the river front. The great increase of extent required some device for breaking the monotony and comparative lowness of this long front. He was strongly averse at all times to setting back the wings, or greatly advancing the centre of an architectural front, so as to break its line, when seen in perspective, and interfere with its apparent size. He was reduced therefore to attempt variation in outline, by slightly raising the whole centre, by heightening into towers the masses which flanked it, and by introducing visible roofs and turrets. This last change was one of principle; the “castellated” form necessarily disappeared at once, the parapet became subordinate, the turrets, originally battlemented, now terminated in tops, which, after many trials, and with some reluctance, were made of the ogee form. An upward tendency was given to the whole. The towers of the front remained for some time without visible roofs, and when the roofs were introduced they were so kept down (in deference to the advice of others) in relation to the angle turrets, that some confusion of principle resulted. He regretted afterwards that he had not kept down the pinnacles, and made the roofs boldly predominant. At the same time a change was made as to the buttresses of the whole front. They had no thrust to sustain, they interrupted the cornice and string-courses, and interfered with the panelling. For these reasons Mr. Barry himself disliked them, and, external criticism coinciding with his own feeling, he resolved to change them into turrets, which were free from all these objections, and which would tend at once to elevate and break the sky-line, and by their greater projection to relieve the flatness of the front. These turrets, once introduced, must of course prevail throughout; they made their appearance accordingly in the prominent masses of the wings, and so the change of the whole character of the front was complete.
This alteration may be considered to have been more or less occasioned by the extension of front; other changes were made without any such ground. In the original design the windows of the two principal stories were set in arched recesses, with no string-courses to mark the divisions of the stories, united, as it were, under one head. This was now altered; the internal arrangements were manifested by the complete separation of the two stories; the recesses and the pointed heads of the windows of both stories were abolished, and in the attic story of the centre the continuous arcading was changed into sets of triple openings, so as to harmonize with the three-light windows below. These changes were less generally approved, as tending to give a flatness to the front, which the changes noticed in the preceding paragraph were not sufficient to remove.
The lower story of the whole front was made very solid and plain. It was indeed originally intended to contain a fire-proof range of vaults for the public records. Plainness of design indicated its use; it harmonized also with the principle which he always advocated, that the basement line should be as unadorned as possible, and that richness should increase with elevation; and it seemed to him more than usually necessary in the case of the river front, in order to increase the effect of the embankment, and give the appearance of elevation of site.
Such were the principles which governed the design of the great front, and this design to a considerable extent determined that of the others. The front in New Palace Yard differed chiefly in the adoption of square buttresses, and (as the rooms looking into it were smaller) in the division of the whole building above the basement into three stories instead of two. This division not only suited convenience, but appeared to him more accordant with true principle; and he rather regretted that it could not have been adopted in the river front.[99] The front to Old Palace Yard, with the Victoria tower at one end and Westminster Hall at the other, might have given opportunity for greater variety of design; but the same general character still was made to prevail, only varied by the advancement of alternate bays and by the porch of the Lords’ entrance, which was required for convenience, and which is little else than a portion of the basement advanced.
The great Victoria tower underwent repeated alterations. It had been originally treated with all the solidity of a “keep;” but the reduction on plan was compensated by increase in height, and the whole character of the design was necessarily changed. The entrance had been of moderate dimensions (professedly designed on the model of the Erpingham Gate at Norwich), and the top of the niche-band ranged with the cornice of the building. It was now raised to its present magnificent dimensions; the niches remained; and the upper part of the tower was divided into three large and two smaller stories. The design and arrangement of these cost incalculable trouble before it assumed its present form, divided into three windows, and the upper story rendered the prominent one by the arched and canopied heads of the windows.
As the tower approached completion, he felt some longing for a high pyramidal termination. But circumstances prevented his realizing this idea, and reduced him to the high roof and the great flagstaff. In the tower, however, as it stands, he always felt pride and pleasure, and trusted that it would be the great feature of the building, by which his name would be best known hereafter.[100]
The tower was at first intended to contain such of the public records as were not frequently in use, and was arranged accordingly with two lofty internal stories. Subsequently orders were given to accommodate all the records; not without great inconvenience, but with much ingenuity, accommodation was provided by the insertion of numerous floors and other contrivances. After all, the intention was abandoned by the authorities, and all the trouble and expense were thrown away.