Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/386

 564 THE BUILDING NEWS. May 38, 1872. 1 Krxo’s Lynn.—The new infants’ school for the parish of S. John has just been completed in a sub- stantial and workmanlike manner by Mr. Wm. Agger, builder, from designs by Mr. Wm. Newham, architect. The area of the school-room is 50ft. by 20ft., and that of the class-room 20ft. by 14ft., and each has a gallery of the usual kind. The roofs are open-timbered; the walls are 12ft. high, and from floor to ridge of roof 23ft. Light and ventilation are fully provided, and the mode of warming is by open fireplaces. Cost £400. Know _e.—Yesterday was laid the foundation stone of the New Middle Class Idiot Asylum, at Knowle. The portion now to be erected will cost between £4,000 and £5,000. This is only a com- paratively small part of the whole design. It will, however, accommodate 23 male and 23 female patients, with 14 attendants and 7 officers and servants, and will include all the necessary educa- tional and domestic requirements, thus forming a complete asylum in itself. The building, when com- pleted, will be something after the form of the letter H. Messrs. Mathews & Quilter are the archi- tects. The committee rooms and rooms for visitors are on the ground floor of the front part of the centre building. For the double purpose of recrea- tion and refection a capacious hall will be provided, fitted with a gallery. The first-class wards will be admirably arranged. Each room will be 12ft. square and 12ft. high, and to every suite of apartments of this kind a day orrecreation room will be attached. When completed the whole building will accommo- date 88 first-class patients and 180 second-class patients. Lonpon.—New (Roman) Catholic Industrial Poor Schools at Tower-hill, were opened on the 25th ult., by the Duke of Norfolk. The schools, which are situate in Great Prescott-street, are built in the “Eclectic Gothic ” style, and contain four excellent airy, well ventilated rooms, capable of accommo- dating 300 children each. The buildings were erected by Messrs. Merritt & Ashby, the architect being Mr, J. Young, jun. The cost was £4,700. S. Austrtt.—At the meeting of the S. Austell School Board, on Saturday, Sir C. B. G. Sawle, Bart. (High Sheriff), in the chair, the tender of Mr. J. Body, of S. Austell, was accepted for the carpenter's, joiner’s, smith’s, &e., work, and that of Mr. H. Ede for the mason’s, bricklayer’s, slater’s, &e., for the erection of the Mount Charles Schools. Mr. S. Trevail, of Carne Par Station, from whose designs the schools are to be built, is appointed the architect to superintend their erection, the cost of which will be considerably under £2 per child on the accommodation, which is very moderate, con- sidering that the Government estimate is £5 per child; and, according to the School Board Chronicle of last week, the School Board of Derby have recently found that £10 per head is insufficient in that locality. 2». TO CORRESPONDENTS. [We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our correspondents. The Editor respectfully requests that all communications should be drawn up as briefly as possible, as there are many claimants upon the space allotted to correspondence.]} To Our ReApgrs.—We shall feel obliged to any of our readers who will favour us with brief notes of works con- templated or in progress in the provinces. Letters relating to advertisements and the ordinary business of the Paper should be addressed to the EDITOR, 31, TAVISTOCK-STREET, COVENT-GARDEN, W.C. Advertisements for the current week must reach the office not later than 5 p.m.on Thursday. TO AMERICAN SUBSCRIBERS. t= American Subscribers, especially when renewing their subscriptions, are particularly requested to advise the Publisher of the transmission of the Post-Office Order, and the exact amount for which it is made payable. In answer to numerous inquiries, the Publisher begs to state that subscribers in the United States can be supplied with the BUILDING NEws, post free from this Office, for the sum of 17s. 4d. (4 dols. 16c., gold) per annum, payable in advance, The remittance should, in all cases, be made by International Post-office Order. RECEIVED.—F. S.—Rev. F. B. A.J. McD.—G. A. N.— N. H. T.—En Avant.—E. H. L. B.—Canopus.—J. B.— P. W. D.—An Upholsterer. J. W. MACLAREN.—Very well. COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE,—Your drawing was con sidered by the referees as you described it. N. T. Taylor.—The drawings were returned. W. WALLIS.—Only those designs which received honour- able mention will be published. T. B.—Your letter on House Planning Competition next week. Correspondence, —_+—_ STONE AND ITS SELECTION. To the Editor of the Burcp1ne News. Srr,—I am glad Mr. Trickett denies the inference that, I believe, I fairly drew from his letter—after reading it again; and I quite agree with him in what he says about sandstones ; the hardest are sometimes the least durable when exposed to weather ; and I should esteem it a favour if he will give the names of the stones tested. Yorkshire masons choose stone distinctly laminated for lintels to carry weights—did this prove to be the case in the instance mentioned? If he would mention the names of the varieties of stone it would be a great service. At present the stones in general use in London can be counted on the fingers, and there seems to be a desire to suppress information on the subject. I baye no doubt good jobs have been done without clerks of works, who, unless they are ex- perienced men (and with the present rate of salary I think a good mechanic will think twice before leaving the bench or banker to undertake the duties and responsibilities, temptations and no overtime, attached to the office) had better be dispensed with. The selection of builders seems quite a thing of the past ; men without capital or stock (most im- portant when joiner’s work is considered), and with- out understanding anything of their business, are entrusted with most important works, and respect- able men passed over for a difference of a few pounds, and the end is nothing but bickerings and unpleasantness for any one holding the unenviable position of a CLierKk or Works, BUILDING STONE. Sim,—Although I have no practical or scientific knowledge of the subject, I think it possible that I may be able to give a hint to those who have. There exists on Dartmoor a kind of bastard granite, known as Roborough stone, which has been much used in church building there, possibly from being easy to work. It is very durable, and the church of Buckland Monachorum affords a good specimen of its lasting powers and capability of ornamentation. In the neighbourhood of Liskeard and S. German’s there is a building stone of peculiar beauty; to my ungeological mind it looks like a slate, and varies, according to the locality, froma rich brown to a delicate olive green. The old Nor- man Abbey Church at the latter place is built of it, and the fine weather-beaten porch still retains much of its ornamentation executed in the same material. The adjoining residence of the Earl of S. German’s (formerly the Abbey) is of the same stone, some of it built only about thirty years ago, so it would seem that the supply of material is not exhausted, though I know of no marketable quarries in existence. As regards stone for mullions, carving, &ce., I know of none so easily worked and so imperishable as the Polyphant stone, as it is locally called, I believe from the place where the chief supply is raised—somewhere in the neighbourhood of Launces- ton—but it is also to be found in other places both in Devon and Cornwall, if I mistake not. It is very easily carved, but hardens on*exposure, and I have seen mullions, &c., of 500 years’ standing with their edges as fresh as ever. I fancy that it is known in geology as the Pot-stone, in consequence of vessels made of it having been found in Celtic graves. The colour is a dull gray, and it will not take a polish. It does not run in large masses or, at any rate, there is a difficulty is obtaining it in such, as I remember some years ago I was unable to obtain a block of it for a coped gravestone. Of one thing I feel tolerably confident—that it would stand the atmosphere of London. An AMATEUR. HOUSE PLANNING COMPETITION. Str,—I do not think that anything would be gained by replying to the strained criticisms of your correspondent “‘H.” We must ‘remember the reader.” I am content to have “improved upon houses of this character hitherto illustrated,” though I fear I do not deserve his encomiums. It would be well to urge upon all the importance of planning; it is too often disregarded by students for more at- tractive work. Why should the disposal of thou- sands of pounds annually, in building around our metropolis, be left in the hands of men unfit to design? Why should our beautiful suburbs be desolated by speculating builders, who, backed by the greedy landowner or lawyer, run up vile erec- tions, solely to secure a ground-rent to some owner who seldom or never sees his property, and without a thought or care for its effect on the public mind? Are not architects themselves to blame? In your leading article of the 12th April you very properly call attention to the fact that the public prefer houses built by the speculator, who looks upon the professed architect as quite an unnecessary luxury. Surely, this ought not to be; there must be some reason for this dislike to be advised. Can it be the cost? for an architect should save money for his client. It must be that architects too often lead their clients astray, and, because they will not exer- cise the virtue of restraint, too often run into need- less extravagance, valuing ornamentation and rich- ness above the greater excellencies of proportion and repose. If ever there was an opportunity for reform we have it here. Young architects, and perhaps old ones too, would do well to remember that no kind of work is too insignificant for con- sideration, and that it is not alone in our public buildings that the mind or character of a nation is to be read, or the ability of its architects dis- played. Let our young men first learn to plan cleverly and build economically, if only a cottage; let there be a heavy fine upon each brick or piece of timber that is used in excess, or foot of space that is wasted. Then, when they have passed this exami- nation, and not till then, let them revel in traceries and indulge in crockets. Like the true physician, the architect has to tell us what to avoid as well as what to take, and it is here that he is our best friend. Why is there such apathy amongst the public generally as to houses they spend their lives in? It is melancholy to contemplate the greater part of our rapidly-increasing suburbs. As to width of roads, thickness of walls, and depth of sewers, our rulers are wondrous wise, and their laws are stringent; but is this all their duty? When we cut up beautifully-wooded estates, and root up the ancestral trees, do we owe nothing to the soil but monotonous rows of cement bay windows with narrow doorways between, crowned by a huge cor- nice, anything but straight, with the inevitable chimney-pots peeping up behind ? This is a subject worth the attention of those in whose power such things rest. Itis surely not a matter of sentiment merely, but one of vital impor- tance to everybody, for, without knowing it, even a child is influenced by the buildings it sees, and ‘children of a larger growth” must see to it that we do not neglect so potent a means of education.— Tam, &c., W. H. Locxwoop, 10, John-street, Adelphi, W.C. Srr,—I am not so astonished as some of your correspondents with the fact that the referees con- sidered no plan exempt from adverse criticism on some of the details of general arrangement, and, con- sidering the latitude wisely allowed by the conditions, I would have been much amazed if it had been otherwise. At the same time, when I examined the plan—*t Domus”—which the referees preferred, I felt better pleased that I could not get my plans for the mansion finished in time, as the general principles of arrangement which guided me in preparing the pre- liminary sketches for the mansion and villa are very different from those which the referees have preferred, and would most likely have put them out of the competition. Ihave been taught, and I thought my experience proved, that fireplaces and flues should not be placed in external walls if they could possibly be placed inside the house, because the flues would be readily chilled, and, therefore, be less apt to draw properly ; that the amount cf heat thereby lost would make passages and rooms warm where they would be otherwise chilly ; that the doors should be put in the side of the room, not in the narrow end; and that the fireplaces should be on the same side as the doors, provided the walls are of sufficient length; and that the doors to these apartments should open on the room instead of on the wall, especially when the side wall is close to the door. I don’t speak of bedrooms, &e., which must open according to situation of beds, &e. I find in “‘ Domus’s” mode of arrangement that all the fireplaces and flues are in external walls, the doors to the reception rooms open in the narrow end, the rooms are arranged end on to the hall; no room has a side light except the drawing-room (and this is a glass door into conservatory), and the doors open on the side walls, no matter how close the frame may be to same; this much with regard to principles of arrangement. With respect to minor points, con- siderable want of thought is displayed: the drawing- room is too small, the dining-room is too narrow for convenience of service, and about one foot additional is practically taken off by the projection of chimney- breast; there is no space for a proper sideboard at end next serving-door, thereis no serving-room, nor even room for a serying-table in back passage. There is