The life and works of Sir Charles Barry

by Alfred Barry

foundations,[55] the centre being the only new portion of the building. The plan is that of a first-rate Italian villa, and is remarkable for uniting elegance to great convenience of arrangement. For the great charm of Cliefden is its lovely view over the valley of the Thames, and it was absolutely necessary to bear this in mind in the arrangement of all the living-rooms. At the same time it was necessary to provide such access for the servants’ wing as should in some degree mitigate the inconvenience of the old plan of the house, and to arrange the staircase and corridors with due regard to dignity and architectural effect. The solution of the problem may be deemed highly successful, and will have some interest to the professional student.

In the external design Sir Charles adopted (what was unusual with him) an engaged order with unbroken entablature. In regard to the design generally, it may be doubted whether the house is of sufficient size to justify the use of an order of two stories, which, as seen from a distance, gives some impression of a want of breadth in the design. But, bearing in mind the circumstances alluded to above, we may conclude with some probability, that Sir Charles contemplated the enlargement of the design, by carrying up and rendering prominent the low side buildings, containing the dining-room and the private apartments. Such an addition would exemplify a method of treatment of which he was fond, viz., the employment of a central mass with two slightly elevated angles, and would certainly add greatly to the effect of the garden-front.

The house, however, as it stands, may claim attention on its own merits. It was one of his latest Italian buildings, though showing much of the simplicity of his earlier designs.

Trafalgar Square.—Of all Sir C. Barry’s works, the one which is generally considered as least successful was the laying out of Trafalgar Square. On this subject he was consulted by the Government in 1840, and his chief idea in the arrangements, which he suggested, was to improve the effect of the National Gallery.

A plan was already under consideration, which contemplated the raising the whole square to the level of the pavement in front of the new building, and finishing it with a terrace and balustrade towards Cockspur Street. To this he had a strong objection. In common with the world at large, he considered the National Gallery to be already greatly deficient in importance and unworthy of its magnificent site. Such a terrace as was proposed, seen in the foreground on approaching from Whitehall, would throw it back into utter insignificance. He advised, therefore, that the level of the square should be kept down to that of Cockspur Street, instead of being raised to that of the base of the building, and the terrace thrown back so as to make it appear a part of the building, thus increasing instead of diminishing its height. This plan was adopted, but greatly injured by the erection of the Nelson Column, against which Mr. Barry protested in vain. Not only did it cut up the building, but it interfered with a grand flight of steps, which he contemplated in the centre of his terrace, of the width of the whole portico of the gallery, and appearing from a distance to be a part of it. Its own design would be no compensation: for to the use of columns, as pedestals for statues, he objected on principle. He would have had the Nelson and Wellington Monuments (treated in a different style as grand designs in sculpture) placed on either side in the position of the present fountains. When this proved to be impossible, he introduced the fountains as a last resource. He intended them to be far larger; he wished them, indeed, to be of the scale of the grand fountains in front of St. Peter’s at Rome; but for this funds were not forthcoming, and an unexpected difficulty was found in obtaining a full supply of water. But, though fully aware that they were too small, he never felt the justice of the severe criticism which has been so unsparingly lavished upon them. For in this case, as in others, the architect’s work is criticized in ignorance of the limitations imposed upon it by necessity, and the interferences from without to which it has been subjected.

Besides these buildings, for which he was entirely responsible, there were several instances in which he gave general designs to be carried out by others; for, as his own time was more and more occupied, superintendence became difficult. But he never much liked this; in the buildings which he actually erected he was as fastidious in regard to details, as he was careful in studying the great lines of the design; imperfection in detail was to him as a discord at all times, but doubly painful when it seemed to mar an idea originally his own, and he could hardly rest till it was removed.

Thus in 1847 and 1848 he made some extensive designs for the Government, to be carried out at Keyham Factory. They were intended to give some architectural character to the buildings, planned by the Government engineers for the execution of work for the steam fleet. These included foundries, smithies, turning-shops, &c., buildings necessarily of great extent and inconsiderable height. The designs made were Italian—simple, of course, but effective in character. They deserve notice not so much in themselves, but as being the only example of his treatment of a class of buildings, which it has been common to despair of artistically, and to surrender to the domain of plain and even ugly utilitarianism. In the same year he modified the design for the Ambassador’s palace at Constantinople, to an extent which greatly determined its general effect.

It will be seen from this brief description of Sir C. Barry’s principal Italian works, that, not merely by their number and size, but by their variety of character, and the existence in almost all of some special features of design or construction, they exercised a very powerful influence on the Italian architecture of the country.