PORT OF LONDON AUTHORITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18736, 14 December 1922, Page 8

PORT OF LONDON AUTHORITY

NEW HEADQUARTERS OPENED. A GREAT PUBLIC BUILDING. PRIME MINISTER ON TRADE REVIVAL. (From Odb Own Cobeespondent.) LONDON, October 19. An event of considerable importance in the civic history of London took place this week, when the Prime Minister formally opened the new headquarters of the Port of London Authority on Tower Hill, The imposing structure certainly proves that the skill of the architect is not a thing of former years alone, and that great building senemes may suit bo accomplished even when labour and material ig at a price many times as great as it was half a century ago. The structure was started in 1911. For the Inundations 19ft of made earth was cut through—a remarkable depth such as is only found adjacent to the river—and below that, on undisturbed soil, the bedding was laid. -.ie weight of so much masonry must need? be stupendous. The great structure has been checked in its growth, like so much else, by the war. Rut by good fortune a largo part was already advanced before the war clouds over Europe broke, and in early days all labour was required for Hie national effort, with the result of a considerable saving in the bill as it would be delivered at post-war prices. The Port Authority pays for all, not coming for a penny to the ratepayer. buildings that are worthy. * f am glad that the building is a fine one,” said the Prime Minister, in the course of Ins speech. “It is a great thing for the great institutions of the country to he housed in buildings that are worthy. You realise that when you go to any foreign city, and the impression it creates upon you, and (here is nothing distresses you more than when you come to some towns and cities of the country—l will not name them—to find in towns that have really made a great contribution to the trade and the commerce of the land, that there is no outward and visible sign in the permanent edifices of those towns that the people understand that there is something beyond the mere making of money in connection with commerce, that there is a pride in it, a pride in their city, a pride in their business, and that they want the outward and visible sign of that in a beautiful and handsome building. I congratulate the Port of London Authority on realising that, and on setting up this great example.” From tho moment the Port Authority commenced its administration, absorbing r -s it did the property, powers, and obligations of the several independent bodies which had until then controlled the business of the port, it was confronted with the difficulty of having housed in several separate buildings, scattered hither and thither about the city and elsewhere, its administrative .and executive staff. To find a remedy for this has been the constant concern of the authority, now happily surmounted by the provision for a single and •' centr.il building, in which efficiency and economy of administration will be effected. A .detailed description of Mr Edwin Cooper's majestic building would convey but little to the reader. In due course it will figure in moving pictures as one of London's most imposing edifices. The general conception is that of a perfect square with its sides facing the cardinal points and having the angle cut off on the south-east. Under a great portico rising tho whole width of this angular front ia the principal entrance, the remaining sides of the square forming a hollow cube with a large circular hall, the rotunda in the centre. It is in tho rotunda that the public will come into direct contact with the staff. It is 110 ft in diameter and 67ft in height from floor to the top of dome, and is one of the most impressive pieces of work in the whole interior. Apart from the rotunda, floor above floor in the enclosing blocks, which rise in five storeys, is devoted to business purposes. The last word in office planning is seen here. There is no overcrowding. Every office to which the public may find need to come is laid out on o,n open plan, wherebv everv clerk is seen at work at his desk. The public counters _ run the length of the wide corridors dividing dupli cate sets of offices, and light, heat, and, what is not le's imnortant. air freely circulating. is well distributed over all. The health of a large staff will be served when they work amid such agreeable and hygienic surroundings. The building is the better because it lias taken ten years to raise. A good many ideas from which it derives advantage have come to the architect and to others concerned in its equipment in that time. The Ivjard room has walls entirely covered with walnut to where the coved ceiling snrings. The large penals are of a beautifully-figured walnut quartered, the fluted columns of the same timber, and the capitals and elaborate ornament cut in Md refief of limewood. which slowly is ncoubuig a. darker tone. Largo windows, o' erlooking the Tower of London and the fi-or, are somewhat darkened bv tho depth of the portico; in which they are set baok. but tlie room is adequately illuminated bv natural light from overbe-'d. The apartments for the chairman, vice-chairman, and other high officials are particularly striking. FATHER THAMES. Coming up from tho south of London by train tho great lower of the new building shows above all other buildings. There is the lofty niche with the figure of Father Thames standing therein, and five sculptured groups on either side. The group on the west of the tower symbolises "Exportation,” and consists of a galleon drawn by sea horses and steered by Prowess, a male winged figure. The eastern group symbolises “Produce,” oxen are hero drawing the chariot on which stands a winged female figure, “The Triumph of Agriculture,” with a flaming torch in her hand. It was in the Rotunda this week that the chief business men of the city and Cabinet Ministers and other pro.ni.uut Londoners met. Viscount Devqnport recalled the historical events associated with Tower Hill, upon which the noble pile added to the public buildings of London now stands. The Prime Minister took his cue from these grim references in opening his speech. A “STRIKING” SITE. On his way down, he said, he had stopped to survey that spot of ground before tho tall stone portico on which the ancient scaffold of the Tower of London had for so many centuries been raised. ‘‘lt is not.” he said, “a very encouraging place for an offending Minister. I confess that as I passed that ground, when I remembered all that had happened there, there came a sense of shuddering anxiety.” The site ho might call a .striking one. He uncalled there was a Lord Chancellor whose head foil (here —and he turned to where Viscount Birkenhead sat. And, too, there was an Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud's fate wns in his mind, and he turned to where to-day’s Primate was sitting, conspicuous in ’ scarlet and lawn vestments, his cross-hearer beoido him, amidst the black-coated company. Strafford, a Prime Minister, also ended his stormy "at; or upon Tower Hill, hut it gave consolation to tho speaker fo remember that he was a Die-Hard. Then two or three people bad died there who had tried to force changes upon the country by force of anus. They were believers in direct action, and came to grief. It was, the Prime Minister considered, a mixed assembly, rhese historic figures who made their exit upon Tower Hill. , •‘Wo handle a great trade for other lands. That suffered because the exchanges are bad, but I. am glad to find that, there is a steady, strong current of improvement. The tide which has beau going out. leaving sandbanks and_ mudheaps, is beginning to creep back. You can see it has turned. Jt is coming on. Mark, you will find it is rising. In the ast six months I am told the imports of the Port of Loudon aro 7 per cent, better loan they were in the corresponding six months of last. year. A more notable figure-the exports' are better by 16 per eent. Let us be of good cheer. Keep up our hearts. Trade is improving. I can feel it, I can see it. It is improving gradually, which, 1 think, is good. It is not a boom, it is a n-rowth. It is not a tidal wave, it is just tho tide coming in, naturally flowing. That is better. It isjrettor. it is stronger, it is more serviceable to the country, hut it is coming- Then the Port of London will have better times. There * is unemployment. That, I hoar, is improving, and therefore T am plad that, although we aro opening this building at a lime of trade depression, wo are queuing it at a time when (he Tide is rising, and wo can look forward to much better times and more prosperity when this building will represent in ihe future something oven greater for the trade of London than it has ever seen in its greatest days. There is no port, in the world which shows such a record to-day. It is a record that will be exceeded and surpassed in the years to come. I am glad on this occasion to have (ho honour and the privilege of standhig here to declare open to-day the building that is going to he the centre of activity of a port which ; s tho pride of all our race in all lands.” He recalled the early years when, with

Viscount Devonport, he had worked at the Board of Trade to unify the Port of London under one authority, and the clash of so many interests which they sought to reconcile. They did not please everybody. "That is a most; difficult thing to do," said Mr Ijloyd George. "If you will take it fro n me, you cannot do it. If you try, you please nobody. The best thing you can do is to make the best job according to the material at your hand." People shook their heads at his scheme, and said it would never do. "If you listen to tho never do's, it never is done." PROSPECTS OP TRADE. The Prime Minister concluded his speech on a note of hope for the trade cf tlie country. Referring to the cost of the \v;.r he said: "You cannot spend all those thousands of millions, put forth all that terrific energy without feeling a seise of exhaustion afterwards. But I am glad to see that our people are facing it with the same calm, the same determination, the same common-sense, and the same absence of fuss as they have ever done, and we are gradually recovering."