Correspondence
The C. P. R. E. and Ribband Development
To the Editor, The Architect and Building News.
Sir, — I am grieved that a chance phrase in a long and tedious oration expounding our annual report should have misled the writer of your Editorial into the belief that the C. P. R. E. was peevishly calling for repressive legislation and oppressive tolls to stop ribband development. I cannot recollect such a remark of mine, but if shows how careful one must be when friends and supporters like your paper are so ready to pick one up. Very shortly we hope to show you, by means of a pamphlet upon the grouping of buildings in the countryside, that we recognise (or your writer does) that ribband development is merely the outward and visible sign of an inward disorder of growth: it is indeed a very close parallel to cancer. The formation of all normal communities is that of the ribband or buildings facing a road: the recent development is merely a morbid exaggeration, as cancer consists of an uncontrolled stringing together of the very cells which are necessary for bodily growth and renewal. As the real cure for cancer is not the surgeon’s knife, so the cure for ribband growth must be sought in deep-seated causes.
But it is also necessary to discover the disease in its early stage when as yet it gives no bodily discomfort: we are accordingly labouring to convince the landowners (even the small farmer owner), the local authorities, and the dwellers in ribband houses that they are all acting contrary to their best interests, both economical, social and æsthetic. I will not enlarge on the disadvantages to each of these three participants as I believe that you realise them fully, but I would like to say that the inhabitants of these houses are only just now, when the children find themselves far from schools, the wives from shops and the whole family from places of social entertainment, realising how much better is the old form of comparatively compact growth.
May I add that the C. P. R. E. aims at nothing that will make house building more costly, land more expensive or difficult to obtain, or to increase the burden of rates. I entirely agree with you that in
expensive new roads, designed so as to avoid through traffic, are one of the first requisites of reasonable country development, so, also, is some simplified form of rural planning.
Patrick Abercrombie,
Hon. Sec., C. P. R. E.
[We refer to this matter in “Notes and Com
ments’’ this week. — Ed. ]
Professional Societies
Probationership of the R. I. B. A.
(a) List of Subjects required. — Attention is drawn to the fact that the Council of the R. I. B. A. have decided that Physics and Chemistry shall be included in the list of subjects as one of the alternative subjects. The following are the subjects now required: — English Composition; Elementary Mathematics (Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry); Mechanics or Physics or Higher Mathematics or Chemistry or Physics and Chemistry; History or Geography; one language other than English.
(b) Drawings required. — The Council have decided that after December 31, 1928, candidates must produce drawings showing that they possess an elementary knowledge of drawing from the solid, in addition to freehand drawing.
The Ulster Society of Architects (Incorporated)
The annual General Meeting of the Ulster Society of Architects was held in the Scottish Provident
Buildings on Tuesday evening, December 20, Mr. John Seeds, President of the Society, in the chair. There was a large attendance of members present.
The President, in his address, made mention of some of the more important features of the work of the Council during the year, amongst which may be mentioned the large increase of membership throughout the Province, the inclusion of the Society within the Architects’ Registration Bill, and the large amount of work which had been undertaken in co-operation with the parent organisation — The Royal Institute of British Architects. The work of the standing committees was felt to be a strong part of the entire year’s efforts to further the good work of the Society. On the vital question of architectural education, the Council had taken very definite steps, and the recent public lectures by Professor C. H. Reilly, M. A., F. R. I. B. A., of the Liverpool School of Architecture, were the beginning of a series which the Council hoped to introduce for the purpose of developing a wider appreciation of the aims and work of the architect.
The annual election of officers and Council for the year 1928, resulted as follows: — President, Mr. E. R. Kennedy, F. R. I. B. A.; Vice-President, Mr. John Seeds; Hon. Treasurer, Mr. R. H. Gibson; Hon. Secretary, Mr. T. R. Eagar; Members of Council, Major J. Ferguson, Messrs. J. P. McGrath, G. A. K. Robertson, G. O’Neill, W. D. R. Taggart; Associate Members of Council, Messrs. J. G. Smyth, C. Love; Hon. Auditors, Messrs. J. Scott, S. McIlveen.
Competition News
Concrete House Competition
The prizewinners in the Daily Mail Concrete House Competition were announced in that paper on Wednesday.
Glass A. — Concrete House for £1, 750: First prize, Thomas S. Tait, 1 Montague Place, Bedford Square, W. C. l; Second prize, F. J. Watson Hart and G. Val Myer, Abbey House, Victoria Street, S. W. l; Third prize, Morris de Metz, 34 Upper Berkeley Street, W. l.
Glass B. — Concrete House for £750: First prize, F. I. Brown and J. H. Peek, 50 Moorgate, E. C. 2; Second prize, A. Douglas Robinson, 56 Cannon Street, E. C. 4; Third prize, E. F. Doyle, 97 Queen’s Road, Plaistow, E. 13.
The assessors were Messrs. Maxwell Ayrton, J. Graham Mallett, W. E. Riley, and Douglas G. Tanner.
Notes in Brief
The Mayor of Westminster, on behalf of the citizen-subscribers, last week formally presented to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey four alms dishes, as a memorial to Bishop Ryle, the late Dean. The four dishes, designed and wrought by Mr. Oscar Ramsden are of hammered silver, gilded, and bear the arms of the City, the Royal arms, the arms of the Abbey, and those of the late Bishop; also the Keys of St. Peter and the Ring of Edward the Confessor. The dishes are about 18 inches in diameter.
Two silver-gilt flagons, dating from 1649, and valued at £2, 000, belonging to the rector and churchwardens of East Horsley, Surrey, are to be sold, under a faculty granted by the Guildford Diocesan Chancellor, for the purpose of augmenting the income of the benefice. The flagons, which were found some years ago in a disused part of the church tower, and regarded then as of little value, are at present in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The C. P. R. E. and Ribband Development
To the Editor, The Architect and Building News.
Sir, — I am grieved that a chance phrase in a long and tedious oration expounding our annual report should have misled the writer of your Editorial into the belief that the C. P. R. E. was peevishly calling for repressive legislation and oppressive tolls to stop ribband development. I cannot recollect such a remark of mine, but if shows how careful one must be when friends and supporters like your paper are so ready to pick one up. Very shortly we hope to show you, by means of a pamphlet upon the grouping of buildings in the countryside, that we recognise (or your writer does) that ribband development is merely the outward and visible sign of an inward disorder of growth: it is indeed a very close parallel to cancer. The formation of all normal communities is that of the ribband or buildings facing a road: the recent development is merely a morbid exaggeration, as cancer consists of an uncontrolled stringing together of the very cells which are necessary for bodily growth and renewal. As the real cure for cancer is not the surgeon’s knife, so the cure for ribband growth must be sought in deep-seated causes.
But it is also necessary to discover the disease in its early stage when as yet it gives no bodily discomfort: we are accordingly labouring to convince the landowners (even the small farmer owner), the local authorities, and the dwellers in ribband houses that they are all acting contrary to their best interests, both economical, social and æsthetic. I will not enlarge on the disadvantages to each of these three participants as I believe that you realise them fully, but I would like to say that the inhabitants of these houses are only just now, when the children find themselves far from schools, the wives from shops and the whole family from places of social entertainment, realising how much better is the old form of comparatively compact growth.
May I add that the C. P. R. E. aims at nothing that will make house building more costly, land more expensive or difficult to obtain, or to increase the burden of rates. I entirely agree with you that in
expensive new roads, designed so as to avoid through traffic, are one of the first requisites of reasonable country development, so, also, is some simplified form of rural planning.
Patrick Abercrombie,
Hon. Sec., C. P. R. E.
[We refer to this matter in “Notes and Com
ments’’ this week. — Ed. ]
Professional Societies
Probationership of the R. I. B. A.
(a) List of Subjects required. — Attention is drawn to the fact that the Council of the R. I. B. A. have decided that Physics and Chemistry shall be included in the list of subjects as one of the alternative subjects. The following are the subjects now required: — English Composition; Elementary Mathematics (Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry); Mechanics or Physics or Higher Mathematics or Chemistry or Physics and Chemistry; History or Geography; one language other than English.
(b) Drawings required. — The Council have decided that after December 31, 1928, candidates must produce drawings showing that they possess an elementary knowledge of drawing from the solid, in addition to freehand drawing.
The Ulster Society of Architects (Incorporated)
The annual General Meeting of the Ulster Society of Architects was held in the Scottish Provident
Buildings on Tuesday evening, December 20, Mr. John Seeds, President of the Society, in the chair. There was a large attendance of members present.
The President, in his address, made mention of some of the more important features of the work of the Council during the year, amongst which may be mentioned the large increase of membership throughout the Province, the inclusion of the Society within the Architects’ Registration Bill, and the large amount of work which had been undertaken in co-operation with the parent organisation — The Royal Institute of British Architects. The work of the standing committees was felt to be a strong part of the entire year’s efforts to further the good work of the Society. On the vital question of architectural education, the Council had taken very definite steps, and the recent public lectures by Professor C. H. Reilly, M. A., F. R. I. B. A., of the Liverpool School of Architecture, were the beginning of a series which the Council hoped to introduce for the purpose of developing a wider appreciation of the aims and work of the architect.
The annual election of officers and Council for the year 1928, resulted as follows: — President, Mr. E. R. Kennedy, F. R. I. B. A.; Vice-President, Mr. John Seeds; Hon. Treasurer, Mr. R. H. Gibson; Hon. Secretary, Mr. T. R. Eagar; Members of Council, Major J. Ferguson, Messrs. J. P. McGrath, G. A. K. Robertson, G. O’Neill, W. D. R. Taggart; Associate Members of Council, Messrs. J. G. Smyth, C. Love; Hon. Auditors, Messrs. J. Scott, S. McIlveen.
Competition News
Concrete House Competition
The prizewinners in the Daily Mail Concrete House Competition were announced in that paper on Wednesday.
Glass A. — Concrete House for £1, 750: First prize, Thomas S. Tait, 1 Montague Place, Bedford Square, W. C. l; Second prize, F. J. Watson Hart and G. Val Myer, Abbey House, Victoria Street, S. W. l; Third prize, Morris de Metz, 34 Upper Berkeley Street, W. l.
Glass B. — Concrete House for £750: First prize, F. I. Brown and J. H. Peek, 50 Moorgate, E. C. 2; Second prize, A. Douglas Robinson, 56 Cannon Street, E. C. 4; Third prize, E. F. Doyle, 97 Queen’s Road, Plaistow, E. 13.
The assessors were Messrs. Maxwell Ayrton, J. Graham Mallett, W. E. Riley, and Douglas G. Tanner.
Notes in Brief
The Mayor of Westminster, on behalf of the citizen-subscribers, last week formally presented to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey four alms dishes, as a memorial to Bishop Ryle, the late Dean. The four dishes, designed and wrought by Mr. Oscar Ramsden are of hammered silver, gilded, and bear the arms of the City, the Royal arms, the arms of the Abbey, and those of the late Bishop; also the Keys of St. Peter and the Ring of Edward the Confessor. The dishes are about 18 inches in diameter.
Two silver-gilt flagons, dating from 1649, and valued at £2, 000, belonging to the rector and churchwardens of East Horsley, Surrey, are to be sold, under a faculty granted by the Guildford Diocesan Chancellor, for the purpose of augmenting the income of the benefice. The flagons, which were found some years ago in a disused part of the church tower, and regarded then as of little value, are at present in the Victoria and Albert Museum.