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The ‘iron problem’ in the 1850s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Stefan Muthesius
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Extract

Many historians have maintained that the true pioneers of the Modern Movement were the engineers of the Crystal Palaces and railway stations. Architects are supposed to have adopted a reactionary position by adhering to masonry structures and persisting with the strict imitation of historical motifs. Recent research in nineteenth-century architectural theory, however, suggests a rather different interpretation. Many architects and architectural writers in the mid-Victorian period were deeply involved with the question of new materials; and they proposed quite a variety of solutions to the ‘iron problem'.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 13 , 1970 , pp. 58 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1970

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References

Notes

1 See recently Schild, E., Zwischen Glaspalast und Palais des Illusions (Berlin, 1967)Google Scholar.

2 Collins, P., Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture (1965), pp. 135–138 Google Scholar.

3 Pugin, A. W. N., An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England (1843), p. 39 Google Scholar.

4 See Hitchcock, H.-R., Early Victorian Architecture in Britain (New Haven, 1954).Google Scholar For M. D. Wyatt's career see Pevsner, N., M. D. Wyatt (Cambridge, 1950).Google Scholar Wyatt's treatment of iron is explained in his articles in the Journal of Design and Manufacture iv (1850-51), pp. 12 Google Scholar, 74; see also Bøe, A., From Gothic Revival to Functional Form(Oslo, 1957), pp. 83–84, Fig. 14Google Scholar.

5 J. Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), Ch.II, par. 9-10.

6 E.g. Ecclesiologist xviii (1857), p. 29 Google Scholar.

7 Ecclesiologist xv (1854), p.258 Google Scholar.

8 See H. W. Acland, The Oxford Museum (1859 & 1893) and Ferriday, P., ‘The Oxford Museum’, Architectural Review cxxxii (1962), pp. 406–416 Google Scholar.

9 F. A. Skidmore's ‘clustered iron shafts supporting the glass roof were soon ‘found inadequate for the weight above’ and had to be replaced by others of ‘stouter proportions’ ( Ecclesiologist xvi, 1858, pp. 243–244 Google Scholar). For details of the museum's design and construction see also Builder xii (1854), pp.388 Google Scholar, 562, 590, 606, 622, 630, 641; xiii (1855), pp.291-292, 318-319; xvi (1858), pp.652, 716, 731; xvii (1859), pp.252-253, 355-356, 401, 408; xvii(1860), pp.398-399; (1862), pp.476; xxiv (1866), p. 337. For these and other references see Eastlake, C. L., A History of the Gothic Revival, ed. Mordaunt Crook, J. (1970), No. 122Google Scholar.

10 Instrumenta Ecclesiastica (2nd series, 1856), pl. 62-72; see also Ecclesiologist xvi (1855), p. 175 Google Scholar and xvii (1856), pp.62,133-134. The existence of these designs has curiously escaped recent research (e.g. Schild, , op. cit., p. 123 Google Scholar).

11 See Hitchcock, H.-R., Early Victorian Architecture, p. 527 Google Scholar.

12 Instrumenta Ecclesiastica, (2nd series, Cambridge, 1851), pl. 19-26Google Scholar.

13 Ecclesiologist xvi (1854), p. 124; xvii (1856), pp.221-222, 349-352Google Scholar.

14 In a letter accompanying the design.

15 Ecclesiologist xvii (1856), p.221 Google Scholar.

16 For earlier comments on the Crystal Palace see Ecclesiologist xii (1851), pp. 269–273 Google Scholar, and Hitchcock, H.-R., Early Victorian Architecture, p. 545 Google Scholar.

17 Scott, G. G., Secular and Domestic Architecture (1858), pp. 111, 221, 224Google Scholar.

18 Scott (op. cit., p.111) commented ‘Mr Butterfield's architecturalizing cast-iron beams… [are]… the only at all successful instance I have seen… of iron beams’ in the Gothic style.

19 Builder xvii (1860), pp.201, 111.

20 E.g. the screen in Hereford Cathedral: ‘metal work is in the ascendant’ ( Builder xx, 1862, p. 329 Google Scholar).

21 RIBA Papers etc. (1865-66), pp. 15-30; in part White's lecture was a reply to G. Aitchison's more objective description of the constructive and decorative use of iron (RIBA Papers etc, 1863-64, pp. 97 et seq.). For White see also Thompson, P., ‘The Writings of W. White’ in Concerning Architecture, essays presented to N. Pevsner, ed. Summerson, Sir John (1968), p. 234 Google Scholar.

22 Nairn, I. & Pevsner, N., Buildings of England, Surrey (1962), p. 282 Google Scholar.

23 Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, xxix (1866), pi. 37-38Google Scholar.

24 Scott, , lectures on Medieval Architecture, ii (1879). ch.xviGoogle Scholar.

25 Scott, , Secular and Domestic Architecture, p. 177 Google Scholar.

26 Harris, Thomas, Examples of Architecture of the Victorian Age i (1862), pl 3, 4Google Scholar.

27 Violet-le-Duc, Entretiens sur l'Architecture ii (1872), p. 74 Google Scholar.

28 ibid, p. 46.

29 Semper, G., Der Stil in den bildenden Kūnsten (2nd ed., Munich, 1878), ii, p. 526 Google Scholar.

30 See Streiter, Richard, Architehonische Zeitfragen (Berlin, 1898), pp. 100–101 Google Scholar.

31 Cf. V. Horta, Maison Tassel, Brussels, 1892; A. Messel, Wertheim store, Berlin, 1896 onwards; O. Schmalz & others, Land und Amtsgericht I, Berlin, 1897 onwards.