1850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



353 



do well to note their existence before the rage for novelty and the 

 march of innovation have sacrificed them, like many of the edifices 

 to which they were attached. Those which we give are as fol- 

 lows: — 



Fig. 1, is one of the beautiful gates in the side portals to Inigo 

 Jones's Church of St. Paul, Covent Garden. The design of this is 

 easy and flowing. 



Fig. 'i, from the railing to a house in Great Ormond-street, 



Bloomsburv. 



Fig. 3, a'lamp-iron and link-e.xtinguisher (mementoes of former 

 customs) in Queen-square, Bloomsbury. 



While we are upon this subject, we must express a further 

 regret, and that is with regard to the retrogradation in the colouring 

 of metal-work. Those who notice the beautiful gates of Holland 

 Park, cannot fail to be struck with the successful application of 

 painting and gilding in the decoration. These are made to har- 

 monise well in the designs, and it should always be borne in njind 

 in e.\amining, copying, or applying old designs, that many of the 

 thick ])arts are reduced by the application of light colours, and 

 many of the slender parts are brightened by gilding. Now, one 

 hue of black paint covers the metal surface; and, under some plea 

 or another, gilding is abandoned altogether in exterior metal work, 

 although the golden gallery of St. Paul's, the spires of our city 

 churches, and the gates of Holland Park, show that it will stand 

 well in our climate. Those who see the skilful and tasteful em- 

 ployment of gilding in the lampworks, railings, and gatework of 

 Paris, always make an unfavourable comparison %vith London; and 

 regret we are so neglectful of such resources. The railing of Mr. 

 Hope's house in Piccadilly is a fine specimen of design and work- 

 manship; but, for want of colour and gilding, it has an unfinished 

 appearance. 



THE EXHIBITION BUILDING. 



( With an Engraving^ Plate X.) 



The roof of the building is rising above the ground, and fear 

 for its well-ending is no longer felt: but another and a weightier 

 task is hardly begun. We have called together the world ; we 

 have found room for all that may be brought; but we have yet 

 to make ready what we ourselves may send. In making this call, 

 we knew it was to those skilful and proud of their skill, and by 

 them it has been answered. From France come twelve hundred, 

 of whom one-third have already earned rewards at home. These 

 are the cunning craftsmen who meet us with their wares at the 

 ends of the earth. From the Prussian Rhineland alone two hun- 

 dred and fifty come; from Switzerland three hundred — men who 

 understand cheapness as well as ourselves, and who have sometimes 

 overcome us on our own ground. It is to he hoped in the struggle 

 now forthcoming, and before the eyes of the world, we may not 

 be beaten, but we must not heedlessly rush on. Here, too, it must 

 be borne in mind, there is a greater stake than that of the Com- 

 missioners, and that we must not look to the latter alone as answer- 

 able; and the rather as we have had good warning, they cannot 

 be very heavily burthened. The fair name of England is at stake, 

 and unless all put their shoulders to the wheel it may not be made 

 good. To lean upon the Commissioners, and those under them, 

 would he weakness, when it is ourselves to whom we must look. 



The Royal Commission is set forth with great men; the local 

 committees are not named by the working men but by the givers 

 of money; and the local commissioners are named from the local 

 committees. Thus there is a rooted evil; for what may be a 

 very good body for getting money togetlier, may be the very 

 worst for the other work, of getting together the best things. 

 Many held back from giving money who must be asked to send 

 their goods, and they will not hold the gift of a pound or two 

 as a worthier right than that they hold from the gifts of mind. 

 This is the evil now working, and, unless timely help be given, 

 the hoped-for end « ill not be reached. Abroad no bickerings of 

 this kind can arise; they are older hands at this business, and 

 better understand their work, and so we are threatened in the 

 coming struggle in a two-fold way, by the skill of our foemen, and 

 by their knowledge how to make the best of it. 



From the shape of these Commissions and Committees another 

 evil threatens to arise, and which shows itself in what they have 

 as yet set forth, which is, that they will bring togetlier a show of 

 knick-knacks, and a gathering of what is old, common, and worn 

 out, rather than what being new, skilful, and workmanlike, will 

 best show our right to the great share we hold in the trade of the 



world. The whole business seems too much in the hands of book- 

 men, and of enlightened lords, colonels, and bankers, and too 

 little in those of men having sound and working knowledge. 

 This we feared from the first, and we are sorry we have been found 

 aright, for this very thing stands more than anything in the way 

 of the whole undertaking. Lords may smile, bankers may jiut 

 down hundreds, but we shall make a sorry show of it, if we trust 

 to them to set forth our mills and our workshops, to watch over 

 the loom, or to seek out the lowly abodes of the earnest workmen, 

 by whom so much of our trade is' fostered and carried on. 



We want neither a Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, nor a 

 Polytechnic Exhibition; we need not trust to knick-knacks, nor to 

 out-of-the-way trumpery, to crowd the walls and fill the stands of 

 the building, and awaken the wonder of the sight-seers; for there 

 will be enough, and in good keeping with the greatness of the 

 time, and of the building. There will be steam and water setting 

 to work the several shapes in which man's skill has brought 

 stifl^ened rods of brass and iron to weave more deftly than hands of 

 living flesh— mighty bulks which work without thought better than 

 thought can shape — elfins which work the behest of man, and can- 

 not withstand his will, ^^alat the wildest thought has dreamed of 

 in earlier days as beyond the reach of man will here be brought in 

 wondrous fulness before our eyes. 



What the Times says on this head is so striking, that we have 

 thought it right to give at length. 



"Not the least wonderful part (says the Times) of the Exhibition 

 which is to be opened next year will be the edifice within which the 

 specimens of the industry of all nations are to be collected. Its mag- 

 nitude, the celerity with which it is to be constructed, and the 

 materials of which it is to be composed, all combine to insure for it a 

 large share of that attention which the Exhibitionis likely to attract, 

 and to render its progress a matter of great public interest. A 

 building designed to cover 75.3,984 superficial feet, and to have 

 an exhibiting surface of about 21 acres, to be roofed-in and handed 

 over to the Commissioners within little more than three months 

 from its commencement, to be constructed almost entirely of glass 

 and iron, the most fragile and the strongest of working materials, 

 to combine the lightness of a conservatory with the stability of 

 our most permanent structures — such a building will naturally 

 excite much curiosity as to the mode in which the works connected 

 with it are conducted, and the advances which are made towards 

 its completion. Enchanted palaces that grow up in a night are 

 confined to fairy land, and in this material world of ours the 

 labours of the bricklayer and the carpenter are notoriously never- 

 ending. It took 300 years to build St. Peter's at Rome, and 30 to 

 compfete our own St. Paul's. The New Palace of \\'estminster has 

 already been 15 years in hand, and is still unfinished. We run up 

 houses, it is true, quickly enough in this country, but if there be a 

 touch of magic in the time occupied, there is none in the appear- 

 ance of so much stucco and brickwork as oar streets exhibit. 

 Something very difl'erent from this is promised for the great edifice 

 in Hyde-park. Not only is it to rise with extraordinary rajiidity, 

 but in every other respect is to be suggestive oi Arabian Nights' 

 remembrances. In its favour the window law is to be ignored, 

 and 900,000 superficial feet of glass, weighing upwards of 400 tons, 

 are to be used in its construction. Not a stone nor a brick will 

 be employed throughout the spacious structure, which is to rest 

 upon 3300 cast-iron columns, and to be strengthened and kept 

 together by 2224 girders of the same material. The view of it 

 which we noxv publish represents an edifice in every respect quali- 

 fied to become the repository of specimens of the world s industry; 

 the basement and two upper tiers diminishing in area as they 

 ascend, and thus securing a graceful variety of outline, while the 

 monotonous eifect of a facade 1848 feet long is broken by a 

 spacious transept. This transept, 408 feet long and 72 feet wide, 

 will be arched, and will rise to the height of 108 feet, inclosing 

 within it, as in a glass case, a row of trees, which respect for the 

 park timber has induced the commissioners to spare. The roof of 

 the entire building, re>ting on the cast-iron girders, will be what 

 is technically called "ridge and valley," and will look like an 

 undulating sea, the whole being covered with canvas to exclude 

 the rays of the summer sun and prevent any inconvenience arising 

 from excessive heat. This will be the case in every part of the 

 structure except the transept, where the presence of trees render 

 light necessary, and where, therefore, the arched glass roof will 

 remain uncovered. When closed in and completed, the view pre- 

 sented by the interior will, it is anticipated, be wonderfully grace- 

 ful and splendid. The central avenue, 1848 feet long, 72 feet 

 broad, and 66 feet high, with rows of pillars shooting off from it 



47 



