UCL BENTHAM PROJECT

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A Circular Building Resembling the Panopticon

Rotunda, Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea, London

'There are buildings whose plan looks very much like that of the Panopticon. Usually the affinity is formal, not operational. Bentham always compared his penitentiary to the Ranelagh Pleasure Dome (William Jones, started 1742). Except for its concious irony, it does not seem an appropriate comparison.' Robin Evans, The Fabrication of virtue: English prison architecture, 1750-1840, 1982, p. 209.

The interior of the Rotunda, Canelletto
Image source

Exterior view of the Ranelagh Pleasure Dome
Image source

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