DOI Heft:
No. 71 (february 1899)
DOI Artikel:Wood, Esther; Morris, G. L.: The architecture of the Passmore Edwards settlement
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19231#0022
The Passmore Edwards Settlement
enter the well-wooded garden in which the building
stands. Here we come upon the lofty bay-windows
of the drawing-room, and, on the quieter side of
the quadrangle, the austerer precincts of the library
and reading-room. The design of the iron railings
surrounding the basement may here be noticed :
they are formed of single bars placed angle-wise,
and grouped at intervals into fours, which, on
passing through the flat top bar—worked, where
the standards enter, into a diamond shape to
receive them — are bent round, flattened, and
welded together in crossing one another.
One is tempted to regret that the beautiful re-
cessed porch in the west wall is not visible from
the street, forming as it does by far the most
interesting and characteristic approach to the
building. But the architects had, doubtless, some
good reason for reserving the less poetic and more
business-like entrances to front the roadway, and
thus securing for the residents' private door the
further charm of a garden path and an ancient
tree in the foreground. This porch (shown in our
illustration), with its almost monastic, yet wonder-
fully genial shade, its perfect blending of the sense
of hospitality with that of shelter and seclusion, is
one of the most successful parts of the work.
Around and above it the well-lighted windows of
the residential floors are ranged in pleasingly
irregular groups, and the occupants, like a London
poet of unhappier fate, may
"--mark
The plane-tree bud and blow,
Shed her recuperative bark
And spread her shade below."
A donation from Mr. Passmore Edwards has
happily enabled the committee to give their archi-
tects, Messrs. A. Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, a
fairly free hand in the planning and carrying out of
the building. In the actual putting together of
the parts, frank and straightforward methods are
the rule. Even difficulties in construction are
made to contribute pleasing results. This sim-
plicity of manner, this treatment of architecture as
construction made beautiful, is very characteristic
of the building.
The centre of the ground plan is occupied by
the upper part of the gymnasium, which rises from
the basement and extends through two floors in
enter the well-wooded garden in which the building
stands. Here we come upon the lofty bay-windows
of the drawing-room, and, on the quieter side of
the quadrangle, the austerer precincts of the library
and reading-room. The design of the iron railings
surrounding the basement may here be noticed :
they are formed of single bars placed angle-wise,
and grouped at intervals into fours, which, on
passing through the flat top bar—worked, where
the standards enter, into a diamond shape to
receive them — are bent round, flattened, and
welded together in crossing one another.
One is tempted to regret that the beautiful re-
cessed porch in the west wall is not visible from
the street, forming as it does by far the most
interesting and characteristic approach to the
building. But the architects had, doubtless, some
good reason for reserving the less poetic and more
business-like entrances to front the roadway, and
thus securing for the residents' private door the
further charm of a garden path and an ancient
tree in the foreground. This porch (shown in our
illustration), with its almost monastic, yet wonder-
fully genial shade, its perfect blending of the sense
of hospitality with that of shelter and seclusion, is
one of the most successful parts of the work.
Around and above it the well-lighted windows of
the residential floors are ranged in pleasingly
irregular groups, and the occupants, like a London
poet of unhappier fate, may
"--mark
The plane-tree bud and blow,
Shed her recuperative bark
And spread her shade below."
A donation from Mr. Passmore Edwards has
happily enabled the committee to give their archi-
tects, Messrs. A. Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, a
fairly free hand in the planning and carrying out of
the building. In the actual putting together of
the parts, frank and straightforward methods are
the rule. Even difficulties in construction are
made to contribute pleasing results. This sim-
plicity of manner, this treatment of architecture as
construction made beautiful, is very characteristic
of the building.
The centre of the ground plan is occupied by
the upper part of the gymnasium, which rises from
the basement and extends through two floors in