1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



83 



The port of Belfast is distant from Ballymcna about 24 miles, and 

 Glenarm is only 12 miles ; and independent of the saving of land- 

 carriage, it offers a gre;iter facility to direct intercourse with Scotland, 

 being nearer, and in a more direct line ; besides, the depth of water 

 within the proposed pier at Glenarm would enable vessels drawing 

 even more than 20 feet of water to enter and depart at all times of 

 tide. With these eminent and peculiar advantages, which no artifi- 

 cial harbour in Ireland possesses except two, there can be no doubt 

 but a very considerable trade would arise, fully sufficient to repay- 

 any moderate expenditure which might be made in erecting a pier at 

 Glenarm Bay. 



Design for a Hai hour at Glenarm on tlie Coast of the County of Antrim, 

 Ireland. Diawn to a scale of 800 feet to IJ inch. By William Bald, 

 F.R.S.E., M.R.I. A., and Civil Ergii eer. 



Fig. I. Plan of Harbour. 



(The dotted line D)— N. bj E^ to the Mull of Cantire— (the other dotted 

 line)— NE by E 4 E, to Ciaig of Ailsi— AAA, Low-water— BB, High- 

 water — CCC, Proposed Piei or Break\vater~DD, Glenarm Bay — EE, Road- 

 way — FF, Harbour — GG, Line of Transverse Section — H, Town of Glenarm. 



Fig. 2. Transverse Section at GG, 190 feet broad at base; drawn to a 

 scale of 55 feet to the inch. 



AA, High-waler— BB, Low-water— C, Top of Quay, 18 feet wide— D, Pa- 

 rapet at top, 01 Storm Pavement— EE, Breakwater Glacis, or Storm Pavement. 



The Construction. — It is proposed to run out a i-ough pier, or 

 breakwater, from Paixe's Point to a distance of 825 feet, then with a 

 cant of 3S0 feet in length, as laid down, drawn and described in the 

 chart containing the proposed design and sections of the breakwater, 

 deposited with the clerk of the peace. This work would effectually 

 protect and cover about 20 acres of the Bay of Glenarm, and give 

 security and shelter to trading ships of all kinds. The depth of water 

 within the mole would be from 22 to 30 feet at high water ordinary 

 spring tides. There is an abundance of limestone, in extremely thick 

 beds, lying close to the proposed site of the breakwater, easily 

 wrought, and which will afford an abundance of very heavy and large 

 material, at a remarkably cheap rate, to construct the breakwater 

 with. It is proposed, simply to lay down an abundance of stone 

 blocks, and then to permit the ocean, for some time during storms, to 

 shape down the slopes of the sea-side of the mole to the angles of 

 inclination which the momentum of that element would assign to 

 such materials. And for the purposes of landing and shipping of 

 goods, it is intended to construct a timber wharf within the pier or 

 breakwater, leaving to some future period, when the trade would 

 afford the means, the facing up of the inside of the pier with squared 

 masonry. Even the construction of only 300 or 400 feet in length of 

 the breakwater, would enable vessels to discharge and take in ear- 

 goes, so that an immediate traffic would be the result of even a very 

 small portion of this work being done. 



I have drawn out two estimates : one for an extension of 1,205 feet 

 in length — amount, £17,312 16.?. 8rf. j the second estimate is for an 

 extension of, in length, 825 feet — amount, £11,217 2.?. 5rf. 



William Bald, Civil En<rineer. 



RALPH REDIVIVUS.— No. XIV, 



THE LOWTHER ARCADE. 



What advantages its more successful rival may possess in regard to 

 its shops, I am not prepared to say, neither is it a question of any im- 

 portance to my present purpose, but I may assert, almost without fear 

 of contradiction from any one, that the Lowther as far surpasses the 

 Burlington Arcade in its architectural appearance, as it falls short of 

 it in the degree of favour and patronage it receives from the public. 

 In itself this is hut very indifferent praise, since it might be greath 

 superior to the other, and yet scarcely worthy of notice for any archi- 

 tectural merit. In fact, as a design, this piece of architecture displays 

 both originality and taste, greatly more so than many tlungs which it 

 is the fashion to talk of, merely, it would seem, because they happen 

 to have been cried up in books, and their praises have been repeated 

 and handed down from one book-maker to another, without further 

 examination or inquiry. 



Before, however, I touch upon the merits of this arcade, I must be 

 allowed to say something in regard to the class of buildings so deno- 

 minated in this country. As far as public convenience is concerned, 

 most assuredly nothing could be devised more suitable to such a climate 

 as ours — that is, supposing it to deserve one tithe of the ill-natured, 

 splenetic grumbling it prevokes, — than a covered street, which bids 

 defiance to the humours of the atmosphere, and where one may lounge 

 and look at the shop-windows, though the rain should come down in 

 torrents, or though an August sun should broil jieople as they walk 

 along in the open streets. Here there is no disagreeable, perhaps I 

 should say, delightful variety of nmd, ankle-deep at one time, and 

 hovering, but, alas ! not golden, clouds of dust at another. On the 

 contrary, there is a monotonous constancy of uniform, dry, and level 

 pavement, where a lady might walk without soiling a white satin 

 slipper. It is this monotony, I presume, that prejudices the public 

 against such galleries, as they may very fairly be styled, more 

 especially the one here under notice. 



I say, " prejudices the public against them," because there is some 

 reason to presume they have no attraction, or else by this time we should 

 have many more erections of the same kind, if no where else, in 

 those places at least tiiat seem expressly intended for them, and unfit 

 for any tiling ebe ; for instance, the two squeezed- up alleys called the 

 " Turnstiles," leading into Lincoln's-Inn fields ; Middle-row, Holboin ; 

 Cranbourne-alley, and several others of the same description in Corn- 

 hill and its neighbourhood, all of them very greatly frequented 

 thoroughfares, and more particularly disagreeable to pass through in 

 wet weather. Were these widened, and covered in, and converted 

 into galleries lined with the shops, they would, I think, be so many 

 improvements ; spots which one would be more inclined to visit than 

 to avoid. It will, ]ierhaps, be said that merely widening them would 

 in many cases not be sufficient, some of these alleys being, if not abso- 

 lutely crooked, full of windings and turnings. To which it may be 

 replied, timt mieux, since, so far from presenting any obstacle, sueli 

 deviations from an uninterrupted straight line would suggest many 



