as well as between those who are only commencing a guilty course and those who have consummated their vicious career. 2981a. One of the latest prisons erected for the metropolis is the Model or Pentonville Prison in the Caledonian Road, erected 1840-42 by Major R. Jebb for 1,000 prisoners, and to which additions have lately been made. A Report was published at the time giving all the details of the cells, which are 13 feet by 7 feet by 9 feet high and intended for solitary confinement. Another, the new City Prison, in the Camden Road, erected 1849-52, by the late City architect, Mr. J. B. Bunning, has 418 cells. It is constructed on the radiating principle, having four wings diverging from the centre, with two others in front of the former. Each is twelve cells in length, or about 100 feet long and three stories high. The corridors are 16 feet wide, and are open up to the arched ceiling, with galleries leading to the upper cells. 2981b. Prison discipline is a problem the wisest of our legislators have not yet been able to solve. When Pentonville Prison was erected it was thought that complete separation, by its severity, would lessen crime. The result, however, has scarcely justified the belief. The Government have had ample opportunity of forming an opinion upon the merits of the separate system, consequently about 1851 some relaxation was made, and about ten per cent. were placed in association. The City authorities adopted a middle course, and they have the means of confining the vicious in separate cells; and have sufficient number of workrooms for classified association. 3 SECT. XIX. BARRACKS. 2982. Barracks or buildings for the reception of the military, require little to be said, inasmuch as in respect of healthy situation, perfect ventilation, and security against fire, the principles which chiefly regulate the disposition and distribution of a hospital are equally applicable in building barracks, which are in truth, hospitia for the reception of men in health instead of sick persons. Private soldiers in barracks, however, usually sleep on inclined planes, raised from the floor, and at the head abutting against the wall, instead of being provided with separate beds. In Paris there are no less than thirty buildings used as barracks. The details necessary to be provided are a canteen or a public-house, for the use of the privates and non-commissioned officers; a spacious mess-room and separate apartments for the officers, and an infirmary. In cavalry barracks, proper stabling and a riding-house of large dimensions must of course be added. For cleanliness, all the yards should be paved, and the utmost precaution taken for carrying off all filth and waste water by means of drainage into a sewer, having a considerable fall from the place. This will, as much as anything, tend to the healthiness of the building. A valuable Report by a Commission on this subject was issued in 1855. SECT. XX. PRIVATE BUILDINGS-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 2983. Private buildings differ in their proper character from public buildings as much as one public building differs in character from another not of the same kind. The ends in both, however, in common, are suitableness and utility. The means are the same, namely, the observance of convenience and economy. The same elements are used in the formation of one as of the other; hence they are subject to the same principles and the same mechanical composition. Distribution, which is usually treated distinct from decoration and construction, and very improperly so, as applied to private edifices, is conducted as for public buildings, that is, as we have said, with a view to utility and economy. 2984. If the student thoroughly understand the true principles of architecture,-if he possess the facility of combining the different elements of buildings, or, in other words, fully comprehend the mechanism of composition, which it has in a previous part of this Book (III.) been our object to explain, nothing will remain for him in the composition of private buildings, but to study the special or particular conveniences required in each. There are some quaint old aphorisms of Dr. Fuller, prebendary of Sarum, which are so applicable to all private buildings, that we shall not apologise for transferring them to our pages. 2985. "First," he says, "let not the common rooms be several, nor the several rooms common; that the common rooms should not be private or retired, as the hall (which is a pandochæum), galleries, &c., which are to be open; and the chambers, closets, &c. retired and private, provided the whole house be not spent in paths. Light (God's eldest daughter) is a principal beauty in a building; yet it shines not alike from all parts of the heavens. An east window gives the infant beams of the sun, before they are of strength to do harm, and is offensive to none but a sluggard. A south window in summer is a chimney with a fire in it, and stands in need to be screened by a curtain. In a west window the sun grows low, and over familiar towards night in summer time, and with more light than delight. A north window is best for butteries and cellars, where the beer will be sour because the sun smiles upon it. Thorough lights are best for rooms of entertainments, and windows on one side for dormitories." 2986. 66 Secondly, as to capaciousness, a house had better be too little for a day than too big for a year; therefore houses ought to be proportioned to ordinary occasions, and not to extraordinary. It will be easier borrowing a brace of chambers of a neighbour for a night, than a bag of money for a year; therefore 'tis a vanity to proportion the receipt to an extraordinary occasion, as those do who, by overbuilding their houses, dilapidate their lands, so that their estates are pressed to death under the weight of their house." 2987. "Thirdly, as for strength, country houses must be substantives, able to stand of themselves, not like city buildings, supported and flanked by those of their neighbour on each side. By strength is meant such as may resist weather and time, but not attacks; castles being out of date in England, except on the sea-coasts, &c. As for moats round houses, 'tis questionable whether the fogs that arise from the water are not more unhealthful than the defence that the water gives countervails, or the fish brings profit." 2988. " Fourthly, as for beauty, let not the front look asquint upon a stranger, but accost him right at his entrance. Uniformity and proportions are very pleasing to the eye; and 'tis observable that freestone, like a fair complexion, grows old, whilst bricks keep their beauty longest." 2989. “Fifthly, let the offices keep their due distance from the mansion-house; those are too familiar which presume to be of the same pile with it. The same may be said of stables and barns; without which a house is like a city without works, it can never hold out long. It is not only very inconvenient, but rather a blemish than a beauty to a building, to see the barns and stables too near the house; because cattle, poultry, and suchlike must be kept near them, which will be an annoyance to a house. Gardens ought also to be disposed in their proper places. When God planted a garden eastward, he made to grow out of the ground every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food. Sure he knew better what was proper for a garden than those who now-a-days only feed their eyes and starve their taste and smell." The same honest old dignitary (would we had some such in these days!) says, " He who alters an old house is ty'd as a translator to the original, and is confined to the fancy of the first builder. Such a man would be unwise to pull down a good old building, perhaps to erect a worse new one. But those who erect a new house from the ground are worthy of blame if they make it not handsome and useful, when method and confusion are both of a price to them." SECT. XXI. PRIVATE BUILDINGS IN TOWNS. 2990. The common houses of the town are not those which will engage our attention. In London, and indeed throughout the towns of England, the habits of the people lead them to prefer separate houses for each family, to one large one in which several families may be well lodged, or, in other words, they prefer rows of mean-looking buildings, with holes in the walls for windows, to the palatial appearance which results, in Paris and most of the other cities in Europe, from large magnificent buildings with courts, and capable of accommodating a number of different establishments. The section will be confined chiefly to the arrangement of a house of the first class; and from what will be said, sufficient hints may be drawn for the composition of those in a lower class. 2991. The private buildings in a town are often in their composition beset with difficulties which do not occur in those of the country, where the extent of site is freer and ampler. These, therefore, may be isolated, and receive light from every side. Their offices may be separated from the main house, and the parts may be disposed in the simplest possible manner; but in cities the site is generally more or less restricted, often very irregular in form, and generally bounded by party walls. Yet, with all these obstacles, it is necessary to provide almost as many conveniences as are required in a country house; whence the disposition cannot be so simple in its application as where there is no restraint. All that can be done is to make it as much so as the nature of the spot will permit, and to produce the maximum of comfort which the site affords. 2992. Nothing must be considered below the attention of an accomplished architect, nor anything above his powers; he ought as cheerfully to undertake for the proprietor the conduct of the meanest cottage as of the most magnificent palace. Little will be requisite to be said on the common houses of London, or other cities and towns in which there are seldom more than two rooms and a closet on a floor, with an opening behind. These may be varied; but the general mode is to construct them with a kitchen in a floor sunk below the ground, and a room behind, serving for a variety of purposes; an area in front, with vaults under the street, and the same often in the rear of the house. The space opposite the descending stairs will form a dark closet; and the privies, and wine and beer cellars, with other small offices, are provided in the vaults. On the ground floor there is rarely more than a passage on one side, which conducts to a staircase; and this requiring more width than the passage itself, the best room on this floor is placed in front, and the back is a smaller room, often opening on a small light closet still further in the rear. A yard is supposed behind, by which light is obtained for the back room. On the one-pair and other floors the passage becomes unnecessary as an access; the drawing or front room therefore runs over it, and becomes larger, capable, in the upper floors, of subdivision for bedrooms, or other purposes, as may be required; and the back rooms, with their closets, if carried up, follow the form of those on the ground floor. Though little variety may be the result of the restricted space to which this species of house is usually confined, the addition of four or five feet either way will enable an intelligent architect to throw in closets and other conveniences which are invaluable, as relieving a small house from the pressure which otherwise will exist in the different apartments. But this will be obvious to the practical man, unless he walks about blindfold. The houses we have just described may stand upon a site of about twenty feet by thirty feet, independent of the vaults in front and rear, and the back light closet, which is an invaluable appendage to a house of this description; which is the scale of a second-rate house. 2993. Of the next higher rate of house the varieties are too great to be described, because the extent of the largest arrives at what would be called a palace on the continent. But, taking a mean between that just described and that last named, we may take one similar to a moderate one in Portland Place for example. In such a one we must provide, on the basement or sunk story, vaults under the street for beer, coals, wood, privies, and the like, the refuse or dust of the house. The body or corps de logis on this floor must contain housekeeper's room, servants' hall, rooms for butler and head footman, wine cellar, closets for linen, strong room for plate, with closets and other conveniences for the household. The ascending staircase must also have a space set apart for it. In the rear, under the open area behind, will be placed a kitchen, scullery, and the larder, with the other appendages of this part of the household; an area, covered, where the communication with the rest of the floor is made between the body of the house and the offices in question. Beyond the kitchen are often vaults (though the disposition is sometimes otherwise), over which the stables and coachhouses are placed, opening on the ground floor on to a mews parallel to the street in which the house is situate. The ground floor of this disposition has usually a dining-room in front, with a good-sized hall at its side, leading to a staircase which ascends in direction of the long side of the house; and this is necessary when the rooms above are to communicate by folding doors. In some old houses, however, the staircase ascends between the front and back rooms, and a back staircase is provided by the side of it. But more commonly this is placed beyond the principal stairs, to allow of throwing the drawing-rooms into one. In rear of the dining-room is often placed a library for the gentleman of the house; and beyond this, and further than the back stairs, when the lateral staircase is used, a waiting-room, at the rear of which a water-closet may be placed, with a door from it to the area over the kitchen; or there may be a communication of this sort from the waiting-room, which may serve the purpose of access to the stables. On the one-pair floor the disposition will be two drawing-rooms, a boudoir over the waiting-room, and beyond this a water-closet. On the two-pair floor two bed-rooms, each with a dressing-room, or three bed-rooms and one dressing-room, and a bath-room and water-closet. Above this four bed-rooms and closets may be obtained; and, if necessary, rooms in the roof in addition. For a good house of this class, with the offices, the plot of ground should not be much less than 100 feet by 30. 2994. Of the first class of houses, as a model may be taken the town-house, in Piccadilly, of His Grace the Duke of Devonshire, which, with the offices and court-yard in front, covers an area extending about 231 feet towards the street, and 188 feet in depth, whereof the house itself occupies a frontage of 163 feet and a depth of 188 feet, and opens on to a large garden in the rear. On the east side of the court-yard are dis posed the kitchen and other domestic offices, opposite whereto, on the west side, stand the coach-houses and stabling. The basement of the house contains apartments for the various persons attached to such an establishment. The principal floor to which the ascent is by an external staircase, contains an entrance-hall, 35 feet by 30 feet, and communicates to an apartment on the west side, 33 feet by 22 feet, leading to the southwestern corner room, which is 20 feet square. On the north of the last is a room, making the north-west angle of the building, and this is 40 feet by 20 feet. On the east side of this last, and facing the north, is a room 33 feet by 23 feet, and in the centre of the north front, corresponding with the width of the hall, is an apartment 30 feet by 23 feet 6 inches. To the east of the last is a room 33 feet by 24 feet, and east of that, forming the north-east angle, is a small room 20 feet square. Thus far these rooms, seven in number, are all en suite, but this is in some measure interrupted by the remainder of the east flank, which is filled with three smaller rooms. To that of them, however, at the south, which is 20 feet square, a passage is preserved, and from that you enter another room, 23 feet by 22 feet, which once more brings you back to the hall. The staircases are between the north and south rooms on each side of the hall. Above this floor are the lodging rooms, &c. The superficial area of all the reception rooms on the principal floor, added together, amounts to 5708 feet. Plans and elevations are given in the Vitruvius Britannicus, which contains other town houses of importance well worth the student's attention. 2995. Burlington house, Piccadilly, before its late partial demolition, was in some respectsfor instance, in its beautiful semicircular colonnade in the front court-considered superior to that just described. It can be hardly necessary to add that, in such edifices, rooms must be provided for steward, butler, housekeeper, stillroom-maid, valets, ladies' maids, servants' hall of good dimensions, &c.; for a muniment room and for plate, both of which must be fire-proof. Baths also should be provided on the chamber floor, with other conveniences which will occur to the architect. The rooms for pictures, if possible, should be on the north side of the building. The illustrated journals of the present day show the great changes which have been made in the requirements, and the size and number of the apartments of all grades of society. > SECT. XXII. PRIVATE BUILDINGS IN THE COUNTRY. 2996. Of first-class private buildings in the country, we apprehend we cannot furnish better hints than by describing that of Kedlestone, in Derbyshire, erected for Lord Scarsdale by Robert Adam. There are others which are larger, but we do not think any superior in distribution and effect. The plans and elevations of it are to be seen in the Vitruvius Britannicus above mentioned. The main body of the house M (fig. 1352.), is about 136 feet by 105 Fig. 1352. This 9 inches by 23 feet 7 inches; a smoking parlour, 28 feet by 17 feet 9 inches; a boot-room, drawing-room, 44 feet by 28 feet; at the end towards the rear is a library, which is continued in the corridor leading to the wing A, wherein is a music gallery, 66 feet by 18 feet, with other rooms and a staircase. On the end of the drawing-room, towards the front, is a music room, 36 feet by 24 feet, whence the corridor leads to Lord Scarsdale's bedroom, 18 feet square, with dressing-rooms, and the lady's library, which, on this floor, are in the wing C. The wing D is occupied by the upper part of the kitchen, a laundry, 35 feet by 18 feet, and some bedrooms, to which access is by a gallery over part of the kitchen. The main body and wings contain a story over what has been last described, chiefly for chambers. We have before (in the First Book, figs. 221, 222.) noticed the splendid hall and salon, which occupy the height of the whole building, and are, though somewhat faulty in detail, very finely-conceived and well-proportioned apartments. The former is 40 feet high to the top of the cove, and the latter 55 feet to the level of the eye of the dome. Though the elevations exhibit defects, we are not inclined to quarrel with them in a dwelling which deserves rather the name of a palace than of a country house. 2997. England abounds with country seats of this class: among them is Holkham, which has already been mentioned in the First Book (511.); but we know none for disposition that can claim superiority over that which we have above described at length, from which the student may derive much information on the requirenda in a mansion of the first class. It is to be understood that we here intend modern buildings. The houses of the times of Elizabeth and James are many of them magnificent structures, but the comfort introduced into houses of later date leaves them, independent of their picturesque beauty, far behind the buildings of Kent, Carr, James, and many others. Blenheim is monumental in its design, and properly so, and hence does not fall within the category of the section. 2998. There are, of course, many intervening degrees between the mansion we have just described and the villa of the retired banker or merchant: it would be impossible to state them in detail. We have given the maximum in the above case, and we shall now give the minimum for the class last mentioned. 2999. The smallest site of ground on which a villa can be well designed is, supposing it an oblong, about 80 feet by 56 to 60 feet. This on the principal floor will admit of a hall, a salon or ante-room, which may lead to the principal apartments, a drawing-room, two secondary drawing-rooms, one whereof may be appropriated to the reception of a billiard table, a good dining-room, not less than 30 feet by 20 feet, a library of equal size, with other rooms, suitable to the particular taste of the proprietor, and the conveniences and accessories which such a building requires. The ground, supposing the domestic offices to be under the principal floor, should be raised, so that they need not be much sunk below the general level of the land. If the building be seated on rising ground, a little more sinking may be allowed than under other circumstances, provided the lower story be protected by dry drains all round the building, to prevent the earth lying against the walls, because drainage, the most important of all things in a building, may then be obtained easily by the natural fall of the ground. The plot we have mentioned will admit of all the offices below, which are necessary for the service of a good-sized family, and above, with only one story above the principal one, will afford a pretty fair allowance of dormitories; but if a concealed story for servants be practised in the roof, there are few establishments on a common scale for which, on the plot, accommodation may not be provided by a skilful artist. The stables and coach-houses and the greenhouses should stand apart. Some persons like to have these communicating with the villa itself; but the practice is destructive of symmetry, and very injurious (except in the villa on an irregular plan, which then rather approaches to the cottage orné) to the general effect of the architecture. 3000. The villas at Foot's Cray and Mereworth, imitations of Palladio's Villa Capra, so often mentioned in this volume, and represented in fig. 1018., are the maxima of villas: beyond this the villa becomes a mansion, and must be treated as one on a scale more or less grand, as the means of the proprietor allow the architect to provide for his wants. precepts, however, on this head are valueless, because the architect is regulated so much by the convenience required. He must possess himself fully of that, and, attending to the general rules given throughout the work, but especially in this Third Book, he will find little difficulty in fulfilling the commission with which he is intrusted. Among other matters let him well inform himself of what has been done, and make himself master of the points involved in domestic economy, from the lowest to the highest grade, and he cannot, using that information, fail of giving his employer that satisfaction which is the first care that should animate him. All The 3001. The cottage orné, as it is called, is a building subject only to rules which the architect chooses to impose upon himself. The only point to be attended to, after internal comfort has been provided for, is to present picturesque effect in the exterior. student should consult the work of Professor Kerr, The English Gentleman's House, 8vo. London, 1870, in which will be found a selection of the best examples of house planning, with a fund of useful observations. |