Unitarian Chapel at Manchester.—In 1837 Mr. Barry designed and erected an Unitarian chapel in Manchester. The scale of the building was small, and the design accordingly simple enough. The only notable point in it is that its chief front is almost occupied by a lofty arch, behind which the great window is recessed. The object was probably to obtain depth, and as much vigour of design as the size admitted. The effect is certainly successful.
Additions to University College, Oxford.—In 1839 he was called upon to carry out some work at Oxford. He added a wing looking on the High Street, and containing only living-rooms, to University College. It was, of course, necessary that this should harmonize with the old building, of which it forms a part. But it is distinguished by the careful attention to refinement of detail, which marks all his works, giving evidence of the study which he thought it worth while to bestow, even on buildings comparatively insignificant in scale. He naturally took a more than usual interest in this work, for it was the only one he ever did in an university town (some designs for Worcester College in 1837 having led to no result), and it stood in a prominent position in the High Street, which he always regarded as in some respects the finest street in Europe.
Hurstpierpoint Church.—At a much later period (1843) he erected a church of considerable scale at Hurstpierpoint, in Sussex, standing in a position of some importance, as being visible both from the high ground of the Devil’s Dyke and the rich plain country which opens out below. The old church was inadequate for the increasing population, enlargement was difficult and expensive, and a new church was resolved upon, the parish granting a comparatively small portion of the sum required, and the landed proprietors, Mr. Borrer and Mr. Campion, and the rector, the Rev. C. H. Borrer (on whose exertions, as usual, the main work depended) guaranteeing the rest.
The first design made was on a scale too magnificent for their means, and in the Perpendicular style. This was perforce put aside, and the church actually erected in the Early Pointed style.
The whole design shows the remarkable progress of church architecture, since the time when his hand was formerly employed in its service. The plan is cruciform, with nave, aisles, transepts and chancel, the latter being thoroughly spacious, and open to the body of the church, though well raised above it. The scale is considerable, for it provides for a thousand people, without galleries. The details and ornaments are simple, but (a point on which he always laid great stress) carried out with consistency and harmony of style throughout the whole design.[58] The materials are all of the best and most durable kind, and there is no instance of false pretension in any quarter. Externally the effect depends, as usual with his buildings, very greatly on beauty of proportion, and here, for the first time, he was able to carry out his predilection for a handsome spire in stone—in this case specially needed, as the church rises out of the level plain, and its spire is a prominent object for twenty miles round. Yet the cost (about 10,000l.) was not so great as that of each of his Islington churches in former days.
The work gave him great pleasure, though it came in the very busiest time of the New Palace at Westminster, and though (as has been said) church architecture was not the work to which his professional life was devoted. With greater care for Gothic detail, with a far more thorough grasp of the principles of the old Gothic architects, he did not, however, lose sight of the fundamental ideas of the Church of England’s Service, and secured the effect of space, openness, and unity, which he conceived to be its paramount requirements.[59]
Canford Manor.—In Gothic, as in Italian, he was called upon to exercise his remarkable power of modification and reconstruction.
Canford Manor, the house of Sir John Guest, was one of the examples of this process.
In 1826 Lord de Mauley, who then owned the house, consulted Mr. Blore as to some necessary alterations, and the house was almost rebuilt from his designs between 1826 and 1836, with the exception of the old kitchen, which is named by tradition after John of Gaunt. Of the old house therefore very little remains. Of Mr. Blore’s building there remain, with many modifications, the dining-room and rooms over it on the east front, and the whole of the south front. The rest is the work of Sir C. Barry, who was consulted in 1848 by Sir John Guest. The plan will show clearly the extent of his operations.[60] Alterations had been already begun, and the removal of the principal staircase, entrance hall,
