Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Estate Of The Royal Commissioners For The Exhibition Of 1851.
Our opinion as to tho removal of any portion of the British Museum Collections to South Kensington has been so recently given that we need not here repeat our objections . It is very possible that we have been looking at the silver-side of tbe shield—from the point of the shilling public . Truly , to pass over to the goldenside—shall we say with the guinea folk ?—is to be sensible of a decided change iu the effect produced on the mind . What can be more agreeable and delightful than to drive from the Park to the Horticultural
Gardens , and stroll through the grounds in genial summer weather , of which , in the budding leaves , we begin to recognise the promise ? AVhen satiated with the gardens , to lounge ancl eat ices in the arcades , and thence to . pass to the picture galleries in Cromwell-road ; or , if the jSFatural History Collections shall be transferred to Kensington-gore , to gratify j-et another taste : how
very pleasant is all this ! Let us not omit the South Kensington Museum , with its multifarious objects . Then , if the National Gallery can be moved to the same spot , aud present towards the Park its ( undesigned ) grandiose front , we know of no aristocracy that would be so well provided as our own with all that appeals to tbe finer and more cultivated feelings of a humanitjf , which ( we could
almost doubt that ) they share with the toilers and workers of London . Be it so . But let us make no pretence about consulting public convenience . Why not boldly confess that we held a Great Exhibition ; that a large surplus fund was built up of the contributions of tbe people ; that we talked
and pottered , pottered and talked , till , at last , ive contrived the most charming places of recreation for the idle nnd the wealthy within the closest neighbourhood of their usual gay haunts ; that we went to Parliament and charmed to sleep the senators , who , though they arrogate to themselves the title of the people ' s champions , yet raise their bold voices in any and every place but the
right one ; that we moved our national collections of pictures and natural history ; and , more than all , that we actually succeeded in making everybody believe that we could do and did all these things for their benefit , not in the interest of a section , but in that of the whole public ? Our columns may yet have to record the successful , though gradual , prosecution of these schemes which
appear to be ripening . When we remember tbe weighty names and high influence that can and will infallibly be brought to bear , the issue seems no longer doubtful . Well , we shall have bad tho satisfaction of having uttered one protest , and shall enjoy tbe consolation of knowing that , to the last , we denied and denounced the invention of tbe centre of London .
Street Architecture Of London.*
STREET ARCHITECTURE OP LONDON . *"
The street architecture of London is a subject which I feel may he treated in many different ways , and which admits of a much larger amplification than I at all contemplated when I ventured to put my name down in the list of lecturers , with a promise to say something upon it . Thus , the associations attaching to the different streets ancl houses ; the way in which this great city has gradually grown since that not very remote period when old London wall was
its boundary , and the outworks of the Barbican stretched into the adjacent fields , till it has reached its present gigantic dimensions ; the origin of the . names of divisions of the city , and of streets , and many other peculiarities—might all afford the subject of interesting disquisitions , hut which would most of them be more antiquarian in their character than would he suitable to the special views whicli this society desires to
advocate . I will step aside , however , to point out one practical result ofthe " metropolitan improvement" going on in the present clay , ivhich is perhaps overlooked , hut the serious consequences of which will certainly he discovered by future inquirers ,- and that is , that the new system now carried right and left , according to whicli the names of streets are simplified ,
while subsidiary names are done away with altogether , and tho entire numbering altered , so as to expunge all minor distinctions where possible , ranging along line under one appellation , will certainly tend to obliterate numberless spots of interest for which the future antiquary or lover of art reminiscences will search in vain . But it is not , after all , so much that old spots are marked under new designations , and old streets clubbed with new names , as that a very great demolition and rebuilding of
entire streets to make way for new or of old houses in old streets , is taking ' place ; so thatjif London is notbeing transformed as quickly as Paris has been , it is at all events undergoing the process as completely , though more slowly , and at the present rate some fifteen years hence will witness almost as great an alteration ; and this , be it remarked , is not done hy any means upon that well-ordered system and under that controlling power which exists in the foreign capital . How far such a system
asthat would he beneficial ^ to us is a question which I shall just touch upon in the course of what I have to . say . The antiquary may experience a pang at the disappearance of the old landmarks of history , and of spots hallowed by the footsteps of those great in literature or art ; hut for the most part the lover of the fine arts can afford to view these inroads at least without regret : occasionally , indeed , he may find cause
to grieve , but this is rather when some object of beauty becomes lost or obliterated . For example , I observed very recently that the old hall in Bishopgate , built for Sir John Crosby in 1471 , interesting to the antiquarian as having been the council chamber where Richard of Gloucester held his secret council , and whence he ordered Hastings to the block , and worthy of notice from the lover of art on account of its architecture , has at last descended to fulfil the very ordinary purposes of a wine
merchant's cellar—a fate which the handsome old hall hardly deserved , and which we must all regret . That the old houses , of the early part of the last century , with their originally careful , but now- more or less dilapidated , brickwork , their window-frames flush with the face of the wall and fitted with heavy sashes , wooden cornices and doorways ( well designed though those latter often were ) , should make way for modern structures , no one need regret ; the roofs of these buildings were often picturesque in their outlines , but on the
whole they bad very little art about them externally , and they did hut prepare the way for the Harley and Baker streets of more recent era , whose day I trust is gone for ever . London , perhaps , has fewer remains of its former self than , might have been expected from its age and long and evergrowing prosperity—though , in truth , it is this very prosperity which has had much to do with the demolition of old buildings . Old Londonunlike some of the better preserved Continental
, cities , ivas built mostly of wood , plastered over ; liable , therefore , to decay , and quite unfit for many purposes to which buildings of stronger construction might have been applied , when altered circumstances came , and which thus might have been preserved . Buildings of stone walls and oak floors would have made very good warehouses : not so the old half-timbered houseswith their gabled fronts overhanging story beyond story .
, London in many parts may certainly he called picturesque , full of sites offering line opportunities for effect . One part has grown out of another , as occasion made necessary . No generally dominant idea can be said to prevail ; it has spread , and that to a most inconvenient extent—unfortunately , not upwards , by which it might have become a far finer city ; but a great growth of area has taken placeadding nothing at all to the
, general effect . The sites I allude to are not such as Oxfordstreet or the Strand- —broad , straight streets , whicli might be Hanked on either side by lofty buildings , with a predominance of long , level cornices and lines in their composition , like the new Parisian boulevards—but Holborn-hill , Ludgate-hill , Fleetstreet , Cheapside , "Whitehall , Piccadilly , & e . —localities which , all of them , invite that particular treatment which we find
exemplified in the new buildings in Bishopsgate-street , opposite Crosby Hall , a coachhuilder ' s premises near the Park , in Piccadilly , and those very striking schools in Bloomsbury , with others I might name . In the situations above named , how can the eye be satisfied unless there is a broken and well-defined sky-line , a certain amount of irregularity , order within disorderin that which we call icturesquean tance of every
, p , accep little difficulty in order to clothe it witli beauty and meaning . There is something so oppressive to the imag ination if one pictures sites like these as being rebuilt in the studied , caref ' ullv cut-up , divided , and subdivided styles of Italian architecture , as practised in this day , that one would almost rather
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Estate Of The Royal Commissioners For The Exhibition Of 1851.
Our opinion as to tho removal of any portion of the British Museum Collections to South Kensington has been so recently given that we need not here repeat our objections . It is very possible that we have been looking at the silver-side of tbe shield—from the point of the shilling public . Truly , to pass over to the goldenside—shall we say with the guinea folk ?—is to be sensible of a decided change iu the effect produced on the mind . What can be more agreeable and delightful than to drive from the Park to the Horticultural
Gardens , and stroll through the grounds in genial summer weather , of which , in the budding leaves , we begin to recognise the promise ? AVhen satiated with the gardens , to lounge ancl eat ices in the arcades , and thence to . pass to the picture galleries in Cromwell-road ; or , if the jSFatural History Collections shall be transferred to Kensington-gore , to gratify j-et another taste : how
very pleasant is all this ! Let us not omit the South Kensington Museum , with its multifarious objects . Then , if the National Gallery can be moved to the same spot , aud present towards the Park its ( undesigned ) grandiose front , we know of no aristocracy that would be so well provided as our own with all that appeals to tbe finer and more cultivated feelings of a humanitjf , which ( we could
almost doubt that ) they share with the toilers and workers of London . Be it so . But let us make no pretence about consulting public convenience . Why not boldly confess that we held a Great Exhibition ; that a large surplus fund was built up of the contributions of tbe people ; that we talked
and pottered , pottered and talked , till , at last , ive contrived the most charming places of recreation for the idle nnd the wealthy within the closest neighbourhood of their usual gay haunts ; that we went to Parliament and charmed to sleep the senators , who , though they arrogate to themselves the title of the people ' s champions , yet raise their bold voices in any and every place but the
right one ; that we moved our national collections of pictures and natural history ; and , more than all , that we actually succeeded in making everybody believe that we could do and did all these things for their benefit , not in the interest of a section , but in that of the whole public ? Our columns may yet have to record the successful , though gradual , prosecution of these schemes which
appear to be ripening . When we remember tbe weighty names and high influence that can and will infallibly be brought to bear , the issue seems no longer doubtful . Well , we shall have bad tho satisfaction of having uttered one protest , and shall enjoy tbe consolation of knowing that , to the last , we denied and denounced the invention of tbe centre of London .
Street Architecture Of London.*
STREET ARCHITECTURE OP LONDON . *"
The street architecture of London is a subject which I feel may he treated in many different ways , and which admits of a much larger amplification than I at all contemplated when I ventured to put my name down in the list of lecturers , with a promise to say something upon it . Thus , the associations attaching to the different streets ancl houses ; the way in which this great city has gradually grown since that not very remote period when old London wall was
its boundary , and the outworks of the Barbican stretched into the adjacent fields , till it has reached its present gigantic dimensions ; the origin of the . names of divisions of the city , and of streets , and many other peculiarities—might all afford the subject of interesting disquisitions , hut which would most of them be more antiquarian in their character than would he suitable to the special views whicli this society desires to
advocate . I will step aside , however , to point out one practical result ofthe " metropolitan improvement" going on in the present clay , ivhich is perhaps overlooked , hut the serious consequences of which will certainly he discovered by future inquirers ,- and that is , that the new system now carried right and left , according to whicli the names of streets are simplified ,
while subsidiary names are done away with altogether , and tho entire numbering altered , so as to expunge all minor distinctions where possible , ranging along line under one appellation , will certainly tend to obliterate numberless spots of interest for which the future antiquary or lover of art reminiscences will search in vain . But it is not , after all , so much that old spots are marked under new designations , and old streets clubbed with new names , as that a very great demolition and rebuilding of
entire streets to make way for new or of old houses in old streets , is taking ' place ; so thatjif London is notbeing transformed as quickly as Paris has been , it is at all events undergoing the process as completely , though more slowly , and at the present rate some fifteen years hence will witness almost as great an alteration ; and this , be it remarked , is not done hy any means upon that well-ordered system and under that controlling power which exists in the foreign capital . How far such a system
asthat would he beneficial ^ to us is a question which I shall just touch upon in the course of what I have to . say . The antiquary may experience a pang at the disappearance of the old landmarks of history , and of spots hallowed by the footsteps of those great in literature or art ; hut for the most part the lover of the fine arts can afford to view these inroads at least without regret : occasionally , indeed , he may find cause
to grieve , but this is rather when some object of beauty becomes lost or obliterated . For example , I observed very recently that the old hall in Bishopgate , built for Sir John Crosby in 1471 , interesting to the antiquarian as having been the council chamber where Richard of Gloucester held his secret council , and whence he ordered Hastings to the block , and worthy of notice from the lover of art on account of its architecture , has at last descended to fulfil the very ordinary purposes of a wine
merchant's cellar—a fate which the handsome old hall hardly deserved , and which we must all regret . That the old houses , of the early part of the last century , with their originally careful , but now- more or less dilapidated , brickwork , their window-frames flush with the face of the wall and fitted with heavy sashes , wooden cornices and doorways ( well designed though those latter often were ) , should make way for modern structures , no one need regret ; the roofs of these buildings were often picturesque in their outlines , but on the
whole they bad very little art about them externally , and they did hut prepare the way for the Harley and Baker streets of more recent era , whose day I trust is gone for ever . London , perhaps , has fewer remains of its former self than , might have been expected from its age and long and evergrowing prosperity—though , in truth , it is this very prosperity which has had much to do with the demolition of old buildings . Old Londonunlike some of the better preserved Continental
, cities , ivas built mostly of wood , plastered over ; liable , therefore , to decay , and quite unfit for many purposes to which buildings of stronger construction might have been applied , when altered circumstances came , and which thus might have been preserved . Buildings of stone walls and oak floors would have made very good warehouses : not so the old half-timbered houseswith their gabled fronts overhanging story beyond story .
, London in many parts may certainly he called picturesque , full of sites offering line opportunities for effect . One part has grown out of another , as occasion made necessary . No generally dominant idea can be said to prevail ; it has spread , and that to a most inconvenient extent—unfortunately , not upwards , by which it might have become a far finer city ; but a great growth of area has taken placeadding nothing at all to the
, general effect . The sites I allude to are not such as Oxfordstreet or the Strand- —broad , straight streets , whicli might be Hanked on either side by lofty buildings , with a predominance of long , level cornices and lines in their composition , like the new Parisian boulevards—but Holborn-hill , Ludgate-hill , Fleetstreet , Cheapside , "Whitehall , Piccadilly , & e . —localities which , all of them , invite that particular treatment which we find
exemplified in the new buildings in Bishopsgate-street , opposite Crosby Hall , a coachhuilder ' s premises near the Park , in Piccadilly , and those very striking schools in Bloomsbury , with others I might name . In the situations above named , how can the eye be satisfied unless there is a broken and well-defined sky-line , a certain amount of irregularity , order within disorderin that which we call icturesquean tance of every
, p , accep little difficulty in order to clothe it witli beauty and meaning . There is something so oppressive to the imag ination if one pictures sites like these as being rebuilt in the studied , caref ' ullv cut-up , divided , and subdivided styles of Italian architecture , as practised in this day , that one would almost rather