A Here and There.

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 5, 1 March 1911, Page 588

A Here and There.

(Compiled for Progress.)

Apropos the smoke nuisance. "What you require in Leeds is not architecture, but a hose pipe." That is what the late Frank Bedford said to the Secretary of the. Leeds and Yorkshire Architectural Society, when he was asked to lecture before the Society on an architectural subject. Mr. Sidney D. Kitson, F.R.1.8.A., who told this story in the course of his presidential address the other day, admitted that, while the reply was "not aggressively polite," it contained some germs. of truth. He might have added that many cities besides Leeds need to exert themselves to secure cleanliness— smoke in the atmosphere and less mud in the streets. Good artiteeturc may, and often does, exist among dirty surroundings. But its permanence and the appreciation of its beauty depend not a little upon the success of efforts made to mitigate the smoke evil. Sometimes in London we are startled by the discovery of unsuspected excellence in a familiar building; this generally means that its facade has just been treated with the sand blast. * * * "Capping" is not the only excuse for rowdyism among the cultured. . Neither is, there but one way for the Illuminati to meet it. There is, for example, the

"Stout" method, which, being followed all round in this Dominion, makes matters worse. And there is John Burns' way, which makes them better. Here is an instance: —On the occasion of Mr. Burns' visit to Liverpool the students of the School of Architecture perpetrated a rather elaborate .joke. Attired in their working overalls and wearing ''artistic" ties, vastly exaggerated in size and colour, they presented him with an "illuminated address" of welcome. The "address'' was carried by two students and bore a huge seal. It was embellished by quaint caricatures of Mr. Burns, and recited his claims to their approval. One was that his ability is so great that,it is rumoured he is even able to till up Form IV. Another was that he has had the signal distinction of being photographed between Lord Lnnsdowne and Mr. P. E. Smith. The address also congratulated the President of the Local Government .Board on his '*'uncontrollable appetite for work." Mr. Burns made a humorous reply to what lie described as "the most artistic practical joke I've seen." * # * Those who dream of fireproof houses will be glad. The growing use of ferroconcrete for civic and commercial buildings is very apparent. But it is only occasionally that we find this form of construction chosen for domestic buildings. Yet it is quite possible that an appreciation of the fire-resisting qualities of ferro-con rete may lead to its being more widely used for dwelling houses also. The writer of the Engineering Notes in the Daily Telegraph (London), draws attention to the fact that the purchaser of one of the mansions at the corner of Upper Grosvenor Street and Bark Street, London, was' influenced in favour of ferro-concrete because lie was advised that this form of construction constituted the most complete lire-resisting structure known to science. In these mansions, not only the floors, but also the whole of the staircases and roofs consist of f erro-coni rete. *- * * Architectural enterprise in original design did not pass away with any of the great architects. A change in the design of the Liverpool Cathedral gives a local critic the opportunity to illustrate the subject in one of the local papers. The two towers, at best dividing the interest and at worst producing a confused outline through their mutual overlapping, are gone. In their place one huge tower, of unexampled grandeur, is to be reared astride the nave, two and a half hays of which it will absorb. Already between the aisle arcades there is a space of 53ft. Gin., measured between the centres of the piers. Professor Simpson suggested that, as in several Italian cathedrals, this width might be increased. The genius of the young architect has evolved a holder "idea. His tower is to be over 100 feet square, measured in the same way, and will give a clear internal breadth of 83ft., the full width between the outside walls. When if, is remembered that the central tower at York is but 65ft. square, though it is the largest in England, the courage of the proposal will be perceived." Town planning is derided by many, chiefly by Dives, who thinks that Lazarus

ought not to be deprived of his accustomed life shortness, wherein is Dives logical, for he argues to himself (no doubt) that the sooner the poor man gets out of a world where he is badly off, the better it must be for him. Happily the day of Dives is passing, like the days of other dogs before him. Town planning, says Dives, is a costly luxury. As a matter of fact, it is more often the absence of town planning which in the long run proves most cosily. Mr. Henry R. Aldridge refers to this point in a recent article: "The ultimate cost of bad planning," he says, "to Municipal authorities and to private owners will certainly reach a total of scores of millions of pounds. During the past twenty years vast sums have been expended on street widenings, which would not have been needed if the lines of traffic had been considered, and an intelligent foresight exercised by those responsible for the development of estates in the past." One reason why so many houses in the older suburbs are empty is no doubt the superior attractiveness of the better-planned "garden suburbs."