but slowly during 1910-20. Some of the mosaics of the side chapels had been finished by 1921, but very little had been done with the pavements, for which the architect prepared many beautiful designs worked out with the most meticulous detail both of form and colour; if these designs are eventually carried out the marble mosaic floor will not suffer in comparison with the best of the older examples.
The Liverpool cathedral by G. Gilbert Scott, which was much delayed during the war, was making fair progress in 1921, and when completed will be a most interesting example of modern Gothic, and from its commanding position, it will be a striking monumental building as seen from the Mersey. That Gothic still holds its own for ecclesiastical buildings is shown by many modern churches, of which St. Mark's, Walsall, by the late Temple Moore, one of the greatest of the modern Gothicists, and a church at Gretna by Geoffry Lucas, may be taken as types.
Municipal Buildings. Among municipal buildings the enor- mous London County Hall on the south side of the river was approaching completion in 1921; the Marylebone town hall by Cooper and the offices of the Metropolitan Water Board by Austen Hall had been completed, and the large building for the Port of London offices occupying a commanding site on Tower Hill was well advanced.
Commercial. Among recent commercial buildings one of the most noteworthy is the Cunard building at Liverpool by Willink and Thicknesse. This is one of three important buildings on one of the finest sites in England, with wide spaces all round it, opposite the landing-stage, occupying the position of a small dock that had been reclaimed from the estuary and was closed in the year 1900. The Italian Renaissance style was adopted for this building, the total length of which is 330 ft., and the average breadth 183 ft., the height above the pavement being 120 feet. The building is constructed of reinforced concrete faced with Portland stone rock-faced, heavily rusticated and battered up to the first-floor level and with dressed portland stone above, the first and second floors forming a piano nobile. A very heavy cornice projecting about 7 ft. from the wall face crowns the building and above this is a screen wall about 10 ft. high. It is a matter for regret that there is a lack of harmony in the elevations of the three buildings on this splendid site. Other large commer- cial London buildings recently completed in 1921 were the Wolseley Motor Car offices in Piccadilly, by Curtis Green; Australia House in the Strand, by Marshall Mackenzie & Son; and the Kodak building in Kingsway, by Sir John Burnet, which in its unadorned severity is an excellent example of the proper way to treat a skeleton steel structure.
Street architecture in the business centre of a town offers to the architect one of the most difficult problems with which he has to deal. It seems almost impossible to disabuse the mind of the ordinary large retail tradesman of the idee fixe that the more space he has for outside show of the articles he deals in, the better it is for his business. The consequence is that in most cases the architect has to start his design on the first floor and to all appearances to carry his structure on a thin plate of glass on the ground floor. This is of course fatal to good architecture. Fortunately the idea has been growing though very slowly that a more artistic and alluring display of goods can be made if the various articles are framed in panels separated by bold structural piers of stone. Among the best of recent shop fronts in London treated architecturally from top to bottom may be mentioned the Sclfridge building in Oxford Street, and Messrs. Real's premises in Tottenham Court Road. In these buildings the supports of the superstructure are carried down through the ground floor.
The decade 1910-20 saw the commencement of the passing of the Regent Street which had been familiar to Londoners for over a hundred years. Whatever may be thought of stucco design in imitation of stone, there can be no doubt that Nash achieved a really fine effect in the fagades of this street, which were dignified, harmonious and free from monotony, and one cannot repress a feeling of regret to see these old fronts replaced by lofty new buildings which, whatever their individual merits may be,
do not seem likely to group together so as to give the street an effect of architectural eongruity.
Factories. The effect of their daily surroundings on the workers in factories has been the subject of careful attention. Anyone who knows the majority of the old mills and factories in the Manchester district, with their tall brick walls and square windows with no attempt to break their hideous uniformity, cannot but be impressed with the horribly depressing effect which these buildings must have upon those who are employed in them. The planning of factories now demands almost as much care as the design for a hospital. Ample light, preferably from the north, is provided and variegated glazed-brick linings are used for the walls of the work-rooms to break their monotony, the junction of the walls and floors being rounded off to avoid dust accumulat- ing. Mess-rooms and changing-rooms are provided and in these are often placed separate lock-up clothes lockers for each female worker. Employers have begun to recognize the fact that expenditure on these refinements is well repaid by a greatly increased output from the employees.
As another example of the way in which the welfare of em- ployees is cared for may be instanced a building recently erected in Gower Street as a hostel for the female employees of a firm of drapers. Included in this building, which contains about 350 bedrooms, are a lounge, reading-room and library and a large hall with stage for concerts and amateur theatrical performances. This marks an interesting new departure in what may be called domestic commercial buildings.
A considerable amount of discussion has taken place as to the desirability of removing the restriction laid down by the London County Council that no building shall be erected of a greater height than 80 ft. from the pavement, exclusive of two storeys in the roof, and allowing sky-scrapers on the lines of those in New York. Granted the existence of an open space of sufficient extent on all sides, there would be no harm in erecting a building 200 or 250 ft. high, but unfortunately where high buildings are most urgently required is in the congested area of. the city and here their erection would result in a complete overshadowing of the lower buildings, which would entirely destroy their amenities and practically render them unusable except by artificial light. Any general relaxation of the restrictions is to be deprecated, but in exceptional positions there is no doubt that the rules might be modified with advantage.
Domestic. Domestic architecture, in which England has always excelled, came almost to a standstill during 1910-20, mainly owing to the enormous cost of building. Among recent examples may be mentioned Heath Lodge, Headley Common, by Dawber; a very picturesque house in Avenue Road, St. John's Wood, by Baillie Scott; a house near Goring, a typical example of Ernest Newton's refined work; and a house at Shotton Mill, Surrey, by E. J. May.
Memorials. War memorials are of various kinds; isolated mon- uments such as crosses and obelisks; shrines or chantry chapels added to a church; mural tablets; and occasionally what may be called a utilitarian building erected as a memorial but only indirectly associated with those whose deaths are memorialized. The number of these erected all over the United Kingdom as well as in France and Belgium is so great that it is impossible to mention more than a few. Among the isolated monuments the first place must be given to Lutyens's Cenotaph in Whitehall, which, for dignity and simplicity combined, cannot easily be surpassed; the all-India memorial at Delhi (see DELHI) by the same architect will be one of the most important features of the new capital of India. Sir R. Blomfield has designed a number of memorial crosses, of which it may be said that the bigger the scale on which they are executed the better is their effect. A very graceful example of a memorial cross is one at King's Lynn by O. P. Milne which stands on a large pedestal on the sides of which are engraved in panels the names of those who fell in the war.
The War Memorial Chapel in Ely cathedral by Dawber; the memorial screen and organ designed for Merton College chapel, Oxford, by Sir R. Lorimer, which shows the Gothic tradition still
