Voysey's work at Westminster School

This paper explores a previously undocumented and relatively early (1894-99) interior design commission to provide furniture, decorations and lighting to Ashburnham House, Westminster School, London. Voysey's personal record of his architectural projects, written in his own hand is known as the Black Book and is held at the RIBA. It forms the principal source of information about Voysey's architectural career and was commenced on 21st March 1890 but includes retrospective entries relating to earlier work from 1877 onwards. It contains reference to many projects that are now either lost or thought lost. During a year Covid precluded any ‘on the ground’ research, three entries (dating from 1894-99) in the Black Book, relating to work at Westminster School, caught the author’s attention. As no design drawings for the project survive in either the RIBA or V&A archives, contact was made with the school to establish if anything from the scheme remained in situ. The school archivist was able to confirm that nothing of the work remains but did supply a series of high-quality interior photographs taken in Ashburnham House in the late nineteenth century. Many were not relevant but two capture in detail this never-before-seen Voysey work. Discoveries include a large, undocumented light fitting and a series of bookcases decorated with Voysey’s characteristic lettering and a pair of previously unknown Voysey sculptures, an example of which remains at the school.