18 47.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECrs JOURNAL. 



233 



THE NEW PALACE AT WESTMINSTER. 



C With an Engraving of the House uf Lords, Plate XII.) 



CiiARLcs BarrYj'Esq., Architect. 



M'e this month, agreeably to our promise, give a second view of the 

 interior of ihe House of Lords ; it is a transverse section, or view of the 

 north end, showing the Reporters and Strangers' Gallery. The archway 

 under the centre of the gallery is the principal entrance lo Ihe House, 

 and the side arches enclose two small waiting rooms or lobbies. The 

 arches above the Gallery, and the ceutre one below, are filled in with 

 cloth curtains. The front of the Galleries and the enclosure to the 

 Lobbies below are of wainscot, and the arches above of stone. The faces 

 uf the spandrels and ribs are elaborately gilt, similar to the side elevation. 

 The Plate is drawn to the same scale as the one in last month's Journal. 



The following is Mr. Barry's report of the state of the works on June 

 30, 1847 : — 



The carcase works of Ihe portion of the building towards New Palace 

 Yard are entirely completed. 



The Victoria Tower is about 90 feet high ; the carving of Ihe stone 

 groin within it is completed, and Ihe scafFu!d;ng is removed. 



The Cluck Tower is also about OJ feet high. Framed scaffolding and 

 hoisting apparatus have been prepared, and are now being fised for Ihe 

 upper porlions of those towers, which are not ypt contracted for. 



The stone groin over the Ceutral Hall is now being turned, and is far 

 advanced to completion. 



St. Slephen's Hall is in part carried up to its full height for Ihe roof, and 

 the reujaiuder is, upon an average, within about 10 feet of the same level. 

 St. Stephen's Porch and the western entrance of the building is carried up 

 to the height of about 30 feet above the ground. 



The Commons' public lobby, and the central masses of Ihe building 

 above the corridors and public staircase, are, upon an average, within 

 about 10 feet of their full height. 



The House of Commons' ceiling, beams, and brackelting, and the stone 

 screens at the north and souib ends of the house, are completed. The 

 littiogs and finishings of the house are not yet ordered, as no decision is 

 yet come to respecting Dr. Reid's plans for warming and ventilating this 

 portion of the building. 



The House of Lords, Ihe royal ante-chamber, and the house or public 

 lobby, with all their warming and ventilating arrangements and apparatus, 

 are (wilh the exception of a portion of the stained glass, the fresco paint- 

 ings, staiues, and other works of art) completed ; and ihose portions of 

 the building were occupied for the first time immediately after the Easter 

 recess of the present year. 



The fittings of ihe old House of Lords were removed during the Easter 

 recess, the house converted into a gallery of approach from the House of 

 Commons, and other communications made between the temporary and 

 the new buildings. 



The fillings and finishings of the libraries and refreshment rooms are 

 near completion. A considerable extent of joiners' work in ceilin<^s is 

 prepared : much of it is fixed, and other finishings are executed in other 

 portions of the building. 



Ten new committee rooms in the river front have been temporarily fitted 

 up for use since Easter. 



There are at present 1,276 men engaged upon the works of Ihe New 

 Palace, of whom 708 are employed at the building, 147 at the quarries, 

 228 at the government works at Thames-bank upon the joiners' finings 

 and wood carvings, and 193 upon miscellaneous works both at the building 

 and elsewhere. 



A Builders' Benevolent Institution is about being established for the 

 relief of decayed masters in the building business, and also for the relief 

 of workmen in the employ of a subscriber, who may meet with an 

 accident ; it is also proposed to establish Almshouses when an adequate 

 sum can be raised. 



No. 119.— Vol. X.— August, 1847. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS LXir. 



*' I must have liberty 

 Withal, as Urge a charier as the winds. 

 To blow on whom I please.** 



L " Why work we not as our forefathers wrought," is a question that wa. 

 put by Mr. Scott as the motto to his design for the Armv and Navy Club- 

 house. No doubt it is one which he considers unanswerable ; yet the design 

 itself furnished a tolerably conclusive reply, as did likewise one or two 

 others which appeared in similar architectural masquerade, having assumed 

 Ihe costume of medievalism. Clubs and Club-houses, however, are institu- 

 tions belonging exclusively to modern civilisation and refinement. In former 

 times, there was nothing whatever analogous to them, unless it were con- 

 vents,— ccenohitism, or living in common, and the exclusion of the society of 

 the other sex, being one great characteristic of both. Yet there all resem- 

 blance ends; modern coenobitism being of quite a different stamp from that 

 which was in vogue among our " forefathers." Everything has been meta- 

 morphosed— either greatly reformed or else grossly perverted. The Coffee- 

 room has taken place of the Refectory, and the epicurean carte has put 

 the meagre days of the " good ol.len times" to flight. Are the latter, then, 

 to be now restored ?— or are we to return to medievalism only by halves? 

 If we are to be archaic in our buildings, why not also in our dress, in cur 

 speech, in our amusements .' Why do we not dine as our forefathers dined ? 

 And we might go on adding question of the kind to question, till we asked : 

 why are we not our veritable forefathers themselves ?— Sentimental archieo- 

 mania is one of the fashions of the day, and one whose very extravagance 

 will sooner or later bring it into contempt, when it will be put on the same 

 shelf with bibliomania and other exploded follies. Like bibliomania itself, 

 archaeomania is— although it does nut alisolutelj exclude them— quite inde- 

 pendent of any knowledge of. or taste for, the intrinsic testhetic value 

 of the class of productions it concerns itself with. The one prides 

 itself upon estimating buildings as the other does books— by merely extrin- 

 sic circumstances, instead of judging of them by their architectural or 

 literary wcrth. The building may be rubbish, the book may be— rubbish 

 also ; but if the one can he proved to be of the date of the Conquest, the 

 other he a black-letter edition — pe.'haps an unique copy in the original 

 binding — your archaeomaniac and your bibliomaniac fall into ecstasies, — 

 that is, provided there he anybody present to witness them, such raptures 

 being themselves far too valuable to be acted in private. Your archfeo- 

 maniac will, perhaps, be able to lell you the date of every part of a cathe- 

 dral, and the names of all the respective bishops or other founiiers, together 

 with many other, no doubt, highly curious, yet altogether extrinsic, matters ; 

 but ask him for a critical elucidation of individual and aggregate beauties, 

 and he stares at you with contempt, if not with horror— probably the latter, 

 for he feels very uncomfortable in your company. Y'ou seem to expect 

 something like reasoning nous from him ; while he demands the unquestion- 

 ing admiration of implicit faith from you. — Go to ! you are a heretic ! 



II. Among the designs for the same building, namely, the Army and Navy 

 Club-house, was another Gothic one that was an absolute bargain; for, 

 although it showed a lofty structure, bristling with pinnacles, and crowded 

 with canopied niches and their statues, and the whole was to be executed in 

 real stone, the estimate was neither more nor less than the exact £30,000; 

 which rigourously prescribed sum was conscientiously adhered to by nearly 

 every one of the competitors, notwithstanding the prodigious difference of 

 the designs themselves, in regard to a great variety of circumstances aflFect- 

 ing cost. But, alas ! even such tempting bargain as the design alluded to, 

 did not tempt the gentlemen ol the Army and Navy Club. Perhaps they 

 rather looked at that and the other Giythic designs with con-tempt, as silly 

 o/-tempts to make them make monkeys of themselves, by aping the archi- 

 ture of monkery and monkish times. Let us not mock " our fi refathers," 

 by substituting mere mummery for art. 



III. We have outgrown mediffival architecture. It is a garb which, 

 besides that it ill accords with the rest of our social costume, would require 

 to be enlarged — to be both greatly lengthened and widened, in order to fit 

 it to the present stature of civilization. It may become the church well 

 enough, as being of the true clerical cut and "cloth." But for ordinary 

 purposes, and all sorts of purposes,- that is not to be thought of seriously. 

 Nevertheless, it is stated that the Carlsruhe Theatre, which was lately burnt 

 down, is to be rebuilt in the Gothic style— at least, some such idea is enter- ■ 



32 



