2 THE BRITISH ARCHITECT. January the 2ND, 1874.
To these outlines of the journalistic matter and intentions to be set before our readers we desire to add an important statement. Our Proprietary provides for the combined action of the building community, and of architects more especially, in determining professional questions and establishing standards of practice, with a view to record them authoritatively in this Journal for distribution far and wide. To accomplish that desirable object we proceed in no exclusive, no sectional, no hostile spirit; but, on the contrary, in the hope that our wide circle may be increased by the addition of all those who have the honour of their vocations at heart, and a conception of the status which they, as a body, ought to maintain.
To such helpers we address ourselves upon this first opportunity, and hereby proffer to them, all and singular, a cordial invitation to join our undertaking and work with us conamore for the common weal.
The Editors.
preceded by the French decorated, such as Strasburg, the
Cathedral at Orleans, the German flamboyant as at Louvaine
Town Hall, and that celebrated spire at Brussels, culminat
ing in the towers and perforated spires of Rouen and those
intended for Cologne Cathedral. The Gothic like the Classic
degeneracy blends in the background with the Indian, the
Russian, and the Moorish. In the foreground of the picture we have the costumes of various
periods of history, with
emblems of worship.”
WEEKLY SUMMARY.
BIR£he building operations in this town,
during the present year, will be important and exten
sive. . New Municipal Buildings, a College, a new Hospital,
additions to the Queen's Hospital, Board Schools, the THE EDITORs. completion of the restoration of the Parish Church, new
Churches, Warehouses, Shops, and other structures of ordi
OUR FRONTISPIECE :-3: nary character, in addition to the local public works, are already resolved upon or in progress. “T H E CO S M I CAL DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE.”
LASGOW.—After an unexampled period of prosperity, number to form
the building trade of this city is relapsing into dulness.
the Frontispiece of The British Architect is printed with printers ink from a photographic negative of an original Water-colour Drawing by Mr. David Paton Low, Architect, of Glasgow. In addition to his courtesy in consenting to the publication of his work, Mr. Low has favoured us with the following description of his intentions in grouping the various types of Buildings in his cosmoramic picture. We should add, in justice to Mr. Low (who had the honour of gaining the Soane Medallion and Travelling Studentship
The Dean of Guild Court affords at all times an index of the
The Illustration inserted in this first
of the Institute in 1868, and is well known as an able
draughtsman), that our photograph imperfectly represents the skilfulness of his Drawing, in consequence of its colour being unfavourable for photographing. “Sometime during 1860 considerable discussion prevailed in some of the leading Architectural Journals regarding the merits of the two great rival styles, under the title of ‘Classic v. Gothic, facetiously termed by some of the corre spondents “The Battle of the Styles. It was to illustrate this medley of architectural warfare that the author first thought of grouping in a picture an historical and compre hensive development of the leading and varied styles of Architecture, showing the relationship which exists, not only betwixt the expression of very different styles of Architecture, but also between the different forms and expressions of worship among its varied votaries during thousands of years. This picture was afterwards sent to the International Ex hibition of 1862, under the title of the “Cosmical Develop ment of Architecture, and was exhibited there along with some of the most celebrated Architectural productions of the day, including that beautiful drawing of Wren's works, by the late Professor Cockerell, from which Richardson executed
his interesting engraving. In a review at that time the drawing was commended for the ‘intimate knowledge exhi bited in its varied and characteristic detail, and the grouping of the styles of Architecture. Without representing any complete existing building, it gives numerous examples of the leading and well-known features, culled from a careful study of the past, practical acquaintance with the present, and some attempt at the future.’ “On the right are the Classic or Pagan styles, beginning with the human-headed Bull; then follows the Egyptian Temple, with attendant obelisks, sculptures, and hierological characteristics. The three phases of Greek art—the Doric, upon a deep sculptured wall or base; the Ionic, with its caryatidae; and the Corinthian, with its crowning pediment, the one above the other in the order of their light ness or growth of refinement. Out of this group spring the various combinations of subsequent art, the Greco-Roman, the Roman-Italian, and the Rennaisance Campanile; the German and French towers and the English spires, which latter exhibit a marked tendency to Gothic forms, merging into features more and more characteristically so in those
£
current activity in building operations. During the earlier part of the past year the plans of buildings submitted for approval at many of its sittings were sufficiently numerous to create surprise, but these have now become reduced to
about one half the usual number. The cause of this falling off is apparent.
During the past twelve months the prices
of labour and materials have advanced to the extent of
twenty-five per cent, upon the average, beyond previous rates. Only public or commercial buildings are contem plated for the present; domestic buildings, of which the greater portion are built by speculators, being postponed.
Inconvenience on that account is not likely to be felt among the more wealthy classes, as dwellings for their accommoda tion are already, in some districts, in excess of the demand for them. Important architectural structures are, neverthe less, in contemplation; and, among other works, in our record of the present year, will be included the commence ment, and probably the completion, of the new Public Halls, an edifice which will form an important addition to the public buildings of the kingdom. An Asylum, a new Fish Market, a Central Railway Station, a new Stock Exchange, an extension of the County Buildings, Board Schools, the rebuilding of the Industrial School, Churches, Insurance Offices, Warehouses, and Shops, are among the works con templated; and in addition there are public works to be carried out by the Corporation, the Railway Companies, and on the Clyde; there is also a drainage scheme to be considered. The works on the Clyde will continue to hold their place among the engineering achievements of this period. IVERPOOL.—There was a time in this country when the practice of Architecture fell so low in general
appreciation that a man who could erect a habitable struc ture was permitted to design it in accordance with his own, or the prevailing, defective taste, and on its completion was allowed the further privilege of fixing his own charges for the work he had performed. He was recognised as Archi tect, Quantity Surveyor, Inspector, and Master craftsman of all the Building trades. The remaining examples of the works that were produced are remembered with aversion
amounting to contempt, and their total obliteration has long become one of the necessities of the present day. Apart, also, from the hideousness of the buildings, there was an entire absence of business principles in the method by which their authors proceeded with their work. By degrees their method was set aside, the foundation for an improved system of conducting building operations was originated, certain
usages became established, and the old-fashioned quadruple practitioners are now looked upon as extinct. In these days a qualified Architect finds the multifarious demands upon his skill are increasing and diverging, year
of the Turkish, the Chinese, the Russian, and the Indian,
after year, to such an extent that work as he may his time
which commingle in the centre of the picture behind the culminated expression of architectural power, the typical
is too short to fulfil them as he could wish.
dome.
of success, any other vocation than his own.
On
the left we have
the Gothic or Christian
A Builder knows
that he has not the time to pursue, with the smallest chance
art:—The battlemented keep, fit stronghold of a warlike lord; the heavy Norman indicating a period when religious arguments were more enforced by power than reason; the Early English, when art and science in building in
Exceptions to these conditions are generally supposed to exist in the more remote agricultural towns and not in the commercial and manufacturing centres; and the rule to which even those exceptions are in contrast is so well known
creased, when the countries became more luxuriant, and
that only a glaring necessity could justify our calling atten
forms became lighter and more varied and intricate. We have also the Tudor and the Perpendicular, as in Henry VII.'s Chapel, Christ Church, Cambridge, front of York Minster, merging into the Elizabethan mixture of some of our colleges,
tion to a fact so trite as its existence.
- In consequence of accidents the issue of this illustration is deferred.
be given of its insertion in a future number.
Due notice w ll
That exceptions could be found in a place wherein other
business operations are conducted with keen acumen and princely decorum;—that such exceptions could be found in Liverpool;—almost surpasses belief. Nevertheless, in the address, printed in another column, of the PRESIDENT
