The General Assembly Room

The General Assembly Room was originally a bedroom. Ware transformed it into a state dining room in 1815-18 to balance his redesigned ballroom at the eastern end of the house. The new rooms, linked by the enfilade, were provided with elaborately coved, gilded ceilings in Kentian style, that of the state dining room being completed by the insertion of Ricci's The Triumph of Bacchus (see above), a wall painting removed from the 2nd Countess's staircase compartment.

The General Assembly Room Photo: Marcus Leith

The screen at the northern end was created by Ware from columns that had defined the alcove of Lord Burlington's state bedroom. After the arrival of the Royal Academy in 1867, the room served as a refreshment room before being transformed by Richard Norman Shaw RA into the chamber in which the General Assembly, the Royal Academy's governing body, convened. Shaw replaced the two doors in the columnar screen with a single, central door on axis with a new staircase, also of his design, and emphasised the private nature of the space by blocking the entrance from the enfilade. With the reinsertion of this door, the room has been restored to Ware's design, although the fireplace dates from the mid-nineteenth century and its two flanking doors are new (their addition was justified by the fact that they mirror the two doors inserted by Ware into the eastern wall of the ballroom).

The Saloon
The Lee and James C Slaughter Room
The General Assembly Room
The President's Corridor
The Reynolds Room
The Council Room
The Tennant Gallery

Search the RA Collection

• Royal Academy of Arts