Chapter 4 of 111838–39

Enormous fire-grates

His first book on building was a polemic, and its title gives the occasion: Hints relative to the Construction of Fire-proof Buildings, occasioned by the late Destruction of the Royal Exchange, London (1839).1 Hints relative to the Construction of Fire-proof Buildings, occasioned by the late Destruction of the Royal Exchange, London, and of other Buildings Public and Private; and on the Failure to produce Sound and Estimable Architecture by the Means at present usually adopted (London: John Williams; and R. and J. E. Taylor, 1839), title page (Google Books I_mGba_lo7AC); dedication dated “Warwick House, Gray’s Inn, July 1838”; noticed in The Spectator, 27 April 1839. The Dictionary of National Biography (1885) and Pace (1942) give the title as “Fireproof Dwellings”, which is wrong; the title page, the Spectator, the Gentleman’s Magazine and the CEAJ all have “Buildings”. Ordinary buildings, he argued, “with their bond-timber, beams, rafters, joists, floorings, and other combustible materials, are in fact like little else than so many enormous fire-grates with wood and coals laid and prepared in them”. Even buildings of Portland or Bath stone “form in fact but lime-kilns”.2 Hints (1839), §2 (p. 6; reprinted in CEAJ vol. II, 1839, p. 190). Medieval builders had learned the lesson and rebuilt their churches “with scarcely any wood in their composition, except in their roofs”. He wanted roofs laid “upon horizontal rafters of iron, without the intervention of any combustible material whatsoever”.3 Hints (1839), §4 (p. 6), and §10 as reprinted in CEAJ vol. II (1839), p. 191.

Title page: Hints relative to the Construction of Fire-proof Buildings, occasioned by the late Destruction of the Royal Exchange, London, and of other Buildings Public and Private; and on the Failure to produce Sound and Estimable Architecture by the Means at present usually adopted. A verse from 1 Corinthians and a woodcut of three weighted balls captioned ‘Con-centration the Principle of all good Architecture’ follow. By Alfred Bartholomew, Architect. London, 1839. — The 1839 tract. Its title says “Buildings”, not the “Dwellings” given by the *Dictionary of National Biography*.A. Bartholomew, *Hints* … (1839), British Library copy digitised by Google

The tract also showed the voice that would make him enemies. Nash was “the wholesale corrupter of the design and structure of our metropolitan edifices, who measured out mortar-skimmings by the mile”. The new front of the College of Surgeons was “a barbarous heap of ill-favoured sand”.4 Hints (1839), §§21, 70 (Nash) and §64 (College of Surgeons; he praised the original portico). “Candidus” later applied the mortar-skimmings phrase to Nash’s Regent’s Park terraces (CEAJ vol. II, 1839, pp. 305, 424); Bartholomew applies it to Nash in general. The Gentleman’s Magazine called it “in reality a very clever tract”. The Spectator regretted “A dogmatical and egotistical tone and a quaint and pompous style”.5 The Gentleman’s Magazine, August 1839, p. 172; The Spectator, 27 April 1839, p. 398 (“drawbacks to the good sense of these hints”). He announced five more books, among them The Philosophy of Pointed Architecture. None is known to have appeared.6 Hints (1839), pp. 29–31. No copy or catalogue record of any of the five has been found, and his obituaries list none of them.

In August 1839 a building for the Finsbury Savings Bank was reported to be “about to be erected … under the direction of Mr. Bartholomew”.7 The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal (CEAJ), vol. II, August 1839, p. 317; CEAJ, vol. III, no. 34, July 1840, p. 217 (“a previous design … with the novelty of an entire fire-proof construction”). He had designed one fire-proof throughout. It was not the one that was built.

Notes

Hints relative to the Construction of Fire-proof Buildings, occasioned by the late Destruction of the Royal Exchange, London, and of other Buildings Public and Private; and on the Failure to produce Sound and Estimable Architecture by the Means at present usually adopted (London: John Williams; and R. and J. E. Taylor, 1839), title page (Google Books I_mGba_lo7AC); dedication dated “Warwick House, Gray’s Inn, July 1838”; noticed in The Spectator, 27 April 1839. The Dictionary of National Biography (1885) and Pace (1942) give the title as “Fireproof Dwellings”, which is wrong; the title page, the Spectator, the Gentleman’s Magazine and the CEAJ all have “Buildings”.
Hints (1839), §2 (p. 6; reprinted in CEAJ vol. II, 1839, p. 190).
Hints (1839), §4 (p. 6), and §10 as reprinted in CEAJ vol. II (1839), p. 191.
Hints (1839), §§21, 70 (Nash) and §64 (College of Surgeons; he praised the original portico). “Candidus” later applied the mortar-skimmings phrase to Nash’s Regent’s Park terraces (CEAJ vol. II, 1839, pp. 305, 424); Bartholomew applies it to Nash in general.
The Gentleman’s Magazine, August 1839, p. 172; The Spectator, 27 April 1839, p. 398 (“drawbacks to the good sense of these hints”).
Hints (1839), pp. 29–31. No copy or catalogue record of any of the five has been found, and his obituaries list none of them.
The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal (CEAJ), vol. II, August 1839, p. 317; CEAJ, vol. III, no. 34, July 1840, p. 217 (“a previous design … with the novelty of an entire fire-proof construction”).