A vanished world

When the German novelist Sophie von La Roche visited Oxford Street in the 1780s she saw watchmakers and fan shops, silversmiths and spirit booths, and a Pantheon that rivalled the one in Rome. Edward Gibbon called the domed ballroom, which hosted glitzy concerts, ‘the wonder of the eighteenth century and of the British empire’, but Von La Roche could not agree. The Pantheon’s architect, she concluded, ‘only half knew what he was about’. The young James Wyatt, who went on to design some of the loveliest college buildings at Oxford University, had apparently given little consideration to the acoustics of his Pantheon, ‘as the sound becomes diffused’.

The building caught fire in 1792, was rebuilt and later became an elegant bazaar selling framed pictures and cabinet china. Then in 1937 it was torn down. Where once Londoners danced between columns they now shop for ready meals and caterpillar cake. The uglier of the two Oxford Street Marks & Spencers stands on the old site.