Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S. 29

Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S. 29

A committee, called the Committee of Taste, was accordingly appointed,

in order to design such improvements as were imperatively required in

the neighbourhood of Charing Cross, the Strand, and Holborn and Oxford

Street. This Committee consisted of the late Lord Farnborough, John

Wilson Croker, Sir John Soane, Sir Robert Smirke, Nash, and two or

three others, and certainly no committee ever discharged its duties

better. To its labours we are indebted for Trafalgar Square and the

improvements in the Strand, Cockspur Street, the Haymarket, the old Opera

House, and those between Oxford Street and Holborn, which are really

very good, and the architecture, although not altogether faultless, is

nevertheless, taken as a whole, very effective; in fact, nothing like

these improvements has been effected since. The new street from Waterloo

Bridge to Oxford Street, undertaken soon after, has been a miserable

failure; instead of taking a direct line, they availed themselves as far

as they could of the old miserable intervening streets, so that this

thoroughfare, which ought to have been one of the best in London, is

now one of the worst, and the increase in the value of the property on

each side has been very little. But if this street had been made in a

straight line, and of ample width, the shops and buildings on both sides

would have been of a superior character, and would have yielded far

higher rents, which would have gone a long way towards paying part of the

expenses, if not the whole.

 

About this time Sir F. Trench, who moved in the most fashionable circles

and was a great amateur in architecture and fine arts, was seized and

enraptured with the idea of constructing quays along the banks of

the Thames, between Whitehall and Blackfriars Bridge, and converting

the space so recovered from the shore of the Thames into a handsome

carriage-drive and promenade ornamented with gardens and fountains.

He applied to the late Mr. Philip Wyatt and myself to assist him in

preparing the designs and in obtaining an Act of Parliament to carry

it into effect. At the request of the London Bridge Committee I had

previously, in company with the late Mr. W. Mylne, prepared a general

plan for this object, but it went no farther on account of the difficulty

of raising the funds. Trench, however, overlooked this, and said he had

no doubt that sufficient money would be obtained. He accordingly, with

his great influence and indefatigable activity, formed a committee of

the highest class; neither were the ladies excluded; amongst others,

the beautiful Duchess of Rutland took the greatest interest in the

undertaking, and at the first meeting, which took place at Her Grace’s

house, she was unanimously voted to the chair, and conducted everything

in the most business-like manner. Lord Palmerston, then Secretary for

War, took a leading part, and it is singular that many years later

his Lordship, then Premier, should have proposed a similar measure,

and the continuation of the coal duties for carrying it into effect,

which was adopted; but when we proposed the undertaking and the mode of

raising the funds, notwithstanding our powerful committee, the idea was

considered as chimerical. Trench, however, was so confident that the

means would be found, that he went to considerable expense in preparing

a book ornamented with numerous beautiful engravings showing the effect

which would be produced by the undertaking, to which Wyatt and myself

contributed our share. A solicitor, named Leech, was appointed, notices

for going to Parliament were duly given, and the necessary plans and

estimates were deposited; but when the question as to the means of

raising the funds came before the Managing Committee, everybody was at a

loss. To form a company appeared impossible, as it did not appear that

sufficient revenue would be derived from the undertaking; and as to

raising funds by increasing and extending the coal tax, the Government

was decidedly opposed to it; they said they had done as much in this way

as possible for London Bridge, and that the public would not submit to

any further tax of the kind. Thus, after a considerable deal of useless

trouble and expense, Trench, Wyatt, and myself were obliged to abandon

this great undertaking, which has since been carried into effect nearly

upon the same principles as we recommended.

 

As to the architecture of the approaches to London Bridge, I referred

the subject to my brother-in-law, Cockerell, a very accomplished and

competent authority, and I exhibited his designs to the Committee as well

as some of my own. They, however, considered them to be too ornamental

and costly, although they were as plain and simple as these important

approaches rendered necessary. The Committee, having rejected them,

referred the subject to the late Sir Robert Smirke, then one of the

Crown architects, and he designed the present buildings on both sides

of the bridge, as far as King William Street on the north, and the old

townhall of Southwark on the south; and certainly, with all due respect

to my late friend Sir Robert Smirke, a more unworthy set of buildings was

never designed. Thus not only has a rare opportunity of making handsome

and appropriate buildings to one of the greatest thoroughfares in the

world been lost, but the buildings are so low and badly built, that the

advantages of the ground, which it must have been foreseen were capable

of almost unlimited development as regards rental, have been in a great

measure thrown away.

 

Whilst building London Bridge I had also numerous other works to attend

to, namely, the Admiralty works, the harbours of Ramsgate, Sunderland,

Donaghadee, Port Patrick, Kingstown, and Port Rush, Staines Bridge,

the bridge across the Serpentine in Hyde Park, finishing the Eau Brink

Works, the Nene and Witham outfalls, the Ancholme Drainage, together with

a good deal of miscellaneous business. As the harbours and Admiralty

works are fully described in my book on ‘British and Foreign Harbours,’

I will proceed to the drainage: first, the Eau Brink. I have already

said that the Great Cut was opened in 1821, just at the period of my

father’s death; according to the latest Act, the engineers of drainage

and navigation were obliged to report within twelve months after the

opening of the cut; they were obliged to examine the whole, and report

how far they had been completed, and what further was necessary in order

to render them efficient. Mr. Telford and myself accordingly devoted

several days to this; on examining the Eau Brink Cut we found that it

had been made in exact conformity with Huddart’s design, as specified

by the Act; but, notwithstanding, the upper end was too small, and the

scour there was so great that it threatened to break through the bank

across the upper end of the old channel, and thus revert to its old

course. We therefore recommended that it should be increased one-third

in area, the greatest part of the increase being at the upper end, and

that the money destined in the estimate for clearing away the shoals

in the river between the cut and Denver Sluice should be used for the

purpose of widening the cut, as the bed of the river did not require

clearing. This report took the Commissioners by surprise. They said

they had been deceived, and did not believe that it was required, and

would have the whole subject investigated by other engineers, which was

accordingly done. However, it ended in proving that Mr. Telford and

myself were right, and the enlargement of the Eau Brink Cut was made

under my direction; this had the effect of lowering the low-water mark

at the upper end 2 feet more, making 7 feet altogether. The scour of the

cut was so much more than estimated, that the banks between Denver Sluice

and the cut were in many places undermined, the channel was diverted from

the old quays in Lynn, and several buildings on the opposite shore were

washed down, and as the Eau Brink Commissioners were bound under the Act

to compensate for any damages done to any interest or party, they, the

Commissioners, were compelled to pay for all these damages--50,000_l._

to the bank owners, 28,000_l._, and 700_l._ a year to Lynn Harbour,

10,000_l._ to the Marshland Drainage, and other minor sums. Having

settled this, they obtained an Act to relieve themselves from all further

liability.

 

My father had been employed by the Duke of Bedford, and other great

landowners in the north level of the fens, to consider the best plan of

improving the Nene, so as to render it a good outfall for the drainage of

the extensive low fen lands bordering it, which, on account of their bad

drainage, were frequently subject to floods, and comparatively valueless.

My father wrote a very able report on the subject, and recommended that

the Nene should be deepened, enlarged, and lowered throughout its course

from Peterborough to the sea; that a new channel should be made from a

place called Rummery Mill above, to the Horse-shoe Bend, below Wisbeach

(for the course followed by the river through the town was so crooked

and confined that it could not be sufficiently improved without incurring

great unnecessary expense) and that the navigation to and from the town

should still be preserved by locks connecting the old with the new

channel; and also to make a new outfall for the river from Kinderly’s Cut

to a place called Crab Hole, in the Great Wash, where there was ample

depth of water. He said that the new outfall might be made partly within

the estuary and partly in the marshes without, to Skates Corner, but that

then it would neither be so direct nor so effectual as if made entirely

within the banks of the Nene estuary. Mr. Rennie’s report was approved

of, but the necessary means for carrying it into effect were wanting,

so the matter for the time lay dormant. Subsequently Mr. Telford and

myself were appointed the engineers, and reconsidered the whole matter.

Finding the people of Wisbeach were violently opposed to the main channel

passing by their town, we were obliged to give up this part, as well as

the upper portion of the channel to Peterborough, and confine ourselves

to the improvement of the outfall below Wisbeach, and to commence the

new outfall near the lower end of Kinderly’s Cut. I strongly advocated

my father’s plan of making the new outfall direct to Crab Hole, within

the old banks, but as the first expense would have been a little more,

although far less in the end, as has been proved, it was resolved to make

the new outfall to Skates Corner, partly within, partly without the old

banks.

 

An Act of Parliament was accordingly obtained, and Messrs. Jolliffe

and Banks became the contractors. The works commenced, and the outfall

was opened in 1831. Whilst it was in progress Mr. Telford and myself

frequently visited the works together, and in June we went down the

old estuary of the Nene in a boat at low water, for the purpose of

examining more minutely the state of the channels near Crab Hole and

Skates, where we proposed that the new outfall should enter the estuary.

It was a very stormy day, accompanied by lightning, thunder, rain, and

a strong south-west wind. We got as far as Crab Hole at low water, when

the weather beat us completely, and we were obliged to walk over the

muddy shore half-way up to our knees, and drenched to the skin. We had

sent some refreshment to an old house, called King John’s House, near the

bank, said to have been erected during his reign, and to have afforded

His Majesty shelter after his retreat from Lynn. The rain now came down

heavier than ever, so that we had no alternative but to retrace our

steps back to the dirty old “public” at the Ferry, called Cross Keys,

about 3½ miles distant. We got back, thoroughly soaked, about three in

the afternoon. I immediately stripped and went to bed. Old Telford,

being a strong, hearty man, of about seventy, instead of following my

example, ordered a large fire to be made in the only sitting-room there

was, called for the newspaper, and sat himself down to dry. After two

hours’ nap I was thoroughly refreshed, and went down to the sitting-room.