18M.J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



967 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK, 

 FASCICULUS LXXXV. 



** I must have liberty 

 Withal, as large a charter as the winds. 

 To blow on whom I please.'* 



I. Architects are apt to pay by far too little attention to 

 locality, aspect, and other circumstances which influence the 

 effect of buildings ; — such, for instance, as distance — too little 

 space for obtaining a satisfactory view from any point, or so much 

 that it looks diminutive in comparison with what the design, 

 whether shown in a model or a drawing of it (that is, an elevation), 

 promises. Neither the model nor tlie elevation conveys, or can 

 convey, the slightest idea of locality ; and even if recourse he had 

 to perspective and pictorial representation, the probability is, 

 that there is a vast deal of imposition passed off under the plausi- 

 ble and innocent name of artistic liberties. Liberties of the kind 

 are, however, sometimes carried so far as to amount to downright 

 lies — an ugly word, it must be confessed ; but the imposition so 

 practised is a far more ugly thing. And surely it amounts to 

 nothing less than a lie, although not a spoken one, to represent a 

 front that will always be in shadow throughout the whole day, 

 kindled-up and illustrated by sunshine, with all its details spark- 

 lingly touched and brilliantly brought out. In ]Mr. Blore's view 

 of the new building at Buckingham Palace, the sun is made to 

 shine from the north-east ; which, not to call it a miracle, is at any 

 rate a piece of great complaisance on the part of that luminary — 

 a direct testimony to the all-commanding talent of that Mr. B. 

 Such deceptions are, it would seem, not lies, but merely poetical 

 and graphic fictions ; and we ought to congratulate ourselves upon 

 getting anything poetical at all, where the design itself is so 

 terribly prosaic. 



II. Locality has so very much to do with the actual appearance 

 which a building makes, that unless some information be afforded 

 in regard to it, we may be totally ignorant and unsuspicious of 

 many circumstances that require to be understood. If a building 

 has been seen, it is of course known how it is situated with 

 respect to other buildings ; whether in an open space or in a 

 street ; and if a street, whether it is a wide one or a narrow one ; 

 or if an open space, whether it is a regular or irregular one. It is 

 desirable also to know what is its aspect, for it makes a very 

 considerable difference whether a portico or colonnade faces the 

 north or the south — the east or the west. Therefore, if a building 

 is known to us only by means of plans and other drawings of that 

 kind, confined to the edifice itself, we may form very erroneous 

 ideas. Of course, such drawings acquaint us with its actual 

 dimensions, but leave us in entire ignorance as to its relative size 

 in comparison with adjoining or neighbouring buildings. It may 

 chance, for instance, to be so greatly over-topped by them, that 

 instead of answering to the prepossessing appearance which it 

 makes when shown apart from other objects, as to make but a 

 rather insignificant appearance in reality ; consequently, much as 

 the design may be admired, the structure disappoints when seen, 

 — at least, at first, though it may recover our first good opinion 

 afterwards. The reader knows the story of the lady who fell in 

 love with a portrait, but was cured of her passion on finding that 

 her Adonis wore a wooden leg. In order to judge what figure a 

 building actually cuts, it is necessary to know something more 

 about it than elevations, &c. show. The " about it " is here to be 

 understood literally ; since, with regard to effect, much depends 

 upon accidents of site and locality— upon aspect, point of view, 

 and various other circumstances, any one of which may be more 

 or less influential, even taken by itself singly ; therefore, when 

 combined, must be so in a high degree, either favourably or the 

 reverse. 



III. In some stringent remarks that have just appeared upon 

 the " Houses of Parliament," in another publication, it is hinted 

 that it would not have been amiss had the excessive decoration of 

 the river-front been considerably moderated, and the saving so 

 effected been applied to the finishing-up another public and 

 national edifice— namely, the pile of buildings which are termed 

 collectively Somerset-place, whose now exposed west, or rather 

 south-west side, makes a most mean, though not exactly beggarly, 

 appearance— yet beggarly as manifesting the pinching poverty of 

 a government which cannot afford to get rid of such an unseemly 

 public exhibition of architectural sans culottism. It is no reproach 

 to Chambers that he did not provide against an event which he 

 eould not possibly foresee. He would have been regarded as a 



No. 131— Vol. XI.— Septembee, 1848. 



madman, had he advised that the terrace-front should be returned 

 and continued northward, in order to form a west facade that 

 might possibly some time or other be exposed to view, on the side 

 most of all favoured by aspect. He could no more have any idea 

 that Waterloo-bridge would be erected, than that such architec- 

 ture as King's College would be brought so closely into contact, 

 as to be made to appear part of his design. The bridge has cer- 

 tainly rendered one service to Somerset-place, since it enables us 

 to obtain a view of the river-front and its terrace. But the for- 

 mation of the street leading to the bridge has laid open to sight 

 what was nex er meant to be seen at all, and therefore now detracts 

 sadly from the grandeur of the facade which is beheld in connec- 

 tion with it. The disparity between the two is nothing less than 

 offensive. The feeling it produces is akin to that which we should 

 experience on beholding a costly sideboard and a kitchen-dresser 

 cheek-by-jowl in a dining-room. The juxta-position which here 

 presents itself is not like that of " pearls upon an jEthiop's arm," 

 but of a blooming face upon the shoulders of a Blackamoor, — the 

 head of Hebe upon the shrivelled carcase of a hag ; — in short, we 

 perceive Chambers and Pecksniff arm-in-arm together: no disre- 

 spect is intended to the former, he being sufliciently excused by 

 what has been stated above. Still, that is no excuse for our ne- 

 glecting to do what the greatly-altered locality of the building 

 renders so highly desirable. If it is not worth while, merely for 

 appearance-sake, to bestow a decent architectural exterior on the 

 exceedingly unsightly and disfiguring range of building alluded to, 

 how can we reconcile ourselves to the enormous outlay for mere 

 embellishment in the river-front of the Houses of Parliament ; 

 and which, after all, does not produce any corresponding degree of 

 effect .'' Either the " Houses ' accuse us of the most niggardly 

 meanness for allowing Somerset-place to remain in the disgraceful 

 and unfinished state which it is ; or Somerset-place accuses us of 

 absurdly wanton extravagance, for crowding such a profusion of 

 minute details and carved-work into that front of the " Houses " 

 where they are quite lost, and where a few boldly-touched finishings 

 would have told quite as well — perhaps even very much better. 

 The west wing of Somerset- place, on the contrary, though at 

 present a most offensive eye-sore — and perhaps doomed to remain 

 so — is most admirably situated for architectural display. There is 

 not any spot in the whole metropolis which affords so many of the 

 requisites for a fine architectural scene. That side of the buildings 

 of Somerset-place is favoured, not only by aspect, but by due space 

 before it — neither so great as to take oft' from the size of the 

 building, nor insufficient for viewing it as a whole. To these ad- 

 vantages, other peculiar and accidental ones may be added : the 

 building descends so much below the level of Wellington-street, or 

 the roadway leading to the bridge, that the street becomes as it were 

 a terrace or elevated staging, from which it shows — that is, would 

 show itself, most picturesquely, were it a worthy piece of archi- 

 tecture, instead of being the abomination it now is. When looked 

 down upon from the parajiet of the road, it would be seen rising 

 statelily from a deep substructure. And that west front and the 

 river-front — which latter shows at present only as a mere mask — 

 seen together, would produce a fine palatial mass, and in combina- 

 tion with Waterloo-bridge, a most striking and noble group of 

 architecture. The river-front itself, which now looks only like 

 the fragment of an unfinished design, would gain in importance 

 by becoming a portion of one consistently grand design. Besides 

 all which — but let us have done with "• besides's." We have 

 " Marble Arches," and " Nelson Columns," and " Wellington 

 Statues," and a good many other things that shall be nameless, to 

 show how freely tens-of-thousands have been flung away on very 

 futile if not absurd objects. Let us then have at least one public 

 edifice that will serve as a monument of our notable economy and 

 frugality. Therefore, since so it must be, let it even be Somerset- 

 place. Let the foreigner who gazes with astonishment at such an 

 achievement by individuals as Waterloo-bridge, look with asto- 

 nishment of a different kind — with scornful wonder at the paltriness 

 that is allowed to disfigure and disgrace a government building 

 which might, with comparatively little cost, be rendered a uni- 

 formly noble pile. 



IV. My good friends, the architects, — the friendship between us 

 is not, perhaps, of the most cordial kind, my own share being 

 marked more by boisterous freedom than by compliments and cour- 

 tesy — still I say my very good friends, the architects, may be said 

 to have contrived to outwit and enslave themselves. So long have 

 they gone on preaching up the accursed and superstitious doctrine 

 of its being unlawful to deviate from established forms and propor- 

 tions, or from the precise letter of mechanic-enacted rules, that 

 even those who could do so successfully, dare not even attempt it, so 

 greatly do they stand in awe of the sneers of the whole tribe of 



34 



