lSi8."l 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND AKCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



fi29 



architectural drawing's, into still further discredit and disfavour 

 with the puhlic, as a step towards such works heiiii; excluded alto- 

 gether, after its beinff voted to be beneath the dii/iiity of a Royal 

 Academy to admit them into its exhibitions, much as we may 

 admire the astuteness of such policy, tve must reprobate its trea- 

 cherousness. 



To begin — as it is now high time for us to do, our notices of such 

 drawings as we can now speak to, we will first of all mention those 

 which belong to what is invariably the most scanty, though assuredly 

 not the least interesting or least important class of subjects, we 

 mean Interiors. One of them, whose title excites curiosity the 

 most, is, as has already been stated, ]iut quite out of sight. The 

 next, No. 1117, " The Drawing Room and Corridor of the Army 

 and Na\'y Club-house," Alrssrs. Alhm mid Cross, fares \-ery little 

 better, it consisting of two small drawings in the same frame, 

 which being only slightly tinted in sepia, and hung up considerably 

 above the eye, are jiardly observable." Of these two subjects we 

 prefer the "Corridor" one, as manifesting, besides taste and con- 

 siderable novelty also, more judgment with regard to due gradation 

 of effect than the usual mistakenly ambitious practice of making 

 the approach to the apartments in a club-house or private mansion 

 far more imiiressive and important — architecturally speaking — than 

 the rooms themselves, — pompous prefaces to what is, if not actually 

 paltry, more or less common-place. We question whether the 

 actual Clul)- house now in progress will be able to show anything half 

 so full of effect — so scenic,yet not at all extravagantly or forcedly so, 

 but rather (|uite the reverse — as this portion of Messrs. A. and C.'s 

 design would have been. At the same time, we think there was 

 more than one other design offered that was upon the whole still 

 better than theirs. However, the Club, or perhaps the Count — 

 the Hercules who wields that chih, and against whom all the argu- 

 ments of criticism count for nothing, lias decided dift'erently. We 

 find that we have passed over in its numerical order, an interior 

 placed conspicuously enough, therefore not at all likely to be 

 passed by unnoticed on the wall, viz.. No. 104, "Design for the 

 Interior of a Room, decorated with Illustrations of the Coldstream 

 Guards," H. Shaw. This design is about as odd as its title is oddly 

 worded. The drawing is a large and pains-takingly laboured one ; 

 the "interior" of the room shows what is meant for florid Tudor 

 Gothic in all its floridness, in which flags and heraldic embellish- 

 ments bear a prominent part ; still it is not by any means to our 

 taste, and we therefore consign it over to the "illustrated" if not 

 illustrious Coldstream Guards, for their especial admiration. As 

 No. 1299, "Drawing of an Ancient State Pall lielonging to the 

 Company of Fishmongers," is by the same exhibitor, it may pro- 

 perly enough come in for notice immediately after the preceding. 

 Its title shows it to be an exceedingly antiquarian aft'air — far more 

 antiquarian than at all architectural. It is, in fact, little more 

 than a highly-laboured drawing of a more curious than tasteful 

 7ieedle-work relic. What business it has to be here in one of the 

 very best situations, we do not understand ; on the contrary, 

 marvel much at finding it here at all, knowing, as ne happen to do, 

 some of the architectual designs which were turned away in order 

 to make way for such a very o/d-liidi/ish aft'air as this. Perhaps it 

 took the fancy of the old ladies in the Academy. 



No. 1200, '" Entrance Hall and Staircase of the British Mu- 

 seum," as decorated by L. W. CoUinun, is a large and most capti- 

 vating drawing, and strange perha])s to say tolerably well- 

 placed. As to its subject, it is not so acceptable as one less known 

 would have been, the Museum being freely open to every one ; and 

 so far, we could wish that Mr. C.'s drawing had changed places 

 with Mr. Sang's, — the interiors of club-houses being not made of 

 " penetrable stuff," hut their beauties as carefully secluded from 

 gaze profane and critic's eye, as are those of an eastern harem. 

 In itself, the Museum staircase is not particularly striking — strik- 

 ing only by comparison with the plainness and bareness of the 

 other parts of the building — the King's Library alone excepted. 

 Faithful, too, as is Mr. C.'s representation, it is a flattering one, 

 because of the hall itself it shows nothing more than what serves 

 as fore-ground to the staircase, which is seen directly in front. 

 All disturbing circumstances — all that detracts from or interferes 

 with the scenic eff'ect, as the staircase is thus shown, is kept out 

 of sight. You are at liberty to fancy that it displays itself thus 

 on first entei ing, or that if not at one extremity of the hall, it 

 comes in at least at the centre of one side of it. — No. 1224 gives 

 another staircase — viz., that at "Beaumanor Park, Leicestershire," 

 W. Railton ; in favour of which very little can be said, either as 

 regards the design itself, or the manner in which the view is 

 taken. The style adopted is the heavy, cumbrous Elizabethan, 

 whose quaint carved-work is far more costly than elegant, although 



* Although the Exhibition is closed, we speak as usual in the present tenss. 



it costs an architect nothing — no study or thought, if he be content 

 merely to copy without studying how to refine upon such style, 

 and bring it into keeping with modern taste and notions as dis- 

 played in all respects tliroughout a modern residence. — No. 1288, 

 " Design for an Entrance Saloon, adapted to the English climate," 

 W. Papwortli, puzzles us exceedingly. In what particular respect it 

 is more adapted to our climate than any other room, we are unable 

 to guess ; unless it be that its excessive gaudiness and flutter of 

 colours is intended to counteract the chilling influence of an 

 English sky. Nor is the architecture at all better than the taste 

 shown in embellishment as regards colour. The room has the look 

 of a tawdry tavern " saloon." 



We have got to the end of " Interiors," for we do not compre- 

 hend under that designation those of churches, both old and new ; 

 the former of which are of course mere views, not the designs of 

 those who here exhibit them ; while the latter, which might else 

 be made to afford some exercise for inventive power and imagina- 

 tion, are, thanks to our modern ecclesiologists, their pedantry 

 and their prudery, strictly bound to imitate, and as far as possible 

 facsimilize, the old ones ;^wherefore, to ecclesiologists and to Mr. 

 Urban, we leave them. The only design of that class which 

 struck us at the time, or which we can now call to mind with any 

 distinctness, is 1183, " Higlibury New Church, now erecting" by 

 T. Alloni. That this is a very charming drawing — one distinguished 

 by its artistic treatment, we hardly need say, its author's name 

 being a sufficient guarantee for such merit ; but it has also great 

 merit in other respects. The architecture itself is treated artisti- 

 cally; — all the spirit and better qualities of the style — Gothic or 

 mediieval, as now matter of course, are preserved. The \iew 

 here given of the church is, however, so exceedingly picturesque 

 and episodical, that we cannot judge from it what tlie structure is or 

 will be, upon the whole. Having mentioned this subject, we may 

 be allowed to turn at once to another and quite dift'erent <uie, by 

 the same architect — viz., No. 1229: "Continuation of a Design 

 for Improving the Property on the Banks of the Thames, &c." 

 This we take to be altogether " a castle in the air" — too gigantic 

 a scheme; not, indeed, an impracticable one, but one which has not 

 the slightest chance of being realised, or even seriously tlnmght 

 of at all in our time, or Mr. Allom's. ^V'hen he conceived it and 

 was at work upon his drawing, Louis Philippe was u])on his throne : 

 that Louis is so no longer ; neither is Ludwig. Tempora niiitan- 

 tnrj all Europe has received a shock — but we are getting prosy. 

 To speak more architecturally and critically, we may observe, that 

 for " improving property on the banks of the Thames," we should 

 read "on the north bank'itf the Thames," because, like every other 

 which has had a similar object in view, Mr. Allom's scheme pro- 

 vides no improvement whatever for the south or opposite bank of 

 the river, the meanness and deformities of whose buildings would 

 become more offensive than ever, were they to be confronted by, 

 and looked at from terraces and quays on the north side, flanked 

 by such facades as are represented in this design. 



There is more than one good drawing and very fair design for 

 houses in the Elizabethan style — shall we ever get to a Victorian 

 style .'' — which we are unable now to particularise, but among which, 

 if our memory deceives us not, as for reason explained it may 

 do — is No. 1115, " A House now erecting at Southend, Sydenham," 

 H. E. Cox and E. Goodwin. There is another drawing apparently 

 by the same hand, but of a design by a different exhibitor, though 

 in the same style, and similar also in many other respects ; yet 

 which it is we cannot undertake to say, the pencil notes in our 

 marked catalogue being nearly effaced. To confess the truth we 

 must now hurry on to Finis, and content ourselves with merely 

 naming some of the few things that deserve to be rescued from the 

 imputation of dulness and mediocrity, or even worse, with which 

 the architectural part of this year's Exhibition is chargeable. — No. 

 1112, "The Stoke Station, now erecting from the designs, and 

 under the superintendence of H. A. Hunt," G. Buckler, has con- 

 siderable merit in parts, but is very unequal, and therefore unsatis- 

 factory as a whole. Here again the style is Elizabethan ; and did 

 the drawing represent a t)ondfide production and monument of that 

 age, it would be interesting enough ; but as a design at the present 

 day, it partakes too strongly of the fidelity of the Chinese tailor 

 who copied all the holes In the coat which was sent to him as a 

 pattern of an English one. Considerable praise is due to No. 1211, 

 " Court-yard of a Gentleman's Farm-house, lately erected ;" and No. 

 1213, " Design for a Chapel at Edmonton," both by F. W. Ordish ; 

 also to No. 1270, " Additions to Frankleigh House, Wilts," H. 

 Clutton. Although there is too much of the aforesaid Chinese 

 tailor in it, we confess to relishing Mr. Harkwick's design for a 

 " House about to be erected at Aldermaston, Berks," No. 1217. 

 Pity that it is of the " olden time" and not of our own; for if we 



