The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-18 00:00:00

THE MANCHESTER
_AitT TREASURES

EXHIBITION.

(From the Manchester Guardian )

As the time is now rapidly approaching for the open.
ing of the great Art Treasures Exhibition of the United
Kingdom, the public naturally become desirous to know
something of the proportions and general arrangements
of the building—the huge casket for such vast and
priceless treasures. Without giving an history of its
construction—for that we have done alreadysome months
ago—we propose to put before our readers the principal
facts of interest as regards the building as it stands, and
the uses to Which its various parts are to be appropriated
'during the exhibition.

Tbs:land secured for the building and its approaches
comprises a plot of 174 acres at Old Trafford, a distance
of two miles from the Manchester Royal Exchange. The
land is bounded on the north by the Botanic Gardens,
and on the south by the Manchester South Junction,
Altrincham, and Bowdon Railway ; and it has two ap-
proaches from the Stretford-read, one by the Dun Edin-
road (entered at the toil bar, near the junction of the
Stretf,rd New-road and the Chester•road, which there
converge and 'become the Stretford-road), and the other
by a short street from the Stretford-road, between Oid
Trafford House and Dan Edin. Tue railway, of course,
will be "the great highway" for visitors from a distance,
and even from various parts of Manchester and the'
suburbs. In front of the building drives have been
formed, and flagged footpaths laid, for the accommoda-
tion of the various classes of visitors. The building itself
covers an area of 16,000 square yards, or three acres and
280 square yards.

The building itself is in external form (disregarding
some projecting buildings at each end) a parallelogram
of ab3ut 31 squares of its width ; that is, it is three and
a half times as long as it is broad. The exact dimen-
sions of the square are 656 feet ih length, and 200 feet
in width. But its length is increased by the two pro-
jecting portions of the east façade, flanking the grand
entrance ; and at the other end by the farthest rooms of
the water-colour gallery. Each of these end buildings
adds 24 feet to the entire length of the whole, so that
the extreme length from end wall to end wall is 704
feet. The east facade, in which is the principal entrance,
has been greatly altered since its original design. Ori-
ginally it represented three bold circular-arched roofs,
connected by lower intermediate buildings, with ridge
roof. The two lateral arches cover the picture galleries ;
the central arch roofs over the 56 feet central aisle of the
great ball, and the two ridge roofs cover the side aisles
of ihe hall. But owing to a line of offices being carved
northward in a line with this facade, and the railway
corridor being also attached to it in a line southward,
the facade is now composed of—palace 200 feet, railway
corridor 150 feet, and offices 96 feet; in all presenting a
front 446 feet in length.
The internal form, so far as it can be seen at once, say
from the centre of the transept, is that of the Latin cross,
so familiar to ns in some of our finest cathedral, but re-
versed as to the cardinal points of the extremities. In
churches the upper end or summit of the cross is always
to the east, and is generally enriched by the great east
window of stained glaQs. In the Art Treasures Palace
the upper end or summit of the cross is the west end,
the'grand entrance being in the great east facade.
The dimensions of the principal divisions of the build-
ing are the following:—

Feet.
Length of great hall . 632
Extreme width of boll lO4
Length of north and south transepts .., 2OO
Width of transepts lO4
... _

Length of each range of picture galleries.. 432
Width of each range of ditto
As to the heights of the various parts of the palace,
they have been previously stated, as from the ground
level ; but we now give them as from the floor, which is
raised considerably above the ground. The centre of
the great hall, from floor to the crown of the roof arch is
564 feet ; that of the transept the same ; the top of the
ridge roof of the roof arch of the picture galleries is 504
feet ; and the coupled columns are 284 feet in height
from the floor.

One fact may be noticed as affording akey to the propor-
tions pervading the construction of the building. Almost
every length and every width above enc►nerated',is some
multiple of 8 feet. Thus the extreme length is 88 times
8 feet ; the extreme breadth 25 times 8 feet ; the length
of the parall-logram of the building 82 times 8 ; that of
the great hall 79 times 8 ; the length of each range of
picture galleries 54 times 8 ; the length of each centre
picture gallery (B and E) 18 times 8 ; of each of the
other four picture galleries 15 times 8. The total width
of the great hall is 13 times 8 ; of its centre 7 times 8 ;
cf its sides 3 times 8 ; of the picture galleries 4 times 8 ;
of the openings thereto 3 tunes 8 ; and so throughout—
ss to corridors, the water-colour galleries, offices, recep-
tion-row, &c, 3 times 8 giving their respective widths.