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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Junk, 



THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION: ARCHITECTURE. 



The competition fur the Army aad Navy Clubhouse, and the designs 

 having to be sent in only a weelv before the receiving-days at the Academy, 

 no doubt hindered some architects from preparing anything for the Exhi- 

 bition ; — not that there is this year any deficiency as to quantiiy, there 

 being no falling oil' from tlie usual number of architectural subjects — and 

 as usual, too, a good many of them might, as far as seeing them is con- 

 cerned, just as well be away. There is, however, less variety than usual, 

 iir than used to be the case some seasons ago — since designs for churclies 

 greatly outnamber the subjects of any other class. One very uncommon 

 circumstance is the extreme paucity of designs for domestic buildings of 

 any kind — that kind excepted which consists of hou.-es produced by 

 wholesale, under the somewhat dubious tiile of " Improvements." One 

 design (No. 1077) shows us after what fashion the Castle Hill, at Dover, 

 has just beguu to be improved; and another (No. 1111). Dover Court new 

 town, near Harwich — as to which last we cannot speak, not having noticed 

 the drawing, wherefore it is perhaps luckier than the other. Churches 

 alone excepted — and of them there is a full quota — there is very litlle lo 

 -show us what has lately been done in architecture, or what buildings are 

 either now in progress or about to be commenced. Even among the church 

 sidyects, too, we miss one that we should have been glad to meet with 

 here ; fur the edifice is intended, we presume, to be superior in taste to 

 most of the modern ones in the metropolis— to be a monument of its archi- 

 tect's skill as well as of its founders munificence. The church we allude 

 lo is the one which Mr. Ferrey is now erecting, in W'estminsler, for Miss 

 Burdett Coutts. Therefore, supposing the design to be, as we have no 

 reason to doubt, a worthy one, it would have been no more than a suitable 

 compliment to that lady to have exhibited it. Like a good many otlicrs, 

 however, Mr. Kerrey sei-ms to have quite cut the Academy's exhibitions. 

 There is a growing reserve on the part of those who either rank, or would 

 be thought to rank, high in their profession, to contribute anythmg what- 

 ever to the Exhibition. This year there is not a single drawing by the 

 Academy's own professor, or any of the other professors of architecture ; 

 and only a very tew by members of the Institute. This is not exactly 

 what ought lo be, since it bespeaks indolence or apathy, if not contempt ; 

 and is, moreover, attended wiih one injurious consequence — namely, that 

 the number of uninteresting and mediocre subjects can hardly fail to pro- 

 duce an unfavourable impression as to the actual state of the art among 

 us. 



It would be a monstrous untruth, were we to say we had some idea of 

 being favoured by Mr. Blore with a peep at his design for the alterations 

 at Buckingham Palace. That gentleman seems determined to carry on 

 his operations with the utmost secresy, and to keep out of harms way — 

 that is, out of the way of criticism — as long as he possibly can ; — a species 

 of mistrust that contrasts very strongly with the unquestioning confidence 

 tlie public reposes in him. To nothing else than perfect confidence can we 

 attribute that universal silence in respect to the Palace, which contrasts so 

 very remarkably with the universal fuss made about a comparatively in- 

 significant matter at tlie other end of Constitution-hill. We must, there- 

 fore, wait with patience till time reveals to us what neither Mr. Blore him- 

 self, nor any one of those who pretend to be in the secret — at least, lo have 

 seen " a sketch" of the design— chooses to let us know— namely, into what 

 sort of a building the Palace will be metamorphosed. Architectural 

 transformations seem to be just n.>w the ordi-r of the day, for while Bairy^ 

 who is now operating upon the Treasury Buildings, is, it seems, about to 

 undertake the transformation of both the Horse Guards and Treasury 

 Mr. Sydney Smirke is not only enlarging the Carlton Club-house, but 

 changing it into quite a dilfertnt piece of architecture, as may be seen by 

 the drawing of it at the Exhibition (No. 1109), which shows what the 

 entire fafade will be — and that the cast front, il not the south one also, 

 will be similar in design to the Pall-mall one. The change cannot fail to 

 acquire for the Carlton considerable architectural rank and reputation, 

 whereas the present club-house uever had, notwithstanding its rank as 

 such, any reputation at all as a building. The new structure will most 

 assuredly add very greatly lo the architectural character of Pall-mall ; 

 but it is not so certain that it will be altogether favourable to its neighbour, 

 the "Reform' — il being, apparently, intended to eclipse the latter. At 

 all events, the Carlton will present the larger fafade of the two, and will 

 he in a more florid style of Italian — in fact, a particularly florid one, the 

 spandrel-spaces over the arches of the second order being entirely filled in 

 with figures in relief— both a degree and a species of embellishment which 



we as yet possess no examples of in town. The upper or Ionic order is 

 also a peculiar example in itself, at least as regards its entablature, whose 

 frieze is unusually deep— so greatly exceeding the established proportions, 

 that it would scandalise the sticklers for such matters, and bring down 

 their censures upon Mr. Smirke, had he not sheltered himself under the 

 authority and precedent of Sansovino, whom he has on this occasion chosen 

 to follow pretty closely for the whole design of his exterior. Were it not 

 for the drawing we have just been speaking of, there would be nothing iu 

 the Exhibition to show any building (besides churches) either erecting or 

 or about to be erected in the metropolis, — if we except No. 1294, a very 

 tiny model of the new Coal Market which is about to built in Lower 

 Thames-street, at the corner of St. Mary-at-Hill. It will have two uni- 

 orm fronts, on two adjacent sides, with the corner rounded oflf in the two 

 flower floors of the building, above which that portion will be carried up 

 as a small insulated circular tower or campanile, that will be recessed 

 within the re-entering angle, cut out there between the two fronts. This 

 promises to be a novelty, but the model itself is such a mere toy as lo size 

 — as is, indeed, the case with all the models this year— thai it is impossible 

 to judge of more than the general shape of the structure. The idea of 

 rounding oif the corner of a building in such a manner as to render it an 

 important— at any rate very ornamental— feature in the composition, is also 

 displayed in No. 12S1 (E. Christian), a design for the new Imperial In- 

 surance Oliice, to which the second premium was awarded. There is also 

 another design (No. 1198), by the same architect, for the same building ; 

 but we do not find here the design for it, which is to be executed j nor that 

 for the Museum of Geology, iu Piccadilly. 



While unusual dearth prevails this season in regard to fresh subjects, 

 representing actual buildings, there is the usual show of " old familiar 

 faces" — familiar even to staleness — things that are known by heart: the 

 Temple of Erectheus, the Arch of Titus, the Bridge of Sighs, the Temple 

 Church, with sundry el cteterus, whose titles in the Catalogue spare us the 

 trouble of looking at them. 'We might, perhaps, had we observed its title 

 at the time, have looked at No. 1190. " Edinburgh from the South," — if 

 only to ascertain whether, as an architectural view, it was more satisfac- 

 tory than No. 3G0, Roberts's large oil-picture of the Northern Metropolis, 

 which has obtained from the critics a degree of laudatory admiration per- 

 fectly unaccountable to us — it being, in our opinion, neither good as a pic- 

 torial composition nor displaying any particular beauty of execution. On 

 the contrary, it is heavy and opaque iu colour. To our eyes, the architecture 

 — fur the most part very queerish in reality — looks very slovenly executed 

 in this representation of it, and more like the work of a mere landscape 

 painter than of one who has exercised his pencil chiefly upon subjects 

 more or less strictly architectural. But we are playing the truant, so let 

 us return to our own proper subject. 



Next year we shall, in all probability, find here several of the designs for 

 the Array and Navy Club-house; in the meanwhile. No. 1121 (W. A. and J. 

 W. Papworlh), has got the start of any of the others, that drawing being a 

 coloured copy of the perspective view sent in by Messrs. P. to the com- 

 petition. We cannot say that we at all approve of the design itself, any 

 more than we do of the license taken in regard to scale, the Club-house 

 being represented two or three feet higher than Winchester House, which 

 innocent (?) species of untruth is contradicted by the proportions of the 

 Pall-mall front — the latter beinglimited in width tosixtyfeet ; consequently 

 being, in that design, little if at all higher than it is wide — instead of being 

 loftier, it would be about fifteen feet lower than Winchester House. Really, 

 architects seem to be as little scrupulous about scales as they are about 

 estimates. Theirs are not always the scales of justice, or of judgment 

 either. Apropos of estimates — there was wonderful harmony in that respect 

 among the competitors for the Club-house in question : even the estimate 

 for one of the Gothic designs — which certainly looked as if it would cost 

 double, or more than double, some of the others, it being studded all over 

 with statues, canopies, and pinnacles — was only £30,000, although the two 

 fronts and their ornaments were to be, not in papier mache, but in real 

 Caen stone ! 



No. 1129, "Study for a Portal," appears to be a study for that in his 

 design for the Club-house above-mentioned. It is not very Id vonrably placed, 

 being put over the door, where, though it is a rather large sized drawing, 

 it cannot be fairly seen — and yet seems well worth looking at, the general 

 composilion being very happy, and manifesting both originality and gusto. 

 That subject, however, is not the only one that is disadvantageously placed, 

 while many others, that are of comparatively little merit or interest, are 

 perked just in our faces. Nos. 1199 and 1213, for instance, both of them 

 two admirably executed interiors— the only ones of that class in the room — 



