of increasing or diminishing the accommodation, and of removal if
required, forming altogether a specimen of the most recent improvements
introduced into the art of building--these are the principal objects
which it has been sought to attain. The whole of the construction is of
iron, without a single piece of wood, the foundation being executed in
brick; the façade to be in metal, porcelain, and glass, the floor of
asphalte, the roof to be principally covered with ornamental thick glass,
in large dimensions, or ground glass with patterns.
"Of the trusses or arched ribs supporting the roof there were to be but
three varieties, each in three pieces, with which the whole of the
building could be erected. This subdivision of the roof-trusses would
have facilitated the conversion of the building for other purposes; for,
taken singly, or in various combinations, they would have formed many
kinds of buildings for ordinary purposes. The attached buildings placed
on the north side would have shown several modes of effecting this. The
ornamental spandrils of the roof-trusses would be formed in stamped-work
out of copper, and gilt.
"The façade shows at a glance the purpose of the building, as well as its
interior disposition, in which the different widths of avenues would
afford space for objects of all varieties of dimensions. The façade
itself was to be formed with tracery or trellis-work of cast-iron, the
lower part being covered with sheet-iron; the cornice and ornamental
panels of porcelain; the medallions in coloured stone-ware; the doors and
inclosures of metal, silvered and gilt; the ornamental details to be
either cast or stamped; the scrolls in the panels being in coloured glass
or mosaic.
"The pediment is crowned with a group of figures representing the Genius
of Industry crowning the Arts and Sciences; in the cornice are placed the
names of all the principal cities of the world, and the names of eminent
men in panels. In the medallions are represented allegorical figures of
the different branches of science and industry. At the angles of the
building are placed trophies, the base of which would serve as
guard-houses."
The engravings will serve to show the general effect of this design in
its interior and exterior.
----
DESIGN BY MESSRS. R. AND T. TURNER, OF DUBLIN.
In this design also the interior was arranged as one uninterrupted space,
about 1,940 feet long, and 408 wide, the roof in one span rising about
120 feet above the floor; the supports, consisting of semicircular ribs,
forming the interior into three avenues, the centre one 200 feet wide and
the full height, the side ones 104 feet wide and about sixty feet high.
In the centre of the length a transept was proposed, and the square area
at the meeting of that with the central avenue was to be covered with a
glass dome.
The ends of the building, as well as those of the transept, were to be
filled in with tracery in the upper part, a colonnade below protecting
the entrances. Galleries, if necessary, were to be placed in the side
avenues. The construction of this building was proposed to be principally
of wrought iron, which would have given to the circular ribs and other
parts a great lightness of effect; but, on the other hand, the
difficulties of producing and putting together such an enormous amount of
wrought-iron work in so short a space of time as that required was
considered an almost insuperable objection to the design. Large portions
of the roof were to be covered with glass, so as to admit an abundance of
light into the interior.
The accompanying views of the exterior and interior of this design, from
the simplicity of the arrangement, consisting of a repetition of similar
parts, require but little description for their elucidation.
[Illustration: Messrs. R and T. Turner's Design. View of Exterior from one
end.]
[Illustration: Messrs. R. and T. Turner's Design. Transverse Section, and
View of the Interior.]
MEMORANDUM ON THE SITE.
_Return to an Order of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated 1st July,
1850; for_
COPY of a LETTER addressed by the Commissioners of the EXHIBITION of 1851
to the Lords of the Treasury, inclosing Memorandum as to the Site of the
Exhibition Building in Hyde Park.
----
SIR,--I am directed by her Majesty's Commissioners for the Exhibition of
1851 to transmit to you herewith, for the information of the Lords
Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, a memorandum of the grounds on
which the present site has been selected for the Exhibition, and of the
proceedings that have been taken in consequence of that selection.--I have,
&c.
The Right Honourable W. G. Hayter, M.P., &c. &c. &c.
----
Memorandum of the grounds on which the site has been selected for the
Exhibition of 1851, and of the proceedings which have been taken in
consequence of that selection, prepared for the information of the Lords of
the Treasury by the Royal Commissioners for promoting the Exhibition.
1. It is within the knowledge of the Lords of the Treasury, that from
the time of the earliest announcement of the proposed Exhibition it has
always been intended that it should take place in the Metropolis. Not
only was such an intention matter of notoriety at the time that the
question of issuing a Royal Commission was under consideration, but the
Commission itself, when issued formally recited that it was proposed "To
establish an Enlarged Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations,
to be holden in London, in the year 1851;" and it was to further the
holding of such an exhibition that the present Commissioners were
specially appointed.
2. Considering the importance of the undertaking, and the circumstances
attending its promulgation, the selection of the Metropolis as its
intended locality appears to have been both natural and proper. It will
be borne in mind that the exhibitions which have from time to time been
held in foreign countries have generally, and, as the Commissioners
believe, invariably, been held in the capitals of the respective
countries. In the present case it was peculiarly important that an
undertaking which required the constant superintendence of a body of
Commissioners, whose occupations for the most part confine them to
London, should be carried on within their immediate cognisance, and not
removed to a distant situation.
3. It being thus distinctly evident that the Exhibition ought to take
place in London, it is further obvious that the actual site which may be
selected for it should be within the precincts of, or in the closest
vicinity to, the most central and accessible parts of the Metropolis
itself. It need hardly be pointed out that it would be objectionable to
impose upon persons who may have come to London from a great distance the
necessity of an additional journey to visit the Exhibition; a
consideration which has already been urged upon the Commissioners by the
representatives of several of the most important provincial towns, who
are apprehensive of the inconvenience to which artizans in particular
might thus be subjected. Moreover, the removal of the Exhibition to any
distance sufficient to diminish the number of visitors would not only
militate against its essential character of general accessibility, but
might most seriously affect the receipts upon which its self-supporting
character must depend, a point upon which it appears that much stress has
been laid.
4. Although Hyde Park, and even the particular space now in question,
had been already mentioned before the issue of the Commission, and indeed
so far back as October, 1849, as a probable site for the Exhibition, it
is unnecessary to assure the Lords of the Treasury that the Commissioners
approached the question of the site after their appointment without
having in any degree prejudged the merits of particular localities. On
the 14th of February, their attention having been directed to the
importance of determining the site by the Committee then recently
appointed for all matters relating to the building, they deputed two
Commissioners, namely, Lord Granville and Mr. Labouchere, to wait upon
the Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, and to confer with him upon
the subject. The result of this conference is set forth in the Report
presented by the Building Committee at the next meeting of the
Commissioners (Feb. 21), of which the following is the portion which
relates to the question of the site:--
"With respect to the site, it has appeared to your Committee that,
firstly, the north-eastern portion of Hyde Park; secondly, the long space
between her Majesty's private road and the Kensington-road, in the
southern part of Hyde Park; and, thirdly, the north-western portion of
Regent's Park, are the only available spaces about the Metropolis which
would afford the necessary accommodation; and it is believed that the
order in which they have been named represents also their relative
eligibility. As regards the first, the Committee are informed by the
Chief Commissioner of her Majesty's Woods and Forests, that considerable
objections would arise to its occupation for such a purpose, and that no
such objections would be raised to the use of the second; the Committee,
therefore, recommend the adoption of this site, which, amongst other
advantages, is remarkable for the facility of access afforded by the
existing roads. Upon this occasion a letter was received from the
Westminster Committee, stating that the local Commissioners for
Westminster had visited the site in Hyde Park, and a site suggested in
the Regent's Park, and that they were of opinion that the site in Hyde
Park was the preferable one."
The recommendation of the Building Committee having been agreed to, a
form of advertisement, requesting plans and suggestions for the building,
was, at the next meeting (28th February), submitted for approbation, and
was ordered to be immediately issued in the English, French, and, German
languages. To this advertisement was appended a ground-plan of the site
in Hyde Park for the guidance of those to whom the advertisement was
addressed. The details of this plan were discussed in the presence of the
Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, and were settled in conformity
with his lordship's wishes.
5. In consequence of the advertisement thus issued, no less than 248
plans and suggestions, many of them the productions of foreign artists,
were sent in to the Commissioners. A large number of these were of a very
elaborate character, and bore evident marks of considerable application
and ability.
6. Soon after the site had been selected, some other important
arrangements having also by this time been made, the Commissioners
prepared and published a statement (21 February) explanatory of the
nature and objects of the Exhibition, which was widely circulated in this
country, was forwarded to our consuls abroad and to the foreign consuls
in England, and was officially transmitted by the Secretary of State to
all Foreign Governments, and to all the Governors of the British
Colonies, as well as to India. In this statement it was announced that
"Her Majesty had been graciously pleased to grant a site for the purpose
(of the Exhibition) on the south side of Hyde Park, lying between the
Kensington Drive and the ride commonly called Rotten Row."
7. The site having been thus deliberately chosen and formally announced,
all subsequent proceedings connected with the building have been taken
with direct reference to it. The plans have been prepared with a view to
its peculiarities, and the form of the building and its internal as well
as its external arrangements have been determined by them. The amount of
space available for the display of articles has been calculated upon the
data afforded by the site, and from a calculation of this amount the
Commissioners have been able to assign to each foreign country a definite
space for the arrangement of its own productions. All the necessary
working-drawings and specifications have been prepared with very great
labour and at considerable expense, and have now been issued in a form
which will insure to the Commissioners the certainty of obtaining, within
a few days, _bonâ fide_ tenders for the execution of a design presenting
every facility for construction within the time prescribed. The
mechanical difficulties have been surmounted, and all the preliminary
arrangements, even to the extent of provision for an effective drainage
and a sufficient water supply, have been entered into. The whole of these
preparations have reference to this particular site only, and are
inapplicable or unsuitable to any other.
8. From what has been already stated, it will be seen that the present
site was not selected without consideration, and that the proceedings
which have been taken with respect to it were not commenced until the
Commissioners had good ground for believing that there would be no
objection to its occupation. The attention, however, which has lately
been directed to the point, has caused them anxiously to reconsider the
whole subject, and renders it now necessary for them to enter into
somewhat more of detail as to the grounds upon which they have come to
the conclusion which they have formed, that this is the only site in or
about the Metropolis which is at once suitable and practically available
for the purposes of the Exhibition.
9. Of the other sites which have been suggested, the following are the
only ones deserving of particular consideration:--
(_a_) The North-eastern portion of Hyde Park.
(_b_) The North-western portion of Regent's Park.
(_c_) Battersea Park.
(_d_) Victoria Park.
(_e_) Wormwood Scrubbs.
10. The north-eastern portion of Hyde Park would, in the opinion of many
members of the Building Committee, be a very eligible situation; but, as
has been already mentioned, an objection was taken to this locality on
the part of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, on the ground that
the building would interfere with some important thoroughfares in that
part of the park, and on account of other considerations of public
importance; and the idea was abandoned in consequence.
11. The site suggested in the Regent's Park has been found, since it was
visited by the Building Committee, not to be available, as the leases
under which the houses in the neighbourhood are held contain a clear and
stringent provision that no new building of any kind shall be erected
within the limits of the park.
12. With regard to the ground in the neighbourhood of Battersea proposed
to be purchased by the Government, and to be converted into a park to be
called Battersea Park, the Lords of the Treasury are of course aware that
only a small proportion of the whole area has as yet been purchased; and
the Commissioners found on inquiry that this proportion consists of
numerous small detached pieces, utterly insufficient to accommodate a
building of the contemplated size, and separated from each other by
intervening plots of ground, many of them in a state of high cultivation,
and belonging to a great number of different proprietors, with whom it
would be absolutely impossible to effect arrangements within any time
which would afford the slightest chance of the Commissioners being put in
possession of a site in time to complete their building by the spring of
next year. It should be added that the site of this district is very low,
a great portion of it being some feet under high-water mark, and that the
nature of the soil presents serious objections to its use as a
building-ground.
13. Victoria Park is situated in an inconvenient and not very accessible
part of the town. It would, moreover, be impossible to erect in it a
building of the required size without most seriously interfering with the
plantations and ornamental water which have been recently laid out there;
thus inflicting on the classes for whose recreation that park has been
opened an inconvenience infinitely more serious than could be caused to
the frequenters of the very much larger area of Hyde Park by the proposed
occupation of a comparatively small portion of it.
14. Lastly, as regards Wormwood Scrubbs, besides that the distance is a
very serious objection, the rights of the commoners in that locality
would prevent its appropriation; and the Commissioners are advised that
it would be impossible to erect the building there without risk, as any
single commoner would have it in his power to interrupt the proceedings,
and to cause them to be discontinued at any stage of the work, however
advanced. Similar objections apply to Wandsworth and some other commons
in the neighbourhood of London, which have been occasionally mentioned as
possible sites.
14_a_. As regards Primrose Hill and the Isle of Dogs, the want of level
space on the former, and the objectionable situation and dampness of the
latter, render them so obviously unsuitable as to make any particular
observations unnecessary.
15. But even could the objections to any of these sites be removed, or
could another and an unobjectionable site be pointed out, the
Commissioners feel hound to state, from their experience of the time,
thought, and labour necessarily consumed in the investigation,
arrangement, and preparation of the great mass of detail requisite to
enable them to carry out this extensive work, that they are fully
convinced of the impossibility of now adapting their plans to any other
site, with any reasonable prospect of being able to complete the work
within the time to which they stand pledged in the face of the world; and
they could only regard a change of site, particularly if it should
involve a change of plan, as tantamount to the postponement of the
Exhibition till another year. And the Commissioners cannot shut their
eyes to the fact, that a postponement of the Exhibition would, under the
circumstances, certainly lead to its entire abandonment.
16. In order to give the Lords of the Treasury some idea of the
consequences of an abandonment of this scheme, the Commissioners would in
the first place direct their attention to the large amount of money
already subscribed towards its completion (which is at present nearly
64,000_l_.), to the number of local committees (now about 240) which have
been called into existence throughout the country, to the funds now being
raised by subscriptions out of their wages among the working-classes in
all parts of the country towards enabling them to visit an Exhibition to
which they are anxiously looking forward, and the abandonment of which
would be a great disappointment to numbers, and still more to the
extensive preparations which are now making for the supply of articles
for exhibition. It is within the knowledge of the Commissioners that
several individuals in this country have incurred several thousand
pounds' expense in such preparations, besides the anxiety which they have
occasioned.
17. But the evils which would result from postponement, so far as this
country is concerned, are as nothing when compared with those which would
arise in the case of foreign nations and the colonies. The plan of the
Exhibition has been widely circulated for several months, and the
following States have already signified, through their respective
Governments, that they have appointed Committees or Commissioners,
consisting of the most distinguished individuals in those countries, to
co-operate with the Royal Commissioners in this country:--
Russia,
Sweden,
Norway,
Denmark,
Prussia,
Saxony,
Austria,
Bavaria,
Hanover,
Oldenburg,
Mecklenburg,
Hanse Towns,
France,
Holland,
Belgium,
Spain,
The United States,
Turkey,
Sardinia,
Venezuela,
Switzerland,
Nassau,
Anhalt, Dessau, &c.
Besides which it may be mentioned that special Commissioners have been
sent to this country by France, Russia, and one or two other States; and
that in most cases the Governments have undertaken the collection and the
transmission to this country, at their own expense, of the articles
intended for exhibition, for which, of course, their preparations are now
made.
18. In all the countries which have been mentioned active preparations
for the Exhibition are now going on, and in some considerable expense is
known to have been incurred. The Russian Government has announced that
the goods intended for exhibition will be shipped from that country in
the autumn of this year, and questions pointing to a similar arrangement
have recently been put by the Government of Denmark. The Austrian
Government have given notice, that the Great Exhibition which was to have
been held at Vienna in the year 1851 has been postponed till the year
1852, in order not to clash with the Exhibition in London. All these
circumstances tend to show that the postponement of the Exhibition would
be seriously inconvenient to many countries, and would probably occasion
considerable and natural irritation at what would appear like national
vacillation, besides the certainty of rendering these countries unwilling
to run the risk of a second disappointment, and of deterring them from
continuing their preparations for a later period.
19. These inconveniences would be felt also by the British Colonies.
Committees have been announced as formed in Malta, Ceylon, Nova Scotia,
Barbadoes, Guiana, and several of the West India Islands, and it is
probable that others have been appointed elsewhere. In India most
extensive preparations are being made, and the East India Company have
incurred very great expense by their exertions to contribute to the
Exhibition.
20. After what has been said, it is unnecessary that the Commissioners
should enlarge any further upon the consequences to be apprehended from
the postponement which would be occasioned by an alteration of the site
of building. They will proceed to offer a few remarks upon some of the
objections which have been taken to that at present proposed.