68 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL, 



[March, 



ever they be useless and are merely for show, the architect would have 

 certainly done well to have omitted them. 



Where there is much to praise it is very painful to have to find fault ; 

 truth and consistency however compel us to stato that there are many 

 things in the interior arrangement of the churcli wliich cannot be praiseil. 

 There are galleries intersecting the piers and blocking up the side 

 windows ; the shafts attached to the piers have poor bases which are 

 hoisted on a species of stilts to the level of the pew-seats. But above all 

 there is an appearance of unrca;;;;/, objectionable in all kinds of architec- 

 ture, but perfectly indefensible in that kind which ought to be the very 

 highest and most truihful— church architecture. The walls of the church 

 and of the staircases are coated with plaster on which black lines are 

 drawn to imitate, or rather, mimic the courses of real masonry. Some of 

 the window mouldings are "run" in cement, and are the more deceplive 

 because the mullions and corbels are of stone. The same remark applies 

 to the shafts attached to the piers, which are partly of stone and partly 

 imitations ; the piers themselves are all of plaster decorated with the black 

 lines aforesaid. The pews are of stained deal. Of the value of this ma- 

 terial we have pronounced a sudiciently explicit opinion in another part of 

 our present number. It may be added that here the coarse shapeless knots 

 of the wood and the harsh lines of the grain have a very disagreeable effect 

 The glazed and shining appearance of varnish is, to our taste at least, very 

 objectionable. This however is merely an individual opinion, — but it is a 

 matter of certainty that the effect is very unchurchlike. 



We regret also to find the appearance of sham windows — indentations or 

 shallow recesses in the plaster of the walls, with imitation hood-mouldings 

 in cement. In the exterior of the church there is also apparently an un. 

 truthfulness about the western side which is treated as if it were the 6/ic/v 

 of the church, (a church ought to have no back or inferior side,) for on this 

 side we find nothing but plain blank walls of masonry without ornament^ 

 and with a surface entirely unbroken, except by one or two very small 

 windows in the upper part. This defect is certainly not necessitated by 

 the site of the church, which is quite isolated. The western side is not 

 quite so conspicuous as the other sides, still it is far from being actually 

 concealed. There are indeed houses on the north side, but at such a 

 distance as to leave plenty of room for viewing the building in that direc- 

 tion. 



It is very tedious to have to repeat the same obvious truths over and 

 over again. But till the lesson is perfectly learned and practically exem- 

 plified we must not cease to set forth the truthfulness and honest sincerity 

 which the old builders scrupulously observed in their works. To express 

 a species of excessive vulgarity by a vulgar phrase, there is in modern 

 church-building a tendency to show-iiff, which is utterly repugnant to the 

 principles of good taste. And not only is this ostentation and afi'ectation 

 of fictitious magnificence contrary to reason, but it is agaiust precedent also. 

 The old architects uniformly used real materials and were never guilty of 

 leaving one side of a church poor and unembellished that they might lavish 

 richer ornaments on the conspicuous parts. Until our own times the 

 art of make-belief decoration has been monopolised by milliners and scene- 

 painters. 



We must not be understood to express these sentiments in an unfriendly 

 spirit. The architect of St. Michael's Church cannot be censured for the 

 existence of a widely-spread error which is doing the greatest possible in- 

 jury to architecture, and which we boldly affirm must be corrected before 

 the constructive arts cau regain their original excellence. At the same 

 time we must express regret that in the present case the architect should 

 have fallen in with a bad custom, and we sincerely hope to see many ex- 

 cellent works of his, as bold and effective in design as St. Michael's church, 

 but free from its faults in detail. 



There is one good arrangement with respect to the comfort of the future 

 congregation of the new church which must not be passed over. The 

 church is warmed by hot-air pipes, which are contained in channels in 

 the floors covered by grating. There is nothing like concealment here ; 

 the pipes honestly reveal their purpose — they are not concealed, but 

 they are put where they do not obtrude on the siglit, and are simply ren- 

 dered inconspicuous. W'e have no doubt that the titled cougrec^alion who 

 will frequent St. Michael's, will prefer this arrangement to the delightful 

 inventions of the Cambridge Camden Society. 



The first stone of the church was laid on the 20th of May 1S44, by the 

 present iMarquis of Westminster, who subscribed 5000/. towards the 

 building, and gave the fee simple of the site. The remainder of the cost 



must be raised by subscription before the church can be consecrated. There 

 is at present a deficiency of 5,200/., which includes the cost of an organ, 

 bell and clock, and of inclosing the church-yard. 



CHRIST CHURCH, PLYMOUTH. 



The accompanying illustration represents the elevation of a Cbapel-of- 

 ease recently erected in the parish of St. Andrew, Plymouth, from the de- 

 signs of Mr. Wiglitwick, to whose courtesy we are indebted for the sketch 

 from which our view is copied. Mr. Wightwickhas also favoured Ui with 

 some brief but very pertinent observations on the strictures which appeared 

 in the January and February numbers of this Journal, respecting the 

 manner in which light was obtained in the new building. He says, 



" I do not exactly see that a church united with other buildings is ne- 

 cessarily so beyond all successful treatment as you suppose. Is it quite 

 fair to call the only front that shows " a show front >" Is there any thing 

 " unchurchlike" in the " arrangement" by which I obtain light f viz., by a 

 clerestory ? 3rd!y. The adjacent buildings harmonise with the church in 

 style; the one being a residence of a simple Tudor character; and the 

 other a School-building literally belonging to the church. Furthermore the 

 building is but a Chapel-of-Ease." 



A\ ith respect to the use of the word " unchurchlike," we would observe 

 that it was meant to refer, not to the admission of light by clerestory win- 

 dows, but to the Bon-admission of it by aisle windows. It must be obvious 

 that wheu a church is lighted by clerestory windows alone, either the 

 amount of light obtained must be insufficient, or else these windows must 

 be so enlarged as to become very prominent features of the architecture, 

 or at all events, to lose that subordinate relation which they bear in ancient 

 churches. 



The omission of aisle windows has also this disadvantage, that the whole 

 of the north and south walls are broken and unbarred : and this again is con- 

 trary to precedent, for in ancient examples large surfaces of " dead" wall 

 are uniformly avoided. Another disadvantage arising from the same cause 

 is that the quantity of light obtained in the centre aisle must far exceed 

 that in the north and south aisles. In Christ Church the lateral aisles 

 contain galleries extending from the walls to the piers of the nave;* and it is 

 certainly against usage that a lateral aisle of a church should as in this 

 case be divided into two stories or compartments, each of which constitutes 

 a spacious wiodowless recess. 



Light obtained from upper windows alone produces an effect very dif- 

 ferent to that to which we are accustomed in Pointed Architecture. The 

 lights and shadows are, so to speak, reversed. This may seem at first 

 siglit an unimportant remark, and one rather of an artistic than architec- 

 tural nature, but if the reader will compare a building lighted by vertical 



* We h.id formerly undsrstoou ttiat these galleries did not iatersect the piers. 



