THE GARDEN PALACE AT SYDNEY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6690, 26 September 1882, Page 3

THE GARDEN PALACE AT SYDNEY.

The following description of the Palace, written during the Sydney Exhibition of 1879, will give an idea of the building destroyed on Friday last by fire:—Viewed from the gateway, its aspect conveys the idea that the design is desperately intricate. _ The varied heights of the roofings of different parts, the vast dome, the massive towers thrusting their ornamental summits into view from remote parts, the minor towers, the angles, ornamentations, and different levels here, there, and everywhere, confuse and at the same time please the eye. But in realityithe design is, in substance, sufficiently simple to admit of being understood even* without diagrams. First,' imagine a Maltese cross. There you have the nave and transept, the long arm of the cross being the nave, , and the short arm the transept. Each is 50ft in width. The nave is 800 ft long. Riflemen will arrive at an idea ef the length best by reckoning it in yards, 267 yards nearly. The transept is 500 ft, say 167 yards, in length. To the apex of the roof is from the-floor 60ft, the affect airy and light. The roofs are tinted in panels; a cerulean blue, the rafters canary yellow, stencilled

with designs and lines in other tints. Where nave and transept join, the roof soars away upward. You are standing under the great dome, than which only five in the world are greater. To the springing of the ribi the height from the floor is 89ft, to the apex of the dome 159 ft. A lantern 20ft in diameter [and 37ft high surmounts the whole, making the total height 210 ft. Although ranking sixth in diameter, the Garden Palace is excelled by only three in the whole world in point of elevation. The greater proportion which its height bears to its diameter, as compared with its older and more substantial rivals, adds to its airy grace. From every point of view —seen from outside, from a distance or near at hand, or standing within the building and looking up into its vast concavity, it pleases the eye. From the last-mentioned standpoint, it bears scrutiny well. The entire interior of the dome is colored and decorated with cheerful t-nts, while the exterior, of galvanised iron, reflects the rays of the sun with a metallic sheen, which is not without its charm. Immediately under the apex there is a circular opening or well, in the 1 floor of the building, which affords light to the refreshment rooms, which are here located in the basement, and from the centre of which rises a massive pedestal, forming at the same time a fountain spouting water, the refreshing plash of which gratifies the ear, and a base for the marble statue of Her Majesty the Queen, purchased by the Government of N.S.W. from Mr Marshall Woods, the eminent sculptor. The nave and transept forming, as already explained, the two limbs of a cross, conceive on each side of these limbs lateral enlargements, not sufficiently wide to convert the cross into a parallelogram or oblong, but making it very bulky, like a cross which has been flattened out. Now, imagine at each end of nave and transept a massive tower 50ft square rising to a height of 118 ft, and at each of the four corners of the aisle a smaller tower, and a general idea of the design has been obtained.