Extension of the New Palace at Westminster.—But of all designs in this quarter of the town the one which he had most at heart, and to which he returned again and again, was the extension of his great building on the land side. Such an extension was (as has been shown) contemplated in his very first design; and, almost up to the time of his death, he continued to urge it on the Government.
The extension was certainly contemplated by him mainly as an architectural improvement. In 1853 he wrote as follows:—“By means of these additional buildings the irregular, disjointed, and incongruous character of the present building on the land side would be removed, a degree of unity given to it on that side, in harmony with that already obtained on the river front; and the principal entrance to the palace would then become a marked and important feature of the building.”
But it was also intended to meet an absolute necessity. The requirements of public business have greatly increased within the last twenty years. The Government are at this moment renting house property, for the accommodation of public offices and Royal Commissions, and for other purposes, at an annual cost exceeding 37,000l.[114] The houses in Bridge Street are now removed: the Law Courts are speedily to follow them. The Government are therefore now, as he foresaw that they would be, in possession of a valuable site. The question with him was, whether it should be made use of to meet the official requirements by supplying the accommodation wanted close at hand, with great convenience and economy to the public, or whether it should be left open, and so far useless, while these requirements were still met insufficiently and inconveniently elsewhere.
To the latter course Sir Charles was strongly opposed. There could be nothing to recommend it, except the notion that it would give a better architectural effect (for there is already open space close at hand, fully sufficient for sanitary requirements). But this notion appeared to him utterly erroneous. By leaving New Palace Yard open, or enclosing it only by a railing, the buildings surrounding it (Westminster Hall and the rest) are viewed from the higher ground of Bridge Street, and appear actually sunk, while the area itself, having a considerable diagonal fall across the open space, is singularly unfortunate in its effect. By pulling down the Law Courts, and opening the whole side of Westminster Hall, he conceived that a still worse effect would be produced; for the scale and parts of the Hall are so large, that it must be utterly incongruous with the buildings round it. He conceived therefore that this proposal to leave the space unoccupied would be detrimental architecturally, while in an economic and practical point of view it would be an unwarrantable waste.
Accordingly his proposal[115] was to erect a line of building, occupying the site of the Law Courts and the western and northern sides of New Palace Yard, giving ample and even liberal accommodation for all public needs. New Palace Yard was to be entered on its west side by a grand gate-tower, or triple archway flanked by towers, leading by a gentle and uniform slope (about 1 in 50) to the present entrances, which, having been always intended as archways for an interior court, have not sufficient dignity or importance for the chief public entrances to the building. On the south side, Westminster Hall would form a grand centre with a range of buildings on each side of it; and on the north side, if a high range of buildings were thought objectionable, a cloister with one story above it, or an open arcade, might mask the building from the high ground of Bridge Street. The great entrance gate-tower he had proposed to call the Albert Tower, in a kind of correspondence with the Victoria Tower, which is the great royal entrance, serving like it to mark the date of the building, and to commemorate the lively interest which the late Prince Consort took in all that concerned its artistic decoration.
Such was the scheme formed by him, and again laid before Lord Palmerston’s Government by his son Edward in 1864. The annexed woodcuts will show its general character. It has now some special interest, because the removal of the Law Courts must soon give the question a practical importance. All that is at present being done is to complete the Clock Tower on its western side, to enclose New Palace Yard by an iron railing, and to construct an arcade or cloister along its eastern side, with a subway at the northern end passing under Bridge Street to the Thames Embankment. There is nothing in all this, which is inconsistent with the subsequent execution of Sir Charles Barry’s designs, either in their original form, or with some modifications of detail. It can hardly be doubted that such execution would have much to recommend it, in regard both of artistic and of practical considerations.
General Scheme of Metropolitan Improvements.—But all these designs were embodied, and, as it were, absorbed, in the great design for Metropolitan Improvements, which he exhibited in 1857, on occasion of the Public Offices’ competition. Into that competition he did not wish to enter. He was indeed retiring from his profession; his constitution had been a good deal shaken; the remuneration controversy, and the attacks made on the New Palace
