Religious and Memorial Architecture

With the exception of Westminster cathedral which has already been described all the buildings we have been discussing belong to the Established Church of England. To a certain extent the char acters described—congregational plan, and construction in terms of contemporary labour and most readily available materials—are common to the modern churches of all creeds and sects, but every creed has its particular requirements. Naturally the Roman Cath olic Church puts the emphasis upon its Roman tradition, with a preference for the basilica form, and the somewhat exuberant Baroque of the Brompton oratory, by Herbert A. K. Gribble, finds more sober echoes elsewhere. Beyond dispensing with the chancel the Protestant Free Churches of England do not follow the lead, peculiarly suitable to their requirements, given to them by Wren, but rather surprisingly cling to Gothic, though here and there, as in the Broadway Congregational church, Hammersmith, by Cecil M. Quilter, the plan of the sermon hall is frankly adopted.

Christian Science, however, has followed a bolder policy, and all its churches in England are designed as auditoriums, with a plat form for the "readers" and a screened organ chamber in place of a chancel, and generally a raking floor, as in a theatre. One of the most recent examples, the Eleventh Church of Christ, Nutford place, Bryanston square, by Oswald P. Milne F.R.I.B.A., seems to have arrived at a perfect adjustment between form and re quirement, and is in every respect an admirable building, pro claiming at a glance its purpose and construction as an audi torium with a very wide span of roof, buttressed at each corner by a tower-like bastion or pavilion containing a staircase. The in terior, which will seat goo, is designed to allow complete circula tion of the building without disturbing the congregation.

In memorial architecture the most extensive work in England during the period under review is the memorial to Queen Victoria, in front of Buckingham palace, designed by Sir Aston Webb R.A. Otherwise the memorial architecture of the period resolves itself inevitably into war memorials. Of these by far the most im portant, by reason of its wide appeal, is the cenotaph in Whitehall, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens R.A., the stone of remembrance by the same architect, and the memorial cross by Sir Reginald Blomfield R.A. Modifications and combinations of these three architectural forms have been used as war memorials in several provincial centres.

Many war memorials, however, have taken the form of halls and chapels, either as new structures or as additions to existing buildings. The Scottish national war memorial is a reconstruc tion of part of Edinburgh castle, designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, A.R.A. On the site of an old barrack, and improving the general

outline of the castle from a distance, the memorial is in the form of the letter E, with a heptagonal shrine, containing the memorial casket supported by a marble table, projecting at the back in line with the middle limb, which thus forms a porch allowing a vista into the shrine. The stem of the E forms a gallery of honour, with a bay for each of the 12 Scottish regiments ; and, by means of stained glass, moulded bronze, carved stone and wood, metalwork and painting, the place is made a museum of illustrative symbol ism—not only every type of soldier and the women's services, but even animals and carrier pigeons and the actual arms and materials used in the War being recorded.

Though not on English soil, reference must be made to the several important memorials designed by English architects for war areas in France and Belgium. Three in particular claim at tention : the memorial to the missing at St. Quentin, by Sir Edwin Lutyens R.A. ; the Menin gate memorial to the missing, Ypres, by Sir Reginald Blomfield R.A. ; and the memorial to the missing, Ploegsteert wood, by H. Chalton Bradshaw, A.R.I.B.A. The last is a circular pavilion, the others taking the form of the triumphal arch with the provision of extensive surfaces for the inscription of names by means of vaulted passages.

The British Dominions.

With one exception religious archi tecture in the oversea dominions of the British empire cannot be said to show any very interesting modern developments. The noteworthy exception is Africa, chiefly through the initiative of Sir Herbert Baker A.R.A., whose cathedrals of Cape Town, Pretoria and Salisbury, Rhodesia, and other churches, show a most interesting adaptation to local materials and conditions, working out, at Pretoria and Salisbury, as a spacious Romanesque-Byzan tine type of building, with the exclusion of light except that from comparatively small clerestorey windows. Among works in memorial architecture produced by or for the dominions must be named the "All India" war memorial, Delhi, in the form of a triumphal arch, by Sir Edwin Lutyens R.A. ; the South African war memorial, Delville wood, France, by Sir Herbert Baker A.R.A. ; and the Australian war memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France, by William Lucas. The national war memorial for New Zealand is to take the form of an art gallery and museum, with a campanile and a hall of memories. In the mandatory country of Palestine there is the Jerusalem war cemetery, by Sir John Burnet R.A.