powerful telescopes and by curious machinery for executing his sketches. The distant buildings, villas, and features of the country were also taken on the spot, and the artist - like atmospheric distances, are detailed from them with a fidelity rarely found in pictures of this nature."

Horner employed Decimus Burton, who designed a 130 foot diameter sixteen sided building with a cupola and superb portico to house the Panorama. Whilst the building was being constructed, 1824-27 a Mr. A. T. Parris and other artists were busy on ladders and cradles painting the Panorama onto 40,000 square feet of canvas suspended around the inside walls of the Coliseum. The Coliseum finally opened its doors to the public in January 1829.  Mr.Parris and several of his artists were still putting the finishing touches to the Panorama, and Mr. Horner and his chief backer had absconded the previous month leaving debts of more than £60,000.

Inside the building was a central staircase and a hydraulically operated lift to take the public to the first viewing gallery. Further stairways led to the second and third galleries, the last of which contained the original Ball and Cross from St. Paul's, so one could imagine that one was on top of St. Paul's Cathedral enjoying the spectacular panoramic view of London and its environs. It was also possible to walk out onto the roof of the Coliseum to see the view over Regent's Park.

The Coliseum was not a commercial success, over its lifetime it had several owners who added extra attractions to the building and its gardens, but its decline was inevitable. In 1851 it enjoyed a season attracting visitors from the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. In 1855 it was put up for sale, with no buyers. It stood empty and uncared for until 1857 when it reopened for a summer season and again in 1863.  It then closed its doors and was finally demolished in 1875. In its place, Cambridge Gate, a terrace of rather unattractive Victorian houses was built.

Description:

An earthenware sauce tureen under tray printed in dark blue with a view titled The Coliseum,  The Coliseum was an exhibition hall, built in the classical style, in 1823, to a design by Decimus Burton (1800-81). It was demolished in 1875.  This example is unmarked.