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A regime for public buildings: Experiments in the Office of Works, 1869-75
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Extract
When Gladstone became Prime Minister in December 1868, the Office of Works was at a critical point. ‘The Government had to decide upon the erection of a larger number of important public buildings than had probably ever been raised in any capital at one time.’ The new First Commissioner ofWorks, Austin Henry Layard, determined to rid it of much routine labour in order to free it to function effectively as a ministry of public building. His plans were facilitated by the retirement of Alfred Austin, who as secretary had been permanent head of the department since 1856.
- Type
- Section 1: Royal Works and The Office of Works
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1984
References
Notes
1 Public Record Office [PRO] Work 22/2/18, 6, confidential memorandum by Layard, 4 November 1869.
2 1817-94. See Dictionary of National Biography [DNB].
3 See Port, M. H. ‘A Contrast in Styles at the Office of Works. Layard and Ayrton: Aesthete and Economist’, Historical Journal, 27 (1) (1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 1805-84. Poor Law Commissioner, 1843-54. See Boase, F. M. Modern English Biography, 1 (Truro, 1892).Google Scholar
5 1801-71. Knighted 1870. See DNB.
6 British Library [BL] Add. MS 44417, fols 216-21, Layard to Gladstone, 21 December 1868.
7 1810-89. See Boase, Modern English Biography, 1.
8 Parliamentary Papers [PP] i860 (483) ix, Report of select committee on Miscellaneous Expenditure, q. 1046; 1868-69 (336) xxxiv, Copy ofPapers relating to the recent changes in the Establishment of the Office ofWorks, Report of Treasury committee, 4 March 1869, p. 4.
9 PRO Work 22/3/7, fols SV-6.
10 PRO Work 22/2/18, 6, p. 1.
11 Ibid.; BL Add. MS 44417, fols 216-21, 21 December 1868.
12 1808-86. See DNB\ N. Pevsner, Some Architectural Writers of the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1972), pp. 238-51; M. Craig, ‘James Fergusson’ in Concerning Architecture, ed. J. Summerson.
13 PP 1868-69 (33b) xxxiv, 1, Layard to Treasury, 4January 1869. For Russell see n. 54 below.
14 PP 1868-69 (336) xxxiv, 5, Report ofTreasury committee; 9-10, Treasury to Layard, 18 March 1869.
15 Stephenson, W. H. chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue; Hamilton, G. A. of the Treasury; and Austin, A. former secretary of the Office of Works.Google Scholar
16 PRO Work 22/2/18, printed in PP 1868-69 (336) xxxiv.
17 Port, M. H. Historical Journal, 27 (1) (1984).Google Scholar
18 BL Add. MS 44537, fol. 102, Gladstone to Clarendon, 18 October 1869.
19 Port, Historical Journal, 27(1). For Ayrton (1816-86), see DNB.
20 PRO Work 22/8/9, 15 December 1869.
21 Ibid., 22/2/20, fols 1—15, 11 January 1870, Ayrton to Treasury (draft).
22 Ibid., 2/23, pp. 409 ffi, 11 January 1870- .
23 Ibid.
24 See Port, M. H. ed. The Houses of Parliament (1976), ch. ix.Google Scholar
25 PRO Work 2/33, pp. 409 ff.
26 BL Add. MS 44301, fols 118-19, Lowe to Gladstone, 22january 1870. For Ayrton’s objections to R. E. officers, see PRO Work 1/192, p. 335.
27 PRO Work 6/413, Hunt’s memo of 18 December 1873.
28 Ibid., 2/33, p. 421, I7january 1870.
29 PP [C.54] xii, p. xxiii, Third report of committee appointed to inquire into the arrangements . . . for the conduct of business in the Army Departments.
30 1822-99. For an account of Gabon’s earlier career, see DNB.
31 1801-80. See DNB.
32 See Sheppard, F. H. W. ed. Survey of London, xxxviii, The Museums Area of South Kensington and Westminster (1975), 86-89.Google Scholar
33 BL Add. MS 44538, fol 2, 29 November 1869.
34 PRO Work 2/33, p. 421, I7january 1870.
35 Ibid., p. 438, 21 January 1870. George Vulliamy was architect to the MBW. See Owen, D. The Growth of Victorian London (1982), p. 43.Google Scholar
36 BL Add. MS 44301, fols 118-19, 22january 1870; PRO Work 2/33, p. 443, 22january 1870. Galton and Lowe had spent several weeks together touring North America in 1856, J. Winter, Robert Lowe (Toronto, 1976), pp. 114-15.
37 BL Add. MS 44538 (Gladstone letter-book), p. 105, to Glyn, joint secretary of the Treasury, I5january 1870.
38 Ibid., p. 57, n.d. [20 or 21 January 1870] (abbreviations expanded).
39 PRO Work 22/8/12, fols 10-13, 7 March 1870.
40 Ibid., fols 1-3, 21 February 1870.
41 Ibid., fols 8-9, 4 March 1870.
42 Ibid., fols 10-13, 7 March; 14-15, 22 March 1870.
43 PRO Work 1/91, pp. 245, 293; 1/92, pp. 87-88, 161, 195, 197-200.
44 BL Add. MS 4430, fols 136-37, 23 March 1870. Additions were being made to Marlborough House for the Prince of Wales, and a new refreshment room contrived at Westminster. But Lowe’s reiterated instruction was necessary before Galton was instructed to examine Scott’s Foreign Office design, Ayrton protesting that no advantage could result from Galton ‘who is not an architect. . . attempting to supersede the responsible functions of so skilful an architect as Mr. Scott’. PRO Work 12/96/2, fols 145, 153, 161 (May-June 1870).?
45 BL Add. MS 44440, fols 142-43, 3 October 1873. Galton had to wait till 1887 for his K.C.B.
46 Scottish Record Office [SRO] Blair Adam MS 4/569, 19 September 1873 ‘Private’. For Adam (1823-81), see DNB.
47 SRO Blair Adam MS 4/569, 18 October 1873, Russell to Adam, ‘Private’; PRO Work 6/413, minutes on 4063/73.
48 Cp. BL Add. MS 44348, fol. 219, Adam to Lord Wolverton, 2 February 1873 [sr. 1874].
49 SRO Blair Adam MS 4/569, 18 October 1873.
50 PRO Work 6/413, 4063/73, minute of 1 November 1873.
51 See Hussey, C. Clarence House (1949), pp. 81-86.Google Scholar
52 SRO Blair Adam MS 4/569.
53 He was a Gloucestershire landowner, who married Florence Nightingale’s favourite cousin and left personalty sworn under £90,000 in 1899 (Principal Probate Registry).
54 1830-1911. Grandson of Lord William Russell (d. 1840, brother of the 6th Duke of Bedford); his maternal grandmother was a daughter of the 5 th Duke of Argyll; married 1862 Charlotte Isabella, daughter of the 6th Duke of Roxburghe. Several letters in SRO Blair Adam MS 4/569 are addressed from Floors Castle, the Roxburghe seat. See J. C. Sainty, Office Holders in Modern Britain: I. Treasury Officials 1660-1870 (1972), 148.
55 PRO Work 6/413, memo by Russell.
56 Ibid.
57 SRO Blair Adam MS 4/569, Russell to Adam, ‘Private’, 6 November 1873.
58 PRO Work 6/413, 18 December 1873.
59 SRO Blair Adam MS 4/569, ‘Private’.
60 Ibid., Galton to Adam, 2oJanuary 1874.
61 Ibid., Russell to Adam, 11 February 1874.
62 Ibid.
63 John Percy, frs, 1817-89. See DNB.
64 PRO Work 6/413, 5015/73, 28 January 1874.
65 Ibid., 4 February 1874.
66 Ibid.,‘Paisley Post Office’.
67 Ibid.
68 1821-86. Brother of 6th Duke of Richmond, Lord President 1874-80. See DNB.
69 Monypenny, W. F. and Buckle, G. E. Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1929 edn), 11, 631, 19 February 1874.Google Scholar
70 Freeman-Mitford, A. B. Redesdale, Lord Memories (1915), n, 683.Google Scholar
71 Ibid.
72 PRO Work 22/8/10, Lennox to Treasury, 3oJuly 1874 (draft); 6/413, memo by Lennox.
73 Bodleian, Disraeli Papers C/X/A/3, 12 by kind permission of the National Trust and the Beaconsfield Trustees. (I am grateful to Mr C. Stevens for examining these letters for me.)
74 Ibid., B/XX/Lx/410-14. PRO Work 22/8/10, 29 and 30July 1874; 6/413, Lennox memo; 22/225 Establish ment staff book. Civilian, 2 May 1874, p. 408.
75 Civilian, 16 May 1874, p. 447. See DNB.
76 1837-1916. Created Baron Redesdale 1902. See DNB.
77 Redesdale, Memories, 11, 703.
78 Ibid.
79 PRO Work 6/413, Lennox memo, p. 5, ‘Copy of Treasury Minute’ of 12 May 1874.
80 Ibid. p. 6.
81 Ibid.
82 Ibid., pp. 8-12, Lennox to Treasury, 20January 1875.
83 Ibid., p. 7.
84 Ibid., Lennox to Treasury, 7 December 1874.
85 BL Add. MS 50039, fols 185-86, 14 December 1874.
86 Redesdale, Memories, 11, 703.
87 PRO Work 6/413. The‘Board of Works’ comprised the secretaries of state and the president of the Board of Trade, as well as the First Commissioner.
88 Marquis of Zetland ed. Letters of Disraeli to Lady Bradford and Lady Chesterfield (1929), 1, 202, 23 February 1875. See also Nancy E. Johnson ed. Diary of Gathorne Hardy, later Lord Cranbrook 1866-1892: Political Selections (Oxford, 1980), p. 229.
89 PRO Work 2/45, pp. 293-95. Galton had only 21 years pensionable service, but qualified for the addition of extra years entitling him to a pension of £950 p.a. A further £50 was granted for ‘special services’.
90 PRO Work 6/413, memo of 18 December 1873.
91 Ibid.?
92 PP 1877 (312) xv, Report of select committee on Public Offices, qq, 623-26.
93 Ibid., qq. 757, 641.
94 Ibid., qq. 2158-63.
95 Ibid., qq. 2164-65, 2176, 2225. But it was Galton’s ‘concise and able report’ on Scott’s Home Office design that led to striking out the corner cupolas and the grand staircase, PRO Work 12/96/2, fols 170-71.
96 PP 1877 (312) xv, qq. 2196-2221. His report on government offices and sites was printed as appendix 2.
97 Ibid., qq. 263-74, 611-23.
98 Parris, H. Constitutional Bureaucracy (1969), pp. 159, 138.Google Scholar
99 See Mordaunt Crook, J. and Port, M. H. History of the King’s Works, vi, 1782-1851 (1973), pt 1.Google Scholar
100 PRO Work 22/2/18, no. 6, Layard memo, p. 2.