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

TILE MANGTEST.HI3 41 T TREASUBES

ExHifirrlON.

(From the Mancke.iter 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 va:t and
priceless treasures. Without giving an history of its
construction—for that we have done already some 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 he appropriated
during the exhibition.
The 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 toll bar, near the junction of the
Stretford 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 Old
Trafford House and Dun Edin. The rail way, 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 ablut 34 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 scpiare are 656 feet in length, and 200 feet
in width. But its length is increased by the two pro-
jecting portions of the east facade, 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 façade, 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,s6 feet central aisle of the
great hall, and the two ridge roofs cover the side a' lee
of the:lA But owing to a line of offic'es being ca
northward' in a line with this facade, an'd the rail Nay
corridor being also aaached 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 us 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 glare. In the Art Treasures Palace
the upper end or surnrn:;; 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 hall lO4
Length of north and south transepts
Width of transepts lO4
Length of each range of picture galleries 432
Width of each range of ditto 4B
As to the heights of the various parts of the palace,
they have bee❑ 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
562 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 a key to the propor-
tions pervading the construction of the building. Almost
every length and every width above enumeratedis some
multiple of 8 feet. Thus the extreme length is 88 times
8 feet ; tha extreme breadth 25 times 8 feet ; the length
of the parall-logram of the building 83 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 (13 and E) 18 times 8 ; of each of the
other four picture galleries 15 times S. The total width
of the great ball is 13 times 8 ; of its centre 7 limes 8 ;
cf its sides 3 times 8 ; of the picture galleries 4 times 8 ;
of the openings thereto 3 times 8 ; and so throughout—
as to corridors, the water-colour galleries, offices, recep-
tion-room, sc, 3 times 8 giving their respective widths.