144 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[May, 



junior clerk in his office can draw out as well, perhaps better, than the 

 architect himself, is stuck up in front ; no matter whether the rest 

 can be maJe to correspond in any degree with the style attempted, or 

 indeed whether it can be afforded to let the entablature be of a piece 

 with the columns. Or if Gothic be preferred, we are generally treated 

 with naked and muUionless pointed windows, in what professes to be 

 the earliest mode of that sty I e, but which in fact is rendered utterly 

 dissimilar in character — as pert as it is paltry. Even where some parts 

 are really good in themselves, there are almost invariably some glaring 

 blemishes to neutralize their efiect, and to render the ensemble pre- 

 posterous and offensive. Vain is it to look for attention to unity of 

 character, and consistency of expression throughout, where there has 

 evidently been no feeling brought to the task, and where the architect 

 himself has not brought forward a single idea followed out con amore ; 

 but appears to have been utterly indifferent to aught beyond the mere 

 business and trading part of his occupation, as if his title were to be 

 taken in its literal import, and "Architect" meant no more than chief 

 or master builder contracting for the job. 



Were plainness and simplicity identical qualities, or did the absence 

 of decoration constitute soberness, or were chilling frigidity the same 

 as solemnity, then might our present church architecture fairly chal- 

 lenge that of any other age or nation for its excellence in regard to 

 those merits. Unfortunately for it, such is not the case : in vain do 

 we look for either simplicity or soberness : while as for solem- 

 nity or aught approaching it, that is entirely out of the question, 

 although it would seem to be the quality of paramount and indispen- 

 sable importance. " Among all the new churches I have seen," says 

 Candidus, fasciculus 13 of the second series of his " Note-book," " I 

 have certainly not beheld one possessing internally anything like 

 solemnity in its general effect ; on the contrary, differ how much they 

 may as to all other circumstances, they agree as far as the absence of 

 that quality goes. Some are dismal and mean enough ; others, if not 

 particularly tasteful, smart enough, just the very places for a fashion- 

 able congregation, whom the architect generally takes care to arrange 

 so that they shall make as goodly a show as the audience of a theatre, 

 and be able to reconnoitre each other without obstruction. In fact 

 there is very much more of the playhouse than of the house of prayer 

 in such buildings — nothing calculated to inspire feelings of reverence. 

 Neither does it make much difference what style be employed, since 

 the interior of our modem Gothic churches have no greater air of 

 impressive solemnity than have those in any other style." 



Were we ever so much disposed to contradict such opinion, we cannot 

 attempt it, for among all the newly-erected churches we have visited, 

 we do not recollect one that can be quoted as an exception ; on the 

 contrary, we have been disagreeably struck by several that strongly 

 corroborate the observations we have copied. Much of the want of 

 solemnity above complained of arises from the cold and raw appear- 

 ance of the interior generally, owing both to the quantity of light 

 which is insisted upon as indispensable, and the almost total absence 



' A recent article on new churches in the British Critic contains some 

 exceedingly judicious architectural observations relative to that spurious early 

 Gothic, with lancet windows, or rather mere holes in the wall, which is now 

 so greatly in voffue with the cheap church-builders of the day. In a previous 

 paper on the same subject in that periodical, there occurs likew ise a suggestion 

 which, should it ever be acted upon, would tend materially to improve the 

 architectural character of our Protestant churches, namely, that there should 

 be not a mere shallow and confined lobby, ,-\s at present, but a spacious ves- 

 tibule or pronaos between the entrance from the street and the body of the 

 church itself. "There should be something to create the idea of retirement, 

 and distance from the public thoroughfare, like the ante-chapels of our col- 

 leges." The circular part of the Temple church is mentioned as furnishing a 

 hint for the purpose ; and a very recent application of such sort of pronaos may 

 be found in the elegant chapel of St. Mark's, North Audley -street, which, if 

 merely on account of that circumstance in its plan, deserves especial notice 

 among contemporary structures of the same class in the metropolis. A vesti- 

 bule of this kind, it is further observed, " might be alw ays open during the day, 

 as Guildhall is, without inconvenience ; and it might be the place for sepulchral 

 monuments, and for other memorials and inscriptions of a not I'ntircly secular 

 character." Wc will add, it might be the place too for paintings of Scriptural 

 subjects ; but then, unfortunately, we have no notion in this country of mon- 

 uments and pictures being exposed to the view of those who cannot aflord to 

 pay for seeing them as sights -, but they must be as rigorously excluded from 

 the gaze o( the profane and vulgar, as if there was danger of the taste of 

 the lower classes being degraded and their morals corrupted by contemplating 

 such works of art. 



of colour, except it be occasionally in columns and a few other parts, 

 in which, so far from tending to produce richness, it chiefly occasions 

 spottiness, and a disagreeable littleness of character. Now whatever 

 objection may exist to painting in the form of pictures, hardly can 

 there be any to it as mere colouring, for the purpose both of giving 

 somewhat of richness and finish to the building, and of sobering and 

 toning down that offensive glare which now prevails unmitigated 

 throughout.* It further appears to us, that beautiful and expressive 

 features as are the windows of our ancient Gothic ediBces, filled with 

 bold mullions, rich tracery, reticulated panes, and perhaps coloured 

 glass, shedding a "dim religious light," a mellowing hue, and flicker- 

 ing gleams and shadows around, windows of similar outline lose all 

 their beauty when reduced to mere vacant apertures, as is the case in 

 most of our modern Gothic church specimens, and where such aper- 

 tures are besides no further apart from each other than they would be 

 if the light were partially obstructed and subdued by mullions and 

 tracery. In the other or Grecian style, windows are not a whit better, 

 in fact operate as a drawback upon the style itself, both internally and 

 externally ; which defect is ah the less excusable, because, not being 

 characteristic and congenial features belonging to the style itself, 

 nothing would be easier than to get rid of side windows altogether, 

 there being so many various modes of admitting light through the roof 

 and cieling, any one of which might be adopted, according as it would 

 best suit the particular design : and if light is, as has been quaintly 

 observed, " God's eldest daughter," there surely can be no impropriety 

 in allowing it to flow down into a place of religious worship imme- 

 diately from above. The new church of La Madeleine at Paris is 

 lighted entirely after this manner ; and although we cannot refer to a 

 single structure of the same kind in this country, where that mode of 

 lighting it has been adopted, we have several and very well known 

 instances in other buildings of its practical application and success. 

 The hall of the Elgin marbles at the British Museum, most of the offi- 

 ces at the Bank of England, the picture-rooms at the National Gallery, 

 the Pantheon Bazaar, the great room at the Polytechnic Institute, and, 

 indeed, most large apartments intended for public meetings, are now 

 so constructed and lighted, although so very differently that hardly any 

 two examples will be found precisely alike. Putting Gothic archi- 

 tecture out of the question — for there, except by perforating the 

 tracery of a vaulted roof, the nearest approach to this mode of lighting 

 from above would be by clerestory windows forming a lantern over the 

 body of the church — putting, we say, that out of the question, there is 

 nothing which is so favourable to architectural display and picturesque 

 effect in the interior of a building as the streaming in of light from 

 above diffusing itself beautifully in a single volume, instead of forming 

 as many distinct spots as there are windows. It is precisely in the 

 magical effect thus produced that the charm of the Pantheon at Rome, 

 as an architectural picture, consists ; and yet strange to say, with all 

 their professed admiration of that building, none of our architects 

 have adopted for any of our churches the idea it so plainly holds out. 

 In fact, it is only by getting rid of side windows, that adequate spaces 

 for paintings on the walls could be obtained in our English churches, 

 should the time ever arrive when, relieved from our bugbear appre- 

 hensions of Popery, we should deem it rather a mark of respect than 

 a profanation to array our temples with storied representations of 



* Be the objections made against pictures in churches, as partaking too 

 much of Popery, well or ill founded, they certainly need not prevent 

 our adopting a nobler, or rather a less mean and impoverished style for the 

 edifices themselves, very few of which, among those lately erected, .are at all 

 decently adorned, even as Protestant places of worship; because there is 

 certainl;, no danger whatever of their being made to resemble those adapted 

 to the liomish service. At present almost anything like architectural effect 

 is entirely out of the question : and the galleries are frequently suffered to 

 occasion if not e.\actly a theatrical, a very playhouse-like look. For the 

 management of those someuhat unmanageable and refractory parts, and also 

 for the general disposition and mode of fitting upthe interior, we would refer 

 to a structure which, if not Protestant, is inconteslibly not a Catholic one, 

 namely, the new synagogue in Great 6t. Helen's. Bishopgate-street ; which, 

 without being at all over-decorated, in some respects rather less so than we 

 couhl wish, is a handsome and elegant piece of internal architecture, and 

 might be studied with some advantage by our modern church-builders, unless 

 indeed, our delicate scruples should reject anything from such a source, as 

 being likely to lead us to Judaism. 



