s THE GROSVENOR HOUSE EXHIBITION.
THE Duke of Westminster's generous offer of Grosvenor House for the first exhibition of the Architecture Club is of a piece with the general good will with which this new movement for the promotion of good architecture has been met on all sides.
At Grosvenor House, therefore, from March 6th to the 24th, we shall have such an exhibition as has never before been attempted in this country and an opportunity for judging current English architecture that every culti- vated person will surely endeavour to seize. The show will not be confined to the work of the fifty architects who with fifty " patrons ". and fifty " writers " comprise the club, but will include works selected from what otber architects may submit by invitation.
In addressing a meeting of architects the other evening on matters relating to the theatre, Mr. W. J. Turner had the temerity to express himself thus :—" Gentlemen, let us begin by frankly admitting that probably 90 per cent. of you arc bad."
Those responsible for the exhibition have not com- mitted themselves to any such invidious statistics, but they have striven to seek out talent wherever it might be found, and as everything sent in will be judged on its merits by the Hanging Committee, 'whether the work of a member or of an invited architect, nothing that is not creditable is likely to creep in. Being thus only repre sentative of the best English practice and restricted to the work of the past twenty years, the exhibition •will, unhappily, give a stranger a quite false idea of the architectural impressions that he would get from a tour round England, an experience that would certainly drive him to the conclusion that it was only the natural desire of a guest to please that made Mr. Turner flatter his architect hosts by implying that as many as ten out of every hundred of them might be good.
As a means to an end—good architecture—the dis- covery and recognition of good architects is one of the things that the club is out for, a public service that all who care for the amenities of England must applaud. As a divining rod for talent, the forthcoming exhibition should prove admirable, for nothing save models and large-scale photographs will be admitted, so that the architect will be judged by the clear and uncom- promising proofs of his architectural ability and not through the seductive but misleading mediumship of the water-colourist. So excellent a project for the improve- ment .of amenities, both public and private, is lecture of the Spectator's support.; and •as we would •see better buildings, so do we wish success to this ,first venture of the Architecture Club.
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