IS17.] 



THE CIViL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



265 



BUCKINGHAM PALACE. 



(With an Engraving, Plate XIV.) 

 Although we exhibit the Park front of tlje new range of bnilding which 

 is being added to tlie Palace, we are unable to speak as to more than i!s 

 exterior, the designs presented to Parliament being nnaocompanieil by any 

 description or any explanatory Report by the architect himself, notwith- 

 Standing that something of the kind, in addition to drawings, might 

 properly enough have been " presented to both Houses of Parliament by 

 command of her Majesty." We therefore, not being so intuitively saga- 

 cious in matters of architecture as, it would seem, tiie two " Houses" are, 

 are greatly at a loss to understand a variety of particulars that ought to 

 be taken into consideration, for we do not get even so much as a single 

 plan to make us acquainted with Ihe general interior arrangements, and to 

 enable us to judge how far Mr. Blore has been controlled by positive 

 exigencies of accommolalion, to the injury of external character,— which 

 latter, if the truth may be spoken, is but ordinary in quality and common- 

 place in regard to composition. Had it been for what is called a " Ter- 

 race," or the side of a square, or any similar range of houses combined 

 into a general architectural fac^ade, the elevation might deserve the epithet 

 " palatial," whereas being for the principal public front of The Palace, it 

 partakes by far loo much of "the dwelling-house" physiognomy, undoubt- 

 edly of a superior kind. Besides being divided into five markedly dis- 

 tinct porlions, that have the look of being so many separate residences, 

 each with its own entrance, Ihe fapade is in one respect, if no other, 

 greatly less dignified than some of our club-houses, the latter not having— 

 at least, not showing externally— any chamber-floor, or one of lodging- 

 rooms, over the principal floor ; whereas here, there not only is such floor, 

 but it is made quite as important as the other, so that except what distinc- 

 tion it receives from its window-dressings, instead of plainly expressing 

 itself as a lofty slate floor, that first-floor is made of no more imporlance 

 than the one over it. For want of plans, we cannot say whether such is 

 really the case or not, but it does look very much as if, inslead of contain- 

 ing a ball-room and other additional state apartments for public entertain- 

 ments, the new building was intended to consist entirely of offices in its 

 lower part, and in its upper one to aflord the same sort of residence and 

 lodging accommodation as has hitherto been provided in the original wings 

 of the palace ; and as if the latter— the south one at least— was now to be 

 cleared out and converted into a ball-room, &c., in immediate connection 

 with the present grand staircase Unless one of the wings is to be en- 

 tirely re-arranged internally, we do not see how there can be any suitable 

 communication between Ihe present state apartmenis and any others in the 

 new building. By referring to the plan of Buckingham Palace, as given 

 in the second edition of "The Public Buildings of London," it will be 

 seen that by forming an approach from the grand staircase into Ihe spacious 

 octagon room on that side, converting that octagon into an ante-saloon to a 

 ball-room or other spacious and lofty hall for public enlerlainmenis, made 

 to occupy the %vhole of that wing and what will be added in depth by the 

 new buil<ling (making allogether about 250 feet from the octagon I, a most 

 important addition might have been made to existing state apartments, in 

 (heir immediate propinquity, but at Ihe same time so as to keep the one 

 suite perfectly independent of the other, at the same time allowing them 

 both to be thrown open at once, with direct communication l)etween them 

 whenever the occasion might require it. The arrangement we have pointed 

 out could hardly fail to be productive of an unusual degree of archilectural 

 display- uf boih eliect and climax, even were the 230 feet of length from 

 Ihe octagon divided into two halls of entertainment, a larger and smaller 

 one, the former being of course placed last. But we ourselves are now 

 building— not exactly a palace, but a mere castle in the air. We must 

 therefore, be content to let what we have been saying pass for mere moon.' 

 shine. 



Said, perhaps, it may be, that after all, the public need not give them- 

 selves any concern whatever about internal arrangement and accommoda- 

 tion ; since all that will fall to their share will be exiernal appearance 

 alone. One circumstanne will certainly be in favour of the New Build- 

 ing, namely, it being about ten or twelve feet higher, and being advanced 

 so much forwarder it will show itself more conspicuously; at Ihe same 

 time, owing to its forming a single general mass, it will not possess any 

 play of perspeclive, nor any of that relief and contrast of light and shade 

 which now take place when the sun strikes on one of the wings on ils side 

 towards the court while the rest is in shadow. The aspect of the Park 



No. 120.— Vol. X.— September, 18-17. 



front of the Palace is certainly an unfortunate one,* it being such as lo 

 render that facade a mass of shadow, — an inconvenience which it has been 

 attempted to keep out of sight in the pictorial perspective vievv accom- 

 panymg the two elevations by a device far more ingenious than praise- 

 worthy, the sun being there made to shine upon the building from the 

 north-east, which gr.iphic fiction, besides setting oil' the east front itself to 

 full advantage, performs the very good-natured service also of throwing 

 into shadow the south side,— whereas, in reality, the efl"ect will be just 

 the reverse, since the latter, which forms no architectural fafade at all, but 

 is, on the contrary, an arrant jumble, will be lit up by the sun, while the 

 Park facade will be buried in shadow. Nevertheless, such is the truth- 

 fulness of a drawing " presented to both Houses of Parliament," in order 

 to enlighten their aesthetic optics. For our part, we very much question 

 if any of those noble personages who affixed their signatures to what Wiis 

 presented to them, so much as noticed the fiction palmed upon them. 



Having to contend with an unfavourable aspect, Mr. Blore ought to 

 have exercised his ingenuily by studying how not only to overcome that 

 disadvantage, but elicit some unusual effects. He might have taken a 

 hint from those exceedingly picturesque bits of architecture, the open 

 loggias in Ihe Terrace fapade of Somerset place. Somelhiug of that kind, 

 admitting a brilliant light through a double range of columns seen in bold 

 relief against the sky (for the buildings in ihe rear would not be visible), 

 would have imparled no small degree of scenic vivacity to the whole 

 fayade. Nor would such arrangemeut have necessarily destroyed all 

 communication between Ihe rooms on the principal floor, because such 

 communication might have been sufliciently kept up by means of a corri- 

 dor practised behind the loggia, carried up only so hi^h as not to be visi- 

 ble from the Park. Had there been any opeuing of the sort through the 

 centre of the new building, it would surely have conduced very much to 

 the cheerfulness of the inner court and the view from the portico and 

 looms on each side of it in the body of the palace, by admitting a glimpse 

 of the trees in the park, between the columns. t At present, unwelcome 

 as the truth may be, and ungracious as it may sound, we must say that 

 the architect does not seem to have studied Ihe subject at all ; on the con- 

 trary, to have taken up with the very first ideas that presented themselves. 

 Most assuredly, he has stolen none from luigo Jones's designs for White- 

 hall, nor — not to go out of our own country — has he caught auy of that 

 grandiosity which stamps Greenwich Hospital— a pile that, alihough not 

 faultless in taste, has infinitely more the airof a royal palace than anything 

 we now have, not even Windsor Castle excepted. Had Jlr. Blore been 

 compelled to adhere as nearly as possible lo the character of what had 

 been before done, that consideration might have mitigated criticism ; but 

 for excuse of that kind he has left himself no room whatever, the new 

 building being treated quite differently, yet in such manner as to leave it 

 very questionable whether the d fference amounts upon tho whole to much 

 improvement ; — it most decidedly does not so much as the opportunity 

 afforded. In one respect, there will be even more littleness than before, 

 owing to a low entresol «iih a series of small windows being here intro- 

 duced between the ground flour and first-fluor. That entresol, no doubt, 

 supplies a great deal of accommodation for doineslics, but in the front of 

 a royal palace, and what is in this case the only public frout of it, such 

 triviallies should not be allowed to iutrude. In such, couvenience ought 

 to give way to dignity, and be provided for elsewhere ; just as a sovereign 

 must frequently sacrifice his own comfort and personal indulgence to state 

 and give an audience when he would much raiher lake a nap. 



* Unfortunate, too. it is ttiat that of the River front of the Palace of Westminster, 

 affl of the new Treasury buildinus is just the same; nor. .ilthough different, is that of 

 the Club-houses in Pail-Alall much better. Ho\ve\ergood they maybe i[i themselves, 

 buildings 60 circumstanced may be compared to good pictures hung in a very h.id tight! 

 We may perceive what the details are, bat they do uot produce the intended effect,— not 

 that which they do when the sun does (all upon them, vvliich for about one half of the 

 year it does not do at all at any time of the day. Aspect, however, notwithstaurling all 

 that is said about it, does not seem to be taken into account at all— not even so much aa 

 tliouuht of for a moment in designing a fapade. Hence, while we often see bareness in 

 fronts fully exposed to the sun. and where ornament would cousequentlyshowilseil well 

 we sometimes see a great deal of excellent detail almost all but quite thrown away upoa 

 others where owing to want of requisite light it does not produce any adequate degree of 

 effect. 



I We have now before us upon paper three several ideas, ail widtly ditfering ia other 

 respects, but all agreeing in providing a strilcing degree of effect of the kind mentioned. 

 One of them extends the fapade as far as the extremity of the present small Uuric col 

 lonoades. bo as to obtain a 'corps de logis' no'th and south, of about 2(J0 feet frontage 

 and connects those two masses of habitable building by a magnificent Coriutliian col 

 lonnade on the level of the state floor, entirely open in its upper"|>art. but having the iii- 

 tercolumns filled in, both towards the court and tue Park, for r..ther more ihan hilf their 

 height, by l>eing glazed with brilliant stained glass, the effect or which, with the sun on 

 the opposite side, could not fail ti> be most splendid. Internally, that part would form a 

 conserv;itory or winter-garden, into which one of the new state rooms for evening enter- 

 tainments would . pen ; accordingly, when lit up ol an evening, on any such occssion' 

 the appearance would have been that ot a superb iltumioatiou, with a series of glovvins 

 transparencies* 



sc- 



