184(5.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



261 



HOME OFFICE, BOARD OF TRADE, &c., WHITEHALL. 

 CJI'ilh an Engraving, Plate XIII) 



Twofold interest attaches to this subject heeause, as it exhibits a rifaccia- 

 nento — sire-dreasing, so to call it, of the former csterior, while the structure 

 itself remains in other respects nearly as before, we have to consider not only 

 the building as it now presents itself, but also what it has replaced. We 

 have, besides, here a very remarkable ease, — that of a building of quite re- 

 cent date being subjected to complete alteration ; while many others that 

 might he materially improved by a much slighter degree of it — some of them 

 even by a few corrections, remain in statu quo with all their blemishes : let 

 US hope therefore that the example thus set will not he thrown away. Sir 

 John Soane himself, we dare say, would not greatly have relished the idea 

 of his " Board of Trade" coming to a second edition after his death ; more 

 especially as it was, with the exception of the " Bank," his principal and 

 best work : but his design is now expunged, and what is more, after other 

 things will have disappeared — as will shortly be the case — the front of his 

 own house in Lincoln's Inn Fields will remain and be preserved intact to 

 posterity as a monument of his taste. Hardly could Soane have conceived 

 it to be at all possible that any thing which he had done should pass away, 

 or else he would doubtless have ensured the perpetuity of his designs and 

 ideas by means of the graver. It is true he did publish many of them in a 

 folio volume, but they are so incorrect and exceedingly rude in execution, 

 many of them of such paltrily diminutive size, and altogether so insufficient 

 and unsatisfactory, as to be in some respects worse than nothing — more in- 

 jurious to his reputation than the contrary. Were they to he judged of from 

 jhat work alone, it must hereafter be thought that at the time of its pro- 

 duction, both architectural drawing and engraving were at the lowest ebb 

 in this country, since with all his wealth, and also his soUcitude about his 

 works, Soane could find no artists capable of doing them justice. — And here 

 we may just remark en passant Hitt engraving might almost as well be ex- 

 tinct among us, for any advantage that is now taken of it by English archi- 

 tects, wo hhave executed structures, that if adequately represented would ob- 

 tain for them celebrity where their names are now not so much as heard of. 



In the volume above alluded to, there is a plate containing several varia- 

 tions or different ideas of the design of the " Board of Trade," including the 

 one adopted, hut they are upon so preposterously small a scale (attached 

 scale there is none) — the entire height, 54 feet, being only j% of an inch, — 

 that they are mere diagrams, from which no more can be made out than the 

 general composition, and the number of columns and windows. There would 

 have been no harm in giving that plate, had there been also another showing 

 the executed elevation at large, or rather only so much of it as could be 

 shown on the largest scale the size of the plate would admit of ; whereas 

 now only the mere skeleton of, the elevation is there given, all its lineaments 

 being suppressed. In the " Illustrations of the Public Buildings of Loudon," 

 again, it is shown very unsatisfatorily, — only a small oulline perspective 

 view ; wherefore we purpose to record it faithfully next month in another 

 engraving, in like manner and upon the same scale as the present one of 

 Mr. Barry's new front to the Board of Trade. 



Were there nothing else satisfactory, it would be so to know that the 

 building will now forthwith be carried on northward as far as Dover-house, 

 and the entire facade at length completed, as perhaps it would have been 

 done before ; had it not been for a most strange oversight in setting out the 

 line of front, owing to which the North Pavilion could not have been erected 

 without advancing considerably upon the pavement. Therefore if that really 

 was an oversight on the part of Soane — and we can account for it no other 

 way he has been punished for it, since the consequence of it may have 

 decided for remodelling the fa9ade in order to get rid of the advanced hexa- 

 ityles at its extremities. Besides which, even had there been no obstacle to 

 completing the building according to Soane's design, it would, when so ex- 

 tended to half as much again in length, have looked still lower than it did : 

 whereas now there will be better proportion in the ensemble, and the entire 

 fa9ade will form a noble mass, — one that will show admirably well in itself, 

 but which will perhaps overpower that little architectural gem Dover-house, 

 and will certainly cause the Horse Guards (that is, its street front) and Ad- 

 miralty to look more indignified than ever. In one respect, indeed, the con- 

 trast is an agreeable one, inasmuch as Mr. Barry's new piece of architecture 

 shows, as compared with the two last-mentioned structures, the very great 

 improvement that has taken place ail at once in the quality of official and 



No. 108.— Vol.. IX.— September, 184C. 



government buildings, which have hitherto been mostly made jobs of, and 

 instead of conducing to the advance of taste, have in some instances been 

 quite discreditable to the nation. The National Gallery stands a monument 

 of the wretched system of doing things of the kind by halves : either a great 

 deal too much was there attempted, or a great deal too little done ; and should 

 any thing more now ever be done to it, the expense will be very much greater 

 than if it had been done properly at first, for there will be much to correct 

 as well as to supply. 



In the present instance every thing has been done most liberally : we have 

 got, not as repeatedly before, what might have been good, or a good thing 

 spoilt, but a really excellent one — a very superior example of its particular 

 style, one that is thoroughly studied, and which therefore both deserves and 

 cannot fail to become an instructive study and authority. While elaborately 

 ornate it is marked by such refined taste, that rich as it is, it is the very re- 

 verse of tawdry. Numerous as the details are, there is not one that seems 

 to have been neglected, or not to have been carefully considered by the 

 architect. The whole and every part appears to have been done with relish 

 — with true gusto, — without which, what is called art is only manufacture. 

 If there be any thing which we could wish had been otherwise, it is, that 

 the heads of the second floor windows had not been carried up quite so high, 

 because they now break into the line of the lower edge of the capitals of the 

 columns, which if not actually objectionable, is what is much better avoided ; 

 and no doubt Mr. Barry would have done so, had he not been over-ruled in 

 that particular. 



It is quite unnecessary for us to enter into a minute architectural descrip- 

 tion, because the engraved elevation, from Mr. Barry's own drawings, is 

 upon such a scale that even the details are shown sufficiently distinctly, — an 

 advantage that very far outweighs that of having the entire front represented 

 in a plate of the same size. Had there been a marked central feature — one 

 principal in the composition, the case might have been different j but as there 

 is not, it being the extremities alone that are distinguished from the rest, 

 and that only by the addition of an attic, both the composition itself is clearly 

 enough made out, and the character of the whole intelligibly conveyed by 

 as much of the elevation as is here represented, — which is rather less than 

 half, there being thirteen windows on a floor, between the two end pavilions. 

 To remove all doubt as to one point, that might otherwise be felt by those 

 unacquainted with the building itself, we should observe that the middle 

 compartment resembles the others, there being not even so much as an en- 

 trance there to mark it out at once to the eye as the centre. Perhaps a 

 doorway there, of more ornate design than the others, either in addition to 

 the four present ones, or as a substitute for the two in the middle division 

 of the fafade, might have been an improvement, but Mr. Barry was obliged 

 to conform to the number and situation of the entrances determined by 

 Soane's plan. There is also one peculiarity which has been forced upon him, 

 in order to accomplish the raising of the columns to the level of the first 

 floor ; for they are placed upon projecting breaks or piers in the ground 

 floor, that serve as pedestals to them ; had not which been done, the thick- 

 ness of the wall there must have been very greatly increased. While these 

 breaks below produce a certain degree of variety and richness, they are in 

 conformity with the treatment observed for the order itself, whose entabla- 

 ture is now made to break over the columns, and thereby, itself conforms to 

 the treatment of the order, both the columns and their immediate portions 

 of the entablature, being "engaged." Whether such effect has been an in- 

 tentional or incidental result, this continuation of breaks upwards, throws a 

 strong expression of verticality into the design, more especially at its ex- 

 tremities, where the vertical lines are prolonged by the attic pilasters, and 

 their breaking cornices, and after being further carried on by the pedestals 

 in the halustrading, terminate in the pyramidal vase-shaped acroteria. 



The character of the rustication for the ground floor or basement of the 

 order, has moreover been influenced and determined by the necessity for 

 breaks in it, below the columns, it being thus reduced to nearly horizontal 

 channels alone, with only a single vertical one in the alternate courses of 

 each pier : what is here done however explains itself, and the effect is very 

 different from that monotonous and jo/a/ii-like appearance (without any in- 

 dication of bond in masonry) which takes place when horizontal channels 

 alone are continued uninterruptedly on the surface of a wall, without auv 

 jointing. In both the order itself and the attic, the rustication is treated 

 with some degree of novelty, the channels not being continued quite up to 

 the columns, but stopping against the edge of a narrow plain surface ; where- 

 by the rustics themselves are let into a sort of upright panel, not wider tiiaa 



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