ARCHITECTURAL NOTES.
BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION, WEMBLEY.
I.-EXTERIORS OF THE BUILDINGS.
EFIIIIMONS engender either enthusiasm or headache. Queen Victoria poured out her feelings about the Great Exhibition of 1851 in a very delirium of ecstasy, and all who have con- tributed either directly, or indirectly, to the making of this year's Great Exhibition—and such will include quite a large section of the population—will be able, up to a certain point, to sympathize with her. In fact, everyone who likes what is wonderful, strange or gay will enjoy Wembley. The other people had better not go : they will only get a headache.
This Exhibition is, architecturally speaking, not like any we have hitherto seen in this country. The usual Exhibition style, consisting of terrific exuberance of form realized in dazzling white plaster is not found, except perhaps in the Canadian National Railways building. I am not, of course, speaking of frankly exotic buildings, but only of those inspired by European traditions. The Palaces of Industry, Engineering and Art, the British Government Pavilion and the Stadium are all built of concrete, unplastered and un- painted. They are all designed in a simple monumental manner, with strong emphasis on the horizontal lines. They are all impressive, and the British Government Pavilion attains a dignity which does credit not only to the designer, but to concrete as a material. In fact it may well be that this Exhibition will popularize the use of concrete for in- expensive permanent work to the great gain of our suburbs.
The vast Australian and Canadian buildings are both in a " neo-Grec " style, plastered and painted, the former a pale grey and the latter buff. The Australian building is the more successful of the two, but all the delicate ornament lavished on both buildings does not make them look more imposing than the plain concrete palaces the other side of the lake. The South African Pavilion, based on the old Cape houses, with steep pantiled roof and Dutch gables, is charming. All the details of the joinery, doors, windows and shutters are beautifully finished and designed. Here we have an instance of a traditional domestic style most successfully used for an Exhibition building. The same may be said of the West Indies and British Guiana building, which has a delightful clock-tower crowned by a ship. The chief feature of the little Malta building is a copy of a great Baroque Gate at Valetta, but the reduction in size and its execution in café-au-bait coloured plaster have rather cari- catured the original. The small Bermuda house entirely white-washed, roof and all, should be noticed.
Of the buildings in exotic styles the most important is naturally the Indian. This rises picturesquely at the end of the lake. But, somehow, the smaller Burmese and Hong Kong Pavilions are more attractive. On the former there are little bells which tinkle, and it all seems unreal and unsub- stantial as the "airy fabric of a vision." One can understand that, if the old Moulmein Pagoda looks at all like this, the charms of the Burma girl who sits by it must be heightened by such surroundings. The Hong Kong Pavilion is sturdy and Chinese with its green roof and red woodwork. The West African and East African buildings are both more Oriental in feeling than those of us who have not travelled in those parts of the world would have expected..
The Times Pavilion occupies a very prominent position on the main axis of the Exhibition. It is a charming building with a pretty little clock tower. In the same quiet manner is the Christian Science building, which has practically no ornament except a blue band which runs round it and gives it distinction. The " Concrete Utilities Bureau " is a most successful building in plain concrete enriched with sculpture in low relief. The concrete bridges and the small concrete drinking fountains should also be noticed. The friezes over the Lyons Cafes, one depicting the bottom of a very tropical sea, another a Persian hunting scene and a third some archaic Greeks and their animals, are brilliantly successful and exhilarating. Near one of them stands a little old half timbered manor-house. It is like pitting your old grandmother against Mlle. Lenglen on the latter's own ground.
GERALD WELLESLEY.
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