Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/403

 May 10, 1872. THE BUILDING NEWS. 381 _——— ARCHITECTURE AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION. i lene collection of architectural drawings in the Lecture Room of the Royal Academy presents a striking contrast to that at the International Exhibition which we reviewed last week. Not only is the number of draw- ings considerably larger—112 as against 82— the standard reached is also very much higher, the best drawings being exceedingly good, and the works represented being, for the most part, buildings of a high order of architectural excellence. Why this is we can hardly say ; we must honestly confess that it is something of a surprise to us—though a very agreeable one—to find itso. If it only means that archi- tectural work is ‘looking up,” we are very glad to recognise the good omen; if it also implies that architects are more awake than we had given them credit for being to the importance of an exhibition of their works, we shall certainly rejoice ; and if it means that ‘the forty” have been taking steps to con- ciliate the practitioners of an important branch of art, we are sincerely glad to hear of it. There cannot well be too much publicity, especially where there is fair scope for criticism, and nowhere can the exhibitors of drawings expect to be so minutely and so fairly criticised as on an occasion like the present, when the leading art exhibition of the year opens its doors. Many of our foremost architects exhibit, the place of honour being given to a large bird’s-eye view by Mr. Brewer of Mr. Street's Law Courts. It would have been better for Mr. Street’s peace of mind if this drawing had been shown to the public earlier, for, though now it may fail to produce much impression on those who have already made up their minds, had it been the first thing seen, it would have given an idea of regularity and dignity which the elevations and perspectives of the Strand front did not convey. Mr. Street also exhibits a view of a portion of the Strand front, taking in the centre and extend- ing nearly as far as Temple Bar, and a view inside one of the quadrangles. These are apparently drawn by himself, and under pres- sure, for the Strand drawing—tke one which, of all others, ought to have been the best—is very defective in many places, and it fails to redeem the design from the appearance of weakness caused by the centre falling back. The bird’s-eye view shows the northern and eastern fronts. In these stone and red brick are intermingled with much skill, and the resulting effect can be well judged of by the spectator. The large regular masses of the building are clearly marked by their roofs and parapets, and one gathers a better idea of size and force from this than from any previous view. The building, too, seems to fit well into its position among surrounding streets, and its skyline is varied andrich. The quad- rangle illustrated is uninteresting; the draw- ing is in rather.too sharp perspective for the features at the sides to be properly seen, and the building which forms the end of the quad- rangle, though pierced by a well-arranged archway, fails to come up to what the eye seems to require as a principal feature in such a composition. Square-headed windows are provided almost throughout, the openings being, however, very frequently covered by an arch, and a tympanum introduced. The same architect exhibits a very excellent design for the proposed English Church at Rome (an illustration of which we hope to give next week), which is marked by a flexibility and an adaptation to local circumstances not always found in his work. It is a long nave of six bays without aisles, leading to an apsidal choir and a simple tower south of the choir ; while to the west of the church stands a building for sacristy and library. ‘The pitch of the roof is low; the nave windows are very simple ; those in the apse (which is polygonal with five sides) are rather richer, and sur- mounted by gablets. ‘The tower has a simple conical roof, and the detached building is designed with much dignity, the charm of the whole being that a great deal of the genius loci has infused itself into Mr. Street’s work. The last contribution by this Academician is an external perspective view of a design for the restoration of Kildare Cathedral, a building marked by heavy arches above the nave windows, almost as though a gallery for military purposes has been carried round the walls. Close to Mr. Street, in more than one instance, is hung the work of the new Associate, Mr. Norman Shaw ; and ad- mirably does Mr. Shaw justify the vote which gave him admission to that honour. He sends two views of a house recently erected for Mr. F. Goodall, and perhaps these, though his least ambitious contributions, are the most successful. The house is a simple specimen of a good country house of moderate size, with a large and well-lighted studio added; but, with a view we suppose, to secure exactly the desired aspect for the windows, added askew, as compared with the main building. This subject, partly half- timbered and partly tiled, is treated in the Late Domestic style which Mr. Shaw has principally chosen of recent years. ‘The mullioned windows have double transomes, the tall brick chimneys haye narrow strips running up their faces, and the barge-boards, finials, and other points for ornamentation are touched in with great skill. More am- bitious is Cragside,* Sir William Armstrong’s Northumbrian house, not inappropriately named, if the wonderful masses of rocks which form the foreground to the exterior view are at all true to Nature. This, in more than one aspect, raises the suspicion of being overdone; but where all is so good, one would find it hard to say which feature should be spared. The building is, in the main, two- storied, on a high basement, but a high gabled mass, which can hardly be called a tower, rises in the centre. This is the sub- ject of a separate and charmingly-executed drawing. The chéminée and other parts of the interior of the dining-room are also shown separately, and here, more than elsewhere, the danger of overloading is to be felt. The corbels carrying the mantel are too large; an enormous tympanum of keyed stones osten- tatiously presents itself, and seems as if it did its very best to suggest, by its display of laborious and obsolete construction, how easily the owner of the mansion might have pro- vided a plate of iron to do the same duty. The panelling round the room, the cornice, and many other features, are, however, charm- ingly designed and shown ; and, altogether, the drawings of Mr. Norman Shaw, including one to which we shall return later, of a church at Lyons, are beyond praise for their easy, truthful, and artistic execution. ‘The design of the two works criticised above, is, however, quite open to the objection that it is hardly at all modern. Itis an exqui- site reproduction of past times; but it isa reproduction, pure and simple. ‘This, we think, can hardly be said of Mr. Street’s work, Works by each of the two architects reviewed by us occur early if we follow the order of the catalogue ; others hanging in the same locality are, a brick apsidal church at Finchley, by Mr. H.S. Legg; two finely-washed academical studies—one in the Classic taste, by Mr. Wornum, and the other in the Gothic, by Mr. W. G. Davis—each very elaborate in its way, and both alike im- possible of execution; together with several sketches by Messrs. Beetholme, Boddy, Gill, Spiers, and Walter Paris. Mr. Spiers’s sketches deserve more than simple mention— they represent public buildings in Paris im- mediately after the fire, and both as clever drawings and as mementos of the great cata- strophe, they are well worth examination. The Salle des Fétes, in the Hétel de Ville, is one of the most striking. Mr. Edis exhibits a bright clear drawing of a simple picturesque house at Bexley,* but so few features are shown that it is quite impossible to judge how far the undeniably pleasing effect of this small sketch would be preserved in the executed work. Far more difficult is the other subject which this rising architect has had to treat in his riverside pre- mises at Paul’s Wharf. Alarge frontage had here to be pierced by five strips of openings, the centre one with doors and cranes; and Mr. Edis has boldly thrown up a great gable, slightly decorating it, and caused the heads of his openings to follow its line; his arrange- ment of these heads is not perfectly satisfac- tory, but yet the design is, on the whole, so simple and artistic that we cannot doubt the success of the building. Further on we reach Mr. E. W. Godwin’s first contribution, his Leicester Town Hall design, of which he sends an exterior per- spective view and the Council Chamber- This is a very fine design, and is excellently shown on these drawings. The principal ex- ternal feature is a massive principal tower, somewhat fanciful in the treatment of its upper portion, flanked on the nearer side by a hall or other feature, lighted through five highly-enriched windows, to balance which a lofty square structure occurs on the further side. A charming circular porch is the feature nearest us in the drawing, which well supports Mr. Godwin’s well-earned reputa- tion. The drawing of an interioris also very charming; it represents a room witha waggon- head ceiling, of which both walls and ceiling are covered with elaborate coloured decora- tion. The colour is extremely harmonious: and rich, and although there is no question about the whole being good Gothic, there is: that undefinable air of being modern also, the absence of which we have regretted in Mr. Norman Shaw’s work. Not far from here hangs Mr. Waterhouse’s contribution, the Liverpool Seamen’s Orphan Institution, This is a picturesque and robust composition, displaying that great ease and dexterity in handling the masses of a build- ing which can only come by Jong practice. This building has a fine square tower, with an octagonal turret at one angle. ‘The tower is surmounted by a pyramidal roof, and, though simple, is a very good feature. Nearer the spectator is what appears to bea chapel with a turret of its own, connected to the main building by an arcade; beyond the tower occurs what is clearly a hall, and then comes a block of plainer buildings, well introduced. Altogether this sketch—for it is nothing more than a sketch, though very effectively and ingeniously executed—gives good promise of a successful building. By the same architect is a very small and slight bird’s-eye view of Owen’s College, Man- chester, which by no means does justice to that building. ‘Two ambitious drawings, being too high for close inspection, tell of two schemes for Indian buildings. Captain Mant, R.E., exhibits a square block of buildings with a large central projecting feature, now erecting at Kolapore, Bombay, for the Rajaram High School. This is in the Hindu Saracenic style, and, as far as general forms go, is not at all an unsuccessful re- production of the work it professes to follow, but it would uot be possible to tell, even could one see the drawing close, whether the wonderful elaboration of detail on which this phase of art depends for its success has been at all faithfully adhered to. Mr. Emerson’s design is of a more purely Saracenic type, and represents the Mahom- medan University of Allahabad, now in course of erection. A very lofty tower and four cupolas—of which three are covered with enrichment—are shown in the drawing; they seem to form part of a very grand scheme which, if carried out, will give Mr. Emerson a fine opportunity of showing his powers. It is to be regretted that so few will have an
 * See Double-page Illustration this week.
 * Illustrated in the BUILDING NEws, March 15, 1872.