Surveying the Fabrick – survey work at St Paul’s Cathedral in the 1920s

Abstract

On Christmas Eve 1924, the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral in London were served with a Dangerous Structure Notice, closing the cathedral with immediate effect until the building (mainly the dome and the piers on which it rests) had been taken down and rebuilt safely. This paper outlines the survey work and architectural discussions prior to the Dangerous Structures Notice and the ultimate solution – a retro-fitted form of reinforced concrete. Study of surviving surveying equipment and archives reveals the people and collections behind a mere sentence in the cathedral’s history. Physical evidence of these works can still be seen in the fabric of the building. Mervyn Macartney (architect), Sir Basil Mott (engineer) and Lt Col Crompton Sankey (surveyor and engineer) worked tirelessly towards re-opening the cathedral in June 1930.

Keywords:

• St Paul’s Cathedral
• surveying
• architecture
• 1920–1930
• scientific instruments

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the Collections staff and the staff in the office of the Surveyor of the Fabrick at St Paul's Cathedral, and the librarians and archivists at the Science Museum, Institution of Civil Engineers, and the London Metropolitan Archives.

Notes

1. <https://www.stpauls.co.uk/history-collections/history>, accessed 25 January 2016

2. See for example, J. W. P Campbell, Building St Paul’s (London: Thames and Hudson, 2007) and Derek Keane, Arthur Burns and Andrew Saint, eds, St Paul’s: the Cathedral Church of London 604–2004, (London: Yale UP, 2004).

3. These can be consulted on-line at <https://www.stpauls.co.uk/history-collections/the-collections>, accessed 25 January 2016.

4. The Architectural Archives – henceforth SPCAA – for the building remain in the cathedral, but many of the other administrative documents have been transferred via the Guildhall Library to the London Metropolitan Archives.

5. SPCAA/SP/7/1/1. St Paul’s Commission Correspondence November 1906–1907.

6. Christian Barman, The Danger to St Paul’s (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1925), p. 65.

7. . Macartney Biographical File, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Library. Macartney was editor of the Architectural Review from 1906 to 1920, worked at St Paul’s between 1906 and 1930, and an appreciation of his work appeared in the Architectural Review on 2 November 1932.

8. SPCAA/SP/7/1/2 Minutes of Commission of Enquiry 1907. The Report was issued in September, and noted in the Architectural Review. (London Metropolitan Archives, CF 7).

9. M. J. G. Cattermole and A. F. Wolfe, Horace Darwin’s Shop – A History of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company 1878 – 1968 (Bristol and Boston: Adam Hilger,1987), pp. 64–66. The cathedral archives hold a set of ledgers containing the measurements from these sets of pegs from August 1925 to June 1938.

10. Barman, pp.72– 74.

11. Barman, pp.76–77.

12. Mervyn Macartney, ‘The Reparation of St Paul’s Cathedral,’ Architectural Review 35 (1914) January–June, pp. 71– 73.

13. Mervyn Macartney, ‘Investigations of soil’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries London, 26 (1914) 218. Also in London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), CF7.

14. LMA, CF 16, Macartney Letter Book, p. 128: 16 August 1916.

15. W. Harvey, The Preservation of St Paul’s Cathedral, and Other Famous Buildings (London: The Architectural Press, 1925). The book built on articles Harvey had written for the RIBA Journal and the Builder.

16. Harvey, pp. 5–6.

17. See Campbell, ch. 4 , pp. 26–34.

18. See SPCAA/P/18/4/1–5 Photographs of Plans and Drawings. Photos of Macartney Model, 1926.

19. SPCAA/SP/7/1/11 Interim Report; Harvey, p. 127; LMA CF 7; and The Times, online.

20. SPCAA/SP/7/1/9 – Report on proceedings, 3 November–2 December 1921.

21. SPCAA/SP/7/2/27 R A Piercy ‘s Memorandum and related documents (plus 14 drawings).

22. SPCAA/SP/7/1/12, from copy of second interim report, 29 December 1924.

23. The Times, 1 August 1922, p.10, col. E, issue 43098.

24. SPCAA/SP/7/1/7 St Paul’s 1921 Commission Minute Book. Crompton Sankey (1877–1956) was an interesting character – his father Major Riall Sankey was better known, as a historian of masonry dams in India. Crompton featured in a cartoon by Charles ‛Snaffles’ Johnson Payne in 1912 as the Master of the Aldershot Foot Command Beagles, had been involved in the relief of Kimberley, South Africa, and by 1917 was a brevet Lt Col in the Royal Engineers. He went on to become an instructor at the School of Military Engineers at Chatham, and contributed to papers on mathematics and on military strategy. However, he does not appear to have published at all widely, even about the part he played in this story. He was a career-long member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. It is not clear how he and Basil Mott became acquainted.

25. SPCAA/ SP/ 7 / 1 / 14 Office receipts.

26. SPCAA/AA/11/06 Freeman Fox and partners – The Manual of Measurement.

27. SPCAA/SP/7/5/2 Mervyn Macartney’s Account Book, p. 113.

28. Mervyn Macartney, ‘The Renovation of St Paul’s’, The Architects Journal and Architectural Engineer 57 (1923), January–June, 414–416, 28 February 1923.

29. Author’s note: I have not been able to trace this film.

30. ^<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Post_Office_Railway>, accessed 25 January 2016. The British Postal Museum and Archive has a £22 million project under way, which will include a section of this now-disused railway in the public displays.

31. Searches have been unsuccessful, but its recorded position is now completely covered over, between St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Merrill Lynch.

32. 3 January 1923 letter from W. G. Allan to Post Office – LMA, CF 44 Lever Arch Files 44/2 Commission 1921–1925.

33. LMA CF 44 Lever Arch files Commission 1921–1925, letter 7 February.

34. LMA CF 45 Lever Arch Files 45/1 Accounts and Receipts re fabric, 1920s.

35. The Architects Journal and Architectural Engineer, 58, (1923), 21 November, 761–764.

36. The Builder, 126, (1924) – 18 January, 109–111 on the problems of repair; 1 February, 183, a response to the suggestion of a complete rebuild, and 385 a note on Dove’s lecture. The Architects Journal and Architectural Engineer 59, (1924), 27 February, 367 showed a drawing of the south transept.

37. The Engineer, 139, (1924), 124, and also Harvey ‘St Paul’s Cathedral: Its Structure, Defects and Repair,’ 129–132 in the same volume.

38. LMA, CF 16 Ledger and letter book (Macartney) giving details of expenditure from December 1923 to May 1924, to Sankey and his assistants, and to E. R. Watts and Son – some of the equipment may have been rented to start with, although a theodolite and the precision level are still in the collection. The two field books of observations have not been found.

39. LMA, CF 22 Allen’s Diaries – 2. 1924 Diary.

40. LMA CF 7 2nd Interim Report 29 December 1924.

41. The Times, Pictures: St Paul’s Expert Commission 13 January 1925, p. 16, issue 43858 Col. A; Cartoon: ‛Appeal to the Nation’, 21 January 1925, 18, issue 43865 Col. A (from the then current issue of Punch).

42. Harvey, 1925, p. 40.

43. The Architect, 113 (1925), 19 January, 18.

44. Architects Journal, 61 (1925), 21 January, No.1568; 125–128. On the tension ring see also Harvey, pp.137–141; St Paul’s Cathedral and the Method of Its Repair 2. To Save the Dome (Guildhall Library, FO Pamphlet 5945.).

45. The Architect, (1925) Jan 30, 80; 6 February, 98–99.

46. RIBA Journal 32 (1925), no 7, 7 February, 221–222.

47. RIBA Journal (1925), 24 January: also in Guildhall library, FO Pamphlet 5958.

48. LMA CF 7; also reprinted in full as an appendix to Harvey.

49. The Times, 17 February 1925.

50. The Architect (1925), 20 February 20, p. 141.

51. The Times, (1925), March 14, p. 16 issue 43910 col. A - Pictures: Safeguarding St Paul’s The Dome Barriers.

52. The Builder 128, (1925), January–June, 62.

53. The Builder 128, (1925), January–June, 312.

54. The Builder 128, (1925), January–June, 408.

55. The Builder 128, (1925), January–June, 444.

56. The Builder 128, (1925), January–June, 478.

57. The Architects Journal and Architectural Engineer 61 (1925), January–June.

58. Engineering 8 (1925), January–June,18, p. 232. More poignantly, it also published an obituary for Sankey’s father Major Riall Sankey, who had a reputation for his interests in masonry dams in India, and the development of the steam engine. pp 445–446.

59. LMA, CF22/3 Allen’s Diaries.

60. E. R. Watts and Son, catalogue Q327, 45 – images of Watts Instruments in use – ‘A precise level with parallel glass plate micrometer and one of our 5in standard micrometer tacheometers in use in connection with the investigation into the condition of St Paul’s cathedral, London.’ In the holdings of the Trade Literature Collection of the Science Museum Library. The images do not appear in the next catalogue in the collection, dated 1939, but it is not known if the run of catalogues is complete for these dates.

61. SPCAA/SP/7/2/21 Macartney Notebook, Chapter Meetings, 6 February 1921–4 June 1927.

62. LMA, CF 6 – Works Sub-Committee Minutes 21 Apr 1925 to Dec 1928 Z3 Press 5. The first meeting had a 14-point agenda, but the minutes were not included.

63. SPCAA/SP/7/2/20 – Notes on address by Sankey to the School of Military Engineering, Chatham, 22 August 1928. A copy of the minutes was found inside the folder.

64. SPCAA/SP/7/2/20 St Paul’s Cathedral Preservation Notes of an address delivered by Lieut. Col. Sankey, DSO, to a number of young officers from the School of Military Engineering, Chatham, who visited the Cathedral with Lieut Col GBG Taylor, CBE, RE, on Wednesday August 22, 1928.

65. SPCAA/PA/13 Photograph album, 1. Restoration staff entering cathedral, re-opening service 25 June 1930.

66. Robert Potter, ‘The Monitoring of Crack Movement with Electronic Equipment at St Paul’s Cathedral, London,’ Momentum 25 (1982), No.3, 215–227 (my thanks to Librarian Jo Wisdom for bringing this to my attention).