1867, their several productions were exhibited in Lincoln's Inn. The architects had had before them an instruction from the Commission of an admirable character. "The chief point to be kept constantly in view, and to be treated as superseding, as far as they may conflict, all considerations of architectural effect, are the accommodation to be provided and the arrangements to be adopted, and in carrying out this design, the first object should be to provide ample uninterrupted communication and accommodation for those who have legitimate business in the New Courts."

Four sets of examiners were appointed to report on the plans sent in. First, and most important, was a joint committee of barristers and solicitors. Next, the designs were sent to the several heads of departments to be reported on with reference to each department. Thirdly, two gentlemen, Messrs. Shaw and Pownall, were asked to report; and lastly, another was appointed to estimate the cost of carrying into execution the several designs. With these several reports before them, the judges in the competition gave a joint award in favour of Mr. Street and Mr. Barry; and subsequently, in May, 1868, the former gentleman was appointed architect by a Treasury minute. Under the directions of the Commission he was ordered to revise his plan, having regard mainly, and rightly as every barrister and solicitor will think, to the questions of convenience and capacity for the despatch of business. The revised plan, together with its details, was approved in February, 1869.

So far, everything seemed going well. But within two or three months, Mr. Layard, then First Commissioner of Works, made a proposal to erect the new courts on the Embankment. The proposal received the support of the Times and of its able correspondent, Sir Charles Trevelyan. The question was discussed in Parliament and in the press. The Law Amendment Society did its utmost to oppose the change of site. The Incorporated Law Society was in arms. Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn favoured the Carey Street site. For a while public opinion hesitated. A Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed in June, 1869, to consider the question. After sitting for five weeks it reported against the Embankment site. The battle of the sites was at an end and the advocates of Carey Street had triumphed. In truth t was hardly seriously contended that the Embankment site culd compare in point of convenience with the one chosen. ts advocates relied mainly on what is, of course, an important consideration, that a pile of buildings such as those proposed to be erected would have a much finer architectural effect with a noble river frontage than with a frontage between the Strand and Carey Street. Those who favoured Carey Street urged

that not only were the advantages of utility greater, but that even architecturally the higher site was the better.

The next step in the history of the courts arose from the parsimony of the present Government. Mr. Street was ordered to reduce the dimensions and cost of his original plans. His original building was estimated to have cost a million and a half. The reduced building is to be given to the public for three-quarters of a million. Instead of twentyfive courts as originally proposed, eighteen only were to be designed. The whole of the Probate Department, the depository of wills, the Land and Middlesex Registries, together with many other offices, were to be banished from the revised plans. Reduced plans, in accordance with these instructions, were finally approved in the early part of last year, and are now worked out in all their detail. All the features of the original plan, which were approved by the Courts of Justice Commission, are carried out in these reduced plans. These features, which commended themselves to the Commission, are quite sure equally to commend themselves to those members of the profession who care to examine them. Before pointing out what they are, let us endeavour to give our readers a general idea of the whole. The buildings form a continuous block, bounded on the south by the Strand, on the north by Carey Street, on the east by Bell Yard, on the west by Clement's Inn Gardens. The west side is that on which the clearest view will be obtained, from the fact that there will be a space of nearly 400 feet of unoccupied ground. This great block is divided by two quadrangles, running north and south, into three groups of buildings. The great quadrangle is about 250 feet long by 100 broad. Between it and Bell Yard are various offices belonging to the taxing masters, the registrars, masters, &c. The smaller quadrangle is roofed in and constitutes the central hall. It is to be 230 feet long, 48 feet broad, and 80 feet high. It will thus be longer and loftier than Westminster Hall but not quite so broad. Mr. Sharpe, surely one of the ablest authorities on such a question, declares that if this is built as Mr. Street proposes, "London will possess the finest hall of the kind without any exception that has ever been constructed in any country or in any age up to the present time. It is designed after the purest forms of the geometrical period; it has excellent proportions; is of noble size; will be admirably lighted with a double range of lofty, two-light windows, and will be covered with that most elegant of all roofs, modern, classical, or mediæval, the simple quadripartite vaulting of the 13th century.'

Times, January 15, 1871.

Keeping to our determination, however, of putting the useful before the ornamental, let us ask what is the use of such a hall? Mr. Street replies, and the answer is obvious, that such a building with a vaulted roof will be fireproof, will so cut off one portion of the block from another that, in case of fire, the enemy might be prevented from crossing from one portion to the other. No barrister, however, who has frequented Westminster Hall, and knows the various uses which that building serves, can doubt that a central hall will be a great convenience to the hundreds of persons whose duty calls them to the law courts.

Between the central hall and the quadrangle, six courts are placed, and the same number are situated between it and Clement's Inn, the remainder being north and south of the hall.

The general arrangement of these courts is, in one respect, not unlike that of the courts opening out of Westminster Hall. As in the older building, the judges sit facing the hall. At the back of the courts are a series of offices, occupied on the court floor exclusively by the judges, or those in attendance upon them.

With this general rough plan before us, we may now notice some of the special features of the plan which commended themselves to the Commission, and which will be sure of the approval of the profession. In the first place, we may note that there is ample provision made for light. All round the building the streets are or will be made of a good width. The internal areas are spacious. The dimensions of the great quadrangle we have already given. Whether the windows look into this or into the streets, they have all wide, squareheaded windows, put in the best part of the room for light. Most of the office-windows will be at least four feet wide. Instead of being fitted with the wretched diamond panes which are justly the abomination of those whose eyes are wearied with the decorations of architects who would condemn us to the accommodation of an age when the art of glass-making was in its infancy, these windows are to be filled with plate glass, and are to be sash windows. The courts have all sidelights as well as sky-lights, the former looking into court-yards, one of which exists between each pair of courts.

Then, too, the buildings will be quiet. No carriage thoroughfare will be made or allowed through Bell Yard, through the quadrangle, or on the west side of the building, and almost all the offices look into one or other of these streets and places.

The number of rooms and courts would doubtless in so large a group be confusing, but that Mr. Street has provided that the relative position of all the rooms connected with each court shall be similar in every case. Each of these, too, is

easily and directly reached from the court. Those, therefore, who know one of the courts and its adjuncts will know all.

But the feature which in the plans adopted most commends itself to our notice, is the complete way in which the several classes using the courts and offices are separated. The offices, as we have already stated, are divided from the rest of the building by the great quadrangle. The persons using the new courts to be considered apart from those whose business is at these offices, are the judges, the Bar, attorneys, witnesses, jurors, and the general public. For each of these classes of persons a separate mode of access to the courts is provided. The judges will enter on the east, north, and west sides. At the back of the Courts is the judges' corridor. On one side of it are the judges' robing rooms, secretaries' offices, &c.; on the other the entrance to the Bench of each court. This judges' corridor runs entirely round the central hall and the courts surrounding it. No one has access to it but the judges; those who have business to transact with them having secondary approaches by stairs from the attorneys' corridor. The Bar entrances are from the Strand and Carey Street. One Bar room is situated over the archway leading into the great quadrangle from the Strand; another adjoins Carey Street. Robing rooms are in each case placed near. The Bar, too, have a corridor exclusively for their use. If we may call the judges' corridor the outer square, the Bar corridor may be called the inner square. The Bar corridor passes the central hall at each end, and being on the first floor, that is, the floor on which the courts are situated, allows entrance to two noble balconies which are placed at each end of the hall. From this they can look down into the body of the hall which is on the ground floor. The ground slopes from Carey Street to the Strand, making a difference of sixteen feet between the two levels. Hence, while the courts are on the ground floor of Carey Street, they are on the first floor from the Strand. The arrangements for the Bar, which we have carefully examined, are, so far as we can judge from the plans, simply perfect. Barristers will be able to pass from one court to the other without having to come into the central hall, or without liability of being jostled and having their robes torn from their backs by a crowd of idle sightseers. The attorneys, too, have a corridor for their own use. witnesses and jurors enter through the central hall. Ample space is set aside for their accommodation. The officers of court will not require to cross the floor, but will have an entrance below the judge.

The

The general public, that is, the mere spectators, will enter through two staircases placed in the octagonal towers standing one on each side of the entrance to the central hall on the Strand side. These staircases will lead them to a corridor

above that set apart for the Bar, and will give them entrance to the gallery of each court; and there are corresponding entrances in Carey Street.

All the floors are to be fireproof. All the fireplaces are to be supplied with fresh air from the exterior. All the waterclosets, the number of which is ample, and other conveniences, are to have ventilation of an effective character, as well as direct openings to the outside air.

At the east end of the Strand front is a triple Gothic archway leading to Bell Yard, and over this archway rises a tower, with high pitched roof and projecting clock. The tower to the top of the steep roof will be 165 feet in height. The front of the building, westward of this tower, shows five floors, the upper three, above an ornamental string course, being lighted by pointed windows. We then come to the entrance to the quadrangle, which consists of another triple archway, one arch being large enough for carriages and two for foot passengers; on each side of this archway are gables flanked with turrets. The front of the great central hall and chief entrance to the courts is deeply recessed. A richly decorated pointed archway leads by a groined entrance to the central hall. Over this archway is an open corridor, connecting the two sides of the hall, and marking the central feature of the principal entrance. Above this corridor rises the gable end of the high pitched roof of the hall, pierced by a large pointed window, with a rose window above it, and with large turrets rising on each side. A large flêche or turret rises from the centre of the roof of the hall, and on a more distant view forms a natural and striking centre to the very varied sky-line of this part of the building. Beyond this recessed entrance, with its large octagonal staircases, the front wall of the building is pierced as at the other end by pointed windows, some of which are bay windows, and the front ends westward with a small gable and turrets standing over three arches, beneath which runs the street pavement. The building has, of course, three other fronts. Those towards Clement's-inn and Carey Street will, like the Strand front, be of stone, while on the front towards Bell Yard in the great quadrangle, and round to the east end of the Carey Street front, red brick will be used for the walls, with stone windows.

We have thus far endeavoured to give our readers a notice of the general plan of the new courts as proposed by Mr. Street. We honestly confess that when we undertook the task we were prejudiced against it. We had followed

closely the attacks made in the Times, and were inclined to believe that owing either to want of care on the part of the Commission, or to some other cause, Mr. Street in being compelled to cut down his plans by a parsimonious Government, had produced a block of buildings which would scarcely