Disappearing Architecture. THE LADIES' VIEW

Progress, Volume II, Issue 5, 1 March 1907, Page 182

Disappearing Architecture. THE LADIES' VIEW

Ihcic ib an ait which is moie especially than an\ other the art of the people — namely, aichitecture or the art of building At least the outsides of all buildings, and the insides of many, aie for the enjoyment of all and it behoves us to remember this before it is too late There have been periods when the magnificence of kings and oligarchies, and the love of beauty, which in former days constrained not only princes, but also private individuals, endowed our towns not alone with buildings nobl> built, but with all other enrichments that the vicissitudes of the weather would allow of, in the wa> of colour gilding marble, and sculpture England has produced a wonderful wealth of fine buildings, and in spite of terrible destruction, much still remiins to gladden an undeserving and purblind generation , and during the months of holiday wandering we should take every opportunity that presents itself of making acquaintance, thoroughly

and in detail, with the great art of masonry — not excluding brickwork and the many subsidiary crafts It was only in the year 1385 that the painters of Italy cut themselves adrift from the guild of builders, and not for the advantage of either Alas, we are still destroying our heritage, and all who love beauty and who care for the past, who think we should preserve everything we possibly can of the thought of those who were before us, should try to understand the methods and the causes of their destruction and do what in them lies to stop it Theie is hardly a spot we live in or travel to m England, where there is not some pleasant old street, some romantic old house, some quaint cottage, or row of almshouses, even an old garden-wall ■with an ancient gate-way, or a lane or alley between weatherworn gables — a bridge, or a mill, or a tower. Such things are a refreshment and a joy to all of us as we cover our daily miles of business or pleasuie But what few people quite realise is that it is not only the age of the buildings that makes them pleasant, but the human thought and art that are in them, and the subtleties of proportion, and the satisfactoriness of really understood building — both very rare qualities, and now deprived of the support of the traditional knowledge handed on in the workshops of former times. Decay's effacing fingers will not efface the ugliness of our buildings will not turn our impertinent little villas into homely old cottages, nor our imitated Gothic into true Gothic, where every change was a development, and every moulding and rib repiesented a purpose scientific or beautiful

POEMS IN STONE So many causes operate against the intact pieservation of our histories and poems in stone , for we should always bear in mind the histoncal, as well as the beauty, value of our ancient homes and monuments. In towns they disappear before the urgent need for space, in the country often for the opposite reason that they are superfluous Foi instance town councils want to widen streets — in Worcester this now seems imminent — and delightful old houses aie conveniently condemned as msanitaiy though wide roads and monotonous, meaningless houses may be very msamtaiy mentally for man does not live by town council improvement alone We want people on the watch all over the country to tn r to stop this destruction oi our heritage Let us have the best new building which it is possible to have, but let us keep the old that are worth keeping It is our domestic aichitecture that is most seriously threatened with actual destruction — that domestic architecture which has been one of England's richest possessions — and smaller public buildings, such as the old market buildings. In Godalming, recently, the town council wanted to do away with the charming little old covered market-hall, because it rather inconveniently narrows a street (where there is very little traffic), but for the piesent it has been saved by individual enterprise

CHURCH RESTORATION Chuicheb sufler most from what is called lestoiation. First they are allowed to get out of repan and then they are scraped, smartened, smugged and pointed, releaded, repaired, and re-ceiled, till

they are unrecognisable. The parish church at Minehead, m Somerset, became some years ago, not nearly, but quite unrecognisable. A remarkably quaint Dutch-like plastered interior with old pews and pulpit and many local features has been gathered to its fathers Now it merely resembles the ordinary villa suburban church The present writer imagined a mistaken memory, but was informed that the building is the same This is going on in France, too At Troyes, for instance, the cathedral has been scraped quite clean, and has been re-painted with black, and everything that gives tenderness and association has been taken away. You walk in, feel disappointed, and come out, and with a sinking heart you begin the round of the churches. But now all your feelings are pleasurable The churches are records of the past and the homes of the people. Each century has added much and seems to have taken away nothing Everything conspires to intensify the true feeling about architecture that it is rather a growth than a creation, and m natural growth there is never complete attainment, but only a more or less imperfect embodying of an impulse. The restorei stereotypes and makes this plastic life a corpse The inside of the cathedrals of Laon and Sens and Soissons have suffered similarly to that of Trcyes More or less in all these churches a mania foi black pointing the joints of the masonry has spread over the walls and pillars a ghastly reticulation which makes it almost impossible to follow the important lines and forms of the construction ; " you cannot see the building for its stones," or rather for the joints between them, which is the more serious blunder, as the mediaeval masons undoubtedly whitewashed or plastered the whole surface and then painted patterns and pictures on the unbroken spaces

SPOLIATION BY GOVERNMENTS The music-hall variety of renovation, and decoiation of the crypt at Chartres makes one hope fervently that money may remain deficient for work in the Cathedral proper, which at present is rather repaired than restored though it is said harm has been done by taking the splendid coloured windows away to be re-leaded m Paris, much new glass having been inserted. Cultivated Frenchmen greatly deplore these barbarities , but are much more helpless than English people, for it is principally the State which is the sinner. But here we have no government department of destructive restauration, and individual influence may do much by remonstrance and suggestion In Italy, again the government is more responsible than here There is restoration of all sorts and dates ; sometimes admirable repair sometimes deplorable substitution of bad modern work for priceless old as the abominable Salviati mosaic restorations, or falsifications, in the vaults of St Mark's, Venice, and in Ravenna, Any one, says the Women's Tribune, who will make a careful study of the damaged sculptures taken from the front of the Cathedral at Sienna, which are now at the Cathedral museum, with the copies actually in the facade will have an excellent object-lesson of how modern copies lose all the grace and intention of the originals We may see the same kind of difference in the west front at Salisbury V\ ith a little careful study the eye will soon distinguish between the old statues and the new ones, not only because of the darker colour of the stone, but from the intrinsic excellence of the design and carving of the genuine work If in this labour of love we feel isolated and powerless, we should do wisely if we turn for neutral aid to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings called familiarly " Anti-Scrape," founded by William Morris, the offices of which are at 20, Buckingham street, Strand. — /. L. in Building and Architecture.