Royal Panopticon of Science & Art <1>
Leicester Square
15th April 1853
Sir,
In reply to your favour of the 12th inst. I am directed to state that this Corporation are desirous of receiving a license as previously proposed (Viz One hundred guineas for the first year, and one hundred and fifty for each succeeding year) and not as suggested in your letter, “on payment of a royalty of one fourth, or 25 per Cent, on the Portraits actually sold”
The Corporation will therefore be glad if you can expedite the matter by putting your Solicitor in communication with the Solicitor to this corporation, /Mr Ottaway 39 Essex Strand
I am Sir, Yours obediently
T. L. Brown
Secretary
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Notes:
1. The Royal Panopticon of Science & Art was a fantastic Moorish-style building on Leicester Square in London. Its 97 foot (30 metre) tall central rotunda had an artesian well fed fountain that sprayed to the roof. It was designed to showcase scientific, technical and artistic feats. Financially unsuccessful, it closed in 1856. Its splendid organ, the largest in England, was purchased by St. Paul's Cathedral and the building was re-named the Alexandra Palace, becoming the base for Howe's & Cushing's American Circus. It then became a series of theatres until burning down in December 1882. The replacement building, much less exhuberant in style, became the Alexandra Theatre Hall. In 1937, the Odeon Theatre replaced it. Nicolaas Henneman was asked to give tutorials there, but whether this actually happened or not is unconfirmed; see Doc. No: 06766.