DOUGLAS AND FORDHAM,
Architects.
14. SOME PARK ROAD HOUSES.
15. COTTAGES IN NEW CHESTER ROAD.
W. OWEN, Architect.
Another thing which will be noticed in the illustrations is the elevation of many of the houses above the level of the roadway. This gives a much wider and pleasanter outlook from the windows of the cottages, besides producing a much better effect in the buildings from the roadway than when they are placed on the same level. The sloping green banks leading up to terraced paths in front of the cottages are a distinctive feature of the village. (See Pl. [4].)
It has been maintained that without a good deal of monotony you cannot get very fine architectural results, and it must be admitted that many examples go to prove it. There is a large surface of monotony in the Pyramids; there is a marvellous monotony of detail in the Houses of Parliament; there is a boundless monotony in the house fronts in Gower Street, yet all these have been admired. So this line of argument might have suggested the continued employment of only one architect, or at least only one type of design, for the cottages at Port Sunlight. The great variety of designs in the cottages, which has proved one of the attractions of the place, has, however, in some sense at least, justified itself. Even the flamboyant Gothic dormers and the stepped Belgian gables have a reacting influence on some of their neighbours, though we might consider the latter rather unpractical on the one hand, or the former too pretentious on the other. Moreover, whilst we wonder at the generosity of view which could bestow some of these solid oak-framed structures with their wealth of carving and enriched plaster panellings on the working classes of an industrial village, we cannot but feel grateful to the hand that gave them, though we ourselves may never be able to afford such luxuries of the building art for ourselves. May we not accept these as symbols of some kindly gratitude with which a profitable company decorates the homes of its industrial population? Honestly, we cannot regret these bonnes bouches in the building scheme, though they bravely put out of sight the counting-house and the rates of interest! These are really very welcome ebullitions from that solid undercurrent of practical economy which has placed the whole concern on a sound business footing.
16. GROUP AT ANGLE OF LOWER ROAD AND CENTRAL ROAD.
J. L. SIMPSON, Architect.