BOOK REVIEWS FOURIBTIME AROUND Modern Finishings for Rooms. F W Pocock. London, 1811 (Facsimile Edition). Waterhouse Publications, Barrack Lane, Great Waldham, Chelmsford 1995. Softback. 116pp. A4 size. 86 full size plates. ISBN O 9526910 0 0. £15.00 +£2.20 p&p. Don't be deflected by the title of this facsimile. Originally published in 1811, it enjoyed some commercial success and was reprinted in 1823 and 1837, then disappeared for about a centuryand-a-half before its recent reemergence. William Fuller Pocock, the son of a carpenter trained under Charles Beazley, and was an assistant to Thomas Hardwick before setting up on his own around 1802. As with other aspiring architects of the time, he sought a route to practical commissions through the publication of his designs. In 1807 he published Architectural Designs for Rustic Cottages, Picturesque Dwellings, Villas, followed four years later by Modern Finishings. He also wrote Designs for Churches and Chapels in 1819 and finally Observations on Bond in Brickwork in 1839. Colvin'sBiographical Dictionary of British Architects attributes 32 projects to him, primarily in London or the Home Counties, but he was known to have designed schemes as diverse and far flung as a ballroom in Montreal andachapelinAntigua. His last recorded work was in 1843 and he died in 1849. Where pattern books are concerned, Conservation Officers will be familiar with Batty Langley's influential mid-18th century examples, and by others written to entice patrons with the latest fashions from London. It was hoped that these designs would then be adopted in the provinces. Modern Finishings helps us understand how pattern books continued to be used in the 19th century. Each of the eightysix full page engraved plates is prefaced by a short commentary which usually gives supplementary comments and dimensions not otherwise set out in the plates. For each feature of an interior (Vestibules, Halls, Stair Cases, Dressing Rooms, Boudoirs, Libraries and Drawing Rooms), Pocock devotes between three and eight plates followed by nine plates on Porticos and concludes with nine plates of designs for detached villas. Conservation Officers will appreciate the degree of detail and precision of each plate. It is as if Pocock felt he could leave nothing to chance. He must have felt that the judgement of the craftsman/builder could no longer be relied on in a way that Batty Langley might have done fifty years earlier. Every possible profile moulding was carefully drawn out, often to full or half-scale. Such details would prove most useful today when explaining to today's jobbing builder why only rough approximations of correct historic mouldings are not appropriate. Although Pocock seems to have been particularly interested in the architectural detailing of interiors Modern Finishings includes plans and elevations for five houses slipped in at the back of the book where they seem to have been added as an afterthought, perhaps at the insistence of his publisher to improve sales. Today it is the accurate Michael Pearce ARIBA MRTPI FRSA Chartered Architect and Town Planner Planning, Conservation, and Historic Building Consultant THE LODGE, 52 HOLLOWS CLOSE SALISBURY, WILTSHIRE SP2 8JX TELEPHONE & FAX: 01722 334355 CONTEXT49 detailed interior drawings that are of greatest value and although one or two of the engravings have been reproduced a little dark, we should be grateful for this publication of this useful volume and the enterprise of its publisher. Recommended. Julian K Trevor EXTRAORDINARY IAMINATED HISTORY Architectural Heritage V - Journal of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland. Edinburgh University Press. 1995. Softback. l 36pp. 49 b&w illus. ISBN O 7 486 0706 4. £14.95. In a transcript of her entertaining and thought provoking speech for the Colin McWilliam Memorial Lecture, (included at the back of this book), Candida McWilliam makes the comment that Scottish architecture has "an extraordinarily laminated history". Her comment is very true, and curiously apt for this fifth volume of the AHSS's journals, which seems to cover a vast array of styles, periods and continents, all in 136 pages. Among others, there are articles on the renaissance palace of Stuart kings at Linlithgow, a municipal building project in Georgian Stirling, and a fascinating account of how a Scottish architect, William Hastie, advised Czar. Alexander I on the reconstruction of Moscow following a disastrous fire. Hastie's plans were of the ordered, Georgian variety.but Moscowwasan organicallygrown town laid out on and around seven hills, so acompromise based on asynthesisof traditional and classicalprinciples was reached. TI1ebook is particularly strong on 20tll century architecture, covering subjects such as the commissioning and construction of concrete housing estates in Edinburgh, and the design and construction of a 1930s Scottish county house, Gribloch. The latter was initially designed by Sir Basil Spence, but as he seemed to be too busy working on the Empire Exhibition to devote enough time to the house, an additional architect was employed. This arrangement seemed to give rise to a certain amount of controversy (among the architects at least), but resulted in a classic piece of design, with interiors worked on by a Mr. Pevsner, among others. Another article analyses tl1e design of the 1950s Adam House in Edinburgh (William Kinnimonth), a modem piece of classical design, built for the University in a sensitive location, but rarely appreciated by students, to whom it is more familiar as the examinations hall! Unlike oilier volumes in this series, Architectural Heritage V is not themed, nor does it have a credited editor. The summary on the dust-jacket says that it is a "miscellany of scholarly articles", and that, with the emphasis on 'miscellany' is what it is. Having read tile earlier volumes, the 'laminating' in this book ofone period and style onto another, and back again, seems a little haphazard, and surely does a disservice to all the time and work of those involved in its production. Having said that, it will certainly serve as a useful source of reference for students of a great variety of periods of Scottish architecture! Collette Hall Book Reviews continued on page40 JOHN BYSOUTH Stone Consultant An independent source of advice to architects, surveyors, engineers and property owners based on 40 years experience in the natural stone industry_ 36 years working on many of our finest buildings with the family business J Bysouth Ltd and now as a stone consultant. 90 Selbome Road, Southgate, London N14 7DO Tel/Fax: 0181 882 1554 37
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