1846.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEEERAND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



329 



FENESTRATION AND WINDOWS. 



THIRD ARTICLE. 



Id returning to our subjeet we sliall not pursue any farther our remarks 

 on FeueslratioD in cnauection with modern church architecture, because we 

 purpose going into the latter subject generally, and inquiring how far it is 

 adviseable entirely to repudiate for buildings of that class, the Greco-Roman 

 style, instead of taking it up again with a fresh and better spirit, so as to 

 infuse into it renewed vitality. We will, however, just advert here to one 

 unseemly defect which deforms most of our churches in that style — if, in- 

 deed, they can be said to belong to it, very few of them possessing what 

 can fairly be called style at all. Ale allude to the practice of making a 

 row of small mezzanine-looking windows beneath the others, to the great 

 injury of character, composition, and breadth, and of unity likewise, for 

 such little windows seem to express a division of the building into distinct 

 floors within, and appear to belong to low ground-floor rooms intended for 

 inferior purposes. At any rate such apparent division of the structure 

 must be considered an indefensible solecism by those who make it an ob- 

 jection against St. Paul's, that its exterior is divided into two orders. In 

 some cases, indeed, the practice in question is harmless enough, there being 

 neither beauty nor pretension to it, nor any kind of architectural quality to 

 be injured by it ; but in St. Pancras' church the small lower windows are 

 glaringly and olfensively at variance with the scrupulous — perhaps some- 

 what over-scrupulous adherence to the original classical pattern, which, 

 unluckily, not going far enough for the occasion was eked out with some 

 " ready cut and dried," but not very classical ideas. 



From what we have just been saying the transition will not be very abrupt, 

 if we now proceed to consider one very material point in Fenestration with 

 regard to composition. We have already said that interfenestral breadth 

 is one great requisite for good fenestration — almost essential fur greatness 

 of manner and dignity of character, and have now to observe that there 

 ought to be " breadth" in both directions — vertically as well as horizontally, 

 for if there be not corresponding largeness of spacing between the several 

 tiers of windows or Soors of the building, as well as between the windows 

 on each separate floor, the design will so far partake of littleness and be of 

 the ordinary stamp. Quite contrary to vulgar opinion it may safely be laid 

 down as a maxim that dignity of expression in architecture is in inverse ratio 

 to the number of windows or aggregate superficies of opening compared 

 with the general surface of the building or entire elevation. It is not the 

 frequency, but the paucity of windows that conduces to nobleness of phy- 

 siognomy in architecture; whereas, on the other hand, that quality — the 

 unquestionable aristocratic mark — can hardly be maintained at all where 

 inflexible necessity demands closely-spaced fenestration. No matter what 

 size a building be, without something like greatness of scale, — nobleness of 

 taste of course included, — its greatness will amount to no more than the 

 vulgar quality of mere bigness. And unfortunately — or rather, fortunately, 

 grandeur of scale is what cannot be mimicked or counterfeited. It is not 

 to be produced by clubbing a number of ordinary-sized houses together 

 into one elevation, for the individual littleness leavens the whole mass, and 

 the larger the latter is, all the more strongly does the littleness which it is 

 attempted to disguise, contrast wiih the more than ordinary pretension that 

 is made so indiscreetly and so awkwardly. 



The two houses facing each other at the Albert Gate, Hyde Park, seem 

 to have been expressly intended to make manifest the striking dlHerence 

 of character produced by closely or widely spaced fenestration ; for though 

 they are of the same size, and in other respects alike, while that on the 

 East side is only three windows in breadth, the opposite one is of five, and 

 the very superior appearance of the former must, we think, strike every 

 one who has the slightest tincture of architectural taste.* Yet if so far 

 that East house excels as well as differs from the opposite one, in another 

 it resembles it in regard to fenestration, and perhaps even to greater disad- 

 vantage, it becoming in consequence of unequal character,insoninch as it 

 consists of the same number of stories, therefore the rertical interfenestra- 

 tionf is not so good as the horizontal, owing to there being too many tiers of 



* Since it was first erected, howeyer, tlie front of that liouse has been most barbarously 

 distigured by one of the ground- floor windows being enlar(;ed, without the sliglitest re- 

 gard to appearance in any one respect. The house seems to have fallen into the hands 

 »f some tavern-keeper. 



t We make no apology for coining and employing what some will object to as " new- 

 fangled" words : they are sufEciently intelligible and expressive, and being expressive are 

 nstful. Well grounded objec ion there may be to the merely disturbing the torniinology 

 of the art by the revival of obsolete terms in lieu of thoae in general use, or by substitut- 

 ing for the latter, others which if more correct are ouly equiraieut to them ; but it is 



windows, and they are put too closely together— or in other words, and to 

 express our meaning by a single term, the interfenestration in that direction 

 is thickset, or pycno-fenestration ; and, as has been already observed by 

 us, although pycno-style columniatioa produces richness, pycno fenestra- 

 tion is generally attended by an air of littleness, if not of meanness. Ex- 

 cept in Gothic— the Perpendicular and Tudor styles, also Elizabethan, 

 wherein fenestration may without impropriety be carried to any extent, it 

 being, as we have already said, highly characteristic and expressive also of 

 construction,— crowded fenestration produces confusion, and a great deal 

 more than the space properly admits of, seems to be crammed into a front. 

 As an instance of the kind— an example that forcibly illustrates what we 

 have just said, we may point to the group of three tall stone-fronted houses 

 erected a year or two ago in Grosvenor Place : intended to be more than 

 ordinarily dignified, they are so terribly deficient in amplitude of propor- 

 tions, as to look compressed and crushed horizontally, while loftiness is 

 obtained not by lofty proportions, but merely by piling up an unusual 

 number of stories. Another example of the ad evitandum class is the Alias 

 Insurance Office, Cheapside, and a remarkable one it is for mesquinerie 

 and tastelessness both in regard to fenestration and to columniation also. 

 We will not at present touch upon what some are altogether intoleiant of, 

 and peremptorily denounce without further consideration as a barbarous 

 solecism— we mean the application of columns and pediments to the win- 

 dows themselves,— because that is a matter which we shall have to discuss 

 somewhat fully when we reach that part of our subject, but we certainly 

 have nothing to say in favour of that particular specimen, for besides that 

 the columns to the windows crowd up the intercolumns of the order, in 

 which they are set, too much, the display aifected by means of them is so 

 far from being consistently kept up that their entablatures are even more bare 

 than those usually employed for windows, there being instead of architrave 

 and frieze, or moulded architrave only, a mere black surface between the 

 capitals of the columns and the cornice, notwithstanding that the capitals 

 themselves are Corinthian. The division of the building into two distinct 

 orders,— one for each floor above the basement ; cuts it up very disadvan- 

 tageously, causing it to appear upon a contracted scale, whereas had the 

 composition been astylar, it might have possessed a greater degree of or- 

 nateness as well as simplicity, for at present the details are very crude and 

 common-place. 



We now proceed to consider what is a very important matter in fenestra- 

 tion, whether with or without columniation, namely, the number of win- 

 dows from the ground upwards, or of tiers of them, that can with good 

 effect be introduced in architectural composition. And here again we find 

 that it is paucity, not number, which contributes to nobleness of manner. A 

 front may be prolonged horizontally to any extent, without the fenestration 

 itself being thereby in the slightest degree affected, but it cannot be extended 

 upwardsai//iii<a»i, by adding story to story. On the contrary, the maximum 

 is very limited, if good composition is to be observed, it being scarcely 

 possible by any sort of management to introduce more than three rows of 

 windows— that is, two besides the ground-floor— into a well-proportioned 

 elevation. The greater the number of stories, the .'iinaller do the windows 

 become io proportion to the general mass ; and though if looked at as a 

 mere pile of building, the structure may be striking enough by its unusual 

 height, and perhaps possess even some degree of grandeur when it comes 

 into view as a distant object, it will be any thing but dignified in regard to 

 architectural physiognomy ; and Iitileness of manner will be aggravated 

 in the same ratio as the number of stories is increased. Therefore what- 

 ever pretension be nflected for them by means of decoration, many-storied 

 houses — even when combined with others so as to form a general elevation, 

 well proportioned as to relative height and breadth, — are the reverse of 

 aristocratic in appearance, inasmuch as they look more like barracks than 

 palaces— or if not exactly like barracks, like large hotels and lodging 

 houses — buildings erected for the accommodation of a number of families 

 upon a limited ground-site. 



If orders are employed — and in combination with windows, psendo- 

 columniation (or attached columns) is preferable to the genuine — consider- 

 able difliculties are apt to arise, both as regards fenestration and the order 



surely rather desirable than the contrary that the deticiencies in our present architectnial 

 vocabulary should be tilled up, which can be done in no other manner than by invenlmr 

 sudiciently significant terms for the respective occasions ; and of course when they first 

 come up they are liable to be called •• uew-fangled" :— what then ?— to stand in awe of 

 the reproach of '* new-fangled" is downright '* Old Ladyism." The Germans, we find 

 have begun to adopt from us— at least adopt into their Art-lexicons, the terms Di'prostyle* 

 Triprostyle, &c. ; yet we have heard them, if not positively objected to, attempted to be 

 depreciated, because— O what an excellent and sagacious *' Because" I— because any one 

 acquainted with the Greek numerals might have formed them— and we suppose also be- 

 cause ihey are so exceedingly simple, clear, aud intelligible, when once explained, that a 

 child may uoderstimd ihem. 



