leicestersquare

When Dublin and Cairo were twinned

from National Library of Ireland on The Commons

• 5 older comments, and then…
• John Spooner said:

  Cairo replaced Gibraltar on Saturday 25th March 1809.
  
  British Press - 16 March 1809:
  

• John Spooner said:

  Barker also had a Panorama in the Strand, where interesting views of Dover and Copenhagen could be seen in the summer of 1809 (Morning Post 28 July 1809).
  
  Cairo and Dublin were still on view at the Leicester Square Panorama in September (Morning Herald (London) 30 September 1809)

• John Spooner said:

  The Dublin exhibit was closed on 27th February 1810, replaced by Flushing. Cairo was to continue for a short time. ( Morning Chronicle 17 February 1810). The Flushing view showed the recent attack by land and sea, with the town in flames.

• John Spooner said:

  A diagram of the Leicester Square Panorama building here

• John Spooner said:

  Some background to Barker and the Panorama in The Stage 17 November 1988
  

  These were all the rage in the 19th century, spectacular artefacts made possible by a Scottish artist Robert Barker who discovered a means of presenting an all-embracing view, by painting on the inside of an enormous cylinder and placing the spectator at its centre.
  
  It was a technical problem of considerable complexity. In a picture painted round a circumference of 360 degrees, straight lines had to be curved, and curved lines straightened. Distances called for finely graduated brush- work to create the illusion of depth and perspective had to be observed.
  
  Barker called the picture a Panorama, patented the process in 1787 and first exhibited "Mr Baker's Interesting and novel view of the City and Castle of Edinburgh and the whole adjacent and surrounding Country" in 1788 exactly 200 years ago.
  
  In 1789, Barker's Panorama came to London. It was so successful the artist had it permanently housed in a vast brick rotunda he built for it near Leicester Square in 1793. There it continued to draw the town at the moderate entrance fee of one shilling.