‘To the great public’: The Architectural Image in the Early Illustrated London News

Abstract

The Illustrated London News, launched in May 1842 as the first illustrated newspaper and quickly copied across Europe, North America and beyond, was full of architectural images. New buildings, ancient ruins, construction sites, royal visits, wars, theatre performances, exotic expeditions, historical essays and innumerable other subjects gave occasion to feature the built, whether for its own sake or as background setting. Images and texts were produced and consumed with an urge and at a speed never seen before. The building, through the illustrated press, left the static confines of the book and the framed print and became peopled by the purposeful bourgeoisie. Through a close analysis of a range of articles on the new Royal Exchange, the refurbished London Colosseum as well as the Queen's Scotland tour, this essay explores the role of the architectural image in the illustrated press by focusing on its relationship to the accompanying text. Untangling the mechanics of representation and perception, it identifies modes of intellectual, affective, and kinetic vision through which architecture was represented to the remote reading public. By externalising and stabilising vision, the Illustrated London News thus created a virtual public sphere in which the dramatic technological and material changes occurring in the period could be absorbed and normalized.

Synoptic Images: Truth and Temporality in Pictorial Journalism During the 1840s

“…As the architectural historian Anne Hultzsch has noted, at the time the built environment "was one of the key ingredients to situate stories, to make them real." 26 Meticulously reproduced details of buildings, ornamentation, and spatial arrangements, often transferred directly from other printed sources, provided a way of anchoring the image in space and created reality effects through details. Over time, with the growing specialization in the studios of the illustrated press and increased capacity to render both architecture and people in greater detail in rapidly produced news images, these pictures grew ever more detailed.…”

Eurocentrism in the Hunt for the Assassination of J.W.W. Birch in Pasir Salak, Perak by Illustrated London News in 1876: A Visual Analysis

“…The visual, which portrayed Penang's reputation, was used to convey information to the British public and the British royal family regarding the latest development and expansion of the British Empire in the colonies (Reed, 2003). Visuals of prosperity were used to impress the Queen on the Empire's achievement in occupying Penang, which is situated in the Straits of Malacca, one of the most significant trade routes in the world (Nordin, 2013: Hultzsch, 2017). However, the occupation of Penang, if analysed today, revealed that Penang was never leased, given, nor handed over to the British through any agreement (Merican & Mohamed Amin, 2021: Merican, 2023.…”

The Crowd and the Building: Flux in the Early Illustrated London News

“…The image was key to ensure both: by being truthful, immediate and unbiased, so it seemed, it turned the illustrated newspaper into a chronicler of its own times. 7 Ranging from Lord Mayor's Days and processions of the Temperance Movement to pageants abroad in honour of the visiting Queen Victoria, illustrated papers were full of images and descriptions of spectacle in motion, including architecture and people, joined in celebration of the event. It is this relationship between the crowd and the building, in word and image, that this article investigates.…”