This was the first alteration which excited discontent and opposition. The nature of that opposition is referred to in the previous chapter; its only effect however was to produce a still further alteration, by the formation of the anteroom behind the throne (the Prince’s chamber) for the convenience of the House of Lords. This involved the curtailment of the Royal gallery, and the insertion of a comparatively small room in the royal approach, and was never entirely satisfactory to the architect.
In the House of Lords no great alteration was made, except in height. In the original design the roof was kept low, in deference to authorities in acoustics; but on more careful inquiry it was found that they differed widely from each other, and the architect not unnaturally thought that certain beauty of proportion need not be sacrificed to a doubtful acoustical advantage. The roof accordingly was raised. It could not be made open, because of the requirements for ventilation; but, in fact, even in Gothic buildings Mr. Barry was disinclined to employ open roofs. For inhabited rooms he preferred a coved or arched ceiling, and believed that, in the abstract, a cove was the best method of connecting a horizontal ceiling with vertical walls.
In the gorgeous decorations of the house not a little was due to the work and the influence of Mr. Pugin, which added a stimulus, hardly needed, to the architect’s own love of enrichment. The carved and metal work, and generally the purely ornamental details, were designed by Mr. Pugin, under Mr. Barry’s direction, and subject to his frequent alterations; the painted windows were not only designed by Mr. Pugin, but carried out under his superintendence, the architect only stipulating for a sufficient amount of white glass to produce the “jewelled effect” he admired in many ancient windows.[98] The unsightly black effect of these windows at night was a great difficulty; a system of external gas-lighting was adopted to remedy it, but it has since been disused. The ceiling was a subject of much consideration; Mr. Barry wished to produce as much as possible the effect of solid gold, the enrichment of colour being purely subsidiary. His notion always was that decoration, if begun, should be thoroughly carried out, and that only by failure in this respect, and by partiality of decoration, was the effect of tawdriness produced.
The House of Lords he considered as not a mere place of business, not even a mere House of Lords at all, but as the chamber in which the sovereign, surrounded by the court, summoned to the royal presence the three estates of the realm. He thought, therefore, that it should partake of royal magnificence, and lavished upon it all the treasures of decoration.
The House of Commons underwent many changes. The accommodation required by the original instructions, and the recommendation accompanying them, that every member should be brought as near to the Speaker as possible, necessitated enormous size and a nearly square form; but, on consultation with the authorities of the House, it was found that they considered the accommodation, both for members and for strangers, as unnecessarily and inconveniently large, and that the preponderance of their opinion was in favour of the old oblong form. On their authority the width and available accommodation of the House were greatly reduced. The difficulty really lay in this, that, whereas some accommodation must be provided for each of the six hundred and fifty-eight members, yet, for business purposes, the House must not be too large for the comparatively small average attendance. The Government seem to have dwelt more on the former consideration, the authorities of the House, who knew its practical working, on the other. The architect inclined to obey the latter, especially as their orders coincided with the claims of architectural proportion. The consequence of this reduction, as has been elsewhere stated, was great disapprobation by the House of Commons, and the consequent alteration of the chamber, fatal to its architectural effect.
On the subject of the acoustic properties of the House it is right to remark that the difficulties were great and peculiar. In rooms where the speaking is to be from one or two quarters only (as in churches, theatres, or law-courts, in legislative assemblies, where the speaker mounts a “tribune,” &c.), the task is comparatively easy, though even here failure is not unusual. But in the Houses of Parliament a speaker must be audible from every part of the House, even when using that conversational tone which our method of Parliamentary speaking tends to foster. To this is to be added the consideration above alluded to of the fluctuating nature of the attendance. The House of Lords must contain the peers themselves, the sovereign and the court at the upper, the deputies of the Commons at the lower end; yet it is attended usually by a few peers who speak quietly across the table. In the House of Commons the variation of members is less, but the greater pressure of business makes its inconvenience more serious. Add to these the undoubted fact, that very few persons, especially in short conversational remarks, take the trouble to speak distinctly, and use proper modulation of the voice, and that in the case of a new building a certain time seems to be needed (which in the House of Commons was certainly not given), to “season” the House, and accustom the speakers to its pitch, and it will be seen that the architect was not without some plea, to oppose to the censure with which he was so freely visited. Theories he found to be discordant, and time was hardly allowed for experience and trial of remedial measures.
Such were the modifications of plan voluntarily made by the architect; others were rendered necessary by circumstances. Some additional residences were introduced, refreshment rooms and offices were re-arranged, provision was necessary to meet the immense extension of the business of Parliamentary Committees, alterations made in order to provide for the whole of the public records, and, above all, changes in plan and elevation were necessitated on every side by the enormous claims, both upon the space and arrangements of the building, made by Dr. Reid for his schemes of ventilation. The central tower was wholly due to these requirements; many other parts of the building were carried up, and many smaller turrets were introduced, to meet the requirements of his system. The spaces under the Houses, intended for the horses and carriages of members, were surrendered to him, and the want of them is severely felt. On the whole it has been already noticed that he absorbed one-third of the cubical contents of the building. All these things involved frequent changes, constant thought and labour, and no slight increase of expenditure.
These alterations of plan were naturally followed by considerable alterations of design; some, in fact, necessitated by them, others dependent on certain changes of idea in the mind of the architect himself, and in the general feeling as to Gothic architecture.
Both these kinds of alteration were manifested in
