1845.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



3G1 



PLAN OF THE PROPOSED ADDITIONS TO THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 



Peau't Vmrd ; Cloisters. 



Great 

 George St. 



The Additional Buildings proposed are defined by a broken line, thus ■ 



REFERENCES.— A. Royal Court.— B. Stir Chumber Court.- C. Speaker's Court.— D. Palace Landing Place.— E. Palace Landing Place.— V. Victoria Toner — C. T. Clock Tone 



PROPOSED NEW LAW COURTS. 



In our last number we gave an analysis of the evidence before the 

 Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to examine as to the 

 propriety of removing the Luw Courts adjacent to Westminster H^iU 

 and building others affording increased accommodation. Great com- 

 plaints have from time to time been made respecting the inconveniencies 

 experienced by those whose avocations require their constant attend- 

 ance at Westminster Hall. The site of the present courts, never too 

 large, even wlien comparatively uninteresting cases are tried, is found 

 totally inadequate fur the sittings at Nisi Prins, and during trials of 

 general interest. They only who are frequently present on these oc- 

 casions can have an adequate idea of the inconvenience and confusion 

 arising from the excessive crowding and from the deficient arrange- 

 ments of the building. The heat is frequently intolerable, from the 

 defective ventilation, those present are constantly re-breathing a 

 vitiated atmosphere, and even where attempts have been made to re- 

 move this evil, it is only by producing strong draughts or currents of 

 air, which are even still more prejudicial to health. 



Another great and apparently irremediable defect of the present 

 Courts is the imprrfect manner in which they are lighted. Never 

 were Sir John SSoane's peculiar notions as to lighting buildings dis- 

 played more characteristically than in the present case. There are 

 sky-lights and lanthorn-liglits of every conceivable form, borrowed 

 lights stuck into all sorts of out of the way corners, odd little panes 

 of ground glass stuck into still older places, but with all this contri- 

 vance the present Courts are over-wrapped in Cimmerian gloom even 

 ■when the sun is shining most brilliantly out of doors. There is one 

 of the principal passages, in particular, which leads to the Court of 



No. 99.— Vol. VIII.— Decembeb, 1845. 



Queen's Bench, in which, to a person entering from the street, every 

 thing is indistinguishable till the eye becomes accustomed to the ob- 

 scurity, and as this passage has two or three steps in it, it is a general 

 recreation of the "briefless" to watch persons coming in from the 

 street, as, unless among the initiated, they are sure to stumble and 

 afl'ord great amusement by their rapid descent. We heard not long 

 ago a barrister plead in court, as an excuse for not attending to a cer- 

 tain notice, that it was hung up in this passage, and was therefore un- 

 readable. In the lower oftices of the building there are no windows 

 at all, and lamps are kept burning the whole day. 



The lover of architecture will consider it no unimportant argument 

 for the removal of the present Courts, that they block up and dis- 

 figure the finest hall in the world— Westminster Hall. In consequence 

 ot their proximity, the upper windows of one side of the Hall have 

 their lower halves blocked up, and consequently no more than half 

 the light they were originally intended to give. 



In Mr. Barry's design, given above, New Palace Yard is converted 

 into a Quadrangle,.by a range of buildings nearly parallel to Bridge 

 Street, and another range nearly at right angles. These buildings, he 

 proposes, shall be depositaries for the Record OfTice, as the Victoria 

 Tower is found too small to hold the Records, or rather to liold them, 

 "taking the allowance proposed for additions, and the proposed in- 

 creased facilities for searching the Records." 



It may perhaps be doubted whether we should be jrstified in in- 

 curring so great an additional expense as that require J for the build- 

 ing of the New Quadrangle, after so much money has been devoted 

 to the building of the Victoria Tower, for the purpose of holding the 

 Records. The arrangement also of the entrance to the corner of the 



48 



