The Layton Collection

THE THOMAS LAYTON TRUST & LAYTON'S COLLECTION

Interior of the late theatre Drury Lane

Interior of the late theatre, Drury Lane built by Henry Holland Esq, destroyed by fire 24 February 1809.
This theatre had been rebuilt after a fire in 1804. The playwright and MP, Sheridan, who owned it at the time of the conflagration, hurried from the House of Commons when news of the fire reached him. He is said to have sat with a friend in a coffee-house opposite, watching the fire over a bottle of port, and coolly remarked that it was ‘hard if a man could not drink a glass of wine by his own fire!’

The Collection

Thomas Layton collected books, coins, and archaeological items (usually described as ‘antiquities’) for 70 years. In that time he had accumulated what has been described as “probably the largest collection of London antiquities ever amassed by a single individual”.

The vast majority of items are believed to have been bought at auctions. Some came to him from his men working on the river. His businesses provided opportunities for finds from dredging, building of bridges and embankments along the banks of the Thames, for which Layton paid good money. Even by the standards of the day Layton kept poor records of where items were found. Despite this, the collection is considered highly important particularly to archaeologists and pre-historians.