Vol. CXVIII — 3064
The ARCHITECT
BUILDING NEWS
September 9, 1927
Proprietors: Gilbert Wood & Co., Ltd.
Managing Director: William L. Wood
Editorial, Publishing and Advertisement Offices:
Bolls House, 2 Breams Buildings, London, E. C. 4. Tel.: Holborn 5708 Registered Office: Imperial Buildings, Ludgate Circus, London, E. C. 4
Principal Contents
Notes and Comments.............................................. Page 411, 412 Competition Notes....................................................................... 412
A New Cinema at Oldbury (Illustrations)............................ 413-416 Correspondence ................................................................416
New ’Bus Garage, Harborne (Illustrations)........................ 416, 417 Trinity College, Cambridge: Junior Combination Boom
(Illustration)................................................................418
The Repair of Rural Cottages — V. (Illustrations)..... 419, 442 House at Cllult, Surrey (Illustrations)................................. 420, 421 Memoranda — VII.: Hydrated Lime........................................... 422
Holiday Reflections — II. (Illustrations)............................ 423, 424
A Modern Housing Scheme — II. (Illustrations).................. 425-428 No. 7 Portland Place, London (Illustrations)........................ 429 Midland Building and Allied Trades Exhibition (Illus
trations).......................................................................... 430, 432
London Building Notes.............................................................. 434
The Week’s Building News......................................................... 436 Building Tenders.......................................................................... 436 Building Contracts Open.............................................................. 438
Current Market Prices........................................................... 440, 442 Current Measured Rates............................................... 444, 446 Building Wage Grades............................................................. 448
NOTES AND COMMENTS
The letter which has been addressed by Mr. Nathaniel Lloyd to the Secretary of the R. I. B. A. calling attention to the evils of “Standard Sizes of Bricksˮ as enshrined in the Kalendar is a timely reminder. Recent years have shown such advances in the appreciation and treatment of brickwork as a worthy material that it is certainly time that this misleading pronouncement should be displaced or amplified. Though professing to deal only with the sizes of ˮall classes of walling bricks, both machine and hand made, ” there is no doubt that if anyone takes notice of it at all (which is perhaps questionable) its influence is wholly in the direction of dull uniformity, for it does not go far enough to make its limited purpose clear, and is generally taken as applying to all bricks whatsoever. The standards, in fact, conform closely to engineering ideals, and it is well to remember something of the circumstances in which they arose. In the great days of brickwork — Mediæval and Renaissance — bricks were just bricks. Prior to the introduction of rubbers (which, being finely jointed and often prepared for carving, were not so subject to limitations of bond) several kinds of bricks from widely separated sources would not commonly be used in the same building. With industrialism and railways it became common to ransack the country for bricks with special qualities, so that in one structure there might be used stocks, pressed or wirecuts, blue Staffords, saltglazed bricks, enamelled bricks and red facings. When, as frequently happened, a building brick which held up to 9⅛ in. by 4½ in. by 2¾ in. had to be combined with blue pressed bricks holding only 8¾ in. by 4¼ in. by 2½ in., current ideals of regular bond and thin joints were rudely shocked. What these ideals were can be gathered from examination of the work dating from those smug and unpleasantly “perfect” times; or
clauses extracted from their specifications (which make us shudder) paint in the right background. “All bricks intended for use under this specification must be the best of their respective kinds, hard, square, sound, well burnt and even in size. The bricks for facings are to be carefully selected for their evenness of colour and face, and the visible arrises must be undamaged. All facings are to be executed in Flemish bond, consisting in each course of headers and stretchers alternately, to break joint accurately, and all perpends to be kept. The exterior facings to be pointed with a neat weather joint in cement, cut in top and bottom, a sample of which is to be approved, ” and so forth. Hardly a point (except the proviso “sound, well burnt”), which is not actively detri
mental to the production of good brickwork. It was
in such an atmosphere that the standards arose, and in a. very different one that they are now due for expansion or revision. It is very fitting that Mr. Nathaniel Lloyd should be the one to raise the question, for his great book on English brickwork gives him the right to speak with authority.
Building in Canada, judging from the July figures of the Canadian Department of Trade and Commerce, would appear to be a steadily growing industry. Building permits were issued by 63 cities during June for work aggregating in value $18, 400, 000, and although this showed a decline of 10 per cent on the figure for May, the total amount of building work authorised during the first half of 1927 in the cities mentioned exceeded that of the first half of any previous year. In the old days here, it was usual to arrange for most building work to start in middle or late spring to get full advantage of the good weather. Possibly because of the vagaries of the English climate, this rule does not seem to be so strictly observed nowadays. In Canada such a rule would seem even more applicable, and the drop in value of building work authorised in June, compared with May, might be explained, therefore, by the desire of all concerned to get forward with the work as early in the year as possible. It may be noted that Ontario showed the biggest total of building work in May and June, Quebec coming second, but about 70 per cent. of the Quebec total represents work in the City of Montreal.
The death of Mr. J. St. Loe Strachey has naturally brought into print many tributes to his great qualities as an editor and a publicist. But none, so far as we have seen, have touched upon his great interest in architecture and the arts of building, particularly in the construction of rural dwellings. In so many-sided and brilliant a man, it was perhaps inevitable that this enthusiasm for the constructional should be overlooked in face of the attributes which made his conduct of The Spectator for over 30 years so remarkable an achievement. Still, his constant interest in building matters led him, just after the war, when building materials were scarce, to essay a trial of the very old method of building with rammed earth, and the bungalow erected on his estate at Merrow Down, near Guildford, was a successful exposition of building in pise-de-terre, which led to other dwellings being erected on this method, notably by the Ministry of Agriculture at Amesbury, with all of which his sonin-law, Mr. Clough Williams-Ellis, was connected as architectural adviser. Mr. St. Loe Strachey was one
The ARCHITECT
BUILDING NEWS
September 9, 1927
Proprietors: Gilbert Wood & Co., Ltd.
Managing Director: William L. Wood
Editorial, Publishing and Advertisement Offices:
Bolls House, 2 Breams Buildings, London, E. C. 4. Tel.: Holborn 5708 Registered Office: Imperial Buildings, Ludgate Circus, London, E. C. 4
Principal Contents
Notes and Comments.............................................. Page 411, 412 Competition Notes....................................................................... 412
A New Cinema at Oldbury (Illustrations)............................ 413-416 Correspondence ................................................................416
New ’Bus Garage, Harborne (Illustrations)........................ 416, 417 Trinity College, Cambridge: Junior Combination Boom
(Illustration)................................................................418
The Repair of Rural Cottages — V. (Illustrations)..... 419, 442 House at Cllult, Surrey (Illustrations)................................. 420, 421 Memoranda — VII.: Hydrated Lime........................................... 422
Holiday Reflections — II. (Illustrations)............................ 423, 424
A Modern Housing Scheme — II. (Illustrations).................. 425-428 No. 7 Portland Place, London (Illustrations)........................ 429 Midland Building and Allied Trades Exhibition (Illus
trations).......................................................................... 430, 432
London Building Notes.............................................................. 434
The Week’s Building News......................................................... 436 Building Tenders.......................................................................... 436 Building Contracts Open.............................................................. 438
Current Market Prices........................................................... 440, 442 Current Measured Rates............................................... 444, 446 Building Wage Grades............................................................. 448
NOTES AND COMMENTS
The letter which has been addressed by Mr. Nathaniel Lloyd to the Secretary of the R. I. B. A. calling attention to the evils of “Standard Sizes of Bricksˮ as enshrined in the Kalendar is a timely reminder. Recent years have shown such advances in the appreciation and treatment of brickwork as a worthy material that it is certainly time that this misleading pronouncement should be displaced or amplified. Though professing to deal only with the sizes of ˮall classes of walling bricks, both machine and hand made, ” there is no doubt that if anyone takes notice of it at all (which is perhaps questionable) its influence is wholly in the direction of dull uniformity, for it does not go far enough to make its limited purpose clear, and is generally taken as applying to all bricks whatsoever. The standards, in fact, conform closely to engineering ideals, and it is well to remember something of the circumstances in which they arose. In the great days of brickwork — Mediæval and Renaissance — bricks were just bricks. Prior to the introduction of rubbers (which, being finely jointed and often prepared for carving, were not so subject to limitations of bond) several kinds of bricks from widely separated sources would not commonly be used in the same building. With industrialism and railways it became common to ransack the country for bricks with special qualities, so that in one structure there might be used stocks, pressed or wirecuts, blue Staffords, saltglazed bricks, enamelled bricks and red facings. When, as frequently happened, a building brick which held up to 9⅛ in. by 4½ in. by 2¾ in. had to be combined with blue pressed bricks holding only 8¾ in. by 4¼ in. by 2½ in., current ideals of regular bond and thin joints were rudely shocked. What these ideals were can be gathered from examination of the work dating from those smug and unpleasantly “perfect” times; or
clauses extracted from their specifications (which make us shudder) paint in the right background. “All bricks intended for use under this specification must be the best of their respective kinds, hard, square, sound, well burnt and even in size. The bricks for facings are to be carefully selected for their evenness of colour and face, and the visible arrises must be undamaged. All facings are to be executed in Flemish bond, consisting in each course of headers and stretchers alternately, to break joint accurately, and all perpends to be kept. The exterior facings to be pointed with a neat weather joint in cement, cut in top and bottom, a sample of which is to be approved, ” and so forth. Hardly a point (except the proviso “sound, well burnt”), which is not actively detri
mental to the production of good brickwork. It was
in such an atmosphere that the standards arose, and in a. very different one that they are now due for expansion or revision. It is very fitting that Mr. Nathaniel Lloyd should be the one to raise the question, for his great book on English brickwork gives him the right to speak with authority.
Building in Canada, judging from the July figures of the Canadian Department of Trade and Commerce, would appear to be a steadily growing industry. Building permits were issued by 63 cities during June for work aggregating in value $18, 400, 000, and although this showed a decline of 10 per cent on the figure for May, the total amount of building work authorised during the first half of 1927 in the cities mentioned exceeded that of the first half of any previous year. In the old days here, it was usual to arrange for most building work to start in middle or late spring to get full advantage of the good weather. Possibly because of the vagaries of the English climate, this rule does not seem to be so strictly observed nowadays. In Canada such a rule would seem even more applicable, and the drop in value of building work authorised in June, compared with May, might be explained, therefore, by the desire of all concerned to get forward with the work as early in the year as possible. It may be noted that Ontario showed the biggest total of building work in May and June, Quebec coming second, but about 70 per cent. of the Quebec total represents work in the City of Montreal.
The death of Mr. J. St. Loe Strachey has naturally brought into print many tributes to his great qualities as an editor and a publicist. But none, so far as we have seen, have touched upon his great interest in architecture and the arts of building, particularly in the construction of rural dwellings. In so many-sided and brilliant a man, it was perhaps inevitable that this enthusiasm for the constructional should be overlooked in face of the attributes which made his conduct of The Spectator for over 30 years so remarkable an achievement. Still, his constant interest in building matters led him, just after the war, when building materials were scarce, to essay a trial of the very old method of building with rammed earth, and the bungalow erected on his estate at Merrow Down, near Guildford, was a successful exposition of building in pise-de-terre, which led to other dwellings being erected on this method, notably by the Ministry of Agriculture at Amesbury, with all of which his sonin-law, Mr. Clough Williams-Ellis, was connected as architectural adviser. Mr. St. Loe Strachey was one