Part 12
5. In consequence of the advertisement thus issued, no less than 248 plans and suggestions, many of them the productions of foreign artists, were sent in to the Commissioners. A large number of these were of a very elaborate character, and bore evident marks of considerable application and ability.
6. Soon after the site had been selected, some other important arrangements having also by this time been made, the Commissioners prepared and published a statement (21 February) explanatory of the nature and objects of the Exhibition, which was widely circulated in this country, was forwarded to our consuls abroad and to the foreign consuls in England, and was officially transmitted by the Secretary of State to all Foreign Governments, and to all the Governors of the British Colonies, as well as to India. In this statement it was announced that "Her Majesty had been graciously pleased to grant a site for the purpose (of the Exhibition) on the south side of Hyde Park, lying between the Kensington Drive and the ride commonly called Rotten Row."
7. The site having been thus deliberately chosen and formally announced, all subsequent proceedings connected with the building have been taken with direct reference to it. The plans have been prepared with a view to its peculiarities, and the form of the building and its internal as well as its external arrangements have been determined by them. The amount of space available for the display of articles has been calculated upon the data afforded by the site, and from a calculation of this amount the Commissioners have been able to assign to each foreign country a definite space for the arrangement of its own productions. All the necessary working-drawings and specifications have been prepared with very great labour and at considerable expense, and have now been issued in a form which will insure to the Commissioners the certainty of obtaining, within a few days, _bonâ fide_ tenders for the execution of a design presenting every facility for construction within the time prescribed. The mechanical difficulties have been surmounted, and all the preliminary arrangements, even to the extent of provision for an effective drainage and a sufficient water supply, have been entered into. The whole of these preparations have reference to this particular site only, and are inapplicable or unsuitable to any other.
8. From what has been already stated, it will be seen that the present site was not selected without consideration, and that the proceedings which have been taken with respect to it were not commenced until the Commissioners had good ground for believing that there would be no objection to its occupation. The attention, however, which has lately been directed to the point, has caused them anxiously to reconsider the whole subject, and renders it now necessary for them to enter into somewhat more of detail as to the grounds upon which they have come to the conclusion which they have formed, that this is the only site in or about the Metropolis which is at once suitable and practically available for the purposes of the Exhibition.
9. Of the other sites which have been suggested, the following are the only ones deserving of particular consideration:--
(_a_) The North-eastern portion of Hyde Park. (_b_) The North-western portion of Regent's Park. (_c_) Battersea Park. (_d_) Victoria Park. (_e_) Wormwood Scrubbs.
10. The north-eastern portion of Hyde Park would, in the opinion of many members of the Building Committee, be a very eligible situation; but, as has been already mentioned, an objection was taken to this locality on the part of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, on the ground that the building would interfere with some important thoroughfares in that part of the park, and on account of other considerations of public importance; and the idea was abandoned in consequence.
11. The site suggested in the Regent's Park has been found, since it was visited by the Building Committee, not to be available, as the leases under which the houses in the neighbourhood are held contain a clear and stringent provision that no new building of any kind shall be erected within the limits of the park.
12. With regard to the ground in the neighbourhood of Battersea proposed to be purchased by the Government, and to be converted into a park to be called Battersea Park, the Lords of the Treasury are of course aware that only a small proportion of the whole area has as yet been purchased; and the Commissioners found on inquiry that this proportion consists of numerous small detached pieces, utterly insufficient to accommodate a building of the contemplated size, and separated from each other by intervening plots of ground, many of them in a state of high cultivation, and belonging to a great number of different proprietors, with whom it would be absolutely impossible to effect arrangements within any time which would afford the slightest chance of the Commissioners being put in possession of a site in time to complete their building by the spring of next year. It should be added that the site of this district is very low, a great portion of it being some feet under high-water mark, and that the nature of the soil presents serious objections to its use as a building-ground.
13. Victoria Park is situated in an inconvenient and not very accessible part of the town. It would, moreover, be impossible to erect in it a building of the required size without most seriously interfering with the plantations and ornamental water which have been recently laid out there; thus inflicting on the classes for whose recreation that park has been opened an inconvenience infinitely more serious than could be caused to the frequenters of the very much larger area of Hyde Park by the proposed occupation of a comparatively small portion of it.
14. Lastly, as regards Wormwood Scrubbs, besides that the distance is a very serious objection, the rights of the commoners in that locality would prevent its appropriation; and the Commissioners are advised that it would be impossible to erect the building there without risk, as any single commoner would have it in his power to interrupt the proceedings, and to cause them to be discontinued at any stage of the work, however advanced. Similar objections apply to Wandsworth and some other commons in the neighbourhood of London, which have been occasionally mentioned as possible sites.
14_a_. As regards Primrose Hill and the Isle of Dogs, the want of level space on the former, and the objectionable situation and dampness of the latter, render them so obviously unsuitable as to make any particular observations unnecessary.
15. But even could the objections to any of these sites be removed, or could another and an unobjectionable site be pointed out, the Commissioners feel hound to state, from their experience of the time, thought, and labour necessarily consumed in the investigation, arrangement, and preparation of the great mass of detail requisite to enable them to carry out this extensive work, that they are fully convinced of the impossibility of now adapting their plans to any other site, with any reasonable prospect of being able to complete the work within the time to which they stand pledged in the face of the world; and they could only regard a change of site, particularly if it should involve a change of plan, as tantamount to the postponement of the Exhibition till another year. And the Commissioners cannot shut their eyes to the fact, that a postponement of the Exhibition would, under the circumstances, certainly lead to its entire abandonment.
16. In order to give the Lords of the Treasury some idea of the consequences of an abandonment of this scheme, the Commissioners would in the first place direct their attention to the large amount of money already subscribed towards its completion (which is at present nearly 64,000_l_.), to the number of local committees (now about 240) which have been called into existence throughout the country, to the funds now being raised by subscriptions out of their wages among the working-classes in all parts of the country towards enabling them to visit an Exhibition to which they are anxiously looking forward, and the abandonment of which would be a great disappointment to numbers, and still more to the extensive preparations which are now making for the supply of articles for exhibition. It is within the knowledge of the Commissioners that several individuals in this country have incurred several thousand pounds' expense in such preparations, besides the anxiety which they have occasioned.
17. But the evils which would result from postponement, so far as this country is concerned, are as nothing when compared with those which would arise in the case of foreign nations and the colonies. The plan of the Exhibition has been widely circulated for several months, and the following States have already signified, through their respective Governments, that they have appointed Committees or Commissioners, consisting of the most distinguished individuals in those countries, to co-operate with the Royal Commissioners in this country:--
Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Prussia, Saxony, Austria, Bavaria, Hanover, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Hanse Towns, France, Holland, Belgium, Spain, The United States, Turkey, Sardinia, Venezuela, Switzerland, Nassau, Anhalt, Dessau, &c.
Besides which it may be mentioned that special Commissioners have been sent to this country by France, Russia, and one or two other States; and that in most cases the Governments have undertaken the collection and the transmission to this country, at their own expense, of the articles intended for exhibition, for which, of course, their preparations are now made.
18. In all the countries which have been mentioned active preparations for the Exhibition are now going on, and in some considerable expense is known to have been incurred. The Russian Government has announced that the goods intended for exhibition will be shipped from that country in the autumn of this year, and questions pointing to a similar arrangement have recently been put by the Government of Denmark. The Austrian Government have given notice, that the Great Exhibition which was to have been held at Vienna in the year 1851 has been postponed till the year 1852, in order not to clash with the Exhibition in London. All these circumstances tend to show that the postponement of the Exhibition would be seriously inconvenient to many countries, and would probably occasion considerable and natural irritation at what would appear like national vacillation, besides the certainty of rendering these countries unwilling to run the risk of a second disappointment, and of deterring them from continuing their preparations for a later period.
19. These inconveniences would be felt also by the British Colonies. Committees have been announced as formed in Malta, Ceylon, Nova Scotia, Barbadoes, Guiana, and several of the West India Islands, and it is probable that others have been appointed elsewhere. In India most extensive preparations are being made, and the East India Company have incurred very great expense by their exertions to contribute to the Exhibition.
20. After what has been said, it is unnecessary that the Commissioners should enlarge any further upon the consequences to be apprehended from the postponement which would be occasioned by an alteration of the site of building. They will proceed to offer a few remarks upon some of the objections which have been taken to that at present proposed.
21. An idea appears to prevail in some quarters that the occupation of the Park is intended to be of a permanent, and not, as has been repeatedly announced, of a merely temporary character, and the Commissioners are given to understand that by proposing to construct a building into which a good deal of brickwork is to enter, they have shown an intention at variance with their professions. Upon this point they have to remark, in the first place, that, although the eminent architects and engineers whom they have consulted, and to whom they have uniformly given instructions to prepare plans suitable to a temporary structure, have agreed to recommend the use of brick and other durable materials, they have left it perfectly open to contractors to send in their tenders for the execution of the work in any material or materials whatsoever, and have notified their readiness to entertain such tenders, on the single condition of their being "accompanied by working-drawings and specifications, and fully priced bills of quantities." It is probable that some such tenders will be made, and if made they will be impartially considered; but the Commissioners must protest against the supposition that it is necessarily more judicious to construct a temporary building of perishable than of enduring materials. The first requisite of the building is, that it should be suitable for its purpose, capable of protecting the valuable goods deposited in it from injury of every kind--as, for instance, from the weather, from the effects of the dampness of the soil, from the danger of fire, and so forth, and that it should be strong enough to avert all risk of accidental damage. Its next requisite is, that it should be economical, and in estimating its cost regard must be had not only to the expense of erection, but to the facility of removal and the value of the materials when removed, as a building may easily be conceived to be cheaper which should cost 100,000_l._ to erect, but of which the materials could afterwards be sold for 50,000_l._, than another would be which cost but 80,000_l._ in the first instance, but of which the materials should become so far deteriorated as to produce only 20,000_l._ when taken down. It is the opinion of those who have devised the plans in the present case, that a building constructed of durable materials will in the end be cheaper than one constructed of such as are more perishable; particularly as a considerable portion of the building, namely, the iron roofing, will be of a kind which is generally used in the construction of railway-stations, and will probably be disposed of for that purpose after the close of the Exhibition, as its temporary application to the purposes of the Exhibition will be of no detriment to its being so. An opportunity of testing the correctness of this opinion will be given when the tenders are received, as, in addition to the customary form, it has been required that they should also be sent upon the understanding that the materials shall remain the property of the contractor, and shall in fact only be hired for the purposes of the Exhibition. The third requisite of the building is, that it should be at least seemly, though it may not be necessary that it should be highly ornamental. The Commissioners trust that it will fulfil this condition, while they would at the same time point out that no expense is to be incurred for merely ornamental purposes, unless it should be thought desirable to select a dome for covering in the large space which must necessarily be left in the centre of the building to suit the internal arrangements. A cheaper mode of covering in this space will probably be resorted to, and the Commissioners have directed that a special estimate of the cost of the dome should be laid before them when the tenders are complete, in order that they may judge of the propriety of sanctioning its erection.
Having offered this short explanation, they can only repeat once more the assurances they have already given, that the building is not intended to be permanent, and that it will be entirely removed, in accordance with the conditions prescribed by the Lords of the Treasury on yielding up the site, within seven months after the closing of the Exhibition, which cannot be deferred after the 1st of November, and will probably take place at an earlier period in the autumn of next year.
22. Another ground of apprehension is stated to be, lest the Park should be injured by the erection of the building, and the injury should continue after the structure is removed. This apprehension is, however, groundless; a small clump of ten trees has been allowed to be removed, in compensation for which, it is proposed by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to plant another clump elsewhere. It is not intended to cut down any more than that clump. As regards the surface of the ground to be occupied, it will not only not be injured, but will ultimately be materially improved by being drained and freshly sown with grass seed. It will be a strict condition with the contractors for the building that they shall, on its removal, restore the ground to its present condition.
23. Some dissatisfaction has been expressed at the prospect of a furnace being erected to heat the boiler and drive the steam-apparatus. It is however, intended to construct such furnace on the principle of consuming its own smoke, or to burn coke instead of coal, should that, upon the whole, appear the best mode of preventing annoyance. Care will also be taken not to erect any chimney of an unsightly character.
24. As regards the amount of traffic which will be occasioned by the transport of materials and goods to the site, the Commissioners have been furnished by the Building Committee with an approximate estimate that it will not in the whole exceed the ordinary amount of three weeks' general traffic of a single railway-station, and as this traffic will be spread over a period of more than six months, it is manifest that its amount has been enormously exaggerated by public estimation.
25. The Queen's Ride, though in the immediate vicinity of the site, will not be in any degree interfered with, except that it may be advisable to rail off a strip not exceeding ten feet, or one-sixth of the whole in width, for foot-passengers, in order to prevent the inconvenience of crowding the space open to riding parties. By this arrangement the riders will be secured from annoyance.
25 _a._ It has been said that the effect of the erection of the building will be to drive the inhabitants of London out of their Parks. The Commissioners think it right to draw the attention of the Lords of the Treasury to the following statistics:--
The area of Hyde Park is 387 acres. " Kensington Gardens 290 " " Regent's Park 403 " " St. James's Park 83 " " Green Park 71 " " Victoria Park 160 " " Greenwich Park 174 "
making a total of 1,568 acres, while only twenty acres are proposed to be taken or the purposes of this Exhibition.
26. In conclusion, the Commissioners think it desirable to call attention to the fact, that the three last Exhibitions of this nature which have taken place in Paris have been held on a site (the Champs Elysées) very closely corresponding to our own Hyde Park in many respects, and particularly resembling it in being the most fashionable and the most frequented promenade in Paris--more frequented, indeed, than the particular spot selected on the present occasion has ever been, or is likely to be; and yet it does not appear that the Parisians have had occasion to complain of those annoyances which are now apprehended by some persons in this country. And the Commissioners are informed, that the Exhibition in Vienna was held in the Prado, the principal public place in that city; and that the Exhibition in Berlin was held in the Thiergarten, which is not only the principal public place within the city, but is remarkable as being the only open Park of any sort within several miles.
27. In the foregoing observations the Commissioners have thought it right to confine themselves strictly to a discussion of the practical difficulties which would attend a change of site. They cannot, however, but express their decided opinion, that the renouncement of the selection of the most beautiful park in London for the scene of the Exhibition may be looked upon as indicating a diminution of interest in the undertaking, and would materially detract from that appearance of hospitality on the part of England which has been one great cause for the very favourable reception which this proposal has everywhere secured.
They must add, that the possibility that the bringing the Exhibition into Hyde Park should be considered as an interference with the enjoyment of that Park by the public has never entered their minds. They have, on the contrary, always intended it as a means of recreative and intellectual enjoyment for the greatest portion of her Majesty's subjects: and they have hitherto had reason to believe that it has been so regarded by the country in general.
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REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSIONERS,
PRESENTED TO HER MAJESTY ON THE OPENING OF THE BUILDING.
The following Report, together with her Majesty's Answer, on the occasion of the inauguration of the building, cannot fail to be interesting as a brief record of the proceedings connected with this noble undertaking up to that period:--
"May it please your Majesty,--We, the Commissioners appointed by your Majesty's royal warrant of the 3rd of January, 1850, for the promotion of the Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, and subsequently incorporated by your Majesty's Royal Charter of the 15th of August in the same year, humbly beg leave, on the occasion of your Majesty's auspicious visit at the opening of the Exhibition, to lay before you a brief statement of our proceedings to the present time.
"By virtue of the authority graciously committed to us by your Majesty, we have made diligent inquiry into the matters which your Majesty was pleased to refer to us, namely, into the best mode of introducing the productions of your Majesty's colonies and of foreign countries into this kingdom, the selection of the most suitable site for the Exhibition, the general conduct of the undertaking, and the proper method of determining the nature of the prizes and of securing the most impartial distribution of them.
"In the prosecution of these inquiries, and in the discharge of the duties assigned to us by your Majesty's Royal Charter of Incorporation, we have held constant meetings of our whole body, and have, moreover, referred numerous questions connected with a great variety of subjects to committees, composed partly of our own members and partly of individuals distinguished in the several departments of science and the arts, who have cordially responded to our applications for their assistance at a great sacrifice of their valuable time.
"Among the earliest questions brought before us was the important one as to the terms upon which articles offered for exhibition should be admitted into the building. We considered that it was a main characteristic of the national undertaking in which we were engaged that it should depend wholly upon the voluntary contributions of the people of this country for its success; and we therefore decided, without hesitation, that no charge whatever should be made on the admission of such goods. We considered, also, that the office of selecting the articles to be sent should be intrusted in the first instance to local committees, to be established in every foreign country, and in various districts of your Majesty's dominions; a general power of control being reserved to the Commission.