Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/81

 Jan. 26, 1872. THE BUILDING NEWS. 65 If however, the ridge is to be covered with zinc, then zinc ridges are generally put on in 8-feet lengths, with three straps to each length, or one about every 23ft. Each length of ridge is allowed to overlap the other about 2 inches. Where the straps are put on at one every 4ft., it does not give the zinc fair play. Zinc ridges ‘are made of sheet zinc from Nos. 10 to 14 and upwards. No. 10, which gives about 120z. to square foot, is little enough ; but anything ess, unless specially ordered, or for something temporary, should not be put on. Tron ridges are put on in 4-feet lengths as east by some foundries or as ordered, they are cast to suit the pitch or inclination of the roof. They can be had either quite plain (as shown in diagram), or with many different styles of ornament to suit the character of the building (see sketch). The one length over- laps the other, and as eachlength is cast with a raised head at one end and raised cover at the other, the head of one length is covered by the socket of the other, and so made tight. While we are at the iron work of roofs, we may here mention iron centre gutters, which, ‘as they are not put up for ornament, but ‘simply for use, can be made with any declivity wanted, in which case the sole or bottom of gutter is cast tapered, perhaps 6 inches broad -where water runs off, and 10 or 12 inches at higher end. Yn other cases they are cast without any declivity, being laid level, and therefore the same breadth throughout. The two sides, however, in all cases require to be made to fit pitch of roof, or else the inclina- tion of roof is set so as to fit them if they are selected beforehand ; generally, however, the gutter is made to fit roof as at K, where the ‘ a
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é y Y sy . v, ‘, 7 ‘N Li = ‘drop L is also shown for the outlet, by which water may be conveyed away by the rain- water pipes as circumstances require. These centre iron gutters are made with enlarged faucits, same as semi-circle rhones, not with contracted ends, same as ornamental rhones above alluded to. They are joined with putty or red lead, and bolts and nuts, the bolts being 1}in. long, and about in. thick. Three bolts are used for each joint, but in some very broad gutters four bolts may be used. Each length may be had either six or seven feet long, according to the usage of the foundry they are got from ; shorter lengths may be had to order or to make up length required. In our next we shall treat of roofs where the material used by the plumber is lead. We shall be glad to give our best attention to any queries, suggestions, information, plans, or patents sent in in connection with this subject, and shall as far as possible either answer directly, or use, or make allusion to the matter as it comes up in its proper place. Please address to ‘‘ Plumbing,” office of the Buiipine News. (To be continued.) —_—__ A Town Sryxinc.—The Northwich Local Board have hada discussion as to the sinking of the town and the salt-producing districts around. The trus- tees are about to deepen the River Weaver to Wins- ford Bridge, and it is said if they do not get an in- vert or plank piling of the river round the town, the whole town would fall, or there would be an im- mediate subsidence, and eventually a collapse, of the greater portion of the property of the town. The sinking inmany places is caused by the river running through the quicksand into the old rock shafts. LONDON AS IT IS AND AS IT MIGHT BE, (Concluded from page 51.) R. PAYNE then passed on to the third head of his subject—namely, that the general aspect of the streets of London, even the principal ones, is common-place, uninteresting, and even ugly, and that, compared with the advantages gained, a very trifling expense would make an astonishing difference in this. What a difference, again, between London and Paris in this respect! There it is a pleasure, in the best quarters, to walk from one part of the city to the other ; the fine broad boulevards, lined with trees, stretching in every direction, the fresh clear air, the white stone facades, rich with carving and sculpture, the tasteful shops almost everywhere, make Paris the very pattern of a capital city. The effect to Londoners coming back from Paris to their own dirty city, with its long rows of uninteresting brick-built streets, typified by Gower- street, its monotonous squares, its filth, and its smoke, is disheartening in the extreme; in fact, it is only through the principal thoroughfares, such as Oxford- street, Regent-street, or the Strand, where the shops and the passing throngs of people afford some amuse- ment, that the pedestrian would care to loiter in London. Those of us who live within the town usually rush about from point to point by cab, under- ground railroad, or omnibus, our only thought being to get to our destination as soon as possible. Thus, what might be a healthful exercise becomes a fatigu- ing strain on the nerves. Mr. Payne did not mean to say that there is not more solid and finer archi- tecture in some parts of London than in Paris itself, such as the elubs about Pall Mall, the mansions round Hyde Park, and several great public buildings ; and in the City, too, there are whole streets of architec- ture, which for boldness, originality, and solidity of construction, are far superior to Parisian. But it is all hid in narrow streets and courts, and if one were to turn up his head to look at it, he would be carried away or knocked over by the rushing crowds below ; in fact, the only time to be able to really see it is on Sundays, or on the early morning or late evening of a summer’s day, when those busy millions have left off their toil for a time and drawn off to the suburbs. But all the street architecture of London, with very few exceptions, is isolated from the sur- rounding buildings in style and character, and very often placed where it can hardly be seen at all to advantage. Where the Parisians have the advan- tage of us is in the arrangement of their town and streets. Nothing is hid, all can be well seen, and nothing seems monotonous or devoid of interest. It isagreatreproach to us that Paris should beso beautiful and London so ugly. We cannot have, and we don’t want here, a Napoleon and a Baron Haussmann, to cleave lines of streets right and leftregardless of cost and indifferent to private interests ; but we ought at least to do our best to find out some way to remedy the evil. Is it possible to suggest some plan, for in- stance, by which a walk from University College to Oxford-street down Gower-street might be made a pleasant stroll, or a walk along either the Edgware or Euston-roads a pleasant or interesting one? Some will say we ought to build in white stone instead of brick ; this may sound very well in theory, but it is impossible, and out of the question. If London cannot be made to look interesting in brick and plaster, it is pretty certain that it will have to remain in its present ugliness, unless there be some revolution in our systems of leasehold and notions of economy. What we want is to find some plan by which, without a wholesale pulling-down and build- ing-up, the existing London can be materially im- proved; and there are some improvements of this sort that seem to be obvious and easy of carrying out. The most important of these is a system of boulevards, lined with trees, in every direction, with- out, however, forming any new streets or running to eny great expense. No place could be more favourably circumstanced than London for construct- ing these useful and beautiful features of a large city. There are numerous, almost countless, broad roads in every quarter (of which Euston-road or Pentonville-road are familiar types), which have once been suburban, and have been lined in the main by private houses with small gardens in front. As the town increases these roads become required for shops, which are accordingly built out on the front garden, one story high, and decorated on the top with all sorts of fantastic plaster-casts, zine- ware, &c., forming about as ugly a road as can well be imagined. Now all that is wanted to turn these roads into magnificent boulevards would be to build the shops under the houses in the ordinary way, and to make use of the part now occupied by front gardens for wide footpaths bounded by trees. This might be attended with some expense in buying up the gardens, but this would be as nothing compared to the immense gain, which would entirely transform London into a new city, and it is highly probable that the property on each side of the roads would be so increased in value as to pay several times over for the expense. Where there wasmuch room to spare, as there would be in many cases, narrow gardens with flower-beds and _ seats might be formed under the trees, and where the underground railroad went underneath, shafts could be provided, by which that useful line would become less sulphurous and tuunel-like than at present. After clearing the air from smoke and dirt, the next urgent want is to introduce Nature into London. We want Nature’s trees and flowers wherever we can find a place for them. The Embankment, with its gardens, and the beautifnl flower-beds that have appeared of late years in the parks, are steps in the right direction, but we want a great many more such steps. We want more public squares laid out as gardens, with fountains and seats. The parks are so far distant from one another that it is quite a journey to get at them; but if we had occasional public squares or gardens, however small, we could in a long walk put up with a dingy street or two for the sake of the gardens. It would be an immense gain to the occupiers of private squares themselves if the latter were all thrown open to the public, for instead of the privi- lege of paying a guinea or two for the right of entering one dingy square and shutting everybody else out, they would have the right of entry into all for nothing, and they would also see hundreds enjoying a sniff of fresh air, and little healthy cheeks glowing which but for those squares would have been stived up in some pestiferous street, as they are now. This would be the way to educate the people, and would do as much good as half-a-dozen British Museums. Why should not Leicester-square, for instance, be made a public garden? In its ‘present condition such a boon to its private owners or the neighbourhood that it cannot be given up? The lack of a place to sit down and rest one’s weary limbs is a terrible want in London as at present. Leta stranger go down to the Embankment on a summer’s day ; he is, perhaps, tired, and wishes to sit down and watch the river, but there are no seats. Why on earth are there no seats along the Embankment? Happy thought! He will go into the gardens across the road; his only view, it is true, will be the well- known ruinous brick buildings that uphold the architectural glory of London in this quarter, but at least he can rest his weary limbs; he repairs to the garden, and he sees about five or six seats, each thickly studded with nursery-maids and children, who don’t look as if they had the slightest intention of giving them up. A policeman, perhaps, tells him there are plenty of seats in Hyde Park; but as he does not wish to walk three or four miles for a seat he repairs either to the waiting-room of a station or to some refreshment-room, where he purchases the luxury of aseat with a cup of coffee er a chop which he does not want. But, in the next place, we have many streets in London, with and without shops, wh ich it would be impossible to turn into boulevards, and where we could not introduce trees or squares. Is there any way of improving the ordinary street architecture of London without pulling it down and rebuilding it? Most of our houses and shops have a facing of stone, stucco, or brick. Those of stone are usually the aristocrats of the neighbourhood, of considerable architectural pretensions, and an exampleto the rest of the street ; what is wanted is to “level up” the others to the same point. With regard to the stuccoed ones, Mr. Payne cited two examples which prove that it is quite possible to make any ordinary brick house look artistic and interesting without facing it with stone or marble. He referred to Novello’s music establishment, in Berners-street, and to Duclos’, the confectioner’s, in Oxford-street. Nothing could be plainer than the structural part of Novello’s warehouse, which is simple brick and stucco, but to is so tastefully decorated in patterns in colour as it afford as much pleasure as many an elaborate stone building. And the same system might, of course, be pursued with any stuccoed building. Duclos’ is more elaborate structurally than the other, but by far the greater part of its ornaments are in colours. This seems to be an entirely new and useful field for architects. Given an ordinary stuccoed house, to make it look artistic and interesting; unless, indeed, we are utterly to despise stucco, and decline to stoop to house decoration of this sort as beneath our notice. If this be our line of action, we shall pro- bably be deserted by the public, who will turn to engineers as a more useful body, and leave us to feed on the glory of our wsthetic ideas. The true course for architects is to make the best of everything, even paint and stucco, and to despise no materials that are