THE PORT OF LONDON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18225, 19 October 1922, Page 7

THE PORT OF LONDON.

c PREMIER ON TRADE OUTLOOK [ TIDE OX THE TURN. Australian »nd N.Z» Cable Association* (Reed. 8-5 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 17. Mr. Lloyd George opened the Port of London Authority's palatial now offices at Tower Hill to-day. The guests included many Cabinet Ministers and Ambassadors. Air. Lloyd George said that though the building was opened in a time of trade depression, the tide was turning. We could look forward to much better times and more prosperity. | LONDON'S LATEST PALACE. : TOWER THAT RIVALS ST. PAUL'S. ; To the architectural wealth of London two new buildings of palatial proportions i have been adued since the war. On the ! south side of the Thames,_ almost opI posit© the Houses of Parliament, has | arisen the magnificent County Hall which j was recently opened by the King. The Port Authority's new building is a gigantic pile that dominates the sky by the I Tower of London. Unlike the County j Hall, it is already complete, and as the architect. Mr. Edwin Cooper, designed it. Its feature ia a tower rising high j above the City and seeking to rival the i dome of St. 'Paul's. In answer to tho j criticism that the great tower is unduly pretentious, Mr. W. G. Bell wrote in the London Daily Telegraph recently :— "What, after all, is the Port of London Authority ? Well, it consists of the men who rule the biggest port in the world, who watch over the immense interests, shipping and commercial, of that port, and who control the many miles of docks down Thames that once belonged to privately-owned companies, and a. few others. Not a small trust; and why thould they hot be ambitious? The tower is, to my thinking, an inspiration. Hich as is the main budding of the Port Authority, other tall structure!, and warehouses irowd so closely upon the waterside and in this eastern corner of the City that it is invisible from the river. The tower licks the Port Authority with the mercantile Thames. Far away,, in sight of the ships that move along : he bread reaches, the tower stands up to -he sky, a signal of London to the rmr, and of the river to Ixmdon. "It is English Renaissance, #ith perhaps greater richness of scuipftral ornament than we are accustomed in such large work, and yet it will acti'ie many that there are other influences in it. I fancy its creator must have been looking upon Egyptian pylons and pyramids. Possibly even Assyria was in his, thoughts. Its piled massiveness seems to come from such sources. It has been built up with wonderful care. In the tower itself there is much to note. The graceful pyramidal outline of the ' upper part, the lofty niche with its black shadows and figure of Father Thames, of heroic proportions, standing therein, and the silhouettes of the sculptured groups on cither side relieve it of any appearance of mere ponderousness. It ia > very striking composition, greatly daring.. Personally, I could have wished it a little ,more severely treated. "In plan tho Port of London Authority's new building is regular; that ia to say, it is a perfect square, with sides ; directly facing the cardinal points of the ' compass, but having the angle cut off on the south-east, to make the main front upon Tower Hill. The width of this angular front is occupied by a great portico, carried up through three storeys and crowned by the tower, and its flanking pavilions. "The entrance hall is a spacious apartment of about 63ft."by 25ft., rising to the height of the second floor, admirably lighted, and having on one side a nleasanfc gallery built over the vestibule. Walls and pier" are faced with polished Snbiaco marble, brought from ancient quarries some 30 miles from Home. It has an appearance not unlike ivory, a description which Plinv applied to the stone, with occasional slightly darker mnrlcingsThis marble is used where a nolished surface is required practicallv throughout the building; there is very little other. The floor is of marble, unpolished, with blue zola introduced in geometrical natterns. Broad fiat pilasters rise to the ceiling about the piers, the ceiling beinjr of white plaster, onriched with some finely modelled work. The great care bestowed upon the ceilings is a charming feature of the Port Authority's structure! i "Five doors in the entrance hall swing open to the rotnnda, which is the chief ,part of the building to which the public will go to do business. They will go ; there for a wide variety of purposes. No j indication of its existence is apparent outside, and surprise will be the dominant I emotion with most as thev enter a great ! domed, circular mom, having the spneious•nocs of the reading room "of the British Museum. Tt is no less than 110 ft. in diameter, giving a vast floor space over whidi the eye ranges in. wonderment. When fitted it will have circular rines of de«ks for clerks, cut into by footwavs which give direct access to the centre "of the rotnnda from each part of the ground floor. Here the dailv business of the Port of London will mostly be carried on."