Chandeliers and staircases inside ONE Marylebone

As well as admiring all the loveliness from the makers at MADE London I couldn't help but take some time to admire the venue, ONE Marylebone. In its previous life it was the Holy Trinity church and was built in 1826-28 to the designs of Sir John Soane to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon. Sir John was England's finest architect in the Neo-Classical style; his works are renowned for their clean lines, simple form, decisive details and clever use of light sources.

He designed only three of London's churches, and this is one of them; it was the most expensive and is now considered to be the most architecturally distinguished. You may have heard of him, his best known work was the Bank of England in Threadneedle Street, a building that it's said had a widespread effect on commercial architecture and there's also a museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

It was only in 1956 that the Holy Trinity church was declared redundant when it became the headquarters of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. Interestingly Penguin Books started life in the crypt in the 1920s.

From the outside it's pretty impressive, but inside it takes your breath away.

Well it did mine.

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As you enter, there's a staircase on each side of the building leading to the galleries. 

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There was plenty here for me to like. The chandeliers. The large arched windows showing glimpses of London at night. The balustrades and their decoration, but most of all the hand pointing the way painted onto the stonework.

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Once I stopped taking pictures of the stairs, chandeliers and windows we made it up to the galleries which are the most contemporary and bright part of the building. They form a U shape around the Soane Hall downstairs, but had the most decorative ceiling roses - and the chandeliers here too, looked completely right for the space.

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Back downstairs, we went into the Soane Hall which is rightly described as the "jewel in the crown." It's over eight metres high and is an impressive size as well with mosaics and stained glass windows, but it was the ceiling that got me.

The green, the simplicity, but oh the effectiveness. 

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But it seems we weren't quite done with chandeliers. It seems there's always place for another one in a building as grand as this.  We spotted this one as we left the Soane Hall and made our way towards the staircase to the Crypt.

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It wasn't the only thing we saw as we made our way there. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted this very gold corridor. It seemed such ornate wallpaper and such a rich colour to be hidden away, so I decided to investigate.

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And guess what I found?

Yes, the Ladies!

So not only is this a spectacular venue, it's one with some pretty fancy toilets too.  

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