1846.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



293 



THE BOARD OF TRADE, WHITEHALL. 

 fjnth an Engraving, Plate XV.J 



■ffe have reserved till now, when we exhibit an elevation of it, our re- 

 marks on the " Board of Trade," as it was originally designed by Soane, and 

 we may commence them by observing that though he selected a singularly 

 ornate and highly finished example of the Corinthian and adhered to it with 

 that literal exactness which though merely belonging to the province of 

 architectural orthography, is allowed to pass for a positive merit, he deviated 

 widely from — at least did not at all enter into, the spirit of it. Were the 

 rest of the elevation shown before the columns were put in, hardly would it be 

 imagined that the latter were to be of the Corinthian order, least of all that 

 example of it ; or rice versa, were it the order that was drawn in first, we 

 ibould naturally anticipate a corresponding degree of richness for the other 

 features, whereas they are of such marked plainness as to be both inconsistently 

 and aflTectedly so. It is rather strange that as he did not intend to keep up to 

 tone of the order, he did not adopt the middle coarse of sobering it down to 

 that of the rest, preserving its proportions and profiles, but retrenching its 

 luxniiance. But like many others, Soane was content to take orders and 

 apply them just as he found them without endeavouring to make them in- 

 fluence the composition. He could copy Corinthian columns — and we are 

 certainly indebted to him for the introduction of the Tivoli example — but 

 fae had no clear perception of Corinthianism, still less of lonicism, for his 

 Ionics are intolerable. 'With all the originality, too, that he possessed, or 

 had the credit of possessing, he does not appear to have ever turned any of 

 it to the composition of a well studied and carefully devised example of his 

 own, — we say example, for we are not so absurd as to expect any one to 

 originate and perfect a new style of order — a preposterous idea that has 

 proved a stumbling-block to those who have attempted to do so, and whose 

 extravagant and tasteless conceits have caused those to exult who comfort 

 themselves with that good old orthodoxy which spares them all trouble of 

 invention, and which by making the whole profession mere copyists in re- 

 gard to the orders, puts all of them so far upon the same level. — But all this 

 may pass for digression, and we therefore break away from it. 



In his " Board of Trade," Soane kept up uniformity of intercolumniation, 

 but not to the very great advantage of that portion which had insulated 

 columns, the latter being like the attached ones, four diameters apart ; which 

 occasioned in the building what does not show itself in an elevation, more 

 especially an outline one, namely, a certain degree of meagreness as to co- 

 lumniation, at variance with the character of richness aimed at by it, and 

 certaiuly at variance with the intercolumniation in the original example, 

 where it is only one diameter and a half. Another disadvantage was that 

 the effect of shadow was greatly diminished in consequence of the width of 

 the intercolumns. What is more, those advanced columns were quite as 

 parasitical, and more decidedly for mere embellishment than the others, for 

 instead of the order being a portion of the building, it was merely stuck up 

 against it, the entablature being actually detached from it, and having imme- 

 diately behind it small windows to a mezzanine floor. It would seem there- 

 fore that those columns were brought forward chiefly in order that the en- 

 tablature might be so also, for the purposing of masking the unsightly aper- 

 tures required in so ungainly a situation. As an expedient in urgent neces- 

 sity, such Concealment of what would else have blemishes, might have passed 

 for ingenious and legitimate, had not the artifice manifested as much bungling 

 as contrivance by being allowed to show itself; whereas had the sofiit of the 

 entablature been closed up, it would not have been even suspected, while at 

 the same time by the entablature being hollowed out, so as to form a mere 

 parapet in front of those windows, the light to them would have been hardly 

 at all obstructed. 



In one respect the fenestration of Soane's building was praiseworthy, for 

 the heads of the second tier of windows and their dressings — in builders' 

 phraseology those of the " one-pair" — did not break into the line of the 

 capitals of the columns, owing to which the latter display themselves with 

 more dignity. Nor can we help being of opinion that in this particular point 

 Mr. Barry has not improved upon the original design. We expressed some 

 disapprobation last month of the infraction of linear harmony by the second 

 floor windows being allowed to rise up between the capitals of the order, but 

 we did not mention — in fact had not then considered how the difficulty was 

 to be overcome, the columns being just of the same height as before, and 

 the windows in question considerably taller. As to difficulty, indeed, there 

 was no such word in the case, nothing being more easy of accomplishment, 



No. loa.— Vol. IX.— October, 1846. 



for there was only to raise the columns to the level of the window balus- 

 trades, which done, their bases would have ranged with the sills of the first 

 floor windows, and their capitals would have cleared the line of the top of 

 the upper windows. The building would thus have gained an addition of 

 three feet in height, which increase would hardly, we conceive, have been 

 an objection, though decrease of height, to the same extent, might very justly 

 have been so. 



Soane's attic looked more like an after thought, and excrescence than as 

 having been designed in conjunction with the order. Instead of contributing 

 any of that play of outline and concomitant piquancy of composition, which 

 so happily mark some portions of the Bank, it produced only monotonous 

 and spiritless heaviness. If that be any great merit, it was certainly free 

 from Soaneisms, but unluckily when Soane was not somewhat oddly fanciful 

 he was dull, and sometimes even without a decent idea at command. We 

 have, however, his architectural autograph here in some of the chimneys, 

 which have certainly more of Soane than of Corinthianism in them. Pity 

 that with his ambition to he original, he got out of the beaten track only by 

 fits and starts ; he jumped out of it onlyto jump back into it again, or only to 

 jump about the new track he thought he had discovered, but without making 

 any progress in it. He had ideas of his own, but he was apt to put them 

 forth to the public in too raw a state, and he almost invariably left some 

 grating incongruity — some trait of littleness and meanness in every thing he 

 did. His choicest piece of design was the Loggia forming the north-west 

 angle of the Bank — from which, most strange to say, no one has ever taken 

 an artistic lesson in composition. 



FENESTRATION AND WINDOWS. 



SECOND ARTICLE. 



Although there are other characteristics which more or less strongly 

 mark Gothic exteriors, particularly in regard to outline and composition, 

 it is in the apertures alone that the arch, which prevails throughout the 

 entire organization of the interior of the fabric (at least, in ecclesi2istical 

 edifices), manifests itself externally, for open arcades corresponding to 

 porticoes, on the outside of buildings are of such exceedingly rare occur- 

 rence in the Pointed style, as to be only exceptions. We shall perhaps be 

 reminded of the open arches of porches; but they belong to doorways, 

 and do not form continuous arcades, of which latter, however, or what 

 may else be called a portico of three lofty arches, the front of Peterborough 

 cathedral affords an instance, and is accordingly very remarkable. This 

 comparative absence of the arch from exterior situations has led Schnaase 

 — if we mistake not the writer — to give it as his opinion that the Pointed 

 style seems to have been calculated chiefly for internal effect, inasmuch as 

 it is within buildings that it displays itself in all its completeness and with 

 perfect homogeneousness — not in doors and windows alone, but in a suc- 

 cession of arches, combined with vaulting and its arched surfaces. Ex- 

 ternally, therefore, windows are valuable features, because strongly ex- 

 pressive of the style, even should there be, as is sometimes the case, very 

 little besides to indicate it. Nor is it only on account of the presence of 

 the arch in them that they are thus expressive, for in the later Perpendicu- 

 lar the arch is sometimes almost lost, or even entirely so as regards the 

 general form of the aperture, since square- headed windows occur even in 

 ecclesiastical buildings as well as in secular ones; notwithstanding which, 

 the character and constitution peculiar to Gothic windows are strictly kept 

 up. It becomes necessary to consider in what respect Gothic windows 

 are differently constituted from others, and so very much more advantage- 

 ously, that what renders them both highly characteristic and orna- 

 mental externally, renders them also such internally, or vketersi. Per- 

 haps the matter is so exceedingly obvious as to require neither considera- 

 tion at all, nor explanation, — at least it would seem to be so, for we do 

 not recollect to have seen it adverted to by any one of the numerous wri- 

 ters on the subject; nevertheless, we will, at the risk of putting forth an 

 oflicious and superfluous observation, lay it down as the distinguishing 

 constitution of Gothic windows, when the style is fully developed, that 

 tbey consist not of one, but of many apertures united together into a 

 general composition. However large they may be — and they may be 

 extended to any practicable dimensions — they are not mere gaps in the 

 wall ; 00 the contrary, the larger they are the more decorative they be- 



38 



