OCTOBER 2009

THE QUEEN OPENS THE UNITED KINGDOM SUPREME COURT

On October 16, the new UK Supreme Court was formally opened by Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, and a tour was arranged for other holders of high public offices including the Prime Minister, Jack Straw (former Lord Chancellor, now Justice Secretary), the Archbishop of Canterbury, two Supreme Court Justices from the United States and most of the senior judiciary of the UK. Luke Hughes and Company designed the new library (the centre-piece of the building) and, in collaboration with Tomoko Azumi, the furniture for the three courtrooms and the Justices' private rooms. The architects for the refurbishment were Feilden and Mawson. Luke Hughes had the honour to explain to the Queen some of the background to the evolution of the designs for the library and courtrooms, and to introduce her to other designers and artists involved on the project, including Ian Rank-Broadley (who created the magnificent new bronze bas-relief portrait of the Queen that now hangs in the entrance), Bettina Furnée (glass engraver) and Yvonne Holton (heraldic artist and designer of the new crest). Tomoko Azumi, with whom Luke Hughes & Company collaborated in the creation of the court-room furniture, was also introduced to the royal party and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had just returned from a visit to Hiroshima, where Tomoko was born. He revealed that 'it was one of the most moving experiences of my life'. The Prime Minister was amused to have pointed out to him by Luke three small stone carved figures which have adorned some of the corbels supporting the original library ceiling, one of the sculptor Henry Fehr, one of his principal carver Domenico Magnoni, and one of Lloyd George (then Chancellor of Exchequer and later Prime Minister) depicted avariciously holding back the money-bags. 'That's what artists do to immortalise former Chancellors who then go on to higher things, Prime Minister', said Luke Hughes 'Oh, that's excellent, I like that!' , said Gordon Brown, and then spent the next five minutes showing the figures to everyone else in the room.

Images:
1 The gargoyle representing Lloyd George as Chancellor of the Exchequer
2 Tomoko Azumi with the Archbishop of Canterbury
3 Gordon Brown is amused by the gargoyle of Lloyd George
4 The Duke of Edinburgh admires the ceiling
5 The Queen meets Bettina Furnée

Links:
e-newsletter
more photos
original 2009 story
download e-zine [pdf 941kb]

[Link to longer article by LH (currently Word document, as PDF??)]

© Luke Hughes & Company October 2009

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