GOOD AND BAD MANNERS IN ARCHITECTURE. By Trystan Edwards. (Philip
Allan. 6s. net.)
From the very title of Mr. Edwards' book we can see that it is, on the whole, a work of negative criticism. Nothing so transcendent as spirit or afflatus in architecture interests him. Nevertheless, apart from its limitations the book is good and valuable. We all know the buildings which attempt to put their neighbours to shame by the clamant irregularity of their features, or by the ostentatious superfluity of their decorations ; and we are all distressed that so supreme an example of good taste and "mutual help" in architecture as Nash's Regent Street is being stolen from us. Mr. Edwards' whole attempt is to show how buildings may pay due respect to each other and live sociably together. He is concerned, therefore, only with urban architecture, with "orderliness," with town-planning, with façades, and with close-packed streets. The "good taste" of Mr. Edwards leads him, we think, to be too contemptuous of the monumental sky-scraper ; after all, a fine building is worthy of individual attention, and Bush House does not disagreeably monopolize our atten- tion. In New York, at any rate, the sky-scraper is not necessarily unsociable.
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