1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



263 



little doubt at all — on the contrary, feel most uncomfortable assurance 

 of our worst apprehensions being realized, unless some stir be made 

 in the matter. 



Sir Robert Smirke himself may be just as admirable an architect 

 as ever he was ; yet a change there may be, if not in him, in others : 

 the public have obtained some little more insight into architecture 

 than they possessed ten or twelve years ago, and what they would 

 then have thought very fine, they may now consider no more than 

 barely tolerable. The coming before or the coming after the new 

 Houses of Parliament, which ten years ago were not even so much 

 as dreamt of, makes a prodigious difference ; and not they alone, but 

 many other things have come up in the interim, which are likely to 

 take architectural precedence of the Museum. 



As the intended facade has been so very long delayed, it is to be 

 hoped that it will not now be hurried after all, but be delayed a little 

 longer until the public shall have been informed what the design 

 really is. Why should there be so much silence and secresy in regard 

 to it ? for if the making the inquiry we here recommend, would seem 

 to imply want of confidence in the architect's taste and ability, the 

 extreme reserve shown on his part, and that of those who are more 

 immediately concerned in the matter, equally implies very great mis- 

 trust in the design, and strong suspicion that it will not bear the test 

 of much examination. It therefore looks as if it were intended to 

 adopt the safer and more convenient course of evading public opinion 

 until it can interfere to no purpose, but merely express itself in post 

 facto grumblings. Let us not have another egregious instance of ar- 

 chitectural smuggling as to public buildings erected at the public 

 cost: there are by far too many such already; and the National Gal- 

 lery alone might operate as a corrective warning — certainly should 

 serve as one to the architect of the British Museum. 



The facade for the Museum still affords, as we have already ob- 

 served, an opportunity for a fine display of architecture, but whether 

 the opportunity will be fully turned to account, is what we must wait 

 to find out, when it will perhaps be discovered that comparatively 

 nothing has been made of it. Let us suppose, however, that the de- 

 sign is one of surpassing beauty: why then, we ask, should Sir 

 Robert, merely for the sake of taking the public by surprise, have 

 defrauded himself in the meanwhile of all the credit to be derived 

 from it, and which he might have begun to enjoy very long ago ? 

 Had the same system of close secresy been observed with regard to 

 the Houses of Parliament, Mr. Barry would not be altogether quite so 

 celebrated at present as he actually is. Of his edifice, we are per- 

 mitted in manner to enjoy the beauties by anticipation, and to applaud 

 the magnificence of the Victoria tower, that is to be. But in regard 

 to the is-to-be facade of the British Museum, nothing is suffered to 

 transpire, nor is curiosity allowed to be gratified. The only positive 

 information relative to it, afforded at present, is that furnished by a 

 ground-plan, published in a parliamentary report of 1838. From that, 

 we perceive that the main building will have a continued colonnade 

 in front, not extended in a single line from end to end, as in the facade 

 of the museum at Berlin, but breaking round the advanced extremi- 

 ties or wings, and forming in the recessed portion of the plan between 

 them, an octastyle, advanced one intercolumn, by an additional line 

 of columns in that part. So far, there will, no doubt, be considerable 

 richness and play in regard to columniation, and in that respect we 

 shall get a step farther than we have yet done in the Anglo-Grecian 

 architecture of our metropolis. Yet as provision seems to be made 

 for something more classical, all the more desirable is it that the most 

 should now be made of it, and that the idea should be perfectly 

 wrought up; otherwise the disappointment feltat perceiving how greatly 

 the whole falls short of what it will seem to have been intended to be, 

 will even convert the satisfaction derived from its good points into vex- 

 ation. The promise made by the plan, may be totally frustrated by 

 the elevation; and such will certainly be the case, should there, after 

 all, be nothing more to admire in the design than the circumstances 

 indicated in the former. If we are to look to the inner court as af- 

 fording a specimen of what the external order is to be, we feel no 

 eagerness at all to see the facade erected, nor even care if we ever 



behold it, since unless greatly better than that, the order will be 

 exceedingly unsatisfactory in character, and will pro»e all the more 

 so, because its tameness and dryness will be all the more offensive, in 

 consequence of the greater pretension made by the columniation 

 itself. Something more than Sir Robert's formal stereotype Ionic is 

 here required— something far more worthy of the particular occasion, 

 which is no every-day one. Let him, therefore, for once venture to 

 disregard scrupulous adherence to the authority of precedent, and 

 give us upon his own authority what may be quoted as a precedent by 

 others. He can very well afford to do so, since he has long ago done 

 enough to fully establish his character as a "classical" copyist, and 

 has yet to convince us that he can be anything more than a copyist. 

 Merely to do again what he has already done so oft before, can hardly 

 add another laurel to his wreath. Let him then forget his Post Office 

 Ionic, his College of Physician Ionic, and all his other various (?) 

 Ionics, and now give us an example of what may be made of an order 

 whose " capabilities " are by no means so exhausted as to afford no 

 fresh ideas. At all events let him bestow some study and greater 

 finish upon his entablature, and let him by all means be less grudging 

 of cornice. Some enrichment of frieze, and sculpture in the pediment 

 if there is to be one, as we suppose there is, over the central octa- 

 style— would not be amiss, more especially as we have at present no 

 one example in the metropolis, in which sculpture is applied in both 

 ways. 



There is, indeed, one thing in the plan that is so far from promising 

 well, as to be very ominous, which is, that there will be windows 

 throughout within the colonnades. Even if rendered ornamental fea- 

 tures in themselves, such apertures must prove injurious to the ge- 

 neral composition, and at variance with its columnar and polystyle 

 character; besides which, windows are by no means the architect's 

 forte, nor does he ever attempt to turn them to account in his designs. 

 Such being the case, instead of making any favourable promise, the 

 windows rather threaten to prove blemishes and positive defects, and 

 to render the facade little more than a variation of that of the Post 

 Office, a respectable quaker-like building, encased in columns ; conse- 

 quently, though both the one and the other may be unexceptionable in 

 themselves, the combination is likely to prove very unsatisfactory 

 unless it turn out in this instance something very different indeed from 

 previous specimens, by the same architect. Very much, indeed, will 

 depend upon a variety of circumstances in the elevation, which, even 

 were we acquainted with them, can no more be described than can all 

 the traits and lineaments that contribute to make up the general air 

 and expression of a countenance, and which, though taken singly, 

 seem of no importance, are in reality of the greatest, with regard to 

 the ensemble and the general impression made by it. 



Willing to entertain hopes, we feel that we have very great cause 

 for fears, and not least of all on account of the reserve manifested 

 on the one hand, and the indifference on the other, relative to the 

 intended facade, notwithstanding that so very much depends upon it, 

 because it is that, and that alone, which can now be made to render 

 the building one of " monumental" aspect externally — and by " monu- 

 mental," we mean something more than that degree of it derived 

 from size and material, or from the mere introduction of columns. 

 We have a right to look for even very much more than negative merit 

 upon such an occasion, since should we obtain no more than that, the 

 building will prove if not exactly an architectural failure, another la- 

 mentable instance of a noble and rare opportunity that will have been 

 nearly flung away. 



If — as is very likely — our remarks shall be thought to exceed the 

 due limits of criticism, by prejudging what is not yet in existence, 

 and by imputing to it defects imagined by ourselves, we do not pretend 

 to say that such is in no degree the case. Our saying anything at all 

 may be officious, impertinent interference ; but let there then no longer 

 be any room for making unfavourable and ominous surmises, as there 

 certainly is at present. As to forming a judgment beforehand, that is 

 matter of very little difficulty or uncertainty where Sir Robert Smirke 

 is employed, for all his productions have so little character except 

 that derived from his peculiar mannerism, that it is hardly possible to 



