Of church-building by Romanists we have less than usual to report this year: "By the Roman Catholics two chapels, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, of rather ornate character internally, have been completed in the metropolis -one at Farm-street, by Mr. H. Clutton; the other at Chelsea, by Mr. E. W. Pugin. In the country, Roman Catholic chapels have been erected, among others, at the following places:- Brentwood, Essex; Upper North-street, Brighton; Crawley, Sussex; Ipswich; and Cardiff." We remarked last year that Dissenting places of worship now generally affect the Gothic style; the most considerable one, however, that has been recently completed is an exception. This is "The Wesleyan Methodists have built chapels at London-road, Derby; Dawley; Gateshead; Dawlish, Devonshire; Totnes; Ipswich; Newcastle-under-Lyne ; Southport; Fletcher-street, Manchester; and Ripon. "For the minor sects, Primitive and New Connexion Methodists, Presbyterians, and Reformed Synod, chapels have been built at Liverpool, Durham, Bradford, and elsewhere, but none of them require particularization. At Salford a new church has been built for the Greek community residing in Manchester; for the exterior the Corinthian order is employed, for the interior the Ionic. "For the Jews, a synagogue, small in size but rather ornate, has been erected in Upper Bryanstone-street, London. It is termed Saracenic, but is rather Byzantine in character. Another synagogue has been erected at Leeds." What has been done in the erection of buildings for public purposes during the past year may be briefly stated as follows: "The magnificent Assize Courts at Manchester (from the designs of Mr. M. Waterhouse) are making progress, but it will be some time before they are completed; the same may be said of the Guildhall and Borough Buildings at Cambridge; we may pass on, therefore, to others of less magnitude, but which are more advanced. At Reading, spacious County Assize Courts and Police Station have been built adjacent to the old Abbey gateway, from the ugly designs of the county surveyor, at a cost exceeding 20,000l. At Bradford, a County Court has been erected in Manor-row, from the designs of Mr. C. Reeves; Italian in style, with a frontage 70 ft. long; cost nearly 4,000l. The Town Hall, Halifax, designed by the late Sir C. Barry, is erecting under the direction of his son. The old Maison Dieu at Dover has been restored,' and converted into a convenient Town Hall, by Mr. Burges, from the designs of Mr. Poynter, [as we shall shew in detail at an early opportunity]. Town Halls are also in course of erection at Northampton, Grimsby, and elsewhere. At Hereford the remarkable old Town Hall has been pulled down, and on its site is to be erected a lofty Clock Tower. "Corn Exchanges, some of them of a superior character, are in progress in many places. At Leeds, one, oval in plan and ornate in appearance. At Norwich, one with walls of yellow brick, banded with red, and an iron and glass roof supported on thin iron columns. At Wellingborough, one has been completed, Italian in style, but of no great architectural pretensions. At Uxbridge the roof has been removed from the old market-house, and a spacious new Corn Exchange erected. Others are building at Blackburn, Oxford, &c. "Public Halls, for the transaction of local business, the holding of meetings, &c., have been built, or are building, at Landport, by Portsmouth; at Skipton; at Godalming; at Guildford; at Reigate, to contain public rooms, Hall for Freemasons, Museum for Natural History Society, &c. At Newport, spacious Public Rooms have been erected. "Market Halls have been opened at Kingswinford, a spacious Gothic building; at Willenhall, at Stockport, and elsewhere. At Derby a large Cattle Market has been constructed; one is also constructing at Newcastle. "The new portion of King's College Hospital, London, is at length completed, and forms a quiet, substantial-looking pile, without much architectural pretension, but stately rather than mean, and in appearance well suited to its purpose. At Brighton, close by the County Hospital, an Asylum for the Blind, Venetian Gothic in style. At Bath, a new wing has been added to the Mineral Water Hospital. "In Trinity-street, Cambridge, has been built a range of students' residences connected with Trinity College, and called the Master's Court. In style it is strictly collegiate, but of earlier character than the rest of the college buildings. Over the entrance doorway is a plain oriel, and at the angle an octagonal oriel tur ret, crowned with a short spire, which gives an effective finish to the composition. The architect was Mr. Salvin. The cost of the building, which accommodates twenty four students, was about 10,000l. "At Oxford, the new Library of University College, designed by Mr, G. G. Scott, R.A., has been opened. It is an elegant and beautifully-finished building, entirely of stone, 70 ft. long, and 27 ft. wide. It consists of five bays, with very bold buttresses; is surmounted with a pierced parapet of good design, and has a high-pitched roof. At one angle is a neat broach spire. The interior is light and characteristic, and contains some excellent wood-carvings by Mr. Chapman. In it are placed the statues of Lords Eldon and Stowell. Altogether the new library is an important addition to the University buildings: the only matter for regret is that, from its position at the back of the college, it can only be properly seen from the college-grounds. The chapel of this college is also being reconstructed by Mr. Scott, in order to render it more ecclesiastical in character. We may add here that the apse of Mr. Scott's chapel at Exeter College has received its last finish by the insertion of the stainedglass windows, to the manifest improvement of its general effect. We may also add, that whilst Oxford has to boast of the addition of a handsome new library, it has been in great danger of losing one of the most famous of its old ones: the Fellows of Merton College having given orders for the removal of their library-perhaps the oldest, certainly the earliest unaltered library in the kingdom-in order to make room for some proposed new buildings. The universal reprobation which this act of vandalism called forth will, however, we may trust, be effectual for the preservation of this unique edifice. "Hurstpierpoint College, Sussex, Mr. W. Slater, architect; Clifton College on Clifton Down, Mr. C. Hansom, of Clifton, GENT. MAG., Jan. 1862, p. 36. architect; and a Diocesan Training College, at Winchester, Mr. J. Colson, of Winchester, architect, have been commenced, each Gothic in style, and all promising to exhibit some interesting features. "Of Educational establishments completed during the year, we may mention the Western College, Plymouth, an institution established more than a century back for the education of young men for the ministry of the Congregational body. "Of the schools erected in London and its vicinity two or three call for brief notice. St. Clement Danes, Houghtonstreet and New Inn Passage, is a substantial pile, irregular in plan, Gothic in style, Italian in feeling, three stories high; the ground floor an arcade of stilted arches, supported on polished granite shafts; the body of the building is of Portland stone. Besides boys' commercial and primary schools, girls' and infant school-rooms, there are houses for master and mistress, a library, boardroom, &c. The architect was Mr. Hesketh. St. Margaret's Schools, Tothillstreet, Westminster, occupy an area of 170 ft. by 40. The buildings, designed by Mr. G. G. Scott, are of yellow brick, very little ornamented, and owe what character they possess mainly to their structural arrangements. The parts are irregular, but not discordant; the schoolrooms are spacious, high, and well ventilated: altogether, they are suggestive as shewing how much may be done in the way of effect with scarcely any outlay beyond what would be required for the most commonplace building. At Tottenham High Cross, a neat Gothic building, forming three sides of a quad rangle, has been erected by the Drapers' Company; the front containing a school and dormitories for one hundred boys, one of the wings an infirmary, master's and matron's houses, &c., and the other wing almshouses for twenty-four decayed members of the company. The whole has cost nearly 20,000l. Mr. Herbert Williams was the architect. The Stationers' Company have erected a day-school, by Dr. Johnson's house, in Bolt-court, Fleet-street. At West Ham, a school for 320 boys, with a residence for the master, has been erected as a memorial to the late Sir John Pelly. The building, Italian Gothic in style, was designed by Mr. J. Johnson, and cost 3,800. The Godolphin Grammarschool, Hammersmith, a building which promises to be of rather a superior order, has been commenced from the designs of Mr. H. Cooke. Considerable additions have been made to the Bedford Grammar-school, from the designs of Mr. Horsford; and throughout the country primary schools, both Church and Dissenting, have been erected in numbers far beyond the possibility of enumeration. The building for the Exhibition of 1862 is as-yet in so unfinished a state as to call for no other remark, than the expression of a hope that it may answer its purpose of mere usefulness; an ornament to the metropolis, or a creditable specimen of the present state of architecture, we apprehend that it will never be. GENT. MAG, VOL. CCXII. ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL", &c. (SECOND NOTICE.) In our first notice of this important and interesting volume we were obliged to confine ourselves to Professor Willis's most valuable history of the Cathedral; we will now endeavour to do justice to another portion of the volume. We need hardly remind our readers that Mr. Petit is well known as an admirable artist, with a wonderfully accurate eye for the proportions and the general effect of a building, and seizing on its most picturesque features: he has sometimes been accused of a want of sufficient attention to the details for the purpose of enabling others to make out the architectural history, but no one doubts his own accurate knowledge of the subject, and in the present instance no one can complain of the want of details, which are amply supplied. Perhaps we could have wished that the profiles of the mouldings had been more systematically given, as these constitute the language of the history of architecture; with their help we can almost dispense with written history; at least the written history of one building gives that of a hundred others when the profiles of the mouldings are the same. No one knows this better than Mr. Petit, but he is apt to be careless on this point, he sometimes gives them and sometimes not: he has given those of the transitional work in the tower, but has omitted those of the pillars and ribs of the choir. Mr. Sharpe has to some extent supplied this deficiency in his supplemental sketch, but though he gives rather a superabundance of the profiles of mouldings from Chichester and Shoreham, he has comparatively few from Boxgrove, and these do not quite agree with those which Mr. Petit has given. It would have been more satisfactory also if he had given some authority for his dates; for instance, when he assigns the date of 1165 to advanced transitional mouldings, such as those of the tower-arch (p. 11), he should have mentioned some build "The Architectural History of Chichester Cathedral, by Professor Willis: of Boxgrove Priory, by the Rev. J. L. Petit, M.A., F.S.A.: and of Shoreham Collegiate Church, by Edmund Sharpe, M.A., &c." (Chichester, 1861, 4to., 200 pp., and Plates.) |