THE WESTMINSTER DESIGNS.
Tine exhibition of architectural drawings and plans for the construction of two new edifices, for the Foreign Office and the War Office, with the prospective concentration of the other Government Offices in the same quarter, was open to private view on Saturday last, and is now open to the public. Those who enter it as an ordinary exhibition will probably be disappointed. There is something peculiarly cheerless in long lanes of white paper, diversified only by architectural drawings, much like stiff engravings, of two future palaces. No diversity in the styles can prevent a certain degree of tedious sameness, and the very colour of the materials inspires a feeling of tedium. But the display is not an ordinary exhibition, and it will not be regarded as such. The general public may lounge in, and may with much advantage express its opinions upon the different designs for the exterior of the two palaces ; the press will add its judgment, and will so far assist in correcting the more professional and official decisions ; but the true nature of the appeal is to the profession of Europe at large, in the presence of the public. Two new Government offices were immediately wanted, others will be wanted eventually ; for the distribution of our departments is peculiarly inconvenient. The general subject is entirely open : the Chief Commissioner of Public Works did not give instructions to one favourite architect, or effect the same purpose of favouritism by getting up a clique to do the work for him ; but, stating the object in the simplest possible form, he issued to the architectural profession of the world an invitation to send in its specific suggestion for the work that was wanted. The reply of the architectural profession is laid before the whole public in Westminster Hall—the most open and available building for the purpose ; and whatever may be the decision of the Government upon the designs thus sent in, that decision will have to be made after a _public survey and in the presence of the public. We do not understand that by this course the Department of Works is evading any of its own proper responsibility ; but it is rather courting public opinion and public checks, and thus far the course has been singularly open and straightforward.
The specifications invited arehitects to send in three designs on three subjects : first, designs for the two public offices which are immediately wanted ; secondly, ground-plans of designs for a concentration of the public offices in one set of buildings, to be completed en suite with the two new offices,—a method of taking the improvement bit by bit while yet comprising it in one general and harmonious design ; thirdly, a .ground-plan of suggested improvements for the whole quarter, including the site of Westminster Bridge. The architectural profession has responded to these invitations in a spirit of industrious vigour and of liberal painstaking. There are about two hundred competitors for the modest prizes which the Government offers. Several, however, have sent in more than one set of designs, and from the two hundred competitors there are about six hundred sets of designs. Some of these are carried to an extravagant length of comprehensiveness and innovation. One immense model takes in the whole of London to the distance of Bermondsey ; comprising models of several of the public buildings more especially those immediately concerned. One architect sends in no fewer than forty-two plans, of which we see it said that they must have cost him not less than seven or eight hundred pounds. Another gentleman proposes a flower-garden to extend along the middle of the Thames, leaving a navigable canal on each side. Pleasure-grounds between the official buildings and the river appear in more than one design. Some arrange a species of official street; others convert Westminster into something like a palatial village, with the buildings distributed in various orders ; one makes a whole range of official buildings between Whitehall and Great George Street, the front coinciding with the present King Street.
The style of the architecture recommended is quite as much diversified as the general arrangement. One gentleman would arrange the official buildings around a central well-like space in the midst, not unlike the winding staircase near Arch-Cliff Fort at Dover ; another would make them look like very oldfashioned country-houses; a third, like a Greek temple ; a fourth, like a continuation of the Tuileries. Some would make the buildings very high ; others rather low. But upon the whole the style of architecture recommended resembles that bastard or mongrel fashion which has been cultivated by our builders of the highest class, mingling pillars and arches, walls and windows ; as if it were the nightmare of a young architect, who confounded in one idea an English " row " of houses with Greek temples, Spanish alcazars, Mohammedan mosques, Indian bazaars, and. Italian . palaces, with a dash of the Gothic, Russian, Muscovite, and Swiss. As an exhibition of arehitetural style for the present day, the show of drawings is not satisfactory, particularly when we remember the real character of the structure which will be disguised in these detached pillars and windowed arches. In fact, the designers have very generally departeli from the fundamental rule of all art—that the simple purpose of the object to be constructed should be illustrated, not disguised, by the style of ornament. We want official buildings with several floors and corridors, and the external structure should harmonize with the internal arrangements. This rule has been generally defied—perhaps entirely forgotten. We must, however, confront the fact, that if we want great edifices at the present day, they must be made by such architects as are now living ; we cannot command the great, men either of the past or the future, but must be content with those who are born of the building-trade and the contract system. , Before we can at all pronounce upon the comparative merit of any one in this set of designs, more time must be taken to compare them, and the comparison must be a work of deliberation. We are inclined at the first blush to doubt whether any considerable number of the competitors have entered into the practical question of utility and the requisite arrangements for publio offices. We are still more inclined to doubt whether they have entered into the question of expense—the necessary outlay for the necessary accommodation, without extravagant expenditure in finery: yet every great architect, up to Palladio, Raphael, or Michael Angelo, would rapple with that question of the purpose of the work. One question referred to the profession has been fully answered, at least in a negative sense,—very few of the plans leave Westminster Bridge where it is at present ; most of them carry it further down the river ; those that leave the bridge where it is suggest in addition a new bridge at Charing Cross or near it ; and the most distinguished and attractive of the designs contemplate a bridge also near Lambeth Horse Ferry. Some of the competitors go into the question of thoroughfares for the entire Metropolis ; and so far they have furnished a useful illustration of the real scope contemplated in the removal of the bridge. That question appears to be settled by the voice of the entire profession. "Sixty thousand pounds "—such is a conjectural estimate of the aggregate cost of the designs—" expended to win a few prizes of a few hundreds each : what a waste!" is the first exclamation. The exhibition at least shows the force of competition ; but we are not sure that all the works even which fail to obtain the prizes will be wasted. It seems to us highly probable that not one of the plans may be accepted as it now stands ; it is even probable that the architect ultimately employed might turn out to be a person not competing. These are considerations of the future. The architects who have competed have secured a splendid advertisement of their names and professional acquirements. Those who obtain the prizes will probably be repaid by the mass of private or half-public business which may accrue to them ; for many public works have to be constructed in this country during the next ten or twenty years, besides the Foreign Office, the War Office, andWestminster Bridge. Should any of the architects obtain the work, or parts of the work, they will be far more than repaid for the trouble of their outlay. Meanwhile, the public has obtained a solid advantage in learning what the volunteer part of the architectural profession can do or cannot do, to say nothing of the broad suggestions as to the character of the arrangements of future improvements in Westminster.
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