NOTES ON NEW BUILDINGS.
BRICK-BUILT CHURCHEB.
THAT a high degree of architectural beauty, in colour and effect as well as form and proportion, may be produced with brick and mortar only, is shown by the notable example of Christchurch, Streatham ; -which WRS the subject of the first of these papers. We have been look- ing round the Metropolis and its suburbs for other recent instances of the successful use of brick in buildings aiming at architectural dignity, and select three new churches, not yet opened for worship, but finished exteriorly, to exemplify a few remarks on the ornamental capabilities of brick-work. Two of these—namely, All Saints, Gordon Square, and the Catholic Church, Duncan Terrace, Islington—present only the street or entrance-front, and each is decorated with stone : the third—the church attached to the training or Normal School at Stanley Grove, in the Fulham Road—is wholly of brick, and is viewed from the road on three sides : the three taken together afford the means of comparing the relative qualities of red, white, and yellow bricks, of which they are severally built.
All Saints Church has the look of a chapel ; its flat facade of white brick being finished with a plain pediment and stone cornice, supported by pilasters, having on the angle a neat bell-turret or cupola ; a large round-headed window with "a broad stone framework, divided by a round pillar into two arched lights, is let into the centre ; and on each side is a door, ornamented with a semicircular heading of carved stone : paterte, or circular ornaments of stone and verd antique, are the only other decorations. The ensemble is chaste and elegant ; the propor- tions are good ; and the combination of angles and curves in the differ- ent parts produces an agreeable variety of lines. The central window is a very handsome feature, with which the massive headings of the doors are in accordance: the cupola is not too large for its position on the apex of the pediment; and though by no means a striking ornament, it is far from inelegant, and its utility would excuse a plainer thing of the kind. The pilasters, we think, should have been of stone through- out, for the connexion between their capitals and bases is not apparent enough; and the strength of stone seems needed to support so large a pediment. The paterte require some emblematic devices carved on them to account for their introduction : those of marble are too-insigni- ficant to produce an effect of colour ; and at a little distance they remind one of the patches on the cheeks of an old-fashioned coquette. The in- terior is plain to baldness : a single small moulding is the only cornice to the large flat roof: the altar recess is decorated with plasters, in the capitals of which the bean-pod is tastefully introduced in the form of a Grecian honeysuckle. This pretty little facade is designed by T. L. DoNALDsox ; whose magnificent design for the Royal Exchange, so shamefully set aside by Mr. TITE'S jobbing partisans, gave us an im- pression of his talents that we hope to see borne out by some edifice of greater importance than the present. The Catholic Church in Duncan Terrace has a facade of red-brick, with stone dressings in the Romanesque or Norman style; consisting of a centre with a wide gable, and two square towers, which are intended to be carried up as high as the angle of the gable, and finished with lofty spires, when funds are available. The centre is pierced with a handsome double door-way, decorated with a semicircular heading of stone, intended for sculpture; a row of three round-headed windows above, connected by the imposts and resting on a continuous moulding; and a large wheel-window in the gable, the apex of which is surmounted
-with a Greek cross in a circle : single doors with semicircular headings
of stone open into the towers. The angles of the towers, as well as the doors and windows, are enriched with stone pillars ; which, together with the mouldings and cornices, contrast with the red brick in a lively manner, giving relief, finish, and point, to the square, solid mass, and Producing a rich and striking' effect. The proportions of the front as it now appears are broad and low compared with what they will be when the spires are added ; but even as it is, these proportions are by no means ungainly, and the impression altogether is strong and satisfactory. The Interior at present shows nothing but brick walls, with the excep- tion of the semicircular apsis, which is stuccoed, and lighted with round- headed windows ; it consists of a lofty nave, with a timber-framed roof; the side-aisles being divided into chapels and confessionals, by lofty Pointed arches similar to that before the apsis. When completed, the decorations will be paintings on the walls ; the timbers of the roof being varnished. The mention of these timbers reminds us of one capital de-
fect of the otherwise noble interior—the tie-beams intersect the point of the arch at the igsi:s end. The architect is Mr. .L SCOLES ; who h.as produced a fine building, with characteristics of grandeur as well as simplicity.
The Church in the Fulham Road is built of yellow brick, in the Norman style : it consists of a nave and transepts, with a semicircular apsts, the lower part of which projects-; and having square turrets with spires at the intersection of the transepts in the angles nearest the nave. The end-view of the building, which one gets on the approach from town, is heavy ; the steep roofs of the chancel and transept and the spires forming a mass of slating that overpowers the forms of the
walls : nor is this unfavourable impression entirely removed by the side-view from the pathway opposite ; while the view of the front shows a want of boldness and grandeur in the entrance, to balance the other parts. We wished the two turrets had' been made to flank the entrance; or that they had been clubbed together to form one handsome tower or steeple at the angle, or over the porch of the Western entrance. The dimensions of the church are not large enough to admit of this pon- derous style of design, which only snits edifices of grand proportions, where the roofing is raised far above the eye : neither can we admire the numerous long, narrow, round-headed-windows, which are rather suited to the pointed than the Norman style, especially as they are arranged in the fashion of lancet-windows: they cut up the breadth and destroy the massive simplicity of Norman architecture, without attaining the elegance and lightness of pointed Gothic. The yellow brick-work, unrelieved by stone dressings or colour, and with no greater projections than the window and cornice mouldings to vary the surface, has a erode, unfinished, and common appearance : a few red and tawny bricks round the arches of the windows and in the cornice and mouldings would have been a great improvement, and preferable to stucco ornaments. The interior is more to be admired : it is solid, and of a handsome plain- ness. The nave has a light and elegant timbered roof, supported on the pilasters of semicircular arched compartments, into which the side-walls are divided : at the end, on each side of the entrance, are oak stalls for the dignitaries of the church : the altar is separated from the ambu- latory or projecting aisle of the apsis by a semicircular arcade of round pillars and round-headed arches, crowned with a groined roof of atone: the pulpit and organ are placed on either side of the altar, at the ex- tremities of the ambulatory, abutting on the transepts, which are fitted up as galleries. The wood-work and architectural ornaments are in the Romanesque style ; stone tint and oak furnish the only contrast of colour. The design is by Mr. EDWARD BLOM ; and though we cannot wholly approve his taste in this instance and the building is too much like a miniature attempt at cathedral greatness, yet it is far from being vulgar.
Brick buildings require contrasts of colour, either by means.of stone or stucco, or bricks of different hue, to enliven them : even the old red brick houses, with pilasters and entablatures of moulded brick, closely jointed, have a monotonous aspect ; white bricks only are insipid; yellow bricks, vulgar. But the addition of a little colour, judiciously introduced, effects an entire change : the staring red brick cubes with holes in the walls, that are such eyesores in country-towns, by the addition of a few mouldings of stone or stucco become attractive; and when, instead of porous bricks and coarse seams of mortar, the close- textured bricks are finely jointed, the effect is beautiful. There are' four red brick houses in Oxford Street, nearly opposite Hanover Square, that form as noble a block of street architecture as any in the Metro- polis; and Mr. SOOLES'S Roman Catholic Church is a fine example of the union of red brick and stone in ecclesiastical architecture. There is a warm, cheerful, and substantial look about good red brick-work : it is the ruddy colour in the cheek of homely architecture; and, to carry out the simile, the brown brick may be likened to the squalid dirt of disease and poverty, and white to the pallor of sickness. White bricks soon turn black under the combined operations of rain and soot : the Church in Woburn Square—which, by the way, has the most gracefully- proportioned Gothic spire in London—shows the tint which its neigh- bour, Mr. DONALDSON'S new church, will acquire in a few years. Yellow bricks keep their colour longer, though not so well as red, nor are they so handsome: but much depends on the quality of the clay, on materials used in making, on the burning, and the laying of the bricks. The use of brick-work for architectural decoration is likely to lead to improvements in the manufacture; and already, we believe, there is a patent in operation for making bricks by pressure, which would render moulded bricks little more expensive than others, and may lead to the multiplication of their colours and the improvement of their quality. We could not but regret the indifferent quality of the brick-work in 31t. WYLD'S Church at Streatham, and in the magnificent Catholic Church in progress of erection by Mr. Puout, opposite Bedlam. Stone not only loses its colour, but decays, in the moist climate of England, be- sides being very expensive: bricks made of pure clay, like the Roman tiles, and laid with cement, would last longer than stone, and retain their colour to the last ; moreover, they admit of chromatic effects, that add greatly to the beauty of architecture.
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