Vol. CXVIII — 3070
The ARCHITECT & BUILDING NEWS
October 21, 1927
Proprietors: Gilbert Wood & Co., Ltd.
Managing Director: William L. Wood
Editorial, Publishing and Advertisement Offices:
Rolls 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 637, 638
A City of Towers (Illustrations)............................................. 639-643 Correspondence............................................................................ 644 Professional Societies.................................................................... 644 Cottages at The Wilderness, Leyton (Illustrations)..... 645-649, 651 Southend Telephone Exchange (Illustration)................................ 650 A London Housing Centre Proposal (Illustrations).............. 652, 653 The Midland Bank New Head Office (Illustrations)............ 654, 655 Books and Publications................................................................. 656
Building Craftsmanship — Old and New — X (Illus
tration)................................................................................. 657
Notes in Brief.............................................................................. 658
London Building Notes........................................................ 661, 662 The Week’s Building News........................................ 665, 666 Building Contracts Open............................................................ 669
Building Tenders.................................................................... 669, 673 Current Market Prices.................................................. 670, 673 Current Measured Bates......................................................... 674, 677
Building Wage Grades.................................................................. 678
NOTES AND COMMENTS
The departure of Jacob Epstein, with forty-five crate-loads of works, for the land of his birth is regarded with no small misgiving in our more “advahbed” art circles. Although the distinguished sculptor appears to have no set plans beyond an immediate exhibition of his work at the Ferargil Gallery in New York, at which his latest group, The Madonna and Child, will be shown, the sale of the lease of his house in Guildford Street betokens a more than temporary uprooting here, and there is a suspicion that he may, eventually, make his permanent home in the United States. Certainly, the financial prosperity of that country offers better prospects and a more con
genial soil to devotees of the most expensive branch of art. English admirers have not been slow to ascribe the sculptor’s migration to a lack of appreciation here, and most of his public work, from the figures on the old British Medical Association building in the Strand to the “Rima” in Hyde Park,
while exciting the admiration of Art critics, has also been successful in raising considerable controversies in the Press and anger from the laity. Seeing that the fame which Epstein now enjoys was bom in this country, he probably takes a philosophical view of the criticism that accompanied it. In a parting interview, he confessed to being a realist imbued with the sadness of the things of this world, and disowned the archaic leanings which have so often been attributed to him. The striking divergence of opinion between the critics and the majority of educated laymen in this country upon the merits of Epstein’s work may have a deeper significance than the mere obtuseness which the former attribute to the latter. We have been fighting or aiding the French for 1, 000 years, and, as a nation, are no nearer a real understanding of French feelings, aspirations and processes of thought than at our first encounter. And although we talk glibly about Art as a universal language, those critics who demand instant appreciation of the manifestations of men of alien race or blood — it may be Conrad in literature, Epstein in sculpture, Ravel or Bartok in music, or Mendelsohm and Le Corbusier in architecture — may be butting up against psychological inhibitions, the strength of which we have no means of determining.
The first of Sir Charles Mallet’s interesting contributions to The Times last week on ‘‘Builders of Oxford’’ is, we venture to think, in error in attribut
ing to John Jackson the work at Brasenose College Chapel, the porch at St. Mary’s Church, and also the gateways in the Physic Garden; and in claiming
that “till evidence is forthcoming to dethrone him, John Jackson is fairly entitled to our homage for some of the finest work in Oxford which the seventeenth century can show, ” Sir Charles appears to have overlooked evidence that is fairly accessible. It may be found in an article entitled “Nicholas Stone’s Work at Oxford, ” which appeared in our columns as far back as September 3rd, 1909, or in Mr. Albert E. Bullock’s monograph on this great craftsman. The excellent testimony of Nicholas Stone’s diary should dispose of any doubt about the responsibility for the gates to the Physic Garden. Stone employed his cousin, Gabriel Staces, as resident agent for his work at Oxford from 1631 to 1633, when Cornbury was being erected for the Earl of Derby, and, later, Staces was supervising work for Stone at Old Somerset House, from designs by Inigo Jones, which included a bronze Neptune cast by Le Sueur; and from Stone’s association with Inigo Jones and Archbishop Laud and his repeated employment of Le Sueur for bronze work, one may strongly infer that he was concerned with the work at St. John’s. Certainly his work is, or was, to be found in most of the big houses built at that day, and monuments by him are in Westminster Abbey and many of the chief parish churches.
In regard to St. Mary’s Porch in the High, erected in 1637 at a cost of £230 for Dr. Owen, Chaplain to Archbishop Laud, Nicholas Stone, master mason to King Charles I., was appointed, according to Rymer’s “Foedera, ” on April 21, 1626, “for all our Build
ings and Reparations, ” in the room of William Suthers, being paid quarterly at the rate of twelve pence per diem at the “Feasts of Nativitie, of St. John Baptist, St. Michael the Archangel, the Birth of Our Lord God, and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ” The wording of this patent seems conclusive.
Sir Charles Mallet’s articles have had the effect of drawing Mr. D. S. MacColl into a pointed denunciation of the evils that the “Gothic Revival” is work
ing in Oxford, in the course of which the eminent art critic twits Sir Charles for not drawing a moral and the Vice-Chancellor for overlooking, in his recent complaint of encroaching commercial building, the sinners nearer home. “Is it not time, ’’ he asks, “that the Gothic Revival should be suppressed for the pestilent nuisance that it is before it has devoured what little remains of the lovely architecture of old Oxford, shops, houses, and ruins. College after college displaces these and pushes out to the front the
The ARCHITECT & BUILDING NEWS
October 21, 1927
Proprietors: Gilbert Wood & Co., Ltd.
Managing Director: William L. Wood
Editorial, Publishing and Advertisement Offices:
Rolls 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 637, 638
A City of Towers (Illustrations)............................................. 639-643 Correspondence............................................................................ 644 Professional Societies.................................................................... 644 Cottages at The Wilderness, Leyton (Illustrations)..... 645-649, 651 Southend Telephone Exchange (Illustration)................................ 650 A London Housing Centre Proposal (Illustrations).............. 652, 653 The Midland Bank New Head Office (Illustrations)............ 654, 655 Books and Publications................................................................. 656
Building Craftsmanship — Old and New — X (Illus
tration)................................................................................. 657
Notes in Brief.............................................................................. 658
London Building Notes........................................................ 661, 662 The Week’s Building News........................................ 665, 666 Building Contracts Open............................................................ 669
Building Tenders.................................................................... 669, 673 Current Market Prices.................................................. 670, 673 Current Measured Bates......................................................... 674, 677
Building Wage Grades.................................................................. 678
NOTES AND COMMENTS
The departure of Jacob Epstein, with forty-five crate-loads of works, for the land of his birth is regarded with no small misgiving in our more “advahbed” art circles. Although the distinguished sculptor appears to have no set plans beyond an immediate exhibition of his work at the Ferargil Gallery in New York, at which his latest group, The Madonna and Child, will be shown, the sale of the lease of his house in Guildford Street betokens a more than temporary uprooting here, and there is a suspicion that he may, eventually, make his permanent home in the United States. Certainly, the financial prosperity of that country offers better prospects and a more con
genial soil to devotees of the most expensive branch of art. English admirers have not been slow to ascribe the sculptor’s migration to a lack of appreciation here, and most of his public work, from the figures on the old British Medical Association building in the Strand to the “Rima” in Hyde Park,
while exciting the admiration of Art critics, has also been successful in raising considerable controversies in the Press and anger from the laity. Seeing that the fame which Epstein now enjoys was bom in this country, he probably takes a philosophical view of the criticism that accompanied it. In a parting interview, he confessed to being a realist imbued with the sadness of the things of this world, and disowned the archaic leanings which have so often been attributed to him. The striking divergence of opinion between the critics and the majority of educated laymen in this country upon the merits of Epstein’s work may have a deeper significance than the mere obtuseness which the former attribute to the latter. We have been fighting or aiding the French for 1, 000 years, and, as a nation, are no nearer a real understanding of French feelings, aspirations and processes of thought than at our first encounter. And although we talk glibly about Art as a universal language, those critics who demand instant appreciation of the manifestations of men of alien race or blood — it may be Conrad in literature, Epstein in sculpture, Ravel or Bartok in music, or Mendelsohm and Le Corbusier in architecture — may be butting up against psychological inhibitions, the strength of which we have no means of determining.
The first of Sir Charles Mallet’s interesting contributions to The Times last week on ‘‘Builders of Oxford’’ is, we venture to think, in error in attribut
ing to John Jackson the work at Brasenose College Chapel, the porch at St. Mary’s Church, and also the gateways in the Physic Garden; and in claiming
that “till evidence is forthcoming to dethrone him, John Jackson is fairly entitled to our homage for some of the finest work in Oxford which the seventeenth century can show, ” Sir Charles appears to have overlooked evidence that is fairly accessible. It may be found in an article entitled “Nicholas Stone’s Work at Oxford, ” which appeared in our columns as far back as September 3rd, 1909, or in Mr. Albert E. Bullock’s monograph on this great craftsman. The excellent testimony of Nicholas Stone’s diary should dispose of any doubt about the responsibility for the gates to the Physic Garden. Stone employed his cousin, Gabriel Staces, as resident agent for his work at Oxford from 1631 to 1633, when Cornbury was being erected for the Earl of Derby, and, later, Staces was supervising work for Stone at Old Somerset House, from designs by Inigo Jones, which included a bronze Neptune cast by Le Sueur; and from Stone’s association with Inigo Jones and Archbishop Laud and his repeated employment of Le Sueur for bronze work, one may strongly infer that he was concerned with the work at St. John’s. Certainly his work is, or was, to be found in most of the big houses built at that day, and monuments by him are in Westminster Abbey and many of the chief parish churches.
In regard to St. Mary’s Porch in the High, erected in 1637 at a cost of £230 for Dr. Owen, Chaplain to Archbishop Laud, Nicholas Stone, master mason to King Charles I., was appointed, according to Rymer’s “Foedera, ” on April 21, 1626, “for all our Build
ings and Reparations, ” in the room of William Suthers, being paid quarterly at the rate of twelve pence per diem at the “Feasts of Nativitie, of St. John Baptist, St. Michael the Archangel, the Birth of Our Lord God, and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ” The wording of this patent seems conclusive.
Sir Charles Mallet’s articles have had the effect of drawing Mr. D. S. MacColl into a pointed denunciation of the evils that the “Gothic Revival” is work
ing in Oxford, in the course of which the eminent art critic twits Sir Charles for not drawing a moral and the Vice-Chancellor for overlooking, in his recent complaint of encroaching commercial building, the sinners nearer home. “Is it not time, ’’ he asks, “that the Gothic Revival should be suppressed for the pestilent nuisance that it is before it has devoured what little remains of the lovely architecture of old Oxford, shops, houses, and ruins. College after college displaces these and pushes out to the front the