DOME OF ST. PAUL'S

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 65, 19 March 1925, Page 9

DOME OF ST. PAUL'S

A DISTURBING STATEMENT,

CITY OFFICIAL'S TWO MILLION SCHEME >

ONE MAN'S OPINION,

," (PBOM OHB OW» CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 11th February.

■ Mr. John Todd,.the District Surveyor for "the Corporation of the City of London, was the official who waß responsible for the "dangerous stcjicture" notice served on the >Dean ■ and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral on Christmas, Eve. Quite independently of. the committea that hasJ-been^ formed t(> go into the question of. the 'repairs that are necessary, he has issued a statement to tha Press which. ccjmes rather as a bombshell to those who have been that" an/;expenditure of about £200,000 would be' e"nougK;for. the' restoration' of the defective'"piers.- .... "..."" .' '."'■

"^lr- /T<?dd dfeciares that Wren designed; aijd built properly, but,- unfortunately.hefilled the' piers'with inferior! materials, though;they..:did:jnot believe-vfor. a-mo-menihf that" that wasv- his fault. - They ■were." always '. gi-umbling at" him . for spending; so much; money, and asking him, metaphorically; to make £200,000 .dbVtfce-wbrfc 'bf- : £2,000,000. " The. result - was, that- the'bubble filling- the piers, which^w.as'never strong enough,, had, in .the course of'ages, settled down, and the l?-inch\ stonework encasing the rubble filling, and ? the outer stonework that they saw in- the.'Cathedral had taken, far mol-e weight than.it ought to have borne. There was, now- a cavity between the outer casing and the rubble interior of anything-■from" a- hairs-breadth to a width:'of three feet,.: ; This was merely disintegrated masoriry, aiid-filling up the -crack would not bring back the strength ■ofithe buttresses, and nothing could do itvbut rebuilding or something equally ■:drastic.:. Now. <the stresses were-in the ; position .that Wr,eu did his utmost, to -prevents coming'simply down- the front .edge of the piers. That was the whole jsecret of the imminent danger to St Paul's. : It was unfortunately the fact that. they,, could' not mend this stone-' work.;in;:any", way :that:would get the Sf^MJlback.-;to;the position -where .Wren put them... . ' ; : ;i He believed in grouting, but his or]jectidn toats use in St. Paul's was that ,it_ would-be ineffective,-because it could !?.??. rP°s?bly get the. stresses back to their orjgmal: position. The front edge of the piers.was how.carrying at least 50 tonsto thesquarS-foot. The maximum safe JoacV for /solid .-Portland-; stone, properly built belt quality wa V:i7 , tons -to the square foot. Consequently tho front- of the piers' was carrying stresses^ which, if. carried pfoperly,> O uld -aeed of three times ,the strength m solid-Portland .stone -masonry If they .spent,£2oo,OOd,on repairs' and mak<ing the piers as strong as they possibly, could by injecting grouting and inserting rods, or by any of the other methods proposed, they would never get the stresses back again into Wren's position. ■ , - r LOWERING THE DOME. , Mr Todd says they cannot take the' dome down because they could never put Wrens dome back again, and fell the sentiment and glamour of the cathedral would disappear. But they could build the dome up m its present position by temporary structures, take down -and make good the piers, remove the temporary support, and, gen% lower the dome bodily 1.3000th-part of an inch which represents a thin line drawn by a very- fine pen on paper. If this were done as he recommends, St. Paul's would endure for, a thousand years, but the only possible way of-success wag to start at the centre. The foundations of the piers only go «t 6b into the ground which was first a stratum of a weak form of brick earth; following that they got gravel, then what Sir .ftaneis Foi declared to be quicksand, and then the London clay, -which was absolutely safe tt f f lf, *ey.-«™M St.-Paul's ydown • n. ■ meT el they would be truly safe. Mr. Todd gave details of his scheme, ™7> i1! ? onslde?s would cost £2,000,----000 and take twelve years to carry out. He did not wish to say one word in de- ' traction but he really believed that a «cheme_for £200,000 was absolutely useless, there was any sense or wisdom T?a^ hl had said he hoped that ifc wou d. be shouted into, the ears of every Enghsliman pn the earth. <■ V

LORD :,MAYOR'S REASSURANCE. Speaking rat a livery, dinner in th« city,; the Lord; Mayor sa id thai it wa! perfectly true that Mr. ToddtspeS the building to a certain extent; but he had not spent three'years*there as th 9 Dean and Chapter and their expeWhad The experts were Mr. Basil Mott-^n-emeer to build St. Paul's Bridge, if the Coi-poratron-:.built, it, ashe thoSghtTthey would-and.also the engineer* 5 of the' Tube system; Mr. Humphreys,-'the en gmeer to the London cWy' Cound"; ■Mr. Trench the engineer to the Midland Railway; - Sir, Aston Webb; and Mr Macartney, the architect to St. Paul^ • . ahese gentlemen had been studying the dome, and the piers for about three r rw';£ Dn had very Bcientifically wth the mpst perfect instruments ever invented.to find out any movement of the piers.lhere was one thing they wer« :ol fh L BI*T the «yP* to *J»'floor ■of the_ cathedral were perfectly sora d and they stud that they had never moved since Wren put them in. It was said first of all that the money C o U ?d not ppaubly be raised, and that the Corporation would t have to come in, O r eL ttie Government, and now it was to b* tee. had only, heard one side They would shortly hear the opinions of the «*«*■, and would bring xip their ™! l ort .«». .Oc^rt of Common Coun^. He did not think that there would be' id dan/er .to people who might hi afrad of going into or walking- by S*"Pauls for fear that the dome would fall upon them.. 'i f : The District Surveyor would have" been panting in hk dutf if he had wai^ Todd did not suggest that it was goW to collapse to-morrow morninsr ' ne^ week, or next year. It was his duty^a stop anything like an accident •