THE BRITISH ARCHITECT.
Vol. 1. No. 1] FRIDAY, JANUARY THE 2ND, 1874. Price Sixpence.
INTRODUCTORY.
In editing this Journal we shall give more prominence to facts, data, and principles in connection with actual practice than to theories, opinions, and criticisms upon general topics; and we shall regard the education of the public mind in reference to architectural and kindred operations as a duty on our part of more importance than the training of practitioners.
Our Journal will be definitively local in application and detail, yet thoroughly national in purpose and comprehensiveness. Its contents, from advertisements to editorial contributions, will be systematically indexed, and arranged to save the time and lessen the labour of those to whom it will be addressed.
Its Illustrations will comprise a wide selection of modern works and ancient examples, produced in the best manner by artistic engravers and photo-lithographers. We also propose to avail ourselves of a process for printing photographic pictures with common printers' ink. Admirable as these pictures will be when their manipulation is more fully developed, at the present time their production is attended with difficulties that cannot be exaggerated. While, therefore, we do not shrink from the trouble and anxiety they impose upon us, it should not be forgotten that this is the first Journal in this country to attempt such productions.
The usefulness of this publication to gentlemen of taste, clients, public men, and the building community may be its great merit; the advancement of the aesthetic and constructive Arts in this kingdom will be its higher aim.
It will be free in its own action, and, in another sense, free to those who may desire to co-operate in its common purpose. It will not ignore any meritorious person or work, no matter in what locality such person or work may exist; because the due recognition of the many as well as the few who can contribute to the technical achievements of Architectural work is absolutely necessary in forming a record of our capability as a nation.
There is an entirely unoccupied field open for this Journal; and there are some new methods and duties which it may adopt and perform without hostility in that already occupied by other publications.
The interests and duties of the community, of which the Architect is the centre, are most imperfectly understood in many vital phases. That misunderstanding is often increased by the assumption that one uniform practice prevails in building operations, and that methods which apply to London apply also to Glasgow, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and other great centres of practice. In establishing correct information in regard to such matters this Journal will have the assistance of practitioners residing in all the leading towns of the kingdom.
In taking up the old familiar subjects, it will have to deal with the fact that there is an abundance of real Art-power in this country, on the one hand languishing for want of sympathetic appreciation, and, on the other, luxuriating in the rewards of Fashion, which has been, is, and always will be, the mortal foe of Art.
The prevalent tendencies of Architectural taste will not be complacently endorsed in this Journal. Undoubtedly Architecture is abreast in vigour and popularity with other advancing necessities of this generation. By association with some prevailing forces in society the Gothic
style has been brought to a height of excellence delightful to contemplate, and its Masters may feel pride in the distinction conferred by their works upon this country. But those Masters have followers and admirers who are not satisfied with the success and honour that have been won. These have become partisans, and to a very great extent have so enforced their views that an ignorant prejudice exists against Art that is not Gothic, and styles of equal beauty are sought to be exterminated that it alone may thrive.
Those partisans know very little and recognise less concerning the existence of the multitudinous piles of buildings erected yearly in the busy portions of the more northern districts, which present not only excellent workmanship, but also strong evidence that, taking the whole country into consideration, Architecture is flourishing in many styles, each showing a large amount of vitality, promise, and performance.
In those matters, and others wherefrom they arise, there will be duties for this Journal to perform in common fairness, without regard to styles or localities. The work to command its approbation must exhibit artistic feeling for the style chosen, perfected by artistic training. That cultured power of evolving beauty must be combined with a sense of fitness, and a keen perception of value, secured in proportion to the displayed cost of a fabric.
The observations upon Art and Art-culture made from time to time by astute and learned public men, as well as by contemporary writers, will be reported in these pages as complementary portions of our wide subject.
Painting, except as decorative art, will be somewhat out of our province; Sculpture will not. The latter Art, though unappreciated to a deplorable extent, is by no means at the low standard assigned it in popular estimation. Were it understood, the world would hear more of the leading Sculptors in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other places.
The Decorative Arts, the production of high-class Furniture, and Designing for Manufacturers will necessarily engage our attention. All those Arts, to be permanent, must have an Architectural basis in conception and treatment. That principle has been successfully acted upon hy those who are most widely known among our Art-manufacturers; it has been elucidated in the most diversified manner by several eminent Architects, and may yet give an impetus to our Schools of Art, in whose existing theses the spirit of the Painter sometimes preponderates over the feeling of the Architect.
These remarks may be sufficient to indicate that we shall not overlook the higher professional attainments, nor the professional status which those attainments imply.
In our grasp of the multifarious conditions whereon building operations depend, it will be necessary to report upon local Public Works, the proceedings of "Local Governing Bodies,"—their Engineers and Surveyors,—and to take cognizance of that legislative action against local independence which some Corporations urge has already been carried to an obstructive extent, more especially in the Municipal Corporation (Borough Funds) Act, 1872.
In the important professional and commercial affairs connected with the value, construction, and sale of Building Property, and in reference to materials, markets, prices, and new appliances, this Journal will contain special local and general information.
