Improvements in Arranging the Plan of Buildings applicable to Government, County, Municipal, and other Public Offices and Courts.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Dec., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 22nd Aug., 1890-Accepted, 4th Oct., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Arranging the Plan of Buildings applicable to
Government, County, Municipal, and other Public Offices and
Courts.
We THOMAS JAMES FLOCKTON, and EDWARD MITCHEL GIBBS, both of 15 Saint
James Row Sheffield, in the County of York, Architects and Surveyors, do hereby
déclare the nature of our invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGING THE PLAN
OF BUILDINGS APPLICABLE TO GOVERNMENT, COUNTY, MUNICIPAL AND
PUBLIC OFFICES AND COURTS," to be as follows:-
OTHER
The plan universally adopted in buildings of this class is the ranging of rooms on
one or both sides of a passage or hall common to the public and all the depart-
ments. Where there are a number of offices or other rooms in one department,
these, if placed along one side only of the passage, are necessarily so extended as to
be very inconvenient for inter-communication and control; the occupants of the
rooms at one end of the range, if they wish to consult with or give orders to the
occupants of the rooms at the other end of the range, must either pass through each
room between them, in which case there is liability to disturbance of the occupants
of the intermediate rooms, or they must pass down the public passage or hall, where
they are liable to meet with the public and be prevented speedily attending to their
business. The control by the superior officials of a department in so extended a line
must also be very difficult, and if each room have a door into the public passage not
only is there loss of control over the subordinate officials but the number of doors is
confusing to the public and they may inadvertently or wilfuly annoy the occupants
of the private offices by knocking at the doors or making enquiries.
If to partially obviate the difficulty of the extended line, a large department be
divided by placing a portion of the rooms on each side of the public passage, the
intercommunication is divided, the control is none the less difficult and the intrusion
of the public is as possible and probable as if the rooms were all along one side of the
passage as last described.
.
The plan for which we claim protection is the placing of each department in a
separate wing or compartment of the building, arranging the rooms within it very
much as if each wing or compartment were a separate building with windows upon
three sides of it, and grouping the wings or compartments around a central hall or
passage.
This plan can be restricted to a one story building or repeated on each floor of a
many storied building with a public staircase or hoist in the central hall.
The advantages of this plan are as follows:-
The wings or compartments may be varied in form and having windows in all
outer walls, admit of the rooms of a department being grouped in any plan most
convenient for intercommunication and internal control.
Each wing or compartment need have only one entrance from the central hall,
which opening into or by the general or enquiry offices of the department, the
entrance and exit of subordinate officials can be controlled and the public cannot
intrude upon the privacy of the superior officials without being properly announced.
The plan proposed admits of the reduction of the length of the hall or passage to
a minimum; diminishing the distance of one department from another on the same
floor; and with a central staircase or hoist the plan proposed makes a shorter
means of communication between the several departments on different floors, than
does the plan usually adopted, which when the passages are of any considerable
length require at the least one staircase at each end of the passage or at each corner
of the building.

page_text: .
I
By our improved plan a building with a central hall or passage and staircase with
one door to each department, a much more simple arrangement is obtained than by
long passages with many doors and several staircases; it is easier for the public to
find any department and the officials cannot miss one another in going from one
department to another.
Again our improved plan may require no uncovered quadrangles, courts or
areas, all the windows may face outside the building, a number of rooms may
be arranged with windows upon two sides, others with windows upon three sides
and in every way there can be the maximum of light and air throughout the
building.
Our improved plan likewise occupies less land than the plan usually adopted to the
extent of the omission of the passages, secondary staircases, quadrangles, courts, areas
and is consequently so much the less costly.
Our senior partner (T. J. Flockton) having had nearly fifty years knowledge
of the building operations in this country and having visited at different times
most of the large county and municipal buildings in Great Britain and examined
plans of the same, is able to say that he is not aware of any office building
either public or private having been built on the plan proposed or on any plan
approaching to it. The system of buildings with wings has been applied to hospitals,
workhouses, and lunatic asylums, primarily with the object of getting cross ventila-
tion by windows on two sides of the large wards and secondarily, by placing the length
of the wards north and south of getting sunshine alternately upon each side of the
ward. But the long passages have had to be retained and the wings have been
repetitions of like departments.
Prisons have also been built in wings but with long passages down the centre of
each wing with cells on each side.
Palaces and mansions have also been built in wings attached to a main building,
but mostly with passages down the centre of each wing with rooms on each side.
But all such buildings as hospitals, workhouses, lunatic asylums, prisons, palaces
and mansions are very dissimilar to government, county and municipal buildings
and other public offices and courts in respect to the admittance of the public. In the
former the public have little or no business and are generally admitted only by
special permission; in the latter the public are necessarily admitted in large
numbers to transact business. Our improved plan applies not to the former, but
specially to the latter and is primarily intended to control the public when 'admitted
into the building.
Dated this 5th day of December 1889.
R. HEBER RADFORD,
Agent for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Arranging the Plan of Buildings applicable to
Government, County, Municipal, and other Public Offices and
Courts.
We, THOMAS JAMES FLOCKTON, and EDWARD MITCHEL GIBBS, both of 15 Saint
James Row, Sheffield, in the County of York, Architects and Surveyors, do hereby
declare the nature of our invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGING THE PLAN OF
BUILDINGS APPLICABLE TO GOVERNMENT, COUNTY, MUNICIPAL AND OTHER PUBLIC
OFFICES AND COURTS" and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The plan generally adopted in buildings of this class is the arranging of rooms on
one or both sides of a passage or hall common to the public and all the departments.
Where there are a number of offices or other rooms in one department, these, if
placed along one side only of the public passage or hall, as is the case in the
Manchester Town Hall and the Birmingham Council House, are necessarily so
extended as to be very inconvenient for inter-communication and control; the

page_text: occupants of the rooms at one end of the range, if they wish to consult with or give
orders to the occupants of the rooms at the other end of the range, must either pass
through each room hetween them, in which case there is liability to disturbance of
the occupants of the intermediate rooms, or they must pass down the public passage
or hall, where they are liable to meet with the public and be prevented speedily
attending to their business.
The control by the superior officials of a department in so extended a line must
also be very difficult, and if each room have a door into the public passage or hall
not only is there loss of control over the subordinate officials but the number of doors
is confusing to the public and they may inadvertently or wilfully annoy the occupants.
of the private offices by knocking at the doors or making enquiries.
If to partially obviate the difficulty of the extended line a large department be
divided by placing a portion of the rooms on each side of the public passage or ball
as is the case in the Colonial and Home Offices in London the inter-communication,
is divided, the control is none the less difficult and the intrusion of the public is as
possible and probable as if the rooms were all along one side of the public passage or
hall as last described.
The plan for which we claim novelty is the placing of the rooms of each depart-
ment in a separate wing or compartment of the building arranging the rooms within
it as if each wing or compartment were a separate building with entrance for the
public to each department through or by an inquiry or general office and with no
other entrance for the public to the private offices; and combining the several
departments into one building by grouping the wings or compartments around a
central public hall or passage, through which alone the public can gain admittance to
the inquiry or general offices of the several departments.
This plan can be restricted to a one story building or repeated with some modifica-
tions on each floor of a many storied building with a public staircase or hoist in the
public hall, and each floor may be set apart for one, two, three or more departments.
The central public hall or passage may have as many or few public entrances from
the surrounding streets as the extent of the building and its relation to the neigh-
bourhood may dictate, but every public entrance should be direct to the central.
public hall or passage and lead nowhere else.
The wings or compartments may be varied in form and the rooms of a depart-
ment may be grouped within the wing or compartment in any plan most convenient.
for the special requirements of that department always provided that the entrances to
the private offices are by or through an inquiry or general office.
Each wing or compartment may have an official passage leading from the inquiry
or general office to the private offices, serving also for communication between the
private offices.
Each wing or compartment may have an official entrance from the street to the
official passage or it may have an official entrance from an official staircase leading.
from the street, which staircase would also serve for official communication between
departments above and below each other.
Some of the advantages of this plan are as follows:-
Each wing or compartment baving public entrances only from the central public
hall or passage opening into or by the inquiry or general offices of the department,
the public cannot intrude upon the privacy of the superior officials without being
properly announced and the private offices being away from the central public hall or
passage are more quiet than if they adjoined thereto.
Each wing or compartment being complete in itself the management by the heads
of the department can be more perfect than by the plan generally adopted, both in the
arrangement and supervision of the work and the control of the entrance and exits of
the subordinate officials.
The plan proposed admits of the reduction of the length of the public hall or
passage to a minimum, diminishing the distance of one department from another on
the same floor; and with a central, staircase or hoist the plan proposed makes a shorter
means of communication between the several departments on different floors, tban

page_text: does the plan usually adopted, which when the public passages or hall are of any
considerable length requires at the least one staircase at each end of the public
passage or hall or at each corner of the building.
By our improved plan a building having a central public hall or passage and stair-
case with one entrance to each department, a much more simple arrangement is 5
obtained than by long passages with many doors and several staircases; it is more
easy for the public to find any department and one hall porter can control the whole
of the public entrances to the several departments.
Again by the provision of official staircases the officials of separate departments
may communicate without appearing in public.
Our improved plan likewise may be so carried out as to require no uncovered
quadrangles, courts or areas, all the windows may face outside the building, a number
of rooms may be arranged with windows upon two sides, and in every way there
can be the maximum of light and air throughout the building.
Our improved plan likewise occupies less land than the plan usually adopted to the
extent of the reduction in length of the public passages or hall and the omission of
secondary public staircases, and in most cases by the omission of the quadrangles,
courts, and areas otherwise needed and is consequently so much the less costly.
Our senior partner (T. J. Flockton) having had over fifty years knowledge of the
building operations in this country and having visited at different times many of
the large county and municipal buildings in Great Britain and examined plans of
the same and of others is able to say that he is not aware of any office building
either public or private having been built on the plan herein proposed.
The nearest approach to our improved plan is that adopted at the Glasgow
Municipal Buildings (the latest erected of the municipal buildings in the United
Kingdom) where several of the departments are detached from other departments on
the ground floor by public carriage drives passing between them, but the public
passages pass through the several departments, and public staircases pass through the
departments on the lower floor to those on the upper floors, nearly all the departments
have rooms on two floors and are connected by the public staircases only, so that none
of the advantages claimed for our improved plan can be claimed for the Glasgow
Municipal Buildings.
The Leeds Municipal Buildings (also recently erected) have a central public hall
and two public staircases. The accountants department on the ground floor is
concentrated but there are five entrances from the public hall into the department
and on the upper floors there is a range of offices each opening out of the public
passage.
The Greenock Municipal Buildings have the collectors offices of the various
departments grouped around a central public hall, but the other offices of the several.
departments are separated from the collectors offices and the only means of communi-
cation is by a public staircase and public passages.
For the Admiralty Offices proposed to be erected in St. James Park, London, the
plan has been determined, after a public competition, in which some of the leading
architects took part, and after a commission of enquiry, appointed by the House of
Commons and as now designed it has a somewhat novel arrangement of double
passages for the public with an area for light and air between them, and whilst giving
the maximum of public passage, rather increases than diminishes the disadvantages of
the older system.
Although our improvements in arranging the plans of buildings are capable of a
great variety of applications and may be considerably varied and modified without
departing from the principle of our invention a description of the same as applied to
two, three and six department buildings will suffice, and in order that our invention
may be better understood we annex hereto three sheets of drawings in which
Sheet 1, Fig: 1, illustrates our improved plan and arrangement as applied to two
departments on the ground floor of a building and Fig. 2, Sheet 1, as applied to two
departments on the upper floor of the same building.
Sheet 2, Fig. 3 illustrates our improved plan and arrangement as applied to three

page_text: W. Waiting place.
We do not restrict ourselves to the detailed arrangement shown on any of the
foregoing drawings for as already explained these arrangements are capable of
variation and modification.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is,
(1) In buildings applicable to government, county, municipal and other public
offices and courts the combination of plans and arrangements by which the rooms of
each department form a separate wing or compartment of the building the rooms
being so placed within it as if each wing or compartment were a separate building
with entrance for the public to each department through or by an inquiry or general
office and with no other entrance for the public to the private offices. The several
departments though separate forming one building by grouping the wings or com-
partments around a central public hall or passage through which alone the public can
gain admittance to the inquiry or general offices of the several departments sub-
stantially as and for the purposes herein described & illustrated on the accompanying
three (3) sheets of drawings.
(2) In buildings applicable to government, county, municipal and other public
offices and courts, the combination of plans and arrangements by which is secured
entire separation of the several departments with complete combination of the several
departments into one building, the entire separation being always obtained by the
public entrance to each department being through or by an inquiry or general office
and the complete combination being obtained by, the public entrances to the several
departments being all from a central public hall or passage substantially as and for
the purposes herein described and illustrated on the accompanying three (3) sheets of
drawings.
(3) Improvements in arranging the plan of buildings applicable to government,
county, municipal and other public offices and courts, substantially as and for the
purposes herein described and illustrated on the accompanying three (3) sheets of
drawings.
Dated this 21st day of August 1890.
R. HEBER RADFORD,
Agent for the Applicants.