234 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[July, 



for which purpose it is by far too stern and forbidding, and partakes, 

 moreover, too much of town architecture. Still, although the style 

 was forced upon him, we think there was no occasion for Mr. D. to 

 follow it so closely. Without too widely departing from it, he might 

 have treated it with artistical freedom — might have subdued some of 

 its asperity, and have refined it in many other respects; instead of 

 which, he rather seems to have exaggerated some of its least pleasing 

 qualities. Besides what is mere matter of taste, we should appre- 

 hend that the peculiar shape of the windows, viz. two arches resting 

 upon a central column, must not only produce a bad effect within the 

 rooms, but be very disadvantageous in regard to internal character 

 and mode of decoration. 



No. 1118, "An Elevation of All Saints' Church, Gordon Street," 

 is by the same architect, in a style equally unusual as that of the 

 preceding subject. Disposed, however, as we are to welcome novelty 

 in designs for churches which do not profess to be in the Gothic style 

 — to welcome almost anything in preference to the customary com- 

 mon-place portico, generally very ordinary in itself, and thrust forth 

 is a sort of apology for the general architectural slovenliness — we can- 

 not say we greatly relish this specimen, and we relish still less its 

 execution in the drawing, for in the building the shafts of the pilasters 

 are not of stone like the other dressings, but merely of brick, ovving 

 lo which and to their projecting so very slightly from the face of the 

 rest of the wall, they are scarcely visible, distinguish themselves 

 neither by difference of colour and surface, nor by shadow, therefore 

 their capitals lock only like so many patches of carved stone, discon- 

 nected from every thing else. What would Mr. D. himself say to 

 columns with only their capitals in stone, and their shafts of brick- 

 work ? Most probably he would call it a great solecism in taste; and 

 in our opinion he has committed quite as great, if not a greater one, 

 because, at all events, the shafts of such columns would show them- 

 selves distinctly, which is not the case with those of his pilasters. 

 The front of the church in Gordon Street exhibits far more of niggard- 

 liness in saving the paltry difference of cost between stone and brick 

 for the pilasters than of the economy of design, for though it was 

 deemed expedient to adopt such homely material for what are im- 

 portant parts in the decoration, there are three small circular slabs of 

 coloured marble introduced in the frieze, which produce no other 

 effect than so many small windows or pigeon-holes. There is also a 

 good deal of carved stone work over the doors, difficult to be described, 

 for though supplying the place of pediments to them, those large 

 arched ornaments are altogether diflerent from any sort of pediment. 

 If, therefore, retrenchment was necessary at all, we think it might 

 have been applied to these extraneous pieces of decoration, which 

 might liave been either reduced to pediments of the usual form, or 

 omitted altogether. 



1097. "Storehouses and other buildings, designed for a public com- 

 pany," by E. B. Lamb, is so unfavourably placed as to be in danger of 

 being quite overlooked. It is, however, worth while stooping down, 

 to obtain a sight of it, for it shows how much valuable effect may be 

 produced witli the simplest means by nothing more than artist-like 

 arrangement and management ; we say " nothing more," yet that 

 nothing more seems to be very far mure than architects in general 

 can accomplish, or even seem to aim at. While so many of our pub- 

 lic buildings, and those not the least costly ones, are, in the quality of 

 their architeclure, little better than warehouses or barracks, as, for 

 instance, the exterior of the new portions of the British Museum, we 

 here perceive how even storehouses might be rendered tasteful and 

 highly picturesque architectural objects ; and were the banks of the 

 Thames lined with warehouses and storehouses similar in style to 

 those here designed by Mr. L, the view from the bridges and from 

 the river would afford a finer succession of architectural scenery than 

 any other part of the metropolis. If we want a striking contrast to 

 this, in i)oint of taste, we have only to turn to 



No. 1 1 11), " The North and West Fronts and the Interior of the 

 First Quadrangle of the Royal Naval School, as approved by the 

 council and proposed to be built at Counter Hill, Deptford." J. Shaw. 

 This is a mere red brick house, full of windows, of most dismal physi- 

 ognomy, and without any sort of pretension to architectural design; 

 therefore it has no pretension to be thrust into an exhibition room — 

 more especially one where room itself is so scarce that many things 

 far more worth seeing, are thrust out of sight. 



On No. 1139, with its stately Corinthian portico, first catching our 

 «ye, we had no idea that it could be other than a mere design, and 

 were, therefore, very agreeably surprised to find, on referring to the 

 catalogue, that it is the representation of the "Wesleyan chapel, &c." 

 now erecting at Kingston-on-Hull, for it has certainly a far more 

 classical look, and is withal a more varied composition, than anything 

 similar in style in our own church architecture. Besides being an 

 octastyle, the portico has an inner recess, with two columns in antis, 



whereby it acquires a very unusual degree of effect and richness, 

 which is further increased by the whole being raised on a stylobate 

 terrace, out of which is cut a flight of steps forming the ascent to the 

 portico. On this terrace are two lower buildings or wings (for the 

 sacristy and keeper's hoivse,) connected with the central one, by open 

 colomiades of the Grecian Doric order. Picturesque, however, as are 

 the arrangement and combination in this respect, we must confess we 

 are not altogether satisfied with the design of these wings. The 

 elevations of their sides towards the portico (with a door between 

 two windows in each), sadly impair the general effect, and have too 

 much the look of ordinary park lodges : the vs'indows should be omitted 

 here altogether, and placed on the other side. Neither is the lesser 

 order so good as it might be, and the columns are so far apart that it 

 looks poor and straggling, and produces a disagreeable contrast with 

 the central portico. In fact had the lesser order been Ionic, it would 

 have combined far better with the Corinthian one: Messrs. Lockwood 

 and AUom would have done well — or we may say, would have done 

 better than they now have — had they bestowed a few second thoughts 

 and corrections on this design. 



The Wesleyans seem to be now vying with the Catholics in new 

 structures and show of architecture, for the very next No. (1140) is 

 "The Wesleyan Theological Institution, now erecting at Richmond, 

 Surrey." Who Mr. A. Trimson, or Trimen, for his name is spelled both 

 ways in the catalogue, may be, we know not, but he certainly recom- 

 mends himself to us not a little by this specimen of his taste. The 

 style is the later Gothic, and the character collegiate, with some 

 degree of novelty also in the arrangement, there being a range of 

 spacious and more than ordinarily ornamented windows on the lower 

 floor, with two series of chamber windows above them. 



Among those drawings which we did see, but which we have not 

 noticed, is No. 994, " A Royal Academy for the fine arts, including a 

 National Glyptothek and Pinakothek," by C. Tottie ; nor should we 

 mention it now, were it not to express our astonishment that such an 

 Alexandrine-verse design, "dragging its slow length along," should 

 have found any one to admire it. Remarkably poor and insipid in 

 itself, it is spun out to most wearisome monotony, for it is little more 

 than a mere string of Corinthian columns, with two rows of arched 

 doors and windows between them. It is just such another piece of 

 architectural insipidity as the front of the Royal Institution, Albemarle 

 Street, or that of Chester Terrace, in tlie Regent's Park — mon- 

 strously prolix, exceedingly lengthy, very drawling, and intolerably 

 dull. This is an ungracious conclusion to our remarks, but there is no 

 help for it, for here conclude we must, unless we choose to risk the 

 chance of being c.rcluded from the present number. 



Electbo-Magnetism as a Moving Power. — The Consul-General of 

 the Netherlands, in a communication dated the 18th April, thus annouaces 

 the removal of the hitherto greal obstacle to the practical application of 

 electro-magnetism as an effective propelling power : — " A private gentleman, 

 M. Ellas, of Haarlem, has just pubhshed the description of a new machine 

 invented by him, for the application of electro-magnetism as a substitute for 

 steam. The object of the inventor has been chiefly to remedy the defects 

 which, in 1839, rendered the otherwise ingenious invention of M. Jacobi, of 

 St. Petersburgh, a fotal failure, in as far as practical utility is concerned. 

 Those defects originated, it seems, in the erroneous supposition that the 

 power of the magnetic bars exclusively resides in their extremities, whence 

 the form hitherto given to all electro-magnetic machines — viz. that of a 

 horse-shoe — which, while it occasions an unavoidable interruption of the 

 magnetic stream at each new inversion of the poles, at the same time leaves 

 the power resident in the remaining part of the bars wholly unemployed. 

 The new invention of M. Elias, on the contrary, has the very great advantage 

 of rendering effective the full power of the magnetic stream uninterruptedly, 

 and throughout the whole body of the apparatus. This consists of two 

 concentric rings of soft iron, standing on the ^ame plane, of which the ex- 

 ternal one is immovable, while that on the inside revolves round its own 

 axis. By means of a piece of copper wire, wouud about each of these rings, 

 he has given them six magnetic poles, placed at equal distances from one 

 another, the whole being so contrived that the one ring exerts its inducing 

 power on the other throughout the whole circumference, and always at the 

 same distance. A small hut very perfect model of this important invention 

 is now open to public inspection here ; and the result of its operation is 

 allowed, by those skilled in such matters, to be such as to insure the most 

 triumphant success." 



