London is divided into numerous parishes, each of which has its "ves try-ball," and some of these halls—as, for example, the Oueen Anne one at Kensington—are fine structures.
Educational educational buildings the important additions (Gothic) to Magdalen College, Oxford, completed in ISS5 by Bodley and Garner; the new portion of Gonville and Caius College, Cam bridge (also Gothic), by Alfred Waterhouse; the•Manchester School of Art, a Free Classic structure with round-arched openings except on the end pavilions, where the three square-beaded windows are embraced in a round arch, the tympanum of which is filled with sculpture ; and the "City and Guilds of London Institute for Technical Education," South Kensington,—are worthy of mention. The latter may be called Free Classic, though it differs widely from the style of R. Norman Shaw, who led the way in house-construction. It is a symmetrical structure of brick and terra-cotta, with preponderating horizontal lines, au ample semicir cular-headed entrance, and windows grouped into sets separated by flat pilasters bearing embracing-arches.
The new Examination Schools, Oxford, though pleasing in outline, present a mixture of Renaissance and Late Gothic which is not attractive because it is not well blended. A Renaissance porch and cupola are set upon a façade made up of mullioned windows, buttresses, and pinnacles, and the effect is that of a structure built at two distinct epochs, although some may call the whole " Oueen Anne." Since education has been made compulsory in England, "board schools" have been erected in every large town, analogous to the public schools in the United States, but as a rule much more picturesque in their outline. Cross Hill Board Schools, at Halifax, a Oueen Anne structure, and Walton Lane Board Schools, at Liverpool, may be cited as examples. The latter, though a large and plain brick building, takes advantage of the acute angle formed by its fronts to obtain a well-proportioned clock-turret and a circular bay window.
The Natural History Museum at South Kensington is one of the most notable piles recently erected in London. It will eventually form a quad
rangle, the external buildings of which will be three storeys in height, while the enclosed spaces will be occupied by halls lighted from the roof. One of the façades, the great central hall, and the lower halls right and left of it, are now completed. The style of the structure is that phase of the Romanesque with which the name of the Lombards is associated. The deep portal, with its rows of mouldings, and the round-arched win dows recall the Norman churches of England, but the peculiar mouldings affected by the Normans are not employed, tind the materials—yellow terra-cotta and blue bands—remind one of Italy rather than of England.
The principal front, with its central pavilion and octangular towers, presents a pleasing variety combined with symmetry, and the interior is still more striking. The great hall is lighted from above and surrounded by two galleries, which, with the roof, are carried by clustered columns whose shafts are wrought with varied patterns. At the end of the hall farthest from the entrance the grand staircase rises to the second floor. Access to the third floor is obtained in a novel way: the second bay beyOnd the entrance-gallery is spanned by a structure Ithich recalls the Rialto at Venice—an arch thrown across from side to side to support the staircase from the second to the third storey. There is in the interior generally all air of spaciousness which is absent in most museums. Economy of space has not been aimed at so much as amplitude. The galleries are lofty and well lighted, and the piers and columns are embellished with appro priate and original details. Thus, three twisted snake-heads form a run ning moulding for an arch, climbing monkeys are made to decorate a concave member, and figures of fishes and reptiles diversify the flat surfaces of the piers. The architect is Alfred Waterhouse. Fine though this structure is architecturally, it does not fulfil its purpose so well as sonic more modest structures with smaller halls or with galleries surround ing a central court.