THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



1842.] 



public, whose progress through the thoroughfares on Sundays is greatly 

 impeded by the barriers placed for diverting the carriages from places 

 of worship. Around the New Church in the Strand, at St. Giles s, tie 

 Old Bailey, and many other places, wood-paving has been successfully 

 used, and we hope it will be even more extensively adopted. Clean- 

 liness is another requisite of public accommodation, v,h\di is a 

 recommendation of wood-paving. ■ . > ■ 



On the ground of economy, the first cost of wood-paving, taken in 

 conjunction with the outlay for repairs, successfully bears the com- 

 parison with granite or macadamized roads, while the economical 

 advantage in the wear and tear of horses and vehicles is still greater. 

 Wood-paving has now been pretty extensively adopted in the 

 metropolis, and a good part of the line from the Mansion House by 

 Oxford-street to Regent-street, and by the Strand to Westminster 

 Bridge, is laid with it, and these several portions we hope to see 

 united, so that it mav be tried upon a more satisfactory scale than has 

 yet been done. Not that we have any distrust as to it, but because 

 "we think that scope has not vet been afforded for the lull display of 

 its good qualities. While on this subject we may mention, inciden- 

 tallv, that Mr. Bradwell, the machinist of Covent Garden Theatre, the 

 inventor of the artificial ice laid down in Baker Street, in the New 

 Road, and in the Colosseum, in 1S35 submitted to the City Paving 

 Commissioners, a system of wood-paving, similar to that afterwards 

 laid down in the Hay market, but the idea of wood was scouted by the 

 Commissioners. 



Now let us turn to the first work with the title of whicli we have 

 headed this article. It is devoted to the advocacy of the steam 

 carriage system, as the best means of effecting which it maintains 

 that it is' requisite to pave the turnpike roads with wood. Ac- 

 cording to the author, and to Mr. Worsley, one of the steam car- 

 riage invenlois, in a pamphlet published by him, "the only real 

 diticultv at present to tlie general use of the steam carriage instead 

 of horse power arises from the great inequalities of surface resistance 

 on the coinmon roads." These inequalities of surface resistance are 

 said in some cases to require an S- horse, in others perhaps a 40-horse 

 power, "arising from the softness rather than the roughness of ordinary 

 roads, which are formed of materials varying in nature and quality, 

 liable to be affected bv every change of atmosphere." The remedy 

 for this is said to be found in wood-paving, as it presents the same 

 firm and even surface in all seasons and weathers. It is recommended, 

 therefore, to wood-pave all the turnpike roads, when the superior 

 economy and speed of the steam carriage over horse power will, it 

 is expected, be brought to bear. 



Mr. Stevens is the agent and professed advocate of the Metropolitan 

 Wood Pavement Company, the most successful company hitherto, and 

 of course his strain is all' leather. The author of the first pamphlet 

 has also a preference for this company, but his reasoning is general. 



The contest in the Marvlebone Vestry on the question of paving 

 Oxford-street with wood was conducted with great acrimony, and 

 with a spirit of partizanship such as to disgust all well-tlunking men. 

 When, therefore, this matter was decided by the triumph of the 

 wood-paving party, sober consideration as to the importance of paving 

 as an item of municipal expenditure, and the expediency of econ- 

 omizino- under this head, led to the novel circumstance of a local 

 society" being founded for the promotion of improved street-paving, 

 which has been organized, and we hope will be successful in Us exer- 

 tions. Unpledged to any particular system, whether of wood, of 

 stone, or of granite, the object of the supporters of this institution is 

 to point out to their fellow-parishioners the best mode by which 

 paving can be effected, and the funds of the parish economized. It 

 is, in fact, a local association for carrying out similar objects to those 

 of the Metropolitan Improvement So'oiety, but in a more restricted 

 way. When we consider the large amount of local taxation in this 

 country, direct and indirect, scarcely under ten niillioiis, in the shape 

 of poor rates, county, church, highway, paving, sewer, and lighting 

 rates, and turnpike t'olls, the class of peisnns by whom these sums are 

 expended, and their woful ignorance of their duties, with its attendant 

 prejudices— the Poor Law for example--we may feel fully assured 

 that a very large amount of money is wasted which has been already 

 raised in ways oppressive to the community. The necessity, con- 

 sequently, of'public enlightenment ou muricipal administration is very 

 great, and no better means exist for the attainment of this object than 

 the formation of local societies like the Marylebone Street Paving 

 Association. A less expenditure is not always the cheapest mode of 

 administration, while mechanical circumstances will often impede the 

 best-intentioned but uninstructed administration. One parish in Lon- 

 don lost several hundreds a year by using dirty scales in the workhouse ; 

 others have suffered by receiving hot bread instead of cold, bread 

 losing often as much as five per cent, in cooling, a difference pocketed 

 by the contractor. It is by intimate acquaintance with details, 



281 



therefore, and not by party wrangling, that the public funds are to be 

 saved, and it is highly desirable that the well-instructed and inde- 

 pendent members of the community should bear this in view. To 

 Mr. Charles Cochrane, the founder of this Association, we think great 

 prai«e is due. Being a member of the Marylebone Vestry at the time 

 of the above-mentioned Oxford-street discussion, he employed him- 

 self zealously in collecting all the evidence he could as to the durability 

 of wood in various positions, the results of which investigations he 

 detailed in his speeches to the vestry. In deciding the opinion of the 

 vestry in favour of wood-paving his exertions had great weight, and 

 subsequently as a permanent means of benefiting the parish he estab- 

 lished the Association in question. Independent in his social position, 

 of large fortune, unbiassed in favour of any particular plan, the 

 motives of Mr. Cochrane cannot be impugned, and he may rest assured 

 that by the example he has afforded, which will have its weight in 

 other places, as well as by the good he has effected, he has conferred 

 a greater benefit than if he had availed himself of his standing for 

 those party and political purposes which are so much more tempting . 

 Had he obtained a triumph for blue or yellow, had he turned out the 

 functionary of one party to put in the nominee of another, he might 

 have ensured greater applause from his constituents, but he would not 

 have done so much good. We cannot impress too much on all parties 

 the propriety of giving up party warfare where local interests are 

 involved, requiring the most prudent and careful consideration. 



In conclusion we strongly recommend all public bodies who are 

 about to adopt wood-paving, to take the precaution of having a good 

 bed of concrete, of Thames sand and stone lime, with a small portion 

 of Roman cement and pnzzolana. As to wood without concrete, it is 

 quackery, and a waste of money. 



SCULPTURE IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN. 



fFmn the Jltlieyueum.) 



If in one of its shapes, the spirit of calculation has been prejudicial 

 to architecture in this country, it has, in another, occasionally been 

 rather favourable to it, and given it an impulse. V, hile it has pre- 

 vented many of our public structures from being what they ought to 

 have been, causing them to be turned out of hand maimed, hurried oft, 

 unfinished productions; it has sometimes, in the case of private 

 speculations, led to a degree of architectural display that contrasts 

 forcibly with the grudging penuriousness which has hitherto been 

 allowe'd to manifest itself so offensively in works of greater import- 

 ance—those from which our taste as a people is likely to be judged 

 by other countries. On examining the numerous public structures 

 erected within the last five-and-twenty or thirty years, we find quite 

 as much cause for regret as for congratulation— for regret that so little 

 should have been made of the respective opportunities afforded ; and 

 that, too, not so much in consequence of economy, as from want of 

 judgment and taste ; and owing to the designs not being properly 

 matured— to their not being purged from inconsistencies— and to there 

 being a more or less offensive disproportion between the character 

 aimed at and the mode in which it has been carried out. Nor can we 

 refrain from here remarking, that while architects lay so much stress 

 on the proportions of the orders, &c., which are only matters of me- 

 chanical routine, easy enough to be learned even by the dullest, few 

 of them pay attention to what may be called arlmlical proportion— to 

 that of the wsem5/e, so that this last shall be in perfect "keeping, 

 and homogeneous in character, instead of looking, as is too frequently 

 the case, no better than a compilation of ill-assorted fragments, where 

 pretension and meanness go hand in hand. The list of /os/ opportumttes 

 would be one of some extent ; and we should certainly place in it 

 more than one structure or architectural improvement, winch less 

 fastidious and less exigeanl or more good-natured critics have not 

 scrupled to commend. Buckingham Palace, the Post Othce, British 

 Museum, Mint, College of Physicians, York Column, Covent Garden 

 Market, King's College, the Cemetery at Earl's Court, and numbers 

 numberless would be so classed by us, notwithstanding that it is not 

 difficult to point out in everyone of them some individual merit- 

 some solitary feature, perhaps quite an accidental one-for which it 

 may be praised, if we choose to shut our eyes to the solecisms and 

 sins by which it is overwhel,ned-to the frigid dulnessand insipidity, 

 or vulvar taste and architectural bathos manifested in each of them as 

 a who?e. It avails not to say, that in many instances the architect has 

 not fair play, that sufficient means are not afforded to enable him to do 

 all be could wish; because it behoves h.m to display his ability by 

 makine the most of the means which are aftcrded him, instead of 

 injudiciously aiming at more than, as he must or ought to be aware 



