1848] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



BUCKINGHAM PALACE AND THE MARBLE ARCH. 



But one opinion has been expressed of this unfortunate Palace, 

 for if it finds favour at all witli any, they have not the courafre to 

 utter so mucli as a syllable in defence of it. ^Ve may accordingly 

 spare oursehes further censure of what is actually done, our pre- 

 sent purpose licing- to point out what might have been done, and 

 doubtless would ha\e been, had aught like due or decent consider- 

 ation been given to the matter, tije idea here submitted being so 

 very obvious a one that it is difficult to conceive how it could have 

 by any possibility been overlooked. Or if it was not overlooked, 

 but purposely rejected, it becomes desirable to know on what 

 grounds it m-hs set aside, since the reasons must have been more 

 tlian ordinarily cogent ones to lead to its rejection. 



Looking at the Palace as it stood before the alteration was com- 

 menced, no one would have ever imagined that the blocking it up 

 by another building, merely in order to obtain additional rooms, 

 and thereby depriving all the original portion of tlie l)uilding of 

 those advantages of situation and prosjiect which in some degree 

 atoned to its occupiers for its architectural deficiencies, would have 

 been resorted to without all other expedients being first tried. The 

 preserving the same view as before into tlie Park should lia\e l>een 

 made a sine qua non ; instead of which Mr. Blore seems to have had 

 a caHe blanche to do just as he pleased, and he seems to have studied 

 nothing more than merely providing the extra accommodation re- 

 quired, in an additional building merely tacked on to the first one. 

 To say that he at all considered the circumstances of the ease — the 

 opportunity which it held out for architectural improvement, would 

 be to accuse him of downright incapacity. The most prudent ex- 

 cuse for him is that he was called upon so suddenly to prepare draw- 

 ings for the purpose, that he had no time to collect his thouglits, 

 much less any ideas, those which he miglit else have had being put 

 to flight by the expeditiousness imposed upon him. Whereas liad 

 he been allowed to apply himself to the task leisurely and quietly, 

 he would have devised some means of preserving the Marl)le Arch, 

 and not only retaining it, but giving it increased value and im- 

 portance, as the focus point of a new facade. 



General, vague suggestions of this kind, it will perha])s be said, 

 are very easily made, but we here offer somewhat more than a 

 mere shapeless, unembodied idea, by showing in the annexed cut 



how the Arch could have been retained and connected with the 

 advanced line of new l)uildings. "VVe would have continued the 

 stylobate and order of the Arch by two siveeping double colonnades 

 (quadrant in plan). This would not only have given gi-eater privacy 

 to the court-yard, the stylobate being 'suflSciently high to prevent 

 its being looked into, but would also have given it gi-eater apparent 

 space than before, when that space was so indistinctly defined by 

 the palisading, that as seen from the Palace the Arch appeared to 

 stand as quite a distinct and insiJated oliject in the Park. Ac- 

 cording to the plan here shown, it would, on the contrary, ii.'^O"" 

 nection with the colonnades attached to it, have formed a highly 

 scenic piece of architecture, full of play of light and shade and per- 

 spective effect, and admitting a view of the landscape scenery in 

 the Park in the background. As an embellishment to the court 

 there might have been parterres in the quadrant portions of it, 



with a fountain in the centre of each quadrant. To specify other 

 matters of decoration not indicated in the plan — statues and can- 

 delabra for gas-burners placed alternately in the intercolumns of the 

 colonnades, and a colossal sitting figure of Britannia on the summit 

 of tlie Arch, giving to the latter wliat it has all along wanted, a 

 pyramidal teimination to its mass, would have produced a more 

 than ordinarily striking architectural picture, wliether viewed Irom 

 the Palace or the Park. As seen from tlie latter, it would have 

 been a sufficiently effectual screen to the buildings within the court, 

 and after the sun liad passed off from the east side of the Palace, 

 would Iiave been continually lighted up bv its ravs striking upon 

 some of the columns during the whole day'. In combination with 

 additional buildings carried out to the' riglit and left in ex- 

 tension of the original wings, such a cohmnaded centre might have 

 been made to produce a facade not at all inferior to, perha])s even 

 more picturesque, than tliat of any otlier royal palace in Europe ; 

 whereas now — but we can hardly speak witli decent patience 

 of the miserable and truly contemptible abortion which Blore 

 has perpetrated, both tolas own disgrace, and the disgrace of those 

 who employed liim. Had such a design for enlarging the Palace 

 been sanctioned by AV^iUiam IV., though our mortification would 

 have been the same, our surprise would Iiave been considerably 

 less. His taste and feeling for art never extended beyond the 

 figure-head of a ship. That it should have been ))erpetrated under 

 the auspices — at least under the very nose of a Prince who affects 

 the character of a connoisseur and patron of art, fills us not only 

 with astonishment, but dismay. \\ e account for it only by sup- 

 posing that he was overruled in the matter, he being no more than 

 Prince Consort. 



To show, as we have, what might ha\e been done, when tlie op- 

 portunity for doing it has passed away, may seem ungracious. Our 

 reply is, it is no fault of ours that the op])o"rtunity was not afforded 

 us, and not ourselves alone, but others also perhaps far more able, 

 of making suggestions at a time when advantage might have been 

 taken of them. At any rate, we hope that Buckingham Palace will 

 now prove an eflScaeious lesson for the future ; and it is also some 

 consolation to find that it is not only poor, but so desperately bad, 

 that there is very little danger of its corrupting puiilic taste, be- 

 cause it will be now more mocked, and more an oliject of general 

 derision tlian ever. Admiration it will excite none whatever, that's 

 certain; but then it is equally certain that it will excite a vast deal 

 ot astonisliment. It will completely astonish the natives, and aU 

 foreigners into the bargain. 



As the Marble Arch — which niiglit have been so easily retained, 

 and not only retained but greatly "improved, and made the nucleus 

 of an extended piece of decoration in the foreground of an extende<l 

 line of fa^ade^is to be taken down, tlie question now is, is it to be 

 destroyed, or re-erected on some other spot } Nobody except those 

 actually in the secret, knows; though why it shou'ld be made a 

 secret at all nobody can tell, unless it be because tlie intention in 

 regard to it is so preposterous that were it divulged it would excite 

 strong opposition. Our idea is that the street front of tlie Horse 

 Guards would be a very suitable situation for it. It would there 

 fill up w hat is now too much of a gap, and the two smaller arches 

 would serve admirable as the recesses for the sentinels on horse- 

 back. It has, indeed, been rumoured tliat both the Horse Guards 

 and Admiraltj' are to undergo architectural transformation by Mr. 

 Barry. But instead of that interposing any obstacle, it would 

 rather facilitate such aiqjlication of the arch, since Barry would 

 only have to bring it into his design, and treat tlie rest of the com- 

 position in accordance with sucli feature. 



BUCKINGHAM PALACE. 



Sir — It seems not a little singular that none of the critics who 

 are disposed to animadvert in such severe terms on the new front 

 of Buckingham Palace, not even your lynx-eyed "Candidus" him- 

 self, sliould have discovered that it is only a reduced copy (about 

 two-fifths in length) of the Palace at Caserta ; so that the faults 

 or merits, be they which they may, are not Mr. Blore's, but Vanvi- 

 tetti's. In proof of which, 1 beg your acceptance of tracings of 

 the perspective view of the front and of the plan, after Vasi. 



It is to be feared that the imitation will be confined to the part 

 of Vanvitetti's design upon which he appears to have bestowed the 

 least pains, that is the outside, and that there are but faint hopes 

 of an equal imitation of the splendid staircase and vestibule. 



Vasi states the length of the north and south fronts of Caserta 

 to be 918 palms (Neapolitan, I presume), which, at lOg inchesj 



