ARCHITECTURE is lifting its head in this country, despite the
depressing influences of ignorance and jobbing. As yet it is but in the imitative stage ; invention is shown only in the adaptation of old features to new purposes. The characteristics of the several styles are often preserved with an intelligent accuracy, bespeaking a comprehension of their great principles and an emulation of the spirit in which the structures of an- tiquity were conceived : on the other hand, there is too much false taste displayed in vulgar imitations, servile without propriety, and flagrantly devious though destitute of originality. People are beginning to take an interest in public buildings, and to canvass the claims of architects : the. swarms of new churches shooting up on every side of the Metro- polis furnish the residents of each suburban district with an object whereon to exercise their judgment, and vindicate their opinion with what arguments they may have to offer. We desire to promote such discussions ; and with this view propose to make a few notes on any new buildings that challenge particular attention.
We commence with a structure alike remarkable for the beauty and novelty of the design, and unique in respect of its being the only ex- ample we have of polychrome architecture applied to an exterior: we allude to Christchurch, Streatham ; the architect of which, Mr. J. W.
WILD, may claim the merit of having been the first to naturalize the Byzantine style in England. The church stands back a little distance from the road ; viewed from which the entrance-front presents an ele- gant and stately aspect, ornate yet simple and massive : its symmetrical proportions and harmonious effect of colour arrest attention, and the eye dwells on these beauties with admiring satisfaction. The plan of the structure is a nave with semicircular apsis, and side-aisles; a lofty campanile tower with pyramidal spire adjoining the east end of the South aisle : the roof is low-pitched, and rests on a coved cornice; towards which the side-walls incline slightly inward. The façade is plain, the wings receding a very little from the centre ; its principal feature being a pointed arch, of lofty proportions and deeply recessed, forming a central doorway ; in advance of which are two obelisks surmounted with brass crosses, similar to those on the angles of the roof: on either side are two lesser doorways ; and the blank space above is relieved by an ornamental star, covering a circular aperture in the centre, and two small three-slit windows over the side- doors. The church is lighted by a double row of narrow windows along the side-aisles ; the lower round-headed, the upper pointed. The material is yellow brick ; the colour being produced solely by the in- troduction of red and tawny bricks, forming radiations over the arches of doors and windows, stripes and checkers in the cornices, and zigzag bands on the spire : the doors are of mahogany, with bronzed metal- work ; and the outer gate is bronzed. The ensemble is at once rich and chaste ; producing an impression of solidity and repose combined with fanciful lightness and elegance, to which the forms and colour equally contribute. The homely and inexpensive nature of the materials— common brickwork only, without stucco or stone—increases our admi- ration of the skill and taste that could accomplish such noble results by ordinary means: yellow bricks, which we have been accustomed to re- gard as ugly and vulgar, are here turned to beautiful account by merely alternating a few red ones. The colours, too, are such as dirt and smoke will not wholly deface, or rain wash away; and will last as long as the building stands. The interior is not finished, and therefore we can form no idea of the effect of the decorations ; but the proportions are fine and the arrangements admirable. The nave is supported by a double row of six lofty columns, intended to be porphyry, forming the piers of pointed arches, that divide it from the aisles. The galleries rest on smaller columns and arches; and a lofty pointed arch discloses the altar beneath the semidome of the apsis, which is lighted by a range of lancet- windows, three of them filled with beautiful stained glass. The timbers of the roof are at present shown ; but it is intended to be waggon- topped, and lined with pannelling in square compartments, ornamented in colours : the altar and other portions are also to be adorned with paintings; and we can well imagine that the coup d'ceil of the interior, when finished, will be superb.
We have been thus particular in describing this new church at Streatham—though no description can convey an idea of its fine propor- tions—because there is nothing like it in this country. Delicate en- gravings of the facade and interior have appeared in the Christian Guardian ; but colour is essential to a complete representation of its effect. It has attracted considerable notice among the architects, but we believe it is generally less known than it ought to be: and for our- selves, we must confess that it was only the other day we heard of the existence of such an edifice as a church in the Byzantine or Romanesque style, with exterior coloured decorations. The young architect had to encounter considerable opposition : his design, when first proposed, was denounced as un-English, un-Christian, and un-everything ; and the structure has been condemned as heavy, because it is massive and simple, and can boast of a few feet of plain wall not studded with a crop of architectural pustules or cut up with gashes of glass. But pre- judices have yielded to conviction, and dislike has been converted to toleration, by the influence of opinion, which is now strongly in favour of the innovation. We shall be less surprised than delighted to see such another campanile towering above the woody heights of Hampstead; Mr. WILD having submitted plans for a new church in a similar style, but with a domed roo£
The objection that has been made to the Byzantine style on the score of its being" Pagan" and " Heathen," is unfounded, even on the narrow premises of the objectors ; since it combines the characteristics of the Greek and Roman Christian churches, which were basilicat com- posed of the debris of classic temples, reconstructed in a new form. The style of Christchurch, Streatham, is a composite of Egyptian walls,
Italian roof; Venetian campanile, classic columns, Moorish arches, Gothic windows, Byzantine decorations, and Christian symbols : but this combination of styles presents no incongruity ; only those features of each being selected which blend together in one harmonious ensemble. The building is an elegant object, and fitted for its purpose. WELBY Pours and the Puseyite purists, who will have it that no church
can be a true Christian church that is not Gothic, may denounce it as heterodox ; but though they may repudiate the style, they cannot condemn the structure. Only one defect struck us, and that is not in the church itself: the dwarf wall before it cuts the side-doors in half: this is an insignificant point, which might easily be got rid o4 by making openings opposite the doors, or what would be better, sub- stituting a railing for the wall. The application of classic architecture to modern churches is objectionable because of the unfitness of the pure Greek style to modern uses, and the inappropriateness of skulls of oxen, sacrificial garlands, tripods, and other emblems of Pagan rites, to Christian worship: the steeples crowned with a lantern of Demosthenes or a choragic monument, and set astride upon the pediment of a Doric or Ionic portico lined with windows, are absurd from their unfitness, and positively ugly.
Messrs. WYATT and BRANDON are erecting a church at Wilton, near Salisbury, in the Lombard style' which also has a campanile after the Italian fashion connected with the body of the building by a short corridor. The effect of the design, exhibited at the Royal Academy, is grand and ornamental. A bell-tower with a tiled roof is surely more appropriate for a Christian temple than one with an embattled parapet. Bell-towers, whether steepled or not, attached or detached, placed centrally or at the side, ought to be traced distinctly down to the ground—not seem to be stuck on the ridge of a portico, or driven nto the body of the building ; and above all, they should look as if they could
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contain a peal of bells, and not like Tunbridge toys or pepper-casters.
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