1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



437 



and with a convenient access to thera, the instructions of the commit- 

 tee in that respect would be sufficiently observed. 



" After our separate examination abovementioned, we conferred to- 

 gether, and on comparing our observations, it was a great satisfaction 

 to us to find, that in selecting a limited number for further considera- 

 tion, no difference of opinion arose between us in any respect, each of 

 us on such comparison of our lists having selected the same designs. 



" We regret, however, to say that we cannot submit for the choice 

 of the committee five designs out of the number subjected to our no- 

 tice, which we can, without many changes in them, report as practi- 

 cable, advisable, and capable of being made durable edifices; and, 

 tliat the committee may be fully aware of our meaning in this respect, 

 we will shortly state in respect of practicability, that in the best de- 

 signs of the collection, as regards external architectural merit, whole 

 suites of apartments are placed in upper stories without adequate sup- 

 port being brought up through those below to carry them ; that pass- 

 ages are sluiwn without the necessiiry light; that chimnies are placed 

 in situations from which flues could not be carried up ; and that many 

 rooms are without chimnies at all ; and that in most, if not in all, the 

 designs otherwise meritorious, what are called 'false bearings' appear 

 to such an extent, that they are not practicable in their existing state, 

 and hence it cannot be said that they would be durable edifices. 



" How far, having thus disposed of the question of practicability 

 and durability, some of those we shall hereafter name may be advisable 

 is a matter of some weight. We will take one which is an extreme 

 case, and occurring in a design of great external architectural magni- 

 ficence, in which a wall lOU feet in height surrounds the area appro- 

 priated to the meeting of the merchants. In this latitude, except 

 about the summer solstice, and then only for a few days, the sun's rays 

 would never fall on the pavement of this" area, and in the winter solstice 

 they would scarcely reach the top of the arcades. In another of great 

 merit, the merchants' area is reached by a flight of many steps, which 

 may be considered unadvisable, both for the combination of shops with 

 tlie designs, and for the convenience of those who are to use the 

 edifice. 



" There is, moreover, another point connected with our examina- 

 tion which demands our utmost caution in otfering this report to the 

 notice of the committee, and that is, attention to the cost, which ap- 

 pears to have been altogether lost sight of in the best class of designs. 

 From the second instructions of the committee (upon our request), 

 dated the 27th of September ult., we have felt it necessary to place 

 out of consideration those three which we have named in the second 

 dass, though possessing, for magnificence and beauty, great claims as 

 works of art. We could not, w'ithout very elaborate calculation, in- 

 form the committee of the probable excess of expense beyond £150,0UO.; 

 but we have no hesitation in stating that the excess in all of them 

 would be very much indeed beyond the limit assigned, and in this 

 observation w^e consider we sufficientlv for the purpose comply with 

 the request made to us on that point. We would, before leaving these, 

 mention that the sculptures with which they are decorated are so ne- 

 cessary for their effect, that they cannot be' considered foreign to the 

 buildings, but must be considered as essential parts of them. 



" Under these rather embarrassing circumstances, we have endea- 

 voured to meet the views of the committee by a selection of eight 

 designs for their consideration, rather, however, as works of art than 

 as designs which we can certify in tlieir present state to be practicable 

 and capable of being made durable edifices. The first five of them, 

 we apprehend, may be considered as designs which fall within the 

 predicament of being erected for the sum comtemplated. Under the 

 consideration of impracticability, it may perhaps be said, the selection 

 should not have been made at all, and that we should have descended 

 lower in our selection. Had we taken this course, other difficulties 

 would have presented themselves, for we must have submitted to the 

 committee works not worthy of the age or country, and which, even if 

 strictly practicable, would, in their selection, have dune great injustice 

 to the authors of the designs, with all their faults about to be named. 

 The placing these latter, therefore, in the order of merit, is referable 

 to them as works of external art. In either respects their faults of 

 construction and inconvenience may be taken as nearly equal in magni- 

 tude. - ° 



" In the first class, tho-e that we think may be executed for 150,000 ' 

 we beg to report as follows :— ' 



"f'''"**t No. 38 



" becond 40 



:: Third 37 



" Fourth qq 



"Fifth t^ 



" In the second class, or that in which we consider the cost would 

 vastly exceed the sum of 150,000/., equal impracticabilities of execu- 

 tion with those of the first class are to be fomid ; and, notwithstanding 



the very great talent they exhibit, there are circumstances of incon- 

 venience and unsuitableness which would bring them, as we conceive, 

 into the predicament of being unadvisable for adoption. We wish it, 

 therefore, to be understood, that we report on them respectively as 

 the works of very clever artists, who have produced pieces of com- 

 position in which, besides the circumstances abovementioned, stability, 

 arising from solid bearings for upper apartments, and other essential 

 matters, have been sacrificed to grand architectural features. 



" The designs of the second class, in our estimation of their order 

 of merit, are as follows: — 



" First No. 50 



" Second 46 



" Third 27 



" We again venture to state to the committee the difficulties which 

 have attended the making of the report herewith submitted, and 

 which, but for the unanimous decision at which we have arrived, we 

 confess, might have left doubts in our minds, if our view had not been 

 confined by the committee to the expenditure of a given sum. 



" Robert Smirkb^ 

 " Joseph Gwilt. 

 " Philip Hardwick. 

 " To the Joint Committee for the Management 

 of the Estates of Sir Thomas Gresham." 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE SUBJECT. 



The joint committee met at Mercers' Hall on Friday, the ISth ul- 

 timo, to consider the report, and again inspect the designs, and came 

 to the following resolutions: — 



" Resolved, — That the premiums be awarded to the architects, who 

 have produced the plans numbered as under- — ■ 



" No. 3li, the first premium - . . . £ 300 

 43, the second ditto .... 2OO 



37, the third ditto .... loO 



being those reported by the architects as the three best designs. 



" And it was resolved, that Sir R. Smirke, and J. Gwllt and P. 

 Hardwick, Esqrs. having stated in tlieir report upon the respective 

 merits of the plans selected by them, that tliey cannot recommend any 

 one to be carried into execution, this committee doth request them to 

 take the 1st, 2d, and 3d plans, as selected by them, into consideration, 

 and prepare a plan and specification for a new Royal Exchange, such 

 as in their judgment should be carried into execution, having reference 

 at the same time to the printed instructions issued by this committee to 

 the architects." 



TJie architects to whom the premiums hare been adjudged. 



No. 36, 300/. to Mr. William Grellier, district surveyor, 20, Worm- 

 wood-street. 



No. 43, 200/. to M.Alexis De Chateauneuff, of Hamburgh; and 

 Mr. Arthur Mee, of Carlton-chambers. 



No. 37, 100/. to Mr. Sydney Smirke, of Carlton Chambers. 



The architects 0/ the remaining designs of the first class. 

 No. 33, Messrs. Wyatt and Brandon. 

 57, Mr. Pennythorne 



The architects of the second class designs, which ivere considered too 

 expenst re. 



50, Mr. T. L. Donaldson. 

 46, Mr. Richardson. 

 27, Mr. David Moscatta. 



RSVIEWS. 



A Treatise on a Box of Instruments and the Slide Rule, by T. Ken- 

 tish. London: Rolfe and Fletcher, lS3i). 



This work seems very useful for the purposes for which it is in- 

 tended as an elementary work for engineers, and for schools, and gives 

 in a short compass the greater part of practical mathematics. As to 

 the mnenotechnic rules appended to it, we have no high opinion of 

 their utility to the student, they are something like SmoUet's cabbage 

 cutting machine, which destroyed more than it saved. 



History and Process of P/iotogenic Drawing. London: Strange, 



This is a translation of the French pamphlet by Daguerre and Arago 

 on photographic drawing, and contains an elaborate account of tlie 

 processes. This art in its present state however is too troublesome 

 and too expensive to admit of general application. 



