HERBERT S. LEON. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS; 
 
 on 
 
 LONDON 
 
 IN THE 
 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY; 
 
 DISPLAYED IN A 
 
 SERIES OF ENGRAVINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE NEW BUILDINGS, IMPROVEMENTS, &c. 
 BY THE MOST EMINENT ARTISTS, 
 
 FROM 
 
 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS, TAKEN FROM THE OBJECTS THEMSELVES EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK, 
 
 BY MR. THOS. H. SHEPHERD: 
 
 COMPRISING THE PALACES, PARKS, NEW CHURCHES, BRIDGES, STREETS, RIVER SCENERY, PUBLIC OFFICES AND INSTITUTIONS, GENTLEMEN'S SEATS 
 AND MANSIONS, AND EVERY OTHER OBJECT WORTHY OF NOTICE THROUGHOUT THE METROPOLIS AND ITS ENVIRONS, 
 
 WITH 
 
 HISTORICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL, AND CRITICAL ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 By JAMES ELMES, M.R.I.A. Architect, 
 
 Author of the Life of Sir Christopher Wren, Lectures on Architecture, Dictionary of the Fine Arts, &c. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JONES & CO. ACTON PLACE, KINGSLAND ROAD; 
 
 AND SOLD BY SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL, STATIONERS' HALL COURT; 
 AND ALL BOOK AND PRINTSELLERS. 
 
 1827. 
 
 [ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.] 
 
PRINTED BY ]. flAPDON, CA6TLK ETKtfcT, flNSBUHY. 
 
TO THE KING. 
 
 Sire, 
 
 YOUR MAJESTY, in taking a second 
 of my works illustrative of ARCHITECTURE, 
 
iv 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 under your protection, has conferred an honour 
 upon me, as grateful as it is gracious. 
 
 The splendid and useful improvements that have 
 been effected in this Metropolis, under your 
 Majesty's auspices, and which it is the business 
 of this work to describe, will render the name of 
 GEORGE THE FOURTH, as illustrious in the 
 British annals, as that of Augustus in those of 
 Rome. 
 
 The power of England, concentrated by peace, 
 and directed by wise counsels, extends its general 
 influence over a greater portion of the habitable 
 globe, than did ever that of Rome by the demora- 
 lizing influence of the sword. And under the 
 benign reign of your Majesty, we derive more 
 advantages from the liberal cultivation of arts of 
 peace, than did any other people, from the most 
 triumphant consequences of successful war. 
 
 In Rome the few were prodigiously rich, and the 
 mass of the people as wretchedly poor ; in Britain,, 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 V 
 
 the converse of this unhappy condition prevails : 
 and the majority of your Majesty's subjects are 
 in the secure enjoyment of liberty, prosperity and 
 happiness. This state of society arises principally 
 from a due regard for the honours of a noble 
 ancestry ; from active commerce, industrious trade, 
 skilful manufactures, agriculture, arts, science, 
 literature, and those magnificent rewards, which 
 are ever the solace of genius and talents, from a 
 patriotic sovereign and an enlightened people. 
 
 Industry and a daring spirit of commercial en- 
 terpnze, have characterized the British nation, from 
 the time of Tacitus to the present day ; when 
 the influence of our princely merchants, and the 
 spirit of nautical discovery, which signalize your 
 Majesty's reign, have extended the fostering in- 
 fluence of our laws, customs and language, and 
 planted the British standard, from the icy regions 
 of the Polar Seas to the verge of the terra incognita 
 of Australasia. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 That your Majesty's fortunate and happy reign, 
 may be still more fortunate and more happy, by a 
 providential continuance of the blessings of health, 
 and a happy length of days, is the sincere prayer of 
 
 Your Majesty's 
 
 Most obliged and most devoted 
 Subject and Servant, 
 
 London. 
 July 1, 1827. 
 
 JAMES ELMES. 
 
ALPHABETICAL LIST 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ENGRAVINGS, 
 
 WITH A 
 
 REFERENCE TO THE DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECTS. 
 
 Achilles (Statue of), p. 133. 
 Asylum, Orphan, p. 170. 
 
 for Indigent Blind, p. 149. 
 
 Andrew's (St.), Place, p. 80. 
 Auction Mart, p. 159. 
 Albany Cottage, p. 49. 
 Apsley House, p. 160. 
 
 Bank of England, from Bartholomew Lane, 
 p. 128. 
 
 , North and West Front, ib. 
 
 , East Front, ib. 
 
 Brewer's Alms Houses, p. 142. 
 
 Burlington Arcade, p 141. 
 
 Belgrave Square, Pimlico, p. 154. 
 
 Bride's (St.) Avenue, p. 149. 
 
 Bethlehem Hospital, p. 151. 
 
 Buildings, Highfield, Camden Road, p. 161. 
 
 Bridge over the Serpentine, Hyde Park, p. 136. 
 
 Coliseum, Regent's Park, p. 68. 
 
 • , and Part of the Lake, p. 19. 
 
 Clarence Terrace, p. 46. 
 Cornwall Terrace, ib. 
 Cumberland Terrace, p. 23. 
 
 , Centre of, ib. 
 
 Chester Terrace, p. 67. 
 Cambridge Terrace, p. 68. 
 College, Church Missionary, p. 145. 
 
 of Surgeons, p. 146. 
 
 of Physicians, p. 124. 
 
 City Basin, Regent's Canal, p. 157. 
 Charing Cross, Improvements, p. 124. 
 Custom House, New, p. 132. 
 
 from Thames Street, ib. 
 
 Crockford's Club House, p. 140. 
 Corn Exchange, New, p. 146. 
 Caledonian Asylum, p. 156, 
 Covent Garden Market, p. 160. 
 
 East, or Gloucester Gate, Regent's Park, p. 23. 
 Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, p. 157. 
 Entrance, Grand, to Hyde Park, p. 138. 
 to the King's Palace, p. 133. 
 
 Furnival's Inn, p. 138. 
 
 Guildhall, London, p. 152. 
 
 , Westminster, p. 155. 
 
 Greenhough's, Mr., Villa, Regent's Park, p. 30. 
 Grosvenor's, Lord, Gallery, p. 145. 
 Government Mews, p. 139. 
 Gass Works, Regent's Canal, p. 161. 
 
 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, p. 48. 
 
 • Lodge, Ditto, p. 50. 
 
 Highbury College, p. 145. 
 Holme, The, Regent's Park, p. 27. 
 Hertford's, Marquess of, Villa, p. 51. 
 Haberdasher's Alms Houses, p. 143. 
 Harmonic Institution, p. 102. 
 Hammersmith Suspension Bridge, p. 147. 
 Hall, New, Christ's Hospital, p. 140. 
 
 Islington Tunnel, p. 157. 
 
 Island on the Lake, Regent's Park, p. 19. 
 
 King's Entrance to the House of Lords, p. 153. 
 Katherine's (St.) Hospital, p. 59. 
 
 London, General View of, p. 1. 
 
 ■ Bridge, New, p. 147. 
 
 — University, p. 125. 
 
 ■ Institution, p. 126. 
 
 Orphan Asylum, Clapton, p. 170. 
 
 ■ Ophthalmic Infirmary, p. 149. 
 
 ■ Horse and Carriage Repository, p. 142. 
 
 , Another View, ib. 
 
 Lodge, New; Hyde Park, p. 137. 
 Limehouse Dock, p. 157. 
 Langham Place, p. 94. 
 Licenced Victuallers' School, p. 157. 
 Library, New, Temple, p. 162. 
 
 Macclesfield Bridge, p. 58. 
 Maberly's, Mr., Villa, p. 24. 
 Milbank Penitentiary, p. 150. 
 
 Opera House, Haymarket, p. 148. 
 
U LIST OF EN 
 
 Opening, New, to St. Martin's Church, p. 123. 
 
 Paul's, St., School, p. 126. 
 Post Office, New, p. 158. 
 Park Village East, p. 20. 
 
 , Second View, ib. 
 
 Park Crescent, p. 92. 
 
 and Diorama, p. 80. 
 
 Square, p. 88. 
 
 Parliament House, p. 153. 
 
 Pall Mall East, New Buildings, p. 155. 
 
 Royal Exchange, p. 158. 
 Regent's Park, Plan of, p. 19. 
 
 , View in, p. 20. 
 
 , Canal, Entrance, p. 157. 
 
 — — , Junction, p. ib. 
 
 , Villa in, p. 24. 
 
 — , Doric Villa, ib. 
 
 Regent's Quadrant, p. 1 14. 
 
 , and part of Regent Street, 
 
 ib. 
 
 Regent Street, part of East side of, p. 98. 
 
 , Another View of, p. 110. 
 
 , Ditto, p. 114. 
 
 , Buildings in, ib. 
 
 , Ditto, p. 115. 
 
 , from Circus, Piccadilly, p. 99. 
 
 , from Quadrant, ib. 
 
 , part of West side, p. 97. 
 
 — • , Ditto continued, ib. 
 
 Richmond Terrace, p. 137. 
 Russel Institution, p. 132. 
 
 Sussex Place, p. 48. 
 
 South Villa, p. 24. 
 
 Southwark Bridge, p. 127. 
 
 Surry Theatre, p. 134. 
 
 Salter's Hall, p. 152. 
 
 Suffolk Street, Pall Mall East, p. 123. 
 
 Shot Tower, p. 127. 
 
 Treasury, Whitehall, p. 148. 
 Taylor's, Sir Herbert, Residence, p. 65. 
 Temple of the Muses, Finsbury, p. 170. 
 Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, p. 135. 
 , Covent Garden, p. 144. 
 
 Ulster Terrace, p. 79. 
 
 United Service Club House, p. 125. 
 
 Vauxhall Bridge, p. 159. 
 
 Waterloo Bridge, p. 127. 
 Place, p. 121. 
 
 GRAVINGS. 
 
 Wittington's Alms Houses, p. 141. 
 West Gate, Regent's Park, p. 19. 
 
 York House, p. 122. 
 
 Terrace,p. 44. 
 
 Baths, ib. 
 
 Gate, p. 35. 
 
 NEW CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 
 
 All-souls Church, Langham Place, p. 97. 
 Albion Chapel, Moorgate, p. 170. 
 
 Barnabas, St., Church, King Square, p. 162. 
 Belgrave Chapel, Pimlico, p. 153. 
 Catholic Chapel, Moorfields, p. 170. 
 Camden Town New Church, p. 162. 
 
 Finsbury Chapel, p. 163. 
 
 George's, St., Chapel, Regent Street, p. 100. 
 
 Hackney, West, Chapel of Ease, p. 163. 
 Haggerstone New Church, ib. 
 
 John's, St., Hoxton, Church, p. 164. 
 , Holloway, p. 169. 
 
 Luke's, St., Church, Chelsea, p. 164. 
 
 Mary-le-bone Chapel of Ease, Stafford Street, 
 p. 165. 
 
 , John's Wood Road, p. 165. 
 
 Mark's, St., Pentonville, p. 165. 
 
 Mary's, St., Church, Wyndham Place, p. 166. 
 
 Pancras, St., Church, New Road, ib. 
 Philip's, St., Chapel, Regent Street, p. 167. 
 Peter's, St., Church, Pimlico, ib. 
 Paul's, St., Church, Ball's Pond Road, p. 168. 
 
 Regent Square Church, Sidmouth Street, p. 168. 
 
 Somers Town New Church, p. 168. 
 
 Stepney New Church, p. 139. 
 
 Scotch Church, Gray's [nn Road, p. 151. 
 
 Trinity Church, New Road, p. 81. 
 
 , Cloudesley Square, p. 169. 
 
 Temple Church, as restored, p. 131. 
 
 Unitarian Chapel, Finsbury, p. 169. 
 
 Waterloo Road, New Church, p. 169 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 Lo! numerous Domes, a Bcrlington confess, 
 
 For Kings and Senates fit, the Palace see ! 
 
 The Temple breathing a religious awe ; 
 
 E'en fram'd with elegance the plain retreat, 
 
 The Private Dwelling. Certain in his aim, 
 
 Taste never idly working, saves expense. 
 
 Lo ! Stately Streets, lo ! Squares that court the breeze, 
 
 Lo ! rayed from cities o'er the brightened land, 
 
 Connecting sea to sea, the solid Road. 
 
 Lo ! the proud Arch, no vile exactors stand, 
 
 With easy sweep, bestrides the chasing flood. 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 VAST AND INCREASING IMPROVEMENTS — CULTIVATION OF ARCHITECTURE OF 
 NATIONAL IMPORTANCE — ARTS AND ARTISTS PATRONIZED BY THE WISEST 
 
 AND GREATEST MONARCHS EARLIEST IMPROVEMENTS OF LONDON PARISH 
 
 OF MARY-LE-BONE REGENT'S PARK ORIGINAL GRANTS, &C. GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 BOUNDARIES — MR. NASIl's PLAN — VILLAGE OF MARY-LE-BONE — VARIOUS 
 
 EMPLOYMENTS — -NEW CHURCHES, CHAPELS, &C. TOUR OF THE NEW PARK 
 
 ENTRANCE LODGES — TERRACES — VILLAS, &C. — CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Augustus made it one of his proudest boasts, that he found 
 Rome of brick, and left it of marble. The reign and regency 
 of George the Fourth have scarcely done less, for the vast 
 and increasing Metropolis of the British empire : by increasing 
 its magnificence and its comforts ; by forming healthy streets 
 and elegant buildings, instead of pestilential alleys and 
 squalid hovels; by substituting rich and varied architecture 
 
 n 
 
2 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 and park-like scenery, for paltry cabins and monotonous cow- 
 lairs ; by making solid roads and public ways, scarcely inferior 
 to those of ancient Rome, which have connected the extremest 
 points of the empire, and have brought its provinces and sea- 
 ports, many days journey nearer to the Metropolis, instead of 
 the miry roads through which our respected ancestors ploughed 
 their weary ways, from London to Bath, " by the blessing of 
 God, in four days;" and, by beginning, and continuing with 
 a truly national perseverance, a series of desirable improve- 
 ments, that bid fair to render London, the Rome of modern 
 history. 
 
 So rapidly indeed are these improvements taking place around 
 us, that the absence of a few months from London, produces 
 revolutions in sites, and alterations in appearances, that are 
 almost miraculous, and cause the denizen to feel himself a 
 stranger in his own city. 
 
 Could our late revered monarch, the first English sovereign 
 who had the taste to patronize arts and artists, since the days 
 of the elegant minded patrons of Rubens, Vandyck and Inigo 
 Jones, revisit the country of his birth and of his love ; and 
 witness the gigantic alterations and tasteful improvements that 
 have been so rapidly and effectually made, under the auspices 
 of his illustrious son and successor ; he would be lost amid the 
 architectural wonders (the merits of which he was so able to 
 appreciate) of that very Metropolis, in which he lived and 
 reigned for more than half a century. 
 
 The business of this work is to record and describe the 
 " wonderful alterations" that have taken place in those com- 
 paratively short periods ; and have rendered the present sera 
 the Augustan age of England. 
 
 Among the glories of this age, the historian will have to 
 record the conversion of dirty alleys, dingy courts and squalid 
 dens of misery and crime, almost under the walls of our royal 
 palaces, into " stately streets," to " squares that court the breeze," 
 to palaces and mansions, to elegant private dwellings, to rich 
 and costly shops, filled with the productions of every clime, to 
 magnificent ware-rooms, stowed with the ingenious and valuable 
 manufactures of our artisans and mechanics, giving activity to 
 commerce with all the enviable results of national prosperity. 
 Fields, that were in our times appropriated to pasturage, are 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 3 
 
 now become the gay and tasteful abodes of splendid opulence, 
 and of the triumphs of the peaceful arts. 
 
 The greatest statesmen and philosophers have ever con- 
 sidered the cultivation of architecture, and the building and 
 adornment of cities, as of primary and political importance. 
 Plato attributes the origin of legislature to the cultivation of 
 the arts. Public buildings are the most lasting and effective 
 ornaments of a country ; and, at the same time, the cheapest 
 that a people can obtain. By their means nations are established, 
 and obtain " a local habitation and a name j" by them are 
 opulent and ingenious foreigners attracted ; and, in most cases, 
 more money is brought into a country than all the cost that 
 was originally expended in their construction. It was so at 
 Versailles, as every body knows ; and similar causes will always 
 produce similar effects. Such works not only attract great and 
 wealthy foreigners, but at the same time they increase commerce, 
 create wealth, give employment to the labourer, the artisan and 
 the artist ; and make a people love their native country ; which 
 is a passion that is the parent of all great actions that conduce 
 to the public wealth. 
 
 The most learned and philosophic architect, that perhaps ever 
 lived, Sir Christopher Wren, in allusion to such subjects, says,* 
 " The emulation of the cities of Greece was the true cause of 
 their greatness. The obstinate valour of the Jews, occasioned 
 by the love of their temple, was a cement that held together 
 that people, in former ages, through infinite changes. The care 
 of public decency and convenience was a great cause of the 
 establishment of the low countries, and of many cities in the 
 world. Modern Rome subsists still, by the ruins and imitations 
 of the old ; as does Jerusalem by the temple of the sepulchre, 
 and other remains of Helena's zeal." 
 
 In this opinion of eminent statesmen and philosophers have 
 the greatest princes and monarchs ever coincided. They have 
 invariably distinguished themselves by a just and honourable 
 patronage of the arts, of literature, of philosophy, of science, 
 and of the other heaven-directed workings of the human mind. 
 It has, fortunately for humanity, almost always happened, that 
 the greatest men of every kind, in art, in literature, in philo- 
 
 * See Elmes's Life of VVrbn, Appendix, p. 119 
 
4 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 sophy, in science, in politics, and in warfare, have generally 
 been contemporaries, and nourished resplendently in a compara- 
 tively short period of time. 
 
 When Apelles, Praxiteles, Lysippus and other eminent 
 artists flourished in Greece, her greatest poets, orators, and 
 philosophers were alive ; and Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Demos- 
 thenes, Isocrates, Thucydides, Xenophon, iEschylus, Euripides, 
 Sophocles and Menander, flourished almost in the same age. 
 The ages of Pericles, of Augustus, and of Louis the Fourteenth, 
 were similarly celebrated for their several constellations of 
 artists, philosophers, statesmen and warriors; and the Augus- 
 tan age of George the Fourth, emblazoned as it is by a 
 galaxy of talent in poetry, in the sublimest works of imagina- 
 tion, such as no nation has hitherto surpassed, in legislation, in 
 the art of war, and in the more peaceful arts and sciences, will 
 be no less the subject of admiration from the future historian 
 and posterity. It is also no less remarkable, that the duration 
 of these brilliant epochs or times of perfection, have generally 
 been brief in proportion to their splendour. May the duration 
 of our present splendid epoch, contradict the history of past 
 ages, and be no less continuative than brilliant. 
 
 The honours conferred by our present enlightened sovereign 
 on literature and the arts, followed up as they are by the 
 legislature of the country, and by our leading nobility and 
 gentry, in the establishment of national libraries, galleries 
 of sculpture and of painting, have given a life and spirit to the 
 genius of our times, that cannot fail of producing an abundant 
 harvest of the richest quality. 
 
 The professors of the fine arts, poets, and other cultivators of 
 the human mind, have ever been considered among the benefactors 
 of mankind, and honoured as such by the great. The Greeks 
 rendered as much honour to Polygnotus, as they could have 
 bestowed either upon Lycurgus or Solon. They prepared mag- 
 nificent public entries for him into cities that he had decorated 
 with his pencil ; and appointed, by a decree of the council of 
 Amphictyons, that he should be maintained at the public expense 
 wherever he might choose to go. 
 
 Alexander the Great and Demetrius Poliorcetes, are alike 
 celebrated for their attentions to illustrious artists; and paid 
 the greatest homage to the rare talent and superior merit of 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 5 
 
 those extraordinary men, who flourished in their days. Alex- 
 ander issued a remarkable edict in favour of three of the most 
 eminent artists of his day, whom he honoured with his friend- 
 ship, by which he granted exclusively to Apelles, the privilege 
 of painting him ; to Lysippus, according to Pliny, and to Poly- 
 cletes, according to Apuleius, that of representing him in 
 bronze statues ; and to Pyrgoteles that of engraving his por- 
 trait. Rightly judging, says Cicero, that the skill of those 
 two great masters (Apelles and Lysippus), would also immor- 
 talize his ; for it was not to please them that he published that 
 edict, so much as to enhance his own glory. 
 
 One of the greatest emperors of the west, since the days of 
 Charlemagne, conferred the highest honours of Chivalry upon 
 Titian ; Francis the first, one of the most enlightened of mo- 
 narchs, honoured Da Vinci in the highest degree; and our 
 days have witnessed our own sovereigns honouring and de- 
 lighting in the works of eminent artists, embellishing our 
 metropolis with grand and magnificent edifices, by munificent 
 and splendid presents of books, pictures and statues to our 
 public institutions ; by honours conferred upon splendid talent 
 and art, as well as upon eminence in legislation and warfare. 
 
 Upon works such as these, alike worthy of a great monarch, 
 and a brave, free and enlightened people, Agrippa, the son-in-law 
 of Augustus, made a magnificent harangue, worthy of the first 
 and greatest citizen of Rome : in which he shews, by several 
 reasons, how useful it would be to the state, to exhibit publicly 
 the finest pieces of antiquity of every kind ; for the purpose 
 of exciting a noble emulation in the youth ; which, no doubt, 
 he adds, would be much better than to banish them into 
 the country, to the gardens and pleasure grounds of 
 private persons. 
 
 Such has been the conduct of the monarch and legislature 
 of these kingdoms, in establishing academies and societies, 
 founding and enlarging libraries, museums, galleries and in- 
 stitutions, enlarging and improving the metropolis ; for the 
 magnificence of the buildings, the multitude of good pic- 
 tures, statues and other monuments of the good taste, munifi- 
 cence and genius of a people, are among the greatest embel- 
 lishments of a state, and wise princes and enlightened legislators 
 do well in encouraging them. 
 
 E 
 
6 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Persons who remember London as it was thirty years ago., 
 may proudly say, regarding it as it is, 
 
 " Look on this picture and on this." 
 
 No city in Europe has undergone such rapid changes and im- 
 provements as this metropolis. The first great change was oc- 
 casioned by that awful conflagration, (calamity it can scarcely 
 be called by us), which consumed the greater part of the an- 
 cient city, and purified it from plagues, pestilence and perpetual 
 fear of incendiaries. The magnanimity with which the citizens 
 sustained the calamity which destroyed their houses and estates, 
 the greatness of mind with which they beheld the ashes of their 
 houses, and gates and temples, was a theme of admiration to 
 all their contemporaries. They immediately set about rebuild- 
 ing their city, while its ruins were still smoaking. Wren, 
 Evelyn, Hooke and others presented designs for the new city, 
 and the King, his brother the Duke of York, and the whole 
 court aided the undertaking. The Royal Society forwarded 
 their views. Wren's plan* was adopted by the King and privy 
 council. It possessed such qualities for security, convenience 
 and beauty, that if it had been executed, the city would not 
 have been in that disgraceful, deserted, and dilapidated state, 
 that a comparison with its improved and improving sister of 
 Westminster, has now rendered it. The hurry of rebuilding, 
 and the disputes about property, prevented Wren's beautiful 
 plan from being adopted, and the city became one, whose streets 
 are lanes, and whose lanes are alleys. The sooner the corpora- 
 tion (who have recently appointed a committee of improve- 
 ments, which it is hoped will not render their important office a 
 sinecure) remove this opprobrium from their city, and emanci- 
 pate their fine cathedral from its monstrous thraldom, the sooner 
 will their city be enabled to hold its due rank in the splendid 
 metropolis of the empire. 
 
 The next alteration or improvement of consequence was the 
 removal of all the signs from the public streets that cut such a 
 grotesque figure in Hogarth's pictures, and the taking away of 
 the projecting water spouts, and dripping eaves, that made " the 
 
 * For an engraving and description of this plan, see Elmes's Lite of Wren, 
 p. 197. et seq. and Appendix No. 13. p. 81. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 7 
 
 art of walking London streets," so much more difficult when it 
 was sung by Gay, than in our improved days. 
 
 The new thoroughfare called Skinner Street, after an Alder- 
 man of that name, whom the city deigned to honour, was the 
 next metropolitan improvement of utility ; and certainly the use- 
 ful was more sought after than the ornamental by the then 
 city Vitruvius. Picket Street near Temple Bar, wherein another 
 Alderman's name is immortalised to puzzle posterity, is another 
 of the useful improvements by the corporation of London. 
 
 The parish of St. Mary-le-bone succeeds, though not in strict 
 chronological order, to the improvements within the walls, and 
 the name of " the Mary-bone school of temple builders has 
 damned " its masters and founders " to everlasting fame," by a 
 proverb and bye-word. Clipstone Street, Titchfield Street and 
 their neighbourhood present their venerable ruins to the notice 
 of the artist and antiquary. 
 
 The city of Westminster deserves, and shall receive in its 
 proper place, the honour due for its alterations, improvements 
 and restorations, particularly those in and about its venerable 
 minster, and the two houses of parliament. The parish ot 
 St. Pancras, and the Duke of Bedford's estate in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bloomsbury, and the New Road, present claims to 
 commendation, and shall be noticed in their turns, as shall every 
 other of importance. 
 
 But our immediate object is with those of our own days, 
 those which are arising around us from the foot of Primrose 
 Hill, to the banks of Le Notre's canal in the park, which have 
 metamorphosed Mary-le-bone park farm and its cow-sheds, into 
 a rural city of almost eastern magnificence ; and changed 
 Swallow Street and its filthy labyrinthine environs, into the 
 most picturesque and splendid street in the metropolis. 
 
 Therefore, although it is intended that our work shall com- 
 prehend a succinct, but COMPLETE HISTORY of the 
 BRITISH METROPOLIS, yet, with a view of gratifying 
 that interest which is universally excited, we shall begin with 
 the Regent's Park, and proceed onwards through the most 
 splendid and magnificent architectural undertakings now in 
 progress. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 The Regent's Park. 
 
 This compages of splendid architecture, and tasteful garden- 
 ing, was named after our present king, during his sovereignty as 
 regent of these kingdoms. It is a part of the ancient manor of 
 Mary-le-bone, still more anciently called ■ Tybourn, from its 
 situation near a small bourn, or rivulet, formerly called Aye- 
 brook, or Eye-brook. The Rev. Mr. Lysons, the indefatigable 
 author of the historical account of the environs of London, 
 imagines with great reason, that when the site of the church 
 was altered to another spot* near the same brook, it was called 
 St. Mary at the bourn, and became corrupted to its present ap- 
 pellation of St. Mary-le-bone, or Mary-bone. 
 
 This immense parish which is larger, more opulent, more 
 populous, and possessed of more public and private buildings of 
 good taste and real beauty, than many METROPOLISES of the 
 continent, is situated in the hundred of Ossulston, which gives a 
 baronial title to the heir apparent of the noble family of Tan- 
 kerville. Its extent may be gathered, w r hen it is known that it 
 is bounded on the east by the parishes of St. Giles's in the fields, 
 and St. Pancras; on the west by that of Paddington, to the 
 Kilburn Road ; on the north by Hampstead to the foot of Prim- 
 rose Hill ; and on the south by those of St. Anne Soho, St. 
 James Westminster and St. George Hanover Square. It is 
 eight miles and a quarter in circumference, and computed to 
 contain above two thousand five hundred acres of land. 
 
 The brook, or bourn, whence the parish derives its name, runs 
 on the south side of Hampstead, and passes near Bellesize park 
 to Barrow Hill farm. Thence through the Regent's Park, to 
 Marybone lane, it crosses Oxford Street near Stratford Place 
 and Piccadilly under a bridge, near Hay Hill, which is supposed 
 by some antiquaries to derive its name from this Ayef brook. 
 It then passes through St. James's Park, near Buckingham 
 House, through Tothill fields, and falls into the Thames at a 
 place called King's Scholars' Pond, a little below Chelsea. 
 
 * This event occurred in the year 1400, in consequence of the church at the de- 
 serted village of Tybourn having fallen into decay, and being robbed of its books, 
 vestments, bells, images, and other decorations. 
 
 + This derivation to be complete, must borrow the cockney aspiration of the H. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 9 
 
 The manor of Tybourn is described in Doomsday book, as 
 appertaining to the crown, and was held under it by various 
 noble families, whose names and titles are all recorded in the third 
 volume of Lyson's " Environs of London." The manor was 
 granted by several successive kings to various persons, but the 
 park was often reserved or reclaimed by the crown. The manor 
 became afterwards the property of the Duke of Portland; whose 
 grandfather married Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, (whose 
 names are given to several streets), heiress of the two noble 
 families of Newcastle and Oxford. 
 
 The manor house, which during the time that it was vested 
 in the crown, was occasionally used as a temporary royal resi- 
 dence, particularly by queen Elizabeth, who appears by many 
 accounts to have used her various palaces in rapid succession, 
 was pulled down in the year 1791. From a drawing by Rooker, 
 in the possession of Mr. White the architect, it appears to have 
 retained, in spite of many alterations, some traces of the style of 
 architecture used in that queen's reign ; at which period, the 
 park of Mary-le-bone was abundantly stocked with game. In the 
 history of the royal progresses of that queen it is recorded, that 
 " on the 3rd February, 1600, the ambassadors from the Emperor 
 of Russia, and other Muscovites rode through the city of Lon- 
 don to Marybone park, and there hunted at their pleasure, and 
 shortly after returned homeward." 
 
 When the manor of Mary-le-bone was granted to the before 
 mentioned Edward Forsett, King James reserved the park in 
 his own hands. It continued to be the property of the crown 
 till the year 1646, when Charles I. by letters patent dated at 
 Oxford May 6, granted it to Sir George Strode, and John 
 Wandesforde, Esq. as security for a debt of £2318. lis. 9d. due 
 to them, for supplying arms and ammunition during the civil 
 v/ars. After the death of the king, when all the crown lands 
 were disposed of by Cromwell, this park, without any regard to 
 the claim of the before-mentioned grantees, was sold for 
 £13,215 6s. 8d., including £130 for 124 head of deer, and 
 £1774. 8s. for the timber, exclusive of 2976 trees marked for the 
 navy, to John Spencer who is described " of London, gentleman," 
 in behalf of Colonel Thomas Harrison's regiment of dragoons, 
 on whom Mary-le-bone park was settled for their pay. Sir John 
 I psley being appointed by the protector to the office of Ranger. 
 
 F 
 
10 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 On the restoration of Charles II. Sir George Strode and Mr. 
 Wandesforde were reinstated in their possession of the park, 
 which they held till their debt was discharged, except the great 
 lodge or palace as it was sometimes called, and sixty acres of 
 land, which had been granted to Sir William Clarke, secretary 
 to the Lord General (Monk) the Duke of Albemarle. A com- 
 pensation was also made to John Carey, Esq. for the loss of his 
 situation of ranger, which he had held before the protectorate. 
 
 When Cromwell disposed of the park, for the support of a 
 regiment of dragoons, it was disparked and never afterwards 
 stocked. It was let on lease in the year 1668 to Henry Earl of 
 Arlington ; in 1696 to Charles Bertie and others in trust for the 
 Duke of Leeds ; in 1724 to Samuel Grey, Esq. whose interest in 
 the lease was purchased by Thomas Gibson, John Jacob and 
 Robert Jacomb, Esqrs. who renewed their lease successively in 
 the years 1730, 1735, and 1742. In 17.54 a lease was granted 
 to Lucy Jacomb, widow and Peter Hinde, Esq. In 1765 
 William Jacomb, Esq. had a fresh lease for an undivided share 
 of fifteen twenty-fourths. The term of this share was pro- 
 longed in 1772, and again in 1780 for eight years which com- 
 menced on the 24th January, 1803, and expired at the begin- 
 ning of the year 1811. In 1784 Mr. Jacomb sold his interest 
 to the Duke of Portland. In the years 1765 and 1772 Jacob 
 Hinde, Esq. had a new lease of the remaining nine twenty- 
 fourths; which lease not being renewed, expired in 1803, eight 
 years before the Duke of Portland's. 
 
 So passed away the destinies of Mary-le-bone park, till it at- 
 tained its present state of richly adorned beauty. These cu- 
 rious and authentic details were originally communicated to the 
 Rev. Mr. Lysons by William Harrison, Esq. of the land revenue 
 office in Scotland yard, by permission of the late John Fordyce, 
 Esq. the then surveyor general of his Majesty's woods and 
 forests ; and continued to the present day from similar authentic 
 sources of information. 
 
 This estate, the late Mary-le-bone park, now the Regent's park, 
 contains 543 acres, 17 perches, according to an actual survey 
 made in the year 1794 by the late Thomas Leverton, Esq. under 
 the direction of John Fordyce, Esq. the late surveyor general 
 of the crown lands, and by order of the Lords of the treasury. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 11 
 
 About two thirds of this magnificent property lies in the 
 parish of St. Mary-le-bone, and the rest in that of St. Pancras. 
 It extends along the New Road, from Portland Street, on the 
 east, to the end of Harley Street, Portland Place, on the west. 
 
 Shortly after the before-mentioned survey, the Lords of the 
 treasury empowered the surveyor-general to offer premiums 
 for the best plans for building on this new estate ; and selected 
 two (we believe) as the best, one by John Nash, Esq. which 
 embraced all those beauties of landscape gardening, which his 
 friend, the late Humphrey Repton, so successfully introduced, 
 with the splendour of architectural decorations, in detached 
 villas ; and the other by Messrs. Leverton and Chawner, which 
 was more urban and builder like, than the enchanting rural 
 plan which their lordships adopted. 
 
 The park no sooner became once more the property of the 
 crown, than the commissioners of his Majesty's woods and 
 forests commenced operations to carry Mr. Nash's plan into 
 effect. Following the sound advice of Cato the elder, in his 
 book upon rural life,* that when we intend to build, we ought 
 to deliberate ; when our intentions are to plant, we should not 
 deliberate, but act ; they began by planting the whole demesne 
 according to the plan ; and it has therefore had the advantage 
 of so many years growth w T hile the buildings are in progress. 
 
 There is another advantage in this process, much in favour of 
 the divine art of landscape gardening, which is, that from the 
 moment of finishing either building or planting, the former 
 begins to decay, and the latter to flourish. 
 
 Thus has the public spirit of the king and his government 
 secured to the inhabitants of London a magnificent park, whose 
 beauties and splendour cannot be surpassed by any metropolis 
 in Europe. 
 
 What the melodious poet Waller sung of St. James's Park, 
 as improved by Charles the Second, may truly be applied to 
 this noble appropriation of the royal demesne, whose beauties 
 are the subject of the following pages. 
 
 * iEdificare diu cogitare oportet, conserere cogitare nun oportet, sed facere, 
 Cato de re Rust 
 
12 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 " For future shades, young trees upon the bauks 
 Of the new stream appear in even ranks , 
 The voice of Orpheus, or Amphion's hand, 
 In better order could not make them stand ; 
 May they increase as fast, and spread their boughs, 
 As the high fame of their great owner grows ! 
 May he live long enough to see them all 
 Dark shadows cast, and as his palace tall!" 
 
 The extension and improvement of the metropolis in this 
 princely parish and district, within the memories of not very 
 aged people, have been more rapid and surprising than those of 
 any other country in Europe. They present to the astonished 
 spectator, so magnificent are the buildings, and so tasteful is 
 the scenery, more the appearance of the newly founded capital 
 of a wealthy state, than one of the suburbs of an ancient city. 
 
 The progress of the metamorphoses of this farm-like ap- 
 pendage to our metropolis, into its present superb state, is a 
 curious subject of investigation, as a series of historical facts 
 in the history of our Metropolitan Architecture. We again 
 refer to the circumstantial authority of Mr. White, as furnished 
 by him to Mr. Lysons. 
 
 At the beginning of the last century, Mary-le-bone was a 
 small village, nearly a mile distant from any part of the metro- 
 polis. In the year 1715 the plan for building Cavendish 
 Square, and several new streets on the north side of Oxford 
 Street, then called indiscriminately by that name and Tybourn 
 Road, was first suggested. About two years afterwards the 
 ground was laid out, and the circular plantation in the centre 
 inclosed, planted and surrounded by a parapet wall and iron 
 railings. 
 
 The whole of the north side was taken by the celebrated 
 James Bridges, Duke of Chandos, who acquired a princely 
 fortune as pay-master to the army in Queen Anne's reign, and 
 whose magnificent buildings, particularly his unrivalled man- 
 sion at Canons, and stately style of living, which fell little short 
 of that of a sovereign prince, were celebrated by Pope in his 
 satires under the name of Timon. Of his magnificent concep- 
 tions in building the satirist says, that 
 
 " Greatness with Timon dwells in such a draught 
 As brings all Brobdignag before your thought ; 
 To compass this, his building i3 a town, 
 His pond an ocean, his parterre a down. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 13 
 
 The Duke (then Earl of Carnarvon), it is said, took this large 
 portion of the ground, which reached an immense way back 
 towards the north, for the purpose of building a town residence, 
 correspondent with that of Canons. Of this he built no more 
 than the wings, which are sufficiently spacious to become 
 mansions. One, was that large mansion at the corner of Harley 
 Street, formerly occupied by the late Princess Amelia, mother to 
 King George the Third ; subsequently by H. P. Hope, Esq. ; 
 and recently, with its spacious court yards and stable offices, 
 built upon by George Watson Taylor, Esq. ; and the other the 
 corresponding mansion at the corner of Chandos Street. The 
 centre part is occupied by two splendid mansions of the Co- 
 rinthian order, which stands on the sides of an opening leading 
 to a place still known by the name of Chandos' Folly. They 
 were designed, I believe, by James of Greenwich, who was ar- 
 chitect to the Duke at Canons. 
 
 At this period, Harcourt House, the large mansion on the 
 east side, and Bingley House, now Harcourt House, on the 
 west side, a noble mansion designed by Inigo Jones were the 
 only houses in Cavendish Square. The prison-like walls which 
 close up the latter on every side like a fortress, were then ne- 
 cessary from its solitary and dangerous situation. It is now the 
 residence of the Duke of Portland, who has recently added a 
 handsome range of stable offices at the back of the house, in 
 Wimpole Street, in the style of the mansion, from the design, 
 and under the superintendance of Samuel Ware, Esq. his 
 Grace's architect. 
 
 Portions of ground on the east and west sides were taken 
 by Lord Harcourt and Lord Bingley ; and the rest was let to 
 builders and other speculators. The failure of the celebrated 
 South Sea adventure in 1720, caused a temporary cessation to 
 these improvements, and it was several years before the square 
 was entirely finished. In the year 1770, an equestrian statue 
 was erected in the centre of the enclosure to the memory of 
 William, Duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culloden ; who is 
 represented in the full military costume of his day. It is of 
 lead gilt, cast by Chew, a statuary of some eminence in his 
 day ; and was placed there, as the inscription on the pedestal 
 informs us, by Lieutenant General William Strode, in gratitude 
 for private kindness, and in honour of public worth. 
 
 G 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 During the stoppage of the buildings in Cavendish Square, 
 a new chapel and market-place were projected, not only as an 
 inducement for the builders to proceed, but also for the inhabi- 
 tants of the square and new street. The designs were made 
 by James Gibbs, the architect of the beautiful church of St. 
 Martin in the fields. They were both completed in 1724, but 
 the market-place was not opened for business till 1732, in con- 
 sequence of the opposition of Lord Craven, who feared that it 
 would abridge the value of Carnaby Market. 
 
 This chapel named after the Earl of Oxford, on whose 
 estate it was built, was the first of the established church that 
 was erected in the parish of Mary-le-bone, and is situated at 
 the corner of Vere Street and Henrietta Street, both named 
 after the noble family of Vere Earl of Oxford. The market 
 is called Oxford Market from the same cause. 
 
 The houses on the north side of Tybourn road, were completed 
 in 1729, and it was then first called by its present name Oxford 
 Street. About the same time, most of the streets, which lead 
 from Oxford Street to Cavendish Square and Oxford Market, 
 namely, Henrietta Street, Vere Street, Holies Street, Margaret 
 Street, Cavendish Street, Wimpole Street, Princes Street, 
 Bolsover Street, Castle Street, John Street, Market Street and 
 a few others, were built ; and the sites marked out for Lower 
 Harley Street, Wigmore Street, Mortimer Street &c. 
 
 This magnificent parish has five splendid churches : one, the 
 parish or mother church, and four district churches, which it 
 is probable will hereafter become parochial, by a division of 
 the parish ; like that of St. George Hanover Square, from its 
 parent St. Martin in the fields. The old parish church, which 
 was built in 1741, has been converted, by act of parliament, 
 into a parochial chapel of ease, and a large chapel that was 
 begun in July, 1813, was enlarged, altered from the Ionic to the 
 Corinthian order, and by other requisite improvements converted 
 into the parish church. It was finished in February, 1817, 
 from the designs of Thomas Hardwick, Esq. and will be fully 
 noticed in its proper place. 
 
 Since that time, the other four churches have been erected 
 under the authority of an act of parliament passed during 
 the regency of our present king, at an expence of about 
 £20,000 each. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 15 
 
 The church of St. Mary in Wyndham Place, Bryanstone 
 Square, was designed by Robert Smirke, Esq. and consecrated 
 in January, 1824 ; that of All Souls, in Langham Place, by 
 John Nash, Esq. was commenced in 1822, and finished in 1825 ; 
 that of Christ Church, in Stafford Street, Lisson Green, by 
 Philip Hard wick, Esq. was began in July, 1822, and opened 
 for divine service in May, 1825; and Trinity Church, now 
 building opposite the north end of Portland Street, by John 
 Soane, Esq. the professor of architecture in the Royal Academy. 
 Full descriptions of these new churches will be found in their 
 proper places. 
 
 The several episcopal chapels, or chapels of ease, were built 
 about the following years. Oxford Chapel, in Vere Street, de- 
 signed by Gibbs, in 1724 ; Bentinck Chapel, in 1772 ; Portman 
 Chapel, in 1779 ; Margaret Street Chapel, first used as a place 
 of worship for the Church of England, about 1779; Baker 
 Street Chapel, and Brunswick Chapel, in Upper Berkeley 
 Street, about three years afterwards. 
 
 In the beginning of the reign of George the Third, there 
 was nothing but a dreary, monotonous waste of dank pasturage, 
 between the new region of Cavendish Square and the village 
 of Mary-le-bone. The first improvement, westward of this 
 site, was the erection of Portman Square; which was laid out 
 and the north side begun about 1764, but it was nearly twenty 
 years before the whole was completed. Even in 1772 the now 
 densely populated site between Duke Street and Mary-le-bone 
 Lane, was entirely unbuilt upon. Portman Square consists 
 principally of large and splendid mansions, without any pre- 
 tensions to external display in architectural embellishments. 
 At the north-west angle is Montague House, formerly the re- 
 sidence of that amiable philanthropist Mrs. Montague, who was 
 celebrated for her literary talents, and for her custom of enter- 
 taining and regaling all the little chimney sweepers of the me- 
 tropolis in her house and gardens on the first of May in every 
 year ; in gratitude, it is said, for having recovered a lost child 
 from among that pitiable class of infant sufferers. 
 
 In 1770, the continuation of Harley Street was begun, as 
 well as Mansfield Street, on a site of ground that had formerly 
 been a basin or reservoir of water. Soon afterwards Portland 
 Place, formerly reckoned the most magnificent street in the 
 
16 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 metropolis, was built ; and also most of the streets that inter- 
 sect it. It was originally terminated by Foley House on the 
 south, and by the fields of Mary-le-bone Park farm on the 
 north. In the year 1772, according to a plan and description 
 given in Northouck's History of London, a new square was then 
 building on the site of Portland Place, called Queen Square, 
 bounded by Foley house and gardens on the south by houses ; 
 abutting on Portland Street on the east ; by Harley Street on 
 the west ; and by an island of mansions on the north ; with two 
 grand streets, one on the east, called Highgate Place ; and the 
 other on the west, Hampstead Place. Westward, towards the 
 south, is Great Queen Anne Street, and opposite to it, on the 
 east, Little Queen Anne Street. 
 
 This design was abandoned, and Portland Place built, as be- 
 fore described ; but recently, Foley House has been taken down 
 and this spacious avenue of mansions, being 125 feet in 
 breadth, is continued, by an elongation called Langham Place, 
 by a handsome sweep round Sir James Langham's elegant 
 mansion and grounds to Regent Street and St. James's Park on 
 the south : and by Park Crescent, New Road, and its planta- 
 tion, with a bronze statue of heroic size of the late Duke of 
 Kent, by Gahagan, and the splendid creations of picturesque 
 art of the Regent's Park, on the north. Portland Place is 
 principally erected from the designs of Robert Adam, one of 
 the architects of the Adelphi Buildings, and Park Crescent, 
 Langham Place, and the continuation into Regent Street, from 
 those of Mr. Nash. 
 
 Stratford Place was built about the year 1774, on ground 
 belonging to the Corporation of London, then called Conduit 
 Mead, where the Lord Mayor's banquetting house formerly 
 stood. Old Stowe informs us that it was customary, in those 
 days, for the Lord Mayor, accompanied by the Aldermen and 
 other citizens on horseback, on the 18th of September of every 
 year, 'to visit the fountain heads whence the conduits in the 
 city were supplied, hunting a hare before dinner and a fox 
 after dinner, in the fields beyond St. Giles's. The dinner was 
 served in the banquetting house. The site was granted on 
 lease renewable for ever on certain covenants, from the corpora- 
 tion to Edward Stratford, after whom the place was named, and 
 others. It consists of two handsome wings, which form an 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 17 
 
 entrance, two rows of large dwelling houses, and a mansion on 
 the north, which faces the entrance. It was formerly decorated 
 with a column supporting a statue of the king, commemorative 
 of the naval victories of Great Britain. It was erected by the 
 late General Strode, and taken down in 1805, in consequence of 
 the foundation giving way. 
 
 Cumberland Place, now a Crescent, but originally intended 
 to have been a Circus, was began about 1775, in a " plain 
 brown-brick" style of architecture. Every war and every peace 
 created fresh revolutions and improvements in the architecture 
 of the metropolis. 
 
 From 1786 to 1792 the additions and improvements increased 
 with rapidity. All the Duke of Portland's property in Mary- 
 le-bone, except one farm, was let at that period on building 
 leases; and the new buildings in the north-west part of the 
 parish increased with equal rapidity. Manchester Square,* 
 which had been began in 1776 by the building of Manchester 
 House, one of the finest mansions in London, was finished in a 
 neat manner in 1788. 
 
 The large estates at Lisson Green have all been largely, and 
 in many instances, tastefully built upon. Their principal beau- 
 ties will also be dilated upon hereafter, as well as those in the 
 Regent's Park, Regent Street, &c. 
 
 The causes of the extension of the metropolis in the style of 
 the Mary-le-bone school of temple builders, whose motto was, 
 that their buildings should only be strong enough to last till 
 they were sold, has been so well depicted by Mr. Nash, to whom 
 the public are beholden for the most picturesque improvements 
 that ever were bestowed upon their metropolis, in each of his 
 reports to the commissioners of His Majesty's woods and forests, 
 that we cannot do better than to extract a few of the more im- 
 portant passages. This eminent architect says, that " the arti- 
 ficial causes of the extension of the town, are the speculations 
 of builders, encouraged and promoted by merchants dealing in 
 the materials of building, and attorneys with monied clients 
 facilitating, and indeed, putting in motion, the whole system, 
 
 » Mr Britton, in his last edition of " the Original Picture of London," says, 
 tiiis square " originally was intended to hare been called Queen Anne's Square." 
 A. reference to page 16, will prove this assertion of that generally correct antiquary, 
 to be incorrect in this instance. 
 
 H 
 
J8 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 by disposing of their client's money in premature mortgages, the 
 sale of improved ground rents, and by numerous other devices, 
 by which their clients make an advantageous use of their money 
 and the attorneys create to themselves a lucrative business from 
 the agreements, leases, mortgages, bonds and other instruments 
 of law, which become necessary throughout such complicated 
 and intricate transactions. It is not necessary for the present 
 purpose to enumerate the bad consequences and pernicious 
 effects which arise from such an unnatural and forced enlarge- 
 ment of the town, further than to observe, that it is the interest 
 of those concerned in such buildings that they should be of as 
 little cost as possible, preserving an attractive exterior, which 
 Parker's stucco, coloured bricks and balconies, accomplish ; 
 and a fashionble arrangement of rooms on the principal floors, 
 embellished by the paper hanger, and a few flimsey marble 
 chimney pieces, are the attractions of the interior. These are 
 sufficient allurements to the public, and ensure the sale of the 
 houses, which is the ultimate object of the builders ; and to 
 this finery every thing out of sight is sacrificed, or, is no further 
 an object of attention, than, that no defects in the constructive 
 and substantial parts shall make their appearance while the houses 
 are on sale ; and, it is to be feared that for want of these essen- 
 tials which constitute the strength and permanency of houses., 
 a very few years will exhibit cracked walls, swagged floors, 
 bulged fronts, crooked roofs, leaky gutters, inadequate drains 
 and other ills of an originally bad constitution ; and, it is quite 
 certain, without a renovation equal to rebuilding, that all those 
 houses, long, very long, before the expiration of the leases, will 
 cease to exist, and the reversionary estate that the proprietors 
 look for, will never be realized, as it is not till the end of the 
 builder's term that the proprietor of the fee will be entitled to 
 the additional ground rents laid on by the builder. It is evi- 
 dently, therefore, not the interest of the crown, that Mary-le- 
 bone Park should be covered with houses of this description." 
 
 The commissioners wisely and tastefully adopted Mr. Nash's 
 plan, and their bosoms must glow with satisfaction at the results 
 which are now so splendidly budding, and promising of future 
 fruit, before their eyes. 
 
 The noble appropriation of this royal domain, is in every re- 
 spect worthy of the nation and of the metropolis. It is the 
 
I 
 
 ■ 
 
nrfr&v cd. by. W. ToniKUson. . 
 
 D ©M T3EE 3LAKE & PART ©F & CIAEE! 
 
 ]R.jE £E Wf S PARK . 
 
 -rualisned- April 12 182 8 /by Jones 2: C° 3 Aclou Place Kinp'sland. Road-. I.ondoa. 
 
 TIE IE C©ILli.^TEJM AN ID) FART ©IF TMES ILAI&LIE KJE'CS-IE-WT'g. PARI 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 19 
 
 largest of the parks, and the trees and shrubs are becoming 
 umbrageous and park-like. 
 
 In performing a tour of the Regent's Park on a fine day, the 
 enquirer into its beauties and merits should perform it leisurely 
 and on foot. This will take some hours, or a long morning ; 
 but two distinct visits, one generally to become acquainted with 
 its geography, and the other specifically to examine its details, 
 will be preferable. An engraved plan, which accompanies the 
 present work, will be found greatly to facilitate this object. 
 Its best approach is to go up Portland Place, turn to the left, 
 under the beautiful Ionic colonnade of Park Crescent, survey 
 the tasteful plantation of Park Square, and proceed along the 
 New Road as far as the new parish church. Then cross over, 
 and enter the park by the entrance called Yokk Gate. Turn 
 round, and take what is perhaps the best view of the church 
 from the road, to which the gate makes a picturesque accessary. 
 As we are now performing the office of Cicerone in the general 
 visit, we shall leave detail and criticism till the specific inspection. 
 
 On entering the park, it may be as well to proceed for a few 
 minutes to the elegant little bridge which faces you, and admire 
 the fascinating beauties of the artificial lake which it crosses, 
 adorned as it is with rare a/id beautiful water fowl, aquatic 
 plants, and other appropriate embellishments. 
 
 Return then to the main road, survey the architectural 
 beauties of York Terrace, which extends to both sides of the 
 entrance road. We shall not stop farther than to call your 
 attention to the palatial splendour of these two grand rows of 
 buildings, which, instead of resembling a series of dwelling 
 houses, carry upon their faces the semblance of the residence 
 of a sovereign prince. 
 
 Proceed then by Cornwall Terrace, the richness and correct- 
 ness of style of whose architecture is aptly embellished by the 
 sylvan scene before it. Pass then by the entrance from Baker 
 Street, in a northerly direction, by the elegant arcade of Cla- 
 rence Place, and by the fanciful cupolas of Sussex Place. Con- 
 tinue your pedestrian treat, forgetting the driver's maxim of 
 never looking to the right or left, and keeping your eye con- 
 tinually between your horse's ears ; which, as you have no horse 
 to be troubled with, may rove delighted " from earth to heaven, 
 from heaven to earth," in perpetual transport at this scene of 
 ever varying delight. 
 
I 
 
 20 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Those who can remember with us, padding over the poached 
 soil, about ten years since, when the roads were forming, the 
 canal digging, the plantations trenching, and the infant trees, 
 looking like bundles of useless sprigs, being dropped into their 
 places where now they have taken root and are flourishing; 
 may remember, at least we do, the aerial castles that we formed 
 in our minds, which we were fearful would fail as such fragile 
 architecture generally does. If they do so, they may perhaps 
 agree with us, that the prophetic vision is more than realized. 
 
 We next arrive at Hanover Terrace, still on the left hand, 
 with all the sylvan beauties of the Park before it ; and a few 
 detached villas of tasteful beauty. Behind their plantations 
 that beneficial stream, the Regent's Canal, enters the northern 
 circuit of the park, and conveys the produce of the inland part 
 of our island, in a beautiful dell, to the bosom of -old father 
 Thames. 
 
 In order then we pass by Albany Cottage, the residence of 
 Mr. Raikes ; Hanover Lodge, Sir Robert Arbuthnot's ; Grove 
 House, Mr. Greenough's ; and being arrived at nearly the 
 northern extremity of the park, we incline to the eastward. 
 We next pass by (the as yet unbuilt) Munster Terrace, named 
 after one of the Hibernian royal titles, and by the beautiful site 
 marked out for Carrick Terrace. 
 
 Now we arrive at the north-eastern boundary of the park ; 
 let us sit down for a few minutes in one of the recesses, and 
 survey the delightful prospect before us. Surely the gardens 
 which Dioclesian preferred to his throne, could scarcely have 
 surpassed what these will be, when the present gigantic under- 
 taking is accomplished. Cowley exclaimed, when excited by 
 associations, such as might well be raised by the present en- 
 chanting scene, — 
 
 " Methinks I see great Dioclesian walk 
 
 In the Salonian garden's shade, 
 
 Which by his own imperial hands were made : 
 
 T see him smile, methinks, as he does talk 
 
 With the ambassadors, who come in vain 
 
 T' entice him to a throne again. 
 
 'If I my friend,' said he, ' should to you show 
 
 All the delights which in these gardens grow, 
 
 'Tis likelier far that you with me should stay, 
 
 Than 'tis that you should carry me away ; 
 
 And trust me not, my friends, if every day 
 
Dr iwi ."by Tho, H. Shepherd 
 
 WHLJLA.(SrE IRE (SETT'S 3PA3RK. 
 
 Published Jan. 17 1829. try Jones fe C° Temple of the Muses. Bnsbury Square. London. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 21 
 
 I walk not here with more delight, 
 
 Than ever after the most happy right, 
 
 Tn triumph to the capitol I rode, 
 
 To thank the gods, and to be thought myself a god.' " 
 
 What a prospect lies before us ? splendour, health, dressed 
 rurality and comforts such as nothing but a metropolis can 
 afford are spread around us. "Trim gardens," lawns and 
 shrubs; towering spires, ample domes, banks clothed with 
 flowers, all the elegancies of the town, and all the beauties of 
 the country are co-mingled with happy art and blissful union. 
 They surely must all be the abodes of nobles and princes ! 
 No, the majority are the retreats of the happy free-born sons 
 of commerce, of the wealthy commonalty of Britain, who thus 
 enrich and bedeck the heart of their great empire. Well might 
 the poet ask with honest pride and patriotic exultation, 
 
 " Where has commerce such a mart, 
 
 So rich, so thfong'd, so drain'd and so supplied, 
 
 As London — opulent, enlarg'd and still 
 
 Increasing London ? Babylon of old 
 
 Nor more the glory of the earth than she, 
 
 A more accomplish'd world's chief glory now." 
 
 Cowper. 
 
 Before we proceed further, let us return a short distance and 
 walk out of the north gate of the park, called Macclesfield 
 Gate. This outlet is over a flat topped bridge, the road or via- 
 duct of which is supported on arches sprung from the capital of 
 iron columns of the Doric order. Under us winds the canal in a 
 lovely dell. The grounds of the park descend to a precipitous 
 bank which protects them from the incursions of the bargemen 
 and other persons whose occupations lead them to frequent the 
 canal and the towing path. The gate on the northern end of 
 the bridge, which with others is closed at ten o'clock every 
 night to all but those who are going to the houses within the 
 park, is in three divisions, a carriage way and two posterns for 
 foot passengers divided by stone piers, and a plain lodge on the 
 western-side for the attendant porter. See the Plate of Mac- 
 clesfield Bridge. 
 
 Now return we, and proceed onward, bearing a little to the 
 eastward till we come to the eastern entrance of the park. See 
 the Plate of the East Gate. This is north of the noble pile of 
 
 I 
 
22 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 buildings of the Corinthian order, flanked by two lofty arches 
 decorated with columns of the same graceful order of archi- 
 tecture, which is called Chester Terrace. 
 
 This gateway or entrance, which we believe is to be called 
 Chester Gate, leads to the great north road by Camden Town, 
 Hampstead and Highgate. It has more pretensions to archi- 
 tectural character than either of the other gates, being flanked 
 by the well proportioned stone lodges, and its entrance divided 
 by Doric columns. The entablature, which, with the whole of 
 the composition is Palladian, runs through, and connects the 
 lodges over which it finishes in two pediments. The columns 
 are of cast iron, and fluted after the manner of the Italian 
 architects, and the whole order is selected from their best works. 
 The columns have bases and plinths, with cubical sub-plinths 
 of granite beneath them, as if they were too short for their 
 places, and required the aids of such appendages to raise them 
 to their architraves. This is a fault never found in the pure 
 and sublime architecture of Greece, and rarely in that of ancient 
 Rome, except where they stand as divisions or piers between 
 steps, the column standing on the uppermost, as in Wren's 
 beautiful colonnade at Greenwich hospital. 
 
 Each lodge has a well proportioned semi-circular headed 
 window towards the park, and the face of the building is 
 broken and diversified by rustics. The composition is pretty 
 and Italian like, it harmonizes well with the sceneiy, but the 
 tasteful connoisseur must forget every recollection of a Propy- 
 le'ium, when viewing this architectural entrance of the Regent's 
 Park, for it must be allowed, that from the time of the Romans 
 to the present day, all deviations from Grecian art, have in the 
 same proportion been deviations from beauty. 
 
 Over the two central columns is a projecting and raised 
 blocking course, which, contrary to the rules of good architec- 
 ture, does not rise so high as the side pavillions, and is more- 
 over weakened in character by a row of projecting reeds in a 
 panel, which give it the appearance of wood scored by a car- 
 penter's reeding plane. Nor does it accord with the sides, 
 which gives the centre an appearance of depression. Sir 
 Christopher Wren* says that " fronts ought to be elevated in 
 
 * Elmes's Life of Wren, Appendix, page 1*21. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 23 
 
 the middle, not the corners ; because the middle is the place of 
 the greatest dignity, and first arrests the eye ; and rather pro- 
 jecting forward in the middle, than hollow. For these reasons, 
 pavillions at the corners are naught ; because they make both 
 faults — a hollow and depressed front. The ancients elevated 
 the middle with a tympan and statues, or a dome. The tri- 
 umphal arches, which now seem flat, were elevated by the 
 magnificent figure of the victor in his chariot with four horses 
 a breast, and other statues accompanying it." A trophy or 
 other pyramidal composition placed on this centre acroterium 
 would remove this objection. 
 
 As a composition in the Italian or Palladian style of archi- 
 tecture, as adapted to garden scenery, the East Gate of the 
 Regent's Park is harmonious in design, and graceful in propor- 
 tion. As the chimneys could not very well be hidden, they are 
 very properly ornamented. The iron carriage way and the pos- 
 tern gates accord in style with the rest of the composition. 
 The view selected by the artist, Mr. T. H. Shepherd, gives a 
 favourable display of this handsome gateway. 
 
 We now proceed to the south, having the new hospital and 
 chapel of St. Catherine on the left, and its old English looking 
 house for the master (Sir Herbert Taylor), on our right. We 
 pass by the row of mansions called Cumberland Terrace, and 
 approach Chester Terrace, its lofty arches and spacious planta- 
 tion; till Cambridge Terrace, the last on the east, connects 
 itself with the towering majesty of the Cupola, and well pro- 
 portioned Doric portico of Mr. Hornor's prodigious undertaking, 
 the Coliseum, intended as a panorama of the metropolis and 
 its environs, from an elevation loftier than the summit of the 
 cross of St. Paul's Cathedral. This terminates the circuit, 
 and leads us into Park Square, on the east side by the Diorama, 
 where the powerful pictorial illusions of Messrs. Bouton and 
 Daguere, have so often delighted the amatuers and cognoscenti 
 of the metropolis. 
 
 We now return by Park Square, leaving its fine gardens and 
 splendid circus, opening its defiles to the vista of Portland 
 Place, on our left. At the north-west angle of Ulster Street 
 begins Ulster Terrace, which passed, leads to Ulster Street, 
 opening into the new road, opposite Harley Street. Then 
 we continue by Brunswick Place, a less ostentatious row of 
 
S I 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 buildings, and to the eastern division of the before mentioned 
 magnificent terrace, which bears the name of the lamented 
 Duke of York, whose illustrious memory is about to be justly 
 commemorated by a national monument. 
 
 The entrance between the two divisions of this splendid 
 terrace is called York Gate, and is the subject of a Plate, which 
 gives a view of the architecture on each side, terminated with 
 a view of Mary-le-bone church in the distance. The gate itself 
 consists of ornamental iron work of no prevailing style of archi- 
 tecture. The houses themselves and the church will be de- 
 scribed in our future pages, where they will furnish subjects for 
 distinct plates. 
 
 Having now made a circuit of the park, we shall conduct 
 you to the interior, and point out the sites of the various villas 
 that are built, and proposed to be built in this terrestrial 
 paradise. 
 
 It is proposed by the commissioners of his Majesty's woods 
 and forests, under whose tasteful directions, not only Mary-le- 
 bone Park, but also the splendid improvements of Regent 
 Street, Carlton Palace, and those which are about to commence 
 in the Strand, are being carried on; to erect no more than 
 twenty-six villas within the park. The sites of these villas 
 are all marked on the plan which accompanies this work. 
 Several are already built, the plantations for the rest are 
 completed and growing, and preparations are making, as 
 you may perceive on the northern side, for the erection of 
 others, and for the grounds and menageries of the Zoological 
 Society. 
 
 Those which are built, belong to the Marquess of Hertford ; 
 to James Burton, Esq. an architect of eminence, (to whom the 
 metropolis is indebted for many fine improvements about Rus- 
 sell and Tavistock Squares, Regent Street, and other places) ; 
 John Maberly, Esq. M. P. called St. John's Lodge; Grove 
 House, to George Bellas Greenough, Esq. ; Hanover Lodge to 
 Colonel Sir Robert Arbuthnot, K. C. B. ; Albany Cottage to 
 Thomas Raikes, Esq. ; and South Villa, the first in passing the 
 bridge opposite York Gate, to William Henry Cooper, Esq. 
 Mr. Burton's villa called the Holme, designed by his son 
 Decimus Burton, Esq. is the subject of one of our plates, and 
 will be described when we come to it. 
 
Drawn by Ho' HSheplierd. 
 
 W1L1LJLA IW TIE REGENT'S PAIRS: , 
 
 THE RESIDENCE OF JOHN MABERLY ESQ: MF. TO "WHOM THIS PLATE IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 Published Mav 5. 1827, by Jones k Cf 3. Acton Place. Kmtfsland Koad . London. 
 
I 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS 25 
 
 As our round has rather fatigued you, let us sit down on one 
 of these seats that the commissioners have liberally scattered 
 about the park, and before paying a visit to Mr. Burton's 
 tasteful villa, we will chat a little about our opinions as to 
 what a villa is and should be. 
 
 With the Greeks we can have little to do. We know but 
 little of their domestic architecture, save and except, about 
 their palaces and hovels; and these indeed more from their 
 writers than from their ruins. 
 
 Of the Romans we know more, but I am not going to dis- 
 tract you with long discussions about their architecture in 
 general, but only to discuss with you a little concerning their 
 villas, which with those of their bastard successors the Italians, 
 has had much influence upon the domestic architecture of 
 England. Nay, do not start, madam, at my epithet about your 
 favourite Italians, I mean the word as of their architecture 
 only, as the noble author of Childe Harold does of their lan- 
 guage, when he calls it 
 
 " that soft bastard Latin, 
 Which melts like kisses from a female mouth, 
 And sounds as if it should be writ on satin, 
 
 With syllables which breathe of the sweet south." 
 
 So of their architecture I adapt another quotation from the 
 same illustrious bard, and you may see it illustrated around 
 you. They, the Italian architects I mean, (and I reckon Messrs. 
 Nash, Joseph Gwilt and Ware to be as much Italian architects, as 
 I do Messrs. Soane and Smirke, to be Grecian), attempted too 
 much variety in compositions which are to be seen at once, and 
 in such cases, too much variety creates confusion. Hence their 
 architecture like their language possesses all the vices of 
 beauty, and is too rich, too redolent of charms, too redundant 
 in variety, has too many parts "joined " as the noble poet says. 
 
 " By no quite lawful marriage of the arts, 
 Might shock a connoisseur ; but when combin'd 
 
 Form'd a whole which, irregular in parts, 
 Yet left a grand impression on the mind." 
 
 A villa, as generally understood at the present day, is a 
 rural mansion or retreat, for wealthy men. The palace with us, 
 
 K 
 
26 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 belongs to the sovereign and is sometimes applied to the epis- 
 copal residence of a bishop. The mansion implies the residence 
 of state of a nobleman or gentleman, and sometimes the house 
 of the lord of a manor. 
 
 The villa, on the contrary is the mere personal property and 
 residence of the owner, where he retires to enjoy himself with- 
 out state. It is superior to the ornamented cottage, standing 
 as it were between the cottage cornee of the French, and the 
 mansion or hall of the English. The term is never more pro- 
 perly applied than when given to such suburban structures as 
 those which are rising around us, serving as they may well 
 do from situation as to the town, and from position as to rural 
 beauty. 
 
 Quite unlike those merchant's and sugar-baker's boxes which 
 crowd the sides of Clapham Road and Kennington Common, 
 
 Suburban villas, high-way side retreats, 
 
 That dread the encroachment of our growing streets, 
 
 Tight boxes, neatly sash'd, and in a blaze 
 
 With all a July's sun's collected rays, 
 
 Delight the citizen, who, gasping there, 
 
 Breathes clouds of dust, and calls it country air. 
 
 Cowper. 
 
 With the Romans the villa was quite a different affair. 
 Pliny's villas at Laurentinum, Tuscum, Tusculum, Tybur and 
 Preneste, of which he has left such ample and entertaining 
 descriptions in his epistles, were complete mansions, with resi- 
 dences for retinues of servants, families of his friends, whole 
 regiments of slaves, and other auxiliaries. 
 
 Hadrian's villa was a city of palaces, temples and theatres, 
 with an hypodrome, a naumachia, a palestra, a nympheum, a 
 stadium, a pretorium, splendid galleries of pictures and statues, 
 libraries, porticoes, residences for his ministers, officers, &c. 
 barracks for his soldiers, and an immensity of apartments fitted 
 up in a style of magnificence and splendour, worthy of a 
 Roman emperor. 
 
 The villas of Cicero, of Lucullus, and of many other eminent 
 Romans, which are so numerous and so thickly set at Tusculum, 
 and to which they retired from the fatigues of their professions, 
 are more in accordance with our ideas of such a structure. 
 So was that which the infamous Agrippina, according to 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 27 
 
 Tacitus, so often made the scene of her dissolute pleasures in 
 the same vicinity. 
 
 The villas of the modern Romans are nothing better than 
 large city palaces removed into the country. They consist of 
 rooms of state, not of domestic convenience, such as we asso- 
 ciate with the word villa. They seem more for show than use, 
 and if properly named, would be called palaces, instead of 
 villas. Such is the villa Ludovisi, such is the villa Aldobran- 
 dini, and such is the villa Albani, whose magnificent galleries 
 and spacious porticoes are filled with the most precious collec- 
 tion of ancient sculpture that any private cabinet ever con- 
 tained ; and which is as appropriately called a villa as if we 
 were to name the spacious mansions of Chatsworth or Blenheim 
 by the name of the villa Devonshire, or villa Marlborough. 
 The villa Mondragone has more windows than there are days in 
 the year, and the villa Borghese bears as much resemblance to 
 a villa as any of those just cited. 
 
 Palladio's villas more approach the utility and comfort of such 
 a structure. They are admirably adapted to the country and 
 climate for which he designed them, and are models of beauty 
 and arrangement. 
 
 Inigo Jones introduced the Palladian villa into England 
 with more taste than propriety. Lord Burlington continued 
 its practice, and accomplished its greatest beauties in his beau- 
 tiful gem at Chiswick ; but it is too cold, too dreary, and above 
 all, too comfortless, for our climate and our habits of society. 
 
 Campbell, Ware and Brettingham built mansions both large 
 and small, but scarcely any thing to be remembered as a villa. 
 Wren built town houses, and Vanburgh palaces, but neither of 
 them accomplished a villa. The houses of the former, many of 
 which are to be seen in London, and are commemorated in his 
 memoirs, cannot be considered, according to his own canons, as 
 architectural ; for he conformed to the French taste and Parisian 
 fashion of the day, and satirised them by avowing that " archi- 
 tecture aims at eternity, and is therefore the only thing inca- 
 pable of modes and fashions." 
 
 The various villas in the park, the consideration of which 
 have occasioned this digression, shall now be visited, if you 
 are sufficiently rested to proceed. The first that we arrive at, 
 is that of Mr. Burton, which he has named the Holme, a Saxon 
 
28 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 word, meaning a river island. Good views of it are obtained over 
 the lake and island whence it derives its name, from Hanover 
 Terrace, along Sussex Place, and from Clarence Terrace. From 
 the gardens opposite these buildings our- view is taken. Its 
 charming plantations and lovely evergreens, on a fine autumnal 
 day, when we viewed it from the opposite grounds last year, 
 and surveyed the glassy surface of the silver lake, 
 
 " Sloped downwards to its brinks and stood, 
 With their green faces fixed upon the flood." 
 
 Lord Byron. 
 
 This villa, appears from the grounds, to consist of but two 
 stories, the principal and the chamber story ; but in reality it 
 consists of three, the offices being contained in a basement, 
 which is concealed by a lawned terrace, and protected from 
 damps by concealed area walls. This story is lighted and ap- 
 proached from the outside by areas on its flanks, which are 
 hidden by the plantations. 
 
 The entrance is on the opposite front to that shown in the 
 view, under an Ionic tetrastyle portico. It consists of a door and 
 two windows, one of which lights the study and the other the 
 eating room. This portico corresponds in width with the bow, 
 or rotunda in the garden front, and is covered with a well-pro- 
 portioned pediment ; and the windows agree with those seen in 
 the view : except those under the portico which are smaller, and 
 light the stair-case on one side, and a closet or small dressing 
 room on the other. The door is in the centre, and opens to a 
 hall 16*0 by lO'O, with only one door besides that by which 
 you enter. This door leads to a corridor that communicates 
 with all the apartments of the principal story and the stairs to 
 the chamber story, which are on the left side (on entering) of 
 the hall. The apartments consist of a handsome drawing room 
 which occupies the bow, a library on the side next the conser- 
 vatory and a billiard room on the other side. These three rooms 
 occupy the garden front, and can be easily thrown together into 
 one or two apartments, by means of large folding doors. At 
 the back of the library is a spacious dining room, entered 
 under a circular recess ; and behind the billiard room, which is 
 as large as the eating room, is a study or gentleman's room, in 
 a retired situation suited to its purposes. The chambers and 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 29 
 
 dormitories are above stairs. The bow is decorated by attached 
 columns of the same order as those in the entrance front, and the 
 entablature is continued on every face of the building except 
 the wings, where the architrave is omitted to make room for 
 the dressings of the windows. The bow is surmounted by an 
 attic, and covered with a well proportioned cupola. Each end of 
 the flanks is finished with a pediment formed by the roof 
 itself, not as in some modern instances, by an applique of a 
 different shape. The length of the building on the ground 
 story is sixty-six feet, and the depth on its flanks forty-four feet. 
 
 The style of the building is villa-like and characteristic, and 
 the appearance from the grounds rural and pleasing. It is 
 the work of a young architect, and is creditable to his rising 
 abilities. 
 
 There is time yet to inpsect another of these suburban villas, 
 if you are not too tired :— therefore in our way to our friend's 
 house in St. John's Wood, where we are to dine, we will pass 
 again along the terraces that adorn the outer circle. Look ! 
 what a fine effect the portico of the new church has, now the 
 setting sun illuminates its northern aspect. It is singular, that 
 most of our best porticoes and facades have this dull and sun- 
 less aspect. From the India House to Somerset House, and 
 thence to Carlton Palace, (which by the way is now being re- 
 moved), and again, this before us, all face the dreary north. 
 
 Look ! I say, at the effect, (the detail and proportions we will 
 defer till to-morrow), see how the long gray shadows contrast 
 with the mellow sunny hue of the lights ; and how playfully they 
 break, and cross each other. What a beautiful carved frame, 
 in appearance, the houses on both sides of York Gate form to 
 the church, (see the print), and how well the Ionic order of 
 the houses carries on the eye to the richer Corinthian of the 
 church. 
 
 Well, let us proceed dinnerward, and cast another look as 
 we proceed at the terraces on the left, and at the beautiful 
 plantations and lovely lake on our right. See ! the sparkling 
 undulating line of beauty, formed by the curved neck of that 
 swan, sailing majestically by the dark green shrubs of the 
 Holme. The united powers of the magic pencils of Ruysdael 
 and Claude would hardly do justice to that bit of brilliant 
 nature. See again at that charming groupe of (angels, I was 
 
 L 
 
30 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 going to say,) children, who are sporting between the shiubs. 
 By heaven, I could stay here all day feasting my eyes, till my 
 more corporeal nature would command me to attend to other 
 senses. 
 
 Before we cross the bridge at Macclesfield Gate, I will call 
 your attention to the picturesque groupe before us, formed by 
 Albany Cottage in the fore-ground, Hanover Lodge a little be- 
 hind it, and Grove House, that which has the Ionic portico and 
 niches, in the distance. 
 
 Grove House, the residence of George Bellas Greenough, Esq. 
 is another of Mr. Decimus Burton's elegant designs, and is com- 
 pletely in the villa style of architecture. It is larger and has 
 more pretensions to architectural character, than that of his 
 father. The garden front, which forms the principal feature in 
 the print, is divided into three portions, a centre and two wings. 
 The wings are backed with the flanks of the side elevations, 
 which give a value to their outlines. 
 
 The centre of the garden front, is composed of a tetrastyle 
 portico of the Ionic order, raised on a terrace. Three windows 
 fill the apertures between the columns, aud a long panel over 
 them, gives an apparent height to the apartment thus decorated. 
 The wings have recesses, the sofhtes of which are supported by 
 three quarter columns of the Doric order. Between these 
 columns are well proportioned niches, each of which contains a 
 statue. No other window or door appears on the front, which 
 gives a remarkable and pleasing casino or pleasure-house cha- 
 racter to the house. 
 
 The portico, which is composed of one of the purest of the 
 Grecian orders, is surmounted by a well proportioned pediment 
 and acroteria ; and the cornice of the wings, by a blocking 
 course, the beauty of which is injured, by its integrity being 
 broken and its character weakened, through raising the angles and 
 depressing the centre, contrary to all the sound rules of the art, 
 and of the elements of beauty. The curvilinear dipping lines 
 of these finials to the wings are discordant to the eye, and 
 should have been avoided. Sir Christopher Wren* says, that 
 "an artist ought to be jealous of novelties, in which fancy 
 binds the judgment; and to think his judges, as well those 
 
 * Elmes's Life of Wren, Appendix, p. 120 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 31 
 
 that are to live five centuries after him, as those of his own 
 time. That which is commendable now for novelty will not be 
 a new invention to posterity, when his works are often imitated, 
 and when it is not known which is the original ; but the glory 
 of that which is good is eternal." 
 
 The entrance front, also consists of three parts, or divisions, 
 a centre and two wings. The centre, however, is kept subor- 
 dinate to the garden or principal front, by having no pediment, 
 but is finished with a simple straight blocking course over the 
 level Ionic cornice, which is continued through both fronts and 
 flanks, as the theme or subject of the composition. This variety 
 of uniformity gives perfect beauty and an Ionic character to the 
 house ; although the lower portico and decorations of the niches 
 have a Doric accompaniment. These uniformities carried 
 alternately in the fronts, affect the eye, as the key notes in 
 music, or the alternate rhymes in poetry, do the ear. The 
 blocking course is finished by a panelled acroterium, surmounted 
 by a sub-cornice and lesser blocking course ; shorter by about 
 a fourth than its plinth, and carried into a pyramidal form by 
 well proportioned trusses, which have the merit of appearing 
 really as supporters to their centre. 
 
 Under the architrave of the leading entablature are the 
 windows of the chamber story. Three in the centre and one 
 in the flanks. The entrance door is protected by a spacious 
 semi-circular portico of the true Doric order, which harmonizes 
 with the livelier Ionic, as Linley's inimitable violoncello does 
 with Spagnoletti's brilliant fiddle :—or to take a higher character, 
 like one of Mozart's majestic accompaniments, to his brilliant 
 and inventive arias. 
 
 The blocking course of this order is carried horizontally in a 
 straight line, and vertically in a beautiful curve, censuring by 
 its harmony the discord of its weak and inefficient neighbour. 
 I cannot help again quoting Wren while we are here, although 
 our friend may be getting warm, and his dinner cold, by our 
 delay. It is from the same unfinished sketch that I before 
 quoted from, and is germain to our subject. 
 
 " Beauty, firmness and convenience," says our great master, 
 " are the principles of architecture ; the first two depend upon 
 geometrical reasons of optics and statics ; the third only makes 
 the variety. There are natural causes of beauty. Beauty," ob- 
 
32 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 serves he, making a fine definition, « is a harmony of objects, 
 begetting pleasure by the eye." Then he proceeds to say that 
 there are two causes of beauty, "natural and customary. 
 Natural is from geometry, consisting in uniformity, that is, 
 equality and proportion. Customary beauty is begotten by the' 
 use of our own senses to those objects which are usually 
 pleasing to us for other causes j as familiarity, or particular 
 inclination, breeds a love to things not in themselves lovely. 
 Here lies the great occasion of errors ; here is tried the archi- 
 tect's judgment ; but always the true test is natural or geome- 
 trical beauty." 
 
 Put your tasteless watch into your hungry fob, I will not 
 detain you from your dinner many minutes, and the subject is 
 so apt, that I must finish it. We will take gallant's law, and 
 lay the blame on the enticing beauties that have surrounded 
 and accompanied us. " Geometrical figures," continues my 
 master, "are naturally more beautiful than other irregular 
 figures ; in this, all consent as to a law of nature. Of geome- 
 trical figures, the square and the circle, are most beautiful. 
 Next, the parallelogram and the oval. Straight lines are more 
 beautiful than curved: next to straight lines, equal and 
 geometrical flexures. An object elevated in the middle" (mind 
 that friend Decimus, and violate no more the purity of thy 
 blocking courses) " is more beautiful than depressed." 
 
 The general composition of Grove House accords (excepting 
 only the inharmonious discord of the aforesaid blocking course, 
 which affects the eye like a badly resolved chord in music does 
 the ear), with the definition of beauty, that I have just quoted. 
 The principal, or garden front, is harmonious, both in its 
 principal features and in its accessories ; the entrance front 
 is equally harmonious in itself, and secondary to the leading 
 ideas, forming an admirable tenor to the soprano facade of 
 the garden, and the whole forms a pretty architectural sinfonia 
 of a few parts ; the composer wisely leaving the more magnifi- 
 cent and grander features of the art for fuller compositions :— to 
 such as where 
 
 " The pillar'd dome magnific heaves 
 Its ample roof; and luxury within, 
 Pours out her glittering stores." 
 
 Thomson. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 33 
 
 The interior of this modest mansion is commodiously ar- 
 ranged, both for convenience and utility. The study of this 
 department of our art, convenience, particularly in domestic ar- 
 chitecture, is one of the most useful, and at the same time, one 
 of the most difficult parts of an architect's profession. Sir 
 Henry Wotton, in discussing this subject, says, that" every man's 
 proper mansion-house and home, being the theatre of his hospi- 
 tality, the seat of self-fruition, the comfortable part of his own 
 life, the noblest of his son's inheritance, a kind of private 
 princedom ; nay, to the possessors thereof, an epitome of the 
 whole world, may well deserve, by these attributes, according 
 to the degree of the masters, to be decently and delightfully 
 adorned. For which end there are two arts attending on ar- 
 chitecture, like two of her principal gentlewomen, to dress and 
 trim their mistress — picture and sculpture." I know not what 
 our old friend Fuseli would have said to this doctrine of making 
 painting a dressing maid to architecture. Fiaxman would have 
 shaken his venerable head at any one who would have promul- 
 gated such an heresy concerning his art. Courage ! I see land, 
 our friend's house is in view, the chimneys are delightfully tele- 
 graphing us with their smoak, and I have just time to finish 
 the diplomatic-architecto-critic's opinion of the three arts : 
 " between whom," continues he, " before I proceed any farther, 
 I will venture to determine an ancient quarrel about their pre- 
 cedency, with this distinction ; that in the garnishing of fabrics, 
 sculpture no doubt must have the pre-eminence, as being 
 indeed of nearer affinity to architecture itself, and consequently, 
 the more natural and suitable ornament. But, on the other 
 side, to consider these two arts, as I shall do, philosophically, 
 and not mechanically, an excellent piece of painting is to 
 my judgment the more admirable object, because it comes 
 near an artificial miracle to make divers distinct eminences 
 appear upon a flat by force of shadows, and yet the shadows 
 themselves not to appear, which I conceive the uttermost 
 value, and virtue of a painter, and to which very few have 
 arrived." 
 
 As we have yet a few minutes, I must say something of the 
 horticultural decorations, which "garnish" this villa. 
 
 M 
 
34 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 They are at present young and incomplete, but looking with 
 a pictorial eye, at their present capabilities and prospects of 
 future growth, they are beautifully diversified, and give a 
 characteristic back-ground and accompaniment to the principal 
 feature — the house. 
 
35 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 " Fountains and Trees, our wearied pride do please, 
 E'en in the midst of gilded palaces; 
 And in our towns, that prospect gives delight, 
 Which opens round the country to our sight. 
 
 Sprat 
 
 TOUR OF THE REGENT'S PARK, BEGINNING AT YORK GATE YORK GATE AND THE 
 
 NEW CHURCH OF ST. MARY-LE-BONE, THE WORK OF TWO ARCHITECTS, CONSI- 
 DERED AS ONE COMPOSITION CONVERSION BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT OF AN 
 
 TONIC CHAPEL INTO A CORINTHIAN CHURCH OBSTINACY OF THE BASES, 
 
 CONTRASTED WITH THE SUBSERVIENCY OF THE CAPITALS YORK TERRACE 
 
 CORNWALL TERRACE ARCHITECTURE COMPARED WITH MUSIC CLARENCE 
 
 TERRACE — OBSERVATIONS — SUSSEX PLACE — HANOVER TERRACE DESCRIP- 
 TIONS OF AND REMARKS ON ALBANY COTTAGE HANOVER LODGE GROVE 
 
 HOUSE, THE VILLA OF MR. GREENOUGH THE MARQUESS OF HERTFORD'S VILLA 
 
 MACCLESFIELD BRIDGE THE GROUNDS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY THE 
 
 COLLEGIATE CHURCH AND HOSPITAL OF ST. CATHERINE THE MASTER'S RESI- 
 DENCE CHESTER TERRACE — CAMBRIDGE TERRACE — MR. HORNOR's COLISEUM 
 
 THE DIORAMA MR. SOANE's NEW CHURCH. 
 
 Good morning to you gentlemen, we are betimes and punc- 
 tual, and it is well we are so, for we have much to do. The 
 morning, however, is auspicious, and we go to our task with 
 affection. Let us, as the French say, begin with the beginning, 
 and by walking gently along the New Road, enter upon our 
 undertaking at 
 
 York Gate. 
 
 To see this place (for York Gate is not only the entrance 
 gateway to the park, but also comprises the two rows of man- 
 sions that flank' it, forming an architectural avenue to the 
 park on entering it, and a brilliant border to the church on 
 leaving it) we should go upon the bridge. 
 
 The entrance is formed by the porches of the eastern and 
 western ends of York Terrace, which is thus divided into 
 two halves. These porches give the effect of lodges to the 
 gates which cross the avenue, and break the perpendicularity 
 of the line of houses. Of the terrace itself, I will say a word 
 
36 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 or two as we pass round the park, after examining the two rows 
 of mansions that flank this handsome entrance to it. 
 
 One side is similar to the other, and consists of a centre and 
 two wings. The wings project from the main body of the 
 building, and are plain in their elevation, except where their 
 perpendicular lines are broken by a string course, which forms 
 the plinth to the stylobate of the Ionic order of the centre, and 
 by the cornices of the principal and attic orders. 
 
 The centres recede, and are decorated by semi-circular headed 
 windows in the ground story,- by a colonnade of the Ionic 
 order, to the principal and two pair stories, and by an attic sur- 
 mounting the cornice of the principal order. The inter-columni- 
 ations, are appropriated to the windows ; those of the principal 
 story having balconies formed by a balustrade, between the 
 pedestals of the order. Both the buildings are insulated, their 
 northern extremities being bounded by the mews and entrances 
 to the houses of York Terrace, and their southern ends by the 
 buildings and gardens of Nottingham Terrace, which reach to 
 the New Road. 
 
 Before we proceed to a brief examination of the church, let 
 me call your attention to the rich and varied effect of the three 
 architectural facades of which this stereotomous scene, like that 
 of Palladio's sculptured scenery at the Olympic theatre of 
 Vicenza, is composed. The western front is in positive shadow, 
 relieved only by the atmospheric reflection, that faintly deli- 
 neates the details, and gives a massive effect approaching to 
 that of moon-light ; while its opposite brother sparkles with all 
 the radiance of the morning sun, having shadows and lights, 
 reflexes and demitints, in varied harmony. The church con- 
 nects this light and shade, this treble and base, as it were, of 
 the composition, by a middle tint of half shadow, a sort of 
 tenor to the others, and is illuminated into complete detail by 
 the reflected lights from the eastern front of the buildings, from 
 the surface of the road in its front, and from the atmosphere. 
 These lights produce almost the effect of perfect day-light 
 without sun-shine, upon the portico and aisles of the church ; and 
 give softened instead of cast shadows, like those in sun-shine, 
 and the west front is comparatively dark, from the excessive 
 light of the eastern building. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 37 
 
 They form a complete architectural pictorial symphony of three 
 parts, in perfect harmony as a composition, although the work 
 of two masters. True it is, there are some defects in the detail, 
 the attic cornice is too trifling and petite, and the upper blocking 
 course too insignificant, . and not exactly in good keeping with 
 the rest, or in good taste : — but, when the adapter of the ac- 
 companiments (Mr. Nash), has succeeded so well in completing 
 the whole subject, of which the church, the theme as it may 
 be called of the composition, is the work of another artist (the 
 late Mr. Hardwick), and rendered it so picturesque and harmo- 
 nious as a whole ; we must not seek too rigidly for the accidental 
 carelessness of an appogiatura note or two, that may offend 
 against the strict rules of the art, the entire composition being 
 so pleasing and satisfactory. 
 
 One more look, as that passing cloud is beautifully varying 
 the bright lines of the columns with a dioramic effect, and then 
 we will cross the road, and take a closer view of the new 
 church. 
 
 The New Chukch of St. Maey-le-bone. 
 
 The first church of this parish was dedicated, say the anti- 
 quaries, to St. John, and the second one, of which I have 
 before spoken, to the Virgin Mary. Of this idol of the Catholic 
 church, in those days England possessed many, even as there 
 are still a plurality of Madonnas in those countries where the 
 Roman Catholic faith prevails. This saint in particular, was 
 called St. Mary of, or at, the bourn, and now by corruption 
 and acceptation, St. Mary-le-bone, which, with your leave I 
 shall call it, with the vulgar million, leaving its etymology and 
 correct orthography to the wise few, who patronize word-catching 
 and antiquarianism. 
 
 The original church stood on or near the present court-house 
 of the parish, at the end of Mary-le-bone Lane, near Oxford 
 Street. The second church was built on the site of a chapel 
 near the upper end of High Street; which, becoming dilapidated, 
 was taken down in the year 1741, and a new one, now called 
 the 'parish chapel, erected in its place. It is, as Cobbett says, in 
 The Rejected Addresses, " a plain brown brick edifice." 
 
 N 
 
38 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 This church becoming inadequate to the population and re- 
 spectability of the parish, in spite of the many chapels of ease 
 which had been built within its circuit, the parishioners for 
 many years past had been endeavouring to procure the erection 
 of a new parish church, commensurate with their wants. In 
 1770 they procured an act of parliament for building one, for 
 making a new cemetery, and other purposes connected there- 
 with ; and a design for its construction by Sir William Cham- 
 bers was approved by the proper authorities. In 1772 or 1773 
 the vestrymen procured a new and enlarged act, empowering 
 them to provide an additional public cemetery, and to erect a 
 new parish chapel of ease. The plot of ground before us was 
 therefore purchased and enclosed, but no farther steps were 
 taken till after the passing of a fourth act in 1811, which re- 
 pealed all the former acts, and gave new powers to the vestry- 
 men and their successors. 
 
 These gentlemen, therefore, determined in the beginning of 
 the year 1813 to build a new chapel of ease on this spot, and 
 adopted a design for such purpose, made by Thomas Hardwick, 
 Esq. The work was accordingly commenced in the July of 
 that year, and the edifice was proceeding rapidly to completion, 
 when the building was suddenly stopped ; and various altera- 
 tions effected.- It was then much smaller and of a different 
 order, the Ionic. Some of the capitals, I well remember, were 
 carved, and I believe one or two were erected upon their proper 
 shafts. When this smaller building was at this stage of its 
 operations, the select vestry came to the resolution of converting 
 their incipient chapel of ease into a complete parish church : and 
 as parliament is proverbially said to be omnipotent, they pro- 
 cured another act to empower them to make that metamorphosis, 
 and to convert, by its magic influence, good Ionic columns into 
 substantial Corinthians. This occasioned a perfect chaos among 
 the materials and elements of the building ; which, when or- 
 der was restored, all the shafts of the Ionic columns became 
 elongated to Corinthian proportions, and were surmounted by 
 capitals of that splendid order. But the humble attic bases of 
 the original design, not having the fear of being called to the 
 bar of the house before their eyes, would not give way to the 
 parliamentary enactment, and remain to this day vouching for 
 their Ionian origin. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 39 
 
 The more modest maidenly tower, was also compelled to 
 resign her claims, in order to make way for the riper and more 
 matured beauties of a sedate matronly campanile steeple. The 
 aisle-like additions of the stair-ways to the galleries, received 
 the embroidered decorations of a pair of orthodox columns, the 
 tetrastyle Ionic porch of the chapel was extended to the hexas- 
 tyle Corinthian portico of the church, and various other altera- 
 tions were made, to give the daughter chapel, now married by 
 authority of parliament, the character of a mother church. 
 
 When completed and consecrated, the new edifice was named, 
 with all due solemnity, the parish church of St. Mary-le-bone ; 
 and was invested with all the rights and privileges of its de- 
 crepit and divorced predecessor, which was obliged to retire 
 into the humble rank of 'parish chapel, and to act as a handmaid 
 to its more favoured, and more youthful successor. 
 
 The Duke of Portland, as rector of the parish, nominates the 
 curate, who is to be licensed by the Bishop of London. This 
 ecclesiastical officer is now paid a stipend suitable to the rank 
 and wealth of his flock. But, as a contrast to the present day, 
 Mr. Lysons informs us in his valuable researches into the history 
 of the environs of London, that in 1511 the curate's stipend 
 was only thirteen shillings a year, which was paid by Thomas 
 Hobson, then lessee under the priory of Blakemore. In 1650 
 the impropriation was valued at £80 a year, and the curate was 
 paid £15 a year, his other emoluments averaging generally 
 about the same sum. From the prodigious increase of first-rate 
 buildings, and of population in the parish, particularly in the 
 Regent's Park, the contingencies of the minister's stipend are 
 now such as to make it divisible into several valuable benefices. 
 
 The plan of this church, like most of those in the metropolis, 
 is a parallelogram, with its longest sides distributed to the north 
 and south, instead of to the east and west, as is usual with 
 Christian churches. This method of construction, which throws 
 the principal or entrance front to the north, and the altar to the 
 south, is an arrangement that doubtlessly was thought of but 
 little importance when its original destination was for a Chapel ; 
 but is objectionable in many points of view, as I will presently 
 shew you, in a Church. 
 
 The north front is elongated by lateral projections to the east 
 and west, which are both faced by detached columns. These 
 
40 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 wings contain the staircases which lead to the galleries. The 
 south ends of the east and west fronts are also elongated by 
 similar projections, which, lying diagonally in relation to the 
 main building, form internally a semi-hexagonal recess for the 
 altar ; and externally, that to the eastward a direct portico or 
 facade of entrance from High Street, and that to the westward 
 a corresponding form, which, however, faces only the church- 
 yard. The eastern diagonal wing, contains a vestibule and 
 staircase to the gallery, and to the private family pews above, 
 which have the heterodox and profane appearance of the private 
 boxes of a dramatic theatre. The western corresponding ap- 
 pendage, contains a similar staircase upon a smaller scale, and a 
 vestry room below, and family pews corresponding with those 
 opposite to them, above. 
 
 Before entering the church, the doors of which fortunately 
 for us are open, we will take a view of the principal elevation 
 now before us. The portico, which is raised upon six steps, is 
 Corinthian, of the proportions and after the chaste example of 
 the Pantheon at Rome, and is hexastyle in front. It is crowned 
 by a proper entablature, and a well proportioned pediment. 
 Behind the principal range of columns, which have a return 
 column and an anta on each flank of the portico, are three 
 doorways, with well proportioned architraves and dressings. 
 The centre entrance leads to the nave, and the sides to the 
 aisles and galleries. The elevation is divided into two stories 
 by a string course, on which, in front, are two semi-circular 
 headed windows over the side doors, and between the four 
 central columns, is a long blank sunk panel, which was in the 
 architect's original design, filled with a basso-rilievo representing 
 the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Few subjects of 
 sacred history, could be either more appropriate to a Christian 
 edifice than this narrative, the selection of which is highly 
 creditable to the taste and judgment of this able pupil of Sir 
 William Chambers, or compose better for a sculptural embel- 
 lishment to a Christian temple. The select vestry could not do 
 better than to order Mr. Westmacott, whom the Royal Academy 
 have with great judgment elected professor of sculpture, to fill 
 up the void by a sculptural representation of this very appro- 
 priate and analogous subject from his able hand ; and thus 
 complete the principal elevation of their handsome church. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 41 
 
 The ceiling of the portico is divided into panels by the archi 
 traves from the columns to the wall or cell of the building, 
 which are crossed by the epistylium of the columns in flank. 
 These panels are filled with flowers of a broad, bold and appro- 
 priate character, peculiarly suitable for their situation. 
 
 " Honour to whom honour is due," says a high authority, 
 therefore I should have been sorry had we left the portico with- 
 out noticing the inscription over the centre doorway ; which, like 
 that of the portico of Agrippa from which this is copied, records 
 the honoured names of its pious founders. 
 
 " This Church was erected at the expense of the 
 parishioners, and consecrated vi. february, 
 a.d. mdcccxv1ii. 
 
 fD,J 
 
 Sir James Graham, Bart. 3 
 George Allen,^ 
 
 The Duke of Portland,, 
 
 churchwardens. 
 
 :n,7 
 
 '> SID] 
 
 ..JESMEN. 
 
 John Russell, 
 
 I had almost forgotten my promise of animadverting upon 
 the practice of reversing, or neglecting, the ancient custom of 
 building churches east and west, which makes the entrance or 
 portico face the west, and the altar or posticum face the east or 
 rising sun. To say nothing of religious principle in this mode 
 of construction, which however, like most principles founded 
 on such grounds, will always be found consistent with good 
 sense, the custom of placing churches east and west is of 
 very ancient practice, and independently of the Christian feel- 
 ing of the early ages, is founded on good taste, and is the most 
 beautiful in practice ; not only for the sentiments that it 
 inspires from its antiquity, and from the feeling of adoring the 
 Creator of all things, looking towards the east, where his boun- 
 teous source of light and heat rises to beautify and benefit our 
 mundane globe ; but from the circumstance, that such a mode 
 of distribution gives more beauty and variety of light and 
 shade, than any other. In a northern aspect, such as this of 
 Mary-le-bone new church, the portico, which ia always the 
 most distinguishing feature of a church, is turned towards 
 that part of the heavens, from whence the sun never shines ; 
 and it rarely catches its enlivening rays, but receives on 
 
 o 
 
42 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 the contrary the gloomy sepulchral reflected light of a northern 
 aspect, and bears more the character of a pagan sepulchre, than 
 of the enlivening features of a Christian temple. 
 
 Ths steeple partakes of the same gloomy character in front, 
 but being circular in its upper part, and having every face 
 alike, the same objection does not entirely hold good. There- 
 fore to catch the best character of this feature of the church, 
 which by the way is the most difficult thing to design in modern 
 architecture, and may be called both the touch-stone and op- 
 probium of modern art, let us walk a little way down the New 
 Road towards Portland Place, and observe the charming effect 
 of the light and shade upon its varied forms. 
 
 To compare this steeple with the best of Gibbs' or any of 
 Wren's, that are executed in stone, would be trying its architect 
 by too severe a standard, for who of modern days has sur- 
 passed that of St. Martin's in the Fields, or has equalled those of 
 St. Bride's, Bow, or many others that may occur to an observing 
 spectator ? But it has its beauties, which are principally those 
 of detail, and its defects, which are entirely those of outline and 
 of appropriateness. In outline it is bulky and inelegant, and 
 in appropriateness, either the pediment should have been 
 omitted, or the campanile should not have been placed a strad- 
 dle upon its back. It has no precedent in any work of Wren's, 
 who always brings up his spire from a sufficient tower, and base 
 from the ground ; nor do I remember at this moment any in 
 the great Italian masters. Gibbs furnishes an example in St. 
 Martin's, and so does the elder Dance in St. Leonard, Shoreditch, 
 two specimens of great beauty, elegance and solidity, but defi- 
 cient in this first requisite of a bell tower, a sufficiently apparent 
 foundation. 
 
 The steeple, as you may perceive, commences on the summit 
 of the pediment and roof, by a square rusticated tower of 
 twenty-one feet on each side. In the centre is a clock, which 
 breaks the monotony of the masonry. On the upper part of 
 this is a circular peristyle of columns of the Corinthian order. 
 A blocking course and two lofty steps surmount the cornice 
 and form a base to eight caryatic figures of the winds, 
 which support an entablature, a blocking course, and a series of 
 eight trusses, bearing up as many ribs, upon a cupola, which 
 finish upon its vertex, and support a pedestal and weathercock. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 43 
 
 The setting off* of the square tower to the circular temple is too 
 abrupt for symmetry, and consequently fails in producing a 
 beautiful effect. The composition is not sufficiently pyramidal, 
 nor lofty, but the female figures, and the semicircular headed 
 apertures between them, are novel in design, and elegant in 
 effect. Its height is about seventy-five feet from the roof, or 
 120 feet from the ground. 
 
 As we are on this side, lets us go down High Street, take a 
 look at the eastern front, which has an original and striking 
 appearance on this side, from the effect of the almost meridian 
 sun which is now shining upon it ; and enter the church, by the 
 south-eastern entrance. Over the corresponding door, is a similar 
 niche to that before us, and the wing is ornamented in every 
 respect in a similar manner. 
 
 The floor of the church is raised five or six steps above the 
 level of the cemetery, which is a method that should always be 
 adopted, as the ground of the church-yard is always increasing 
 in height. Witness the number of churches in the country 
 whose floors are become by such means much below the level 
 of the surrounding soil, to the great injury of the health of 
 the congregation. 
 
 The interior, which we are now entering, is, as you perceive, 
 spacious, airy and commodious ; and, having a second gallery, 
 will accommodate an immense congregation, the members of 
 which can all hear and see as well as in any church in the me- 
 tropolis. The arrangement of the galleries and pews, and the 
 distribution of the seats, are all excellent as far as hearing and 
 seeing are concerned, but are too theatrical in appearance, for 
 an edifice of so sacred a character as a church. This appear- 
 ance is still farther increased by the private pews, which stand- 
 ing in the diagonal sides in tiers bear also too great a resemblance 
 to the private boxes, and the altar and its decorations, with the 
 organ in its centre, and the flimsy linen transparency in its 
 front, to the proscenium of a theatre. With these exceptions, 
 the interior is rich and splendid, and bears evidence of a sound 
 and pure taste in its architect. The lower part of the altar- 
 piece is also in excellent style, and the altar picture of a holy 
 family, by West, is one of the best productions of that facile 
 painter. 
 
 The pulpit and desks are beautifully carved in mahogany, 
 
44 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 and are very appropriate to their destined purposes. The 
 ceiling, as you may perceive, is broad and bold in style, and 
 effective in execution. The splendid effect of this church on 
 Sundays, when filled by a congregation of the first wealth and 
 information in the British metropolis, cannot be surpassed. 
 
 Our morning is wasting fast, we have much to see and to 
 talk about, and the pew-opener is waiting to lock the doors 
 after us ; therefore, if you please, we will leave this singularly 
 original design, return into the Park by York Gate, and pursue 
 our peregrinations. I almost had forgotten to say, that the 
 expense of building the church, including the charge incurred 
 by the alterations from the original design of a chapel into a 
 church, was about £60,000. 
 
 See the rich embroidered prospect now before us ! Look on 
 our right how the huge cupola of the Coliseum spreads its 
 ample rotunda among the groves of mansions, pleasure grounds 
 and squares. See the bizarre minarets of Sussex Place on our 
 J eft, in direct opposition to it ; and the tasteful pilasters of 
 Cornwall Terrace, how they play in the sunny corruscations cf 
 this brilliant morning. With how much more justice might the 
 poet exclaim, had he lived to see our metropolis in this our 
 day,— 
 
 " this splendid city ' 
 How wanton sits she, amidst nature's smiles ; 
 Nor from her highest turret has to view, 
 But golden landscapes, and luxuriant scenes, 
 A waste of wealth, the store -house of the world." 
 \ Young. 
 
 York Terrace. 
 
 Now we are again in the confines of the park. The buildings 
 on our right and left are York Terrace, designed by Mr. Nash. 
 That which is eastward of York Gate, we will leave till we 
 return to it after our circuit, and inspect that on our left. This 
 splendid row of princely mansions, has the appearance of one 
 single building, of a complete palatial character ; owing to all 
 the entrances being in the rear, where large and characteristic 
 porches protect the vestibules, and serve for the reception of 
 dressed company from carriages in bad weather. All the doors 
 and windows in this lawn or principal front, are uniform, and 
 have the appearance of a suit of princely apartments rather 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 45 
 
 than a row of private dwellings. This idea is kept up by the 
 pleasing and judicious arrangement of the gardens, which have 
 no divisions, but are laid out in the style of grounds belonging 
 to the palace. The elevation is in a good Italian style of archi- 
 tecture in composition, with Grecian detail ; and consists of an 
 entrance or ground story, with semicircular headed windows, 
 and rusticated piers. A stylobate, or continued pedestal above 
 the rusticated arches of these windows, runs through the whole 
 composition, divided between the columns into balustrades in 
 front of the windows of the one pair or principal story, to 
 which they form balconies of a handsome architectural cha- 
 racter, much superior to the trivial thread-like iron balconies of 
 its predecessors. Lofty, well-proportioned windows, that give 
 light to the elegant drawing-rooms of the principal story, are 
 perforated immediately on the cornice of the stylobate, and in 
 accordance with the majestic simplicity of the order to which they 
 belong (the Ionic of the Ilyssus), they are left without decoration. 
 A similar range of windows, of the same width but less in 
 height, are constructed for the use of the principal chamber 
 story, and like those of the drawing-room story are also without 
 dressings. These two stories form the principal architectural 
 features of the terrace, and are decorated with a colonnade of 
 the Ilyssus Ionic order. The angles are finished in antis, and 
 the order is completed by a well proportioned entablature, 
 adapted with great propriety from the same beautiful specimen 
 of the order. On the summit of the cornice is constructed an 
 attic story, which by prescription is allowed to wander a little 
 into the bizarre, but this strays rather too much into the 
 irregular, to accompany so chaste a composition as the Ionic, to 
 which it forms a crown. The cornice and blocking course are 
 both also too small in proportion for the majesty of the lower 
 order. A contrast there should be certainly, but not m style. 
 It is in a different key, and is a false concord, when only an 
 harmonious discord was required. The windows between the 
 piers or pilasters of this story, are of the same width as those 
 below, and finished with semicircular heads and sash windows 
 in correspondence with those of the lower story. 
 
 Now we will proceed in our excursion, but hark ! at that 
 delightful harp. The very circumstance of not seeing the 
 charming player enhances the romance of the scene. How the 
 
46 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 swelling chords wander about the ear. It comes from the open 
 window, with the tamboured muslin curtains, and it accords so 
 completely with the harmony of the scene, that I cannot tear 
 myself away. The lovely musician is revelling in all the bril- 
 liancy of Arpeggio variations upon the beautiful Venetian air 
 sul margine del rio. Mark the rapidity with which she executes 
 that brillante passage, swelling from the minutest piano to the 
 most powerful forte, stopping as if by magic in an instant 
 and then reverting to the original air. It ceases ! Well ! the 
 highest enjoyments are often the most brief. Therefore now 
 let us proceed. 
 
 Cornwall Terrace. 
 
 This next row of buildings is one of the first, and at the 
 same time one of the prettiest, that have been erected in the 
 Park. It is called Cornwall Terrace, after our present 
 King's ducal title, when Regent of these kingdoms. The 
 houses are not on so large a scale as those in York Terrace, 
 but possess a character for regular beauty that some of their 
 more colossal neighbours want. This terrace is erected from 
 the designs of Mr. Decimus Burton, and possesses a character 
 of beauty and scholastic regularity, that is highly creditable to 
 the talents of this young architect. It consists of a rusticated 
 ground story, which forms a well proportioned basement to the 
 Corinthian order of the principal stories. The doors and win- 
 dows correspond in character, and preserve an appearance of 
 unity highly agreeable to the eye. This rusticated story pro- 
 jects beyond the face of the upper, which is of the Corinthian 
 order, with fluted shafts, well proportioned capitals, and an 
 equally well proportioned entablature. The windows, dressings, 
 accessories and other architectural and sculptured embellish- 
 ments of this very elegant row of houses, are in good taste, 
 and present to our view an architectural fa§ade of singular 
 beauty. 
 
 Clarence Terrace. 
 
 Let us now continue our ramble. This picturesque row of 
 houses is named after his Royal Highness the Lord High Ad- 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 47 
 
 rairal of England, and is also from the drawing board of Mr. 
 Burton, junior. It is in three portions, a centre and two wings, 
 of the Corinthian order, connected by two colonnades of the 
 Ilyssus Ionic order. This terrace is the smallest in the park ; 
 and from the circumstance of its projecting wings, and its Ionic 
 colonnade, it presents a greater variety in its composition, and 
 a more imposing effect, than if it were straight upon its face, 
 and had not such bold features. The elevation is divided into 
 three stories ; namely, a rusticated entrance, which serves as a 
 basement to the others, a Corinthian order embellishing the 
 drawing-room and chamber stories, and a well proportioned 
 entablature : these form the principal features of this pleasing- 
 composition. 
 
 If we cross over to the pavement of the terrace, and turn our 
 backs upon the houses, we shall enjoy one of the most pleasing 
 views in the park. Look at the beautiful expanse of the lake 
 before us ' See the exquisite diversity of scene, occasioned by 
 the islets or holmes that lay upon its tranquil bosom, in all the 
 variety of nature, when at the same time they are the effects of 
 art. Such power has the artist of pure taste, who looks to 
 nature as his guide, in the formation of living pictures like the 
 scene that we are now enjoying. 
 
 A house, situate like one of these, possesses the double ad- 
 vantage of town and country. By its contiguity to the fashion- 
 able and business parts of the metropolis, it forms a complete 
 town residence ; and by the romantic beauty of the decorated 
 landscape scenery by which it is surrounded, it is equal to any 
 part of the country for health and domestic retirement, for men 
 of business, 
 
 " When weary they retreat 
 
 T* enjoy cool nature in a country seat, 
 
 T* exchange the centre of a thousand trades 
 
 For clumps and lawns, and temples and cascades. : ' 
 
 Cowpkr. 
 
 How charming is the appearance of those two beautiful 
 villas, the Holme and South-villa, from this spot ; surrounded 
 as they are by such luxuriant vegetation of shrubs and trees, 
 and flowers, redolent of beauty and of the sweetest perfume. 
 
 Now let us proceed. The whimsical row of houses, that we 
 are now approaching is, 
 
48 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Sussex Place, 
 
 designed, I believe, by Mr. Nash. In elevation it presents a 
 singular contrast to the chaster beauties of the other terraces 
 and places, by which it is surrounded ; and was perhaps intro- 
 duced purposely by its able architect for the sake of picturesque 
 variety. For architectural beauty or good taste, if we separate 
 the pagoda-like cupolas of this pile, and the bizarre style of" 
 decoration which it displays, from its adjacent scenery and ac- 
 cessories, it is entitled to no commendation on the score of 
 pure style : but, when considered with the eye of a landscape 
 painter, it presents a variety of form, and an assemblage of 
 picturesque outlines, which diversify the scene, and prevent a 
 monotony of effect that might otherwise have been tedious. 
 The horticultural accessories, are pleasingly adapted to the 
 houses, and the situation, which commands some of the most 
 charming prospects in the park, is one of the most delightful 
 suburban sites in this region of beauty. The lake spreads its 
 tranquil bosom before the fagade, and reflects its eastern-like 
 cupolas with pleasing effect. The varied plantations of the 
 park, group with singular felicity, and the delightful season, that 
 we are now enjoying, gives a double relish to the natural beauties 
 of the place. 
 
 Now let us proceed, as the morning is wearing away apace, 
 and we have much to occupy our attention. 
 
 Our next object is the handsome row of mansions on our 
 left, named after his Majesty's continental kingdom and here- 
 ditary dominions, 
 
 Hanover Terrace ; 
 
 which is also a design of Mr. Nash's, and in a more gramma- 
 tical style of architecture than that which we have now left. 
 It has a centre and two wing buildings, of the Doric order, the 
 acroteria of which are surmounted by statues and other sculp- 
 tural ornaments in terra cotta. The centre building is crowned 
 by a well proportioned pediment, the tympanum of which is 
 embellished with statues and figures in a wretched style of art. 
 which the architect would do well to remove. The style of 
 
Engrave! Vv W. WaBis . 
 
 3LAKWEE TEMACE, KSEMT'S PARK. 
 
 INSCRIBED TO JOHN .NASH. ESQ * THE ARCHITECT OF THIS k OTHER SPLENDID WORKS IN. ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
 Pollished Maj i. 1827. by Jones & C°. 3. Acton Place, Kin£sland Road, London . 
 
 VIILEA EM T 181 IE REC-ENT'S PARK. 
 
 THE RESIDENCE OF G. B. GREENHOUGH ESQ : TO WHOM' THIS PLATE IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRLBED. 
 Published May 5. 1827, by Jones t- C°3. Acton Place, Kinjfsland Road. London . 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 49 
 
 architecture employed by the artist is Italian or Palladian, and 
 remarkably well adapted for the description of dwelling houses, 
 of which the structure is composed. The capitals are well pro- 
 portioned in design, and well executed, but the entablature is 
 weak in profile and inefficient in character, for the height of the 
 building to which it is appropriated. 
 
 The stories of the mansions are lofty, and elegantly finished, 
 and the domestic arrangement of the various rooms convenient, 
 and laid out in a masterly style. The situation of this very 
 pretty terrace is near the north western extremity of the western 
 branch of the lake which embellishes and refreshes the park. 
 The islet which faces its northernmost wing sweetly diversifies 
 the scene, and gives a charming sylvan character to the prospect 
 from the houses. 
 
 The knoll of Primrose hill which appears above the tops of 
 the young plantations, looks charmingly, as that passing cloud 
 is diversifying its emerald bosom, and removing a somewhat too 
 great monotony. A large reservoir of water is being formed 
 upon its summit for the supply of the houses in the park, as 
 high as their upper stories. This undertaking will add to the 
 character which our countrymen have ever enjoyed of adding 
 the useful to the ornamental. 
 
 Now let us rest a while, and enjoy the passing by of this bevy 
 of fair demoiselles on their prancing jennets, who appear 
 proud of their lovely burthens ; accompanied by the gentle 
 cavaliers who are escorting them, with beaming eyes and re- 
 joicing hearts. 
 
 How beautiful that group of detached buildings, north of 
 Hanover Terrace, composes from the situation in which we now 
 are. The first on our left is Albany Cottage, the picturesque 
 residence of Thomas Raikes, Esq. As a specimen of the Eng- 
 lish cottage ornee, it is scarcely to be surpassed, even in this 
 region of architectural and picturesque beauty. The planta- 
 tions accord with the architecture in a singularly happy manner, 
 and at this youthful season of the year, give out delicious and 
 health-inspiring perfumes. 
 
 " Welcome thou mother of the year, the spring," 
 
 sings old Kit Marlow in his masque of the Sun's darling, 
 
 Q 
 
50 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 " That mother, on whose back Age ne'er can sit, 
 For Age still waits upon her ; that Spring, the nurse 
 Whose milk the Summer sucks, and is made wanton , 
 Physician to the sick, strength to the sound ; 
 By whom all things above and under ground 
 Are quicken'd with new heat, fresh blood, brave vigour, 
 That spring that on fair cheeks in kisses lays 
 Ten thousand welcomes." 
 
 What can surpass the health-inspiring odour that now sur- 
 rounds us ; the gaiety of our lightened spirits, the suavity of 
 that cloudless sky, or the mirthful carols of the little birds, 
 which in this " violet-breathing May," are exulting in the very 
 joyousness of their being? 
 
 " Hark ! the cuckows sing 
 Cuckow to welcome in the spring. 
 Brave prick-song ! who is't now we hear? 
 'Tis the lark's silver leer-a-leer. 
 Chirrup the sparrow flies away : 
 For he fell to't ere break of day. 
 Ha, ha, hark, hark ! the cuckows sing, 
 Cuckow, to welcome in the Spring. 
 
 Marlow. 
 
 Shall we rise ? The next pretty house on the left beyond 
 Albany Cottage, is Hanover Lodge, the tasteful dwelling of the 
 gallant Colonel Sir Robert Arbuthnot K. C. B. This modest 
 mansion has greater pretensions to architectural character, than 
 its rural neighbour, and its accessaries of course, are in a more 
 sculptural style. 
 
 The house is entered under a handsome portico, which opens 
 into a spacious ball ; the cielingof which is supported by marble 
 columns, and its floor decorated with a handsome tessellated 
 pavement. A well-proportioned dining room nineteen feet six 
 inches in length, by sixteen feet in width adjoins the hall on 
 one side, and on another is a splendid suit of three elegant 
 drawing rooms, extending above sixty feet in length when the 
 doors are opened, by eighteen feet in breadth. A stone stair 
 case of good proportions leads to the upper story, which com- 
 prises nine handsome bed-chambers, a bathing room with every 
 accommodation for that healthful luxury, dressing rooms, and 
 other requisites for a respectable family. The basement story 
 contains an extensive range of culinary, and serviceable domes- 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF Tl 
 
 RD. TO TRELOM THIS PLATE J 
 
 ITFULLy INSCRIBED. 
 
 PLATE IS 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 51 
 
 tic offices, and the out buildings of a neat lodge on each side of 
 the entrance, a gardener's lodge, dormitories for men servants, 
 a double coach house, four stall stable, coachman's room and 
 and other conveniences. 
 
 The grounds, for a town residence are spacious, and laid out 
 with considerable taste and elegance. The variety of form, and 
 apparent natural effect of the meandering walks, and irregular 
 shaped beds, and baskets cut out in the emerald-velvet turf, 
 give greater delight to the tasteful eye, and more pleasure to the 
 cultivated mind, than the banished formalities of the mathe- 
 matical school of gardening, of Kent and his contemporaries. 
 
 Had that artist been entrusted with the laying out of these 
 grounds he would have sought jokes and conceits in every walk, 
 and have dug practical puns in every bed : even as he sent 
 ladies to court, (for he was as often employed in designing 
 garments for the gaudy nymphs of his day, as he was man- 
 sions and pleasure grounds), with bodices and flounces deco- 
 rated with the five orders of architecture. Entablatures on 
 their lovely backs, columns wreathed round their wavy limbs, 
 and bases and pedestals on their capacious petticoats. 
 
 Had Kent I say, laid out these grounds, he would have dis- 
 played in cut box, or more formal yew, the star and insignia 
 of the commander of the military order of the Bath, with 
 which the gallant proprietor is ennobled. The white horse of 
 Hanover would have shone in chalk in commemoration of the 
 name which graces the mansion, and the crest, family arms 
 and honorary additions would have been emblazoned in all the 
 honours of London pride, and Virginia stock, in proper colours ; 
 with multangular and polygonal beds ; in which all the geome- 
 trical figures in the first book of Euclid would have been prac- 
 tically demonstrated. 
 
 Now to pursue our journey. The Italian villa before us on 
 the right hand side of the road, is the suburban retreat of the 
 Marquess of Hertford, designed by Mr. Decimus Burton. Its 
 buildings and offices are on a larger scale than any other in the 
 park, and are accordant in style with the wealth of its noble 
 owner. Simplicity and chastity of style, characterize its exte- 
 rior, and its interior is in the same style of beautiful simplicity. 
 The entrance hall is protected by a hexastyle portico of that 
 singular Athenian order, which embellishes the door of the 
 
52 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 octagonal tower of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, known to Grecian 
 antiquaries, as the tower of the winds. The roof is Venetian 
 with projecting eaves, supported by cantalivers, and concealed 
 gutters to prevent the dripping of the rain water from the eaves. 
 The wings are surmounted by spacious glass lanterns, which 
 light the upper rooms. The offices are abundantly spacious, 
 being spread out like the villas of the ancients upon the ground 
 floor, and are designed in the same style of chaste simplicity as 
 the mansion. 
 
 The entrance lodge is particularly chaste, and the gates solid 
 and park-like ; the plantations eminently beautiful, and the 
 tout ensemble of the whole demesne in good taste. 
 
 This is decorated simplicity, such as the hand of taste, aided 
 by the purse of wealth can alone execute. Yet less expense, 
 aided by a pure taste, may accomplish beauty. Even in the 
 recesses of a distant country village, taste mav improve the 
 most rigid economy. Such as a poet, whose name I do not at 
 present remember, describes as 
 
 " Close in the dingle of a wood 
 Obscur'd with boughs a cottage stood ; 
 Sweet-briar deck'd its lowly door, 
 And vines spread all the summit o'er. 
 An old barn's gable end was seen, 
 Sprinkled with nature's mossy green, 
 Hard ou the right, from whence the flail 
 Of thrasher sounded down the vale : 
 A vale where many a flow'ret gay 
 Sipp'd a clear stream — let on its way : 
 A vale, above whose leafy shade 
 The village steeple shows its head." 
 
 Here is a beautiful spot, between the north eastern boundary 
 of Lord Hertford's villa, and the portion in preparation for the 
 use of the menageries and gardens of the Zoological Society^ 
 for such a Cottage-ornee as my friend Dashwood wishes to 
 have for his London residence, since he has been returned by 
 his independent neighbours as their representative in parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 In such a place as this, nothing like a town house should be 
 allowed to insinuate its brazen face. No Grosvenor Square 
 mansion, nor Grecianized sugar-house, should be skirted by 
 emerald lawns, like those about us. Nor, as the animated author 
 of " Sayings and Doings" says, should " an upright villa, with 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 53 
 
 a flight of steps leading up to the door, with a round weedy 
 pond on a lawn, looking like a basin of green pease soup on a 
 card table," be allowed to contaminate the hallowed place. 
 
 A rural style of architecture, should alone preponderate in a 
 spot of such polished rurality as this before us. A house in full 
 puff, or a mansion in a court-cut coat and bag wig, would be as 
 preposterous, among the green fields and gay plantations of the 
 Regent's Park, as my friend Dashwood himself would be in his 
 full bottomed wig and silk gown, following the Leicestershire 
 fox hounds, breast high among the sportsmen. In this paradise 
 of rural charms, the architect who would compose his design 
 in accordance with the natural beauties of the surrounding 
 scenery, should say with the poet, before he commences his 
 sketch, 
 
 " To me more dear, congenial to my heart 
 One native charm, than all the gloss of art." 
 
 Were comfort my aim, in composing a fit dwelling for my 
 friend, in the very best part of the park, it should be a cottage, 
 an English cottage, not, as Dr. Johnson defines it, " a low 
 mean house in the country," but a genuine English cottage in 
 the vicinity of the metropolis. Such, as my friend could unbend 
 in, amidst his beloved domestic circle, and renovate his mental 
 and bodily powers, in true and friendly hospitality and enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 My friend's cottage, therefore, shall not be the abode of either 
 poverty or penuriousness. It shall not be, as a witty writer in 
 Blackwood's Magazine asserts all cottages are, infested with 
 colonies of rats, or communities of sparrows. It shall have 
 neither damp walls, nor smoky chimneys ; nor will I allow a 
 scolding wife ever to enter its love-inspiring doors, without 
 being metamorphosed into a resemblance of its handsome mis- 
 tress, who is an example of perpetual smiling good humour, and 
 amiable cheerfulness. 
 
 The plantations are almost to my mind, therefore a very few 
 additions will accomplish that necessary appendage to the 
 grounds of my friend's proposed cottage residence. It should 
 be built on that rising knoll, with its entrance front towards the 
 north-west, and, as a good name is every thing, I would call it 
 Belle-grove. 
 
54 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPRO VEMENTS. 
 
 The front I would place at a moderate distance from the road, 
 inasmuch as the canal, and the opposite plantations, vouch for 
 the impossibility of having opposite neighbours too near. The 
 elevation should be simple, with a plain portico, of a size suffi- 
 ciently ample to admit a carriage under its roof, to set down 
 their fair cargoes in rainy weather without danger to their deli- 
 cate habiliments. 
 
 The first hall, or vestibule should be sufficiently large, to 
 contain the cloaks, garden-bonnets, hats, coats, parasols, and 
 other exuviae of the drawing-room guests ; for all strangers, 
 servants, tradesmen, &c, should have a distinct entrance near to 
 the servants' hall, so that robbery need not be apprehended. 
 In this general apartment, I would provide room for the bows 
 and arrows of Dashwood's boys, who are famous archers, and 
 their father encourages this exercise as tending to expand the 
 chest, and strengthen the muscles of the arms and back. In it 
 should also be a good sized billiard table, around which my 
 friend may walk from six to eight miles of a rainy day, by way 
 of exercise, and afford active amusement to his visiters. 
 
 Of guns, I say nothing, for although our park abounds with 
 game, my friend is a man of too studious habits to be much of 
 a shot, and even if he equalled Colonel Hawker himself, he 
 would carry his fowling propensities farther a field than the 
 cockney counties of Middlesex or Surry. 
 
 The gentleman's own room should adjoin this general apart 
 ment, and have also a communication with the common hall of 
 entrance, and have the accommodations of a bath, a dressing 
 table, and other suitable apparatus, besides that of a small 
 writing table. 
 
 The dining room, should be placed on the right, or westward 
 side of the hall, and should be so situated, for I like to assign a 
 reason for my dispositions, because the view from this corner of 
 the building, being the least interesting, suits in my mind the 
 occupation of the dinner hour, when all eyes being engaged 
 upon the banquet, they requi^ less external attraction. In fact, 
 the finest prospects fade before that of the table ; for who, I 
 would ask, at the hour of six, when the eye is satiated by the 
 highly dressed scenery about this charming neighbourhood, and 
 the body fatigued by exercise or business, would not rather sur- 
 vey the gratifying display of the hospitable and well arranged 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 55 
 
 family dinner table, than even the magnificent expanse of Table 
 bay itself? 
 
 Then, when the banquet is removed, and the snow white 
 damask is carried off, leaving the fine green baize cover, as a 
 preservative of the richly polished table ; does it not, at such 
 an interesting moment, when the produce of the Madeiras, of 
 Oporto, of the east and of the west are about to be arranged 
 for our gratification, more than rival the smiling beauties of the 
 first fine day at the close of winter, such 
 
 " As the young Spring gives," 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 when the balmy air, warmed by the increasing power of the 
 sun, dissolves the wintry snow upon the verdant lawns, and as 
 Horace says, 
 
 " Fled are the snows, the verdant turf appears." 
 
 On the opposite, or left hand side of the hall, I would place 
 the morning room, or room of general occupancy ; which should 
 have a private door opening to a passage leading to the stable 
 yard, the offices of which, should be at a sufficient distance 
 from the house, not to be offensive. The door of the coach 
 house, should face the south, which is a rule never to be deviated 
 from, for the benefit of the sun to dry the carriages when wet. 
 Adjoining the stable yard, I would arrange the melon and 
 cucumber grounds, for the conveniency of the dung-pit, and to 
 keep the kitchen garden free from litter. ' 
 
 The summer breakfast room, the withdrawing room, the 
 ladies' room, for a professed boudoir would not be strictly in cha- 
 racter with a cottage, should be in the rear, opening to the 
 south-east, and all on the ground floor. It is matter of faith 
 with me, and orthodoxy in my creed, that it is the character 
 of the genuine cottage to have all the before-mentioned rooms 
 on the ground floor. Indeed, for myself, I should prefer even 
 my bed chamber to be on the ground floor, and adjoining to my 
 own dressing room. 
 
 These apartments, I would shelter from the meridian sun, by 
 a broad verandah, the supporters of which should be overgrown 
 with woodbine, jessamine, honey-suckles, the white fragrant 
 
56 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 clematis, called from the circumstance of its pouring forth its 
 greatest profusion of odours in the evening, " the labourer's wel- 
 come home," monthly roses, which in such a situation would 
 bloom even in merry Christmas tide, the twice flowering amber- 
 coloured corcorus japonicus, the sweetly scented pea, the darling 
 mignonette, which, by a new mode of culture, can be had in 
 bloom, nearly all the year. 
 
 Then in front of this verandah, the windows under which, 
 should all open as French sashes down to the floor, and which 
 facing 
 
 " the sweet south, 
 That breathes upon a bank of violets, 
 Stealing and giving odour," 
 
 should be a wide gravel walk, as yellow and as smooth as a Li- 
 merick glove ; then a lawn, as level and as shorn as the cloth of 
 a billiard table, interspersed with a few irregularly shaped 
 patches, like a slashed doublet, filled with nature's embroidery, 
 hardy annuals, geraniums sunk in pots, so as to be removed into 
 the conservatory in hard weather; Lady Holland's botanical 
 pride, the splendid and hardy Dahlia and other beautiful 
 
 " flowers, as many 
 As the young spring gives, and choice as any." 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 On the south treillage raised against the back of the kitchen 
 chimney, for the sake of the warmth, I would have a splendid 
 plant of the Magnolia grandiflora, to scent the apartments and 
 grounds with its almond-like fragrance. I would have an abun- 
 dance of sweet-briers, and many of the best varieties of the 
 scented cabbage rose, some of which I would have grafted on 
 lofty stocks, that they might be smelt or gathered without 
 stooping. 
 
 Of the dormitories, I shall say but little, except that as my 
 friend's cottage is to be only one story high above the principal 
 floor ; those for the servants should be approached by a different 
 staircase, and separate from those of his family. The men ser- 
 vants' rooms should be in the stable offices. 
 
 As the cottage would be detached, I would have it thatched, 
 not that rough sort of thatch like an Irishman's wig, which, one 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 57 
 
 might suppose, covered Miss Hamilton's celebrated cottage at 
 Glenburnie, or many of the cabins in Ireland, 
 
 " That keep every thing else but the weather clean out ;" 
 
 DlBDIN. 
 
 where a hurdle or an old cart wheel is thrown upon the roof to 
 keep the thatch from being blown away. The thatch that I 
 would have, should be formed of combed wheat straw, laid thick 
 and smooth, and trimmed at the eaves, with compact ornamented 
 ridges and verges. This sort of roof is not only very handsome 
 and appropriate to the gentleman's cottage, but is the warmest 
 covering in winter, and the coolest in summer, while slating is 
 directly the reverse. 
 
 But to return to the garden, which I have not quite finished. 
 I would have a small fountain, the jet of which should be 
 supplied from an elevated cistern in the stable yard. This would 
 be a source of admiration and amusement to my friend's chil- 
 dren, and at the same time give an agreeable undulation to the 
 air in sultry weather, while a basin at its base would afford pro- 
 tection to a few brace of gold and silver fish, and without the 
 pretence of a regular aquarium, would accommodate a few water 
 lilies and other fragrant and curious aquatic plants. 
 
 I would also have a small rosarium which would provide rose- 
 buds for the pot-pourri, and leaves for scent-bags, and the use 
 of the still worm. Near to the rosarium I would have a hedge of 
 the gray and spikey lavender, and beds of other fragrant flowers, 
 and herbs for the same domestic purpose. A small orchard 
 should also be provided, if the size of the grounds permitted, 
 to furnish the dessert with choice specimens of fruit ; while be- 
 neath the trees, for due economy, I would sow lucerne, sainfoin 
 and clover for green meat for the horses. 
 
 Such should be the sort of cottage that I would build for my 
 friend Dashwood in the Regent's Park, and I think you must 
 give me some credit for my talents of building castles in the air, 
 in this instance. 
 
 Let us now cross Macclesfield Bridge, and mount the, easy 
 summit of Primrose Hill. The construction of this bridge, 
 designed by Mr. Morgan, is very picturesque, appropriate 
 and architectural. Its piers are composed of a series of cast 
 iron columns of the Grecian Doric order ; from the summits of 
 
58 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 which spring the arches which support a flat viaduct or road- 
 way, and cover with their lofty heads, the road-way of the 
 towing-path, the canal itself, and the shrubberies on its southern 
 bank. The abacus, echinus and hypotrachelion of the order, 
 are in beautiful proportion, and the shafts of ample size. 
 
 The archivolts that form the support of the road-way, are also 
 in accordance with the order ; although fastidious critics may 
 object to the dignity of the pure ancient Doric being violated 
 by degrading it into supporters of modern arches. See the plate 
 of Macclesfield Bridge. 
 
 If any excuse can be found for this error in taste, it is in 
 the necessity of the case, or rather in the advantages that result 
 from it. The centre arch is appropriated to the canal and the 
 towing-path, and the two external arches to the accommodation 
 of foot passengers beneath them, and as viaducts for the road 
 above them. Solid piers, therefore, would have rendered the two 
 external arches, dark vaults ; and perforations in them, would 
 only have furnished dingy apertures with awkward angles. 
 By carrying the springings of the arches on columns, these diffi- 
 culties were removed, and by springing minor arches transversely 
 to the road, cutting the main arches with bonnet groins, the whole 
 is rendered light, airy, and convenient. The only objection is m 
 the choice of columns of the Grecian order, the first born of archi- 
 tecture, for this degrading office, and in depriving them of their 
 natural and effective epistyles, which might have been agree- 
 ably and tastefully connected with the archivolts of the vous- 
 soirs, by the substitution of common place bonnet groinings of 
 the coal cellar ; whilst the less pure architecture of Rome 
 would have furnished abundance of precedents for the support 
 of arches by columns— and the architecture of Greece does not 
 afford even a solitary example of the practice. It has, however, 
 a beautiful and light appearance, and is an improvement in exe- 
 cution upon a design of Perronet's for an architectural bridge, 
 that is, a bridge of orders. The columns are well proportioned, 
 and suitably robust, carrying solidity, grace and beauty in every 
 part ; from the massy grandeur of the abacus, to the graceful 
 revolving of the beautiful echinus, and to the majestic simplicity 
 of tne slightly indented flirtings. Had indeed the archivolt, 
 formed after the architrave of the order, been surmounted by a 
 proper entablature and blocking course, with scamilli set back 
 
MET ROPOLIT AN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 59 
 
 as the rise, or perforated with panels, the bridge would have been 
 unexeeptionably the most novel, and the most tasteful in the 
 metropolis. Even as it is, it is scarcely surpassed for lightness, 
 elegance, and originality by any in Europe. It is of the same 
 family, with the beautiful little bridge in Hyde Park, between 
 the new entrance and the barracks. 
 
 Let us now re-enter the park, and proceed with our journey. 
 The grounds in preparation on our right, are for that very useful 
 and praiseworthy institution the Zoological Society, and are in- 
 tended for the reception of their living animals, after the mode 
 of the establishment called the garden of plants at Paris. This 
 new establishment will consist of a spacious menagerie, an 
 aviary for choice birds, a museum for stuffed and preserved spe- 
 cimens ; and fish ponds, with other necessary appendages for 
 the cultivation of Zoological studies. 
 
 The east gate, or, as I believe it is to be called, Chester Gate, 
 is now before us. We examined it yesterday in our general 
 perambulation, (see page 22), therefore shall pass it by, and keep 
 within the delightful verge of the park. 
 
 The pile of buildings that we are now approaching is the 
 new 
 
 Collegiate Church, and Hospital of St. Katherine, 
 
 and is building in lieu of the ancient foundation of that name, 
 which has lately been pulled down to make way for the great 
 commercial establishment, the dock of St. Katherine, near the 
 Tower, now in progress. 
 
 As the sun is passing hot, and this seat opportunely vacant, 
 we may rest ourselves before we approach the building, and 
 view its grouping at a distance. Being very little of an anti- 
 quary, I must refer you to Dr. Ducarel's elaborate history of St. 
 Katherine's, for historical accounts of its founders, and other 
 particulars. But it is a singular instance of the mutability of 
 human affairs, that a portion of our vast metropolis, which one 
 of our most splendid monarchs, Edward III., the magnificent 
 founder of Windsor Castle, intended as a metropolitan court, 
 under the name of East Minster, or the Abbey of St. Mary of 
 the Graces, and as a rival to West Minster, should become in 
 
60 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 after times, as " St. Katherine's," the most disgraceful and abo- 
 minable of all the low precincts of the metropolis. 
 
 The memory of this foundation is recalled to my mind, as 
 having been for years past under the spiritual guidance of the 
 mild, amiable and truly Rev. G. F. Nicolay, who was presented 
 to the honourable office of senior brother, together with the 
 parish of my ancestors, St. Michael Royal in the city, by the 
 late Queen Charlotte, to whom his father, the celebrated composer, 
 was music master. 
 
 This small ecclesiastical establishment, whose proper title is 
 " the peculiar and exempt jurisdiction of the collegiate church 
 or free chapel of St. Katherine, the Virgin and Martyr," was 
 founded by the bold and ambitious Matilda, queen consort of 
 king Stephen, in the year 1148, and dedicated to St. Katherine. 
 It was dissolved in 1272, and the present hospital founded in 
 the following year by queen Eleanor, and dedicated to the same 
 saint. It has continued unaltered till its present removal. 
 
 The establishment of this college, or hospital, consists at pre- 
 sent, as it did on its second foundation by queen Eleanor, of a 
 master, three brothers, who must be in priest's orders, three 
 sisters, single women, ten bedes-women usually nominated by the 
 master, a registrar, a high-bailiff, and some other officers. 
 
 The buildings of this Royal college, as I before mentioned, 
 were all swept away, by the spirit of commercial enterprize, to 
 make way for the new docks, and are rebuilding, as we now 
 see them, in the more royal situation of the Regent's Park. 
 The old church, as I well remember, was a handsome structure, 
 though much concealed from sight by the confined nature of 
 its situation ; and had a more modern appearance, from the neat 
 state of repair, in which it had been kept, than its real anti- 
 quity warranted. The interior was well deserving of notice, 
 but all that remains of it now, are descriptions in the works 
 of our archaiologists, and fragments collected and preserved by 
 some curious admirers of our ancient architecture, at the sale 
 of its old materials. Among these, Mr. Cottingham the archi- 
 tect, who is known to the public by many excellent prints of the 
 ancient architecture of England, has completed a Gothic 
 museum adjoining his office in Waterloo Road, from its interest- 
 ing fragments. 
 
 The ancient structure consisted of the church, cloisters, a 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 61 
 
 burial ground, the sister's close and dwellings, the brother's 
 houses, the master's house, bedes-women's houses, a court-room, 
 chapter-room, 8cc. 
 
 The church was divided into a body and a choir by a hand- 
 some carved screen. The choir consisted of a nave, and two 
 aisles. The windows were handsome and light, particularly the 
 east window, which was deservedly admired for its magnificent 
 size and elegant proportions, by every connoisseur and admirer 
 of our ancient ecclesiastical architecture. This splendid win- 
 dow was the largest in and about the metropolis, being thirty 
 feet in height, by twenty-four in width, and contained 561 feet 
 of glass, exclusive of the stone mullions and tracery. It poured 
 a majestic and almost overpowering flood of light, over the 
 antique pillars and venerable monuments that were in the 
 church, and set forth their beauties in the highest perfection. 
 The altar-piece that was under this emblematical eastern source 
 of light, was of pure design, and in the richest style of the florid 
 Gothic. The beautiful stalls, which I am happy to learn, are, 
 with other parts of this venerable fabric, carefully preserved for 
 re-erection in the new chapel, were began by William de Erl- 
 desby, master of the hospital, in 1340, and were finished by 
 John de Hermesthorp, who was master in 1369. 
 
 Among the valuable antiquities that are to be thus reinstated 
 in the new chapel, is the singular and curiously carved historical 
 pulpit that was given in 1621, by Sir Julius Csesar, the then 
 master ; who repaired the entire edifice, and was otherwise a 
 great benefactor. It is hexagonal in plan, each angle has an 
 Ionic pilaster, with a fanciful entablature that forms the upper 
 rim or desk of the pulpit. Each pilaster is panelled, and has a 
 scroll of foliage within it. Between each pilaster, that is on 
 every face, is an arch springing from an impost ; under the ar- 
 chivolt of which is carved in relief a view of some part of the 
 then buildings. 
 
 As the pulpit is under repair in the carpenter's shop, and I 
 have permission to view it, we will examine its unique carvings, 
 before we go. No. 1, Ducarel informs us is the north, 2, the 
 east, 3, the west, and 4, the south views of the ancient hos- 
 pital ; 5, is the outer gate, and 6, the inner gate. By these 
 sculptures, the artist has conveyed to our time, four views of 
 the hospital, and also two of its gates, as they were in his days. 
 
 T 
 
62 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 This is one of the most ancient wooden pulpits now remaining 
 to us, as before the Reformation, pulpits of stone of great size 
 were more usual. To commemorate this, the donor has caused 
 to be carved round the base, the following inscription in large 
 and bold characters, " EZRA THE SCRIBE STOOD UPON 
 A PULPIT OF WOOD, WHICH HE HAD MADE FOR 
 THE PREACHEN." Neh. viii. 4. 
 
 The splendid tomb, consisting of a canopy of curious fret- 
 work, under which lie the marble figures of John Holland, duke 
 of Exeter, his first wife, and his sister, is also to be reinstated 
 in the new chapel ; as are also the other monuments, and the 
 valuable organ that was erected in the old church, in 1778, by 
 the celebrated Mr. Green, which is reckoned to be one of the 
 finest, particularly in its swell, of any in England. 
 
 This duke of Exeter, whose tomb will occupy a conspicuous 
 place in the new chapel, was a great benefactor to the hospital. 
 He was lord high Admiral of England, in the reign of Henry 
 VI., and also constable of the tower, and master of the hos- 
 pital. He died August 5th, 1447 ; when this monument, with 
 statues of himself, his first wife Constance and his sister, was 
 erected by his second wife, who survived him. 
 
 On the death of this lady, she by will desired her executor, 
 Dr. Pinchbeke, to bury her in the same vault, and to avoid all 
 unnecessary pomp and expense, which he strictly complied with. 
 This is probably the reason why her figure was not placed 
 with that of her husband and the other two ladies, as there is 
 sufficient room. 
 
 The Queen consorts of England, are by law the per- 
 petual patronesses of St. Katherine's ; this hospital being con- 
 sidered as part of their dower. They nominate, as the lawyers 
 say, pleno jure, the masters, brothers and sisters; and may 
 increase or lessen their number, remove them, alter any statutes, 
 or make new ones at pleasure j for their power in these instances 
 is unlimited. 
 
 When there is no queen consort, the king nominates the 
 master, brothers &c. (to borrow another law phrase) pro hac 
 vice, But the Queen Dowager has no power or jurisdiction, 
 when there is a queen consort. All the attempts that have been 
 made in ancient and modern times for this purpose, have proved 
 ineffectual ; and the sentences of the courts of law have unani- 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 63 
 
 mously confirmed the great and unlimited powers of the 
 Queen Consorts of England, over this small ecclesiastical 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 The business of this house is transacted in chapter, by the 
 master, brothers and sisters ; and it is singularly remarkable 
 that by the statutes, the sisters have therein a vote equally with 
 the brothers ; and that no business can be done there, without 
 the votes of four of the members, one at least of which must 
 be a sister. The other officers of this house are elected by a 
 majority of votes, and their patents confirmed under the chapter 
 seal. 
 
 The principal officers so elected, are the commissary or officer 
 principal, who in his licenses is styled, " Commissary or official 
 of the peculiar and exempt jurisdiction of the collegiate church, 
 or free chapel of St. Katherine, the Virgin and Martyr;" the 
 registrar, the steward, the surveyor, receiver, and chapter-clerk, 
 besides a clerk, sexton, &c. 
 
 The architect of the new building, which, if you are suffi- 
 ciently rested, we will now approach, had therefore a splendid 
 original to compete with ; and it is but doing justice to well 
 cultivated talent, to admit that he has eminently succeeded. 
 
 The quadrangle on our left is the hospital, composed of the 
 collegiate church or free chapel in the centre, with dwelling- 
 houses on both sides for the brothers and sisters, the chaplain 
 and other officers ; and the building on our right directly oppo- 
 site and overlooking it, is for the residence of the master. See 
 the plate of St. Katherine's Hospital. 
 
 The present master is Sir Herbert Taylor, the senior brother 
 the Rev. George Frederick Nicolay ; and the architect, whose 
 talents in designing and executing the buildings which I have 
 just recommended to your notice, is Ambrose Poynter, Esq. a 
 pupil of Mr. Nash. 
 
 The church is a handsome building in the Gothic or old 
 English style of architecture, and bears a truly collegiate cha- 
 racter in its composition. The west window is well proportioned 
 and in good taste, the doorways judicious and appropriate to 
 their purpose. The turretted buttresses at the angles are also in 
 good proportion, but fail in effect as they rise, by being too plain 
 in their crockets and finials, whereas a greater richness in these 
 upper parts, increasing as they rise from the ground, in con- 
 
64 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 formity with all our best examples, would have been productive 
 of a much better effect ; whilst on the contrary, their present 
 meagre finishing is too much in the French style, and resembles 
 the modern Gothic of Strawberry Hill and Arlington Street 
 too much, to be pleasing to the genuine admirer of the old 
 English style of architecture. The wings which improve the 
 effect of the composition, are for the purpose of a school-house 
 on one side, and the chapter-room on the other. 
 
 The dwellings are extremely commodious, and exhibit both 
 externally as a part of the composition, and internally as in- 
 tended for convenience and utility, a skilful and artist-like 
 arrangement. 
 
 As soon as this group of horsemen are passed, and the dust 
 which they have raised has a little subsided, we will pass over 
 to the master's house, and take a general view of the quadrangle. 
 But stay, one of the workmen has just opened the door of the 
 church. Let us therefore walk in and take a peep at Mr. 
 Poynter's interior arrangement. 
 
 Well gentlemen ! what think ye ? Indeed this much sur- 
 passes the outside, of which, however, I make no complaint, 
 except as to the want of a little more richness in the turretts. 
 This ceiling is really masterly, and characteristic, and the whole 
 in plain good taste, and in excellent keeping. The east window 
 is very fine, and the smaller windows in the north and south 
 walls harmonize well with the master key that governs them. 
 The joinery is in equally good taste with the rest of the design, 
 and is admirably executed. A little more richness of colour 
 from the employment of more costly materials might be wished 
 for ; but penuriousness towards our architects, is one among the 
 vices of our patrons, that it would be well for them to amend. A 
 charming air of chaste simplicity pervades the whole, which is 
 in strict accordance with the appropriation of the sacred edifice. 
 Its proportions are ninety feet in length, thirty in width, and 
 forty-five in height. The shields under the windows are to be 
 emblazoned with the arms of the Queen consorts, patronesses 
 of the hospital. 
 
 Now gentlemen, if you have satisfied yourselves with this 
 inspection of the re-edifying of the proud empress Maud's 
 liberality and piety, we will cross the road, and see what modern 
 liberality and science is doing for the protestant lay master of 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 65 
 
 the once Catholic hospital of St. Katherine. Whether there 
 are any pretty blue-eyed nuns of St. Katherine's now among 
 the sisters, is a question, I fear, we must not ask of the brave 
 and gallant master of the sisterhood. 
 
 Stay ! before crossing let me call your attention to the ends 
 of the houses, that form the north and south sides of the quad- 
 rangle. They are admirably characteristic of the intention of 
 the founder, whilst the sculptures of the Royal and other arms, 
 and inscriptions indicative of the nature of the buildings, are 
 in happy accordance with the architecture and style of sculp- 
 ture, and the mode of inscriptions of the day. 
 
 Now for the master's mansion. Truly were it finished, and 
 some of the tawny tints of time deposited upon its surface, we 
 might really take it for the habitation of the prior to some rich 
 and mitred abbot. Its separated angle chimney flues, their 
 ornamented tops, the fastigated gables, and narrow cell-like 
 windows in the attics, the mullioned windows of the upper 
 story, the bow, and bay windows, and porches to the doors of 
 the principal story, give the whole a conventual or rather a 
 collegiate look. See the plate of the dwelling-house of the master 
 of St. Katherine's Hospital. The handsome well-laid out plea- 
 sure grounds, the store of kitchen gardens, and the stable offices, 
 reminding one of the tithe-barn, keep up the illusion : and no- 
 thing but a father Paul or two at the windows, rubifying the 
 scene like the coloured bottles in a chemist's window, and a 
 living skeleton or two in the shape of lay brothers, labouring in 
 the gardens, are wanting to complete the picture. 
 
 But in reality we shall see, instead of the high and mighty 
 empress's original intention of cloistered monks, and earth- 
 bereaved nuns, supporting a few bigotted paupers ; a set of 
 high spirited gentlemen, worthy brethren, and amiable sisters of 
 the protestant order of St. Katherine ; at least we may so con- 
 jecture from the domestic arrangements of the house, living a 
 life of equal jollity, and of much less hypocrisy. 
 
 Truly, these rooms are very handsome and well proportioned ; 
 the cornices and other mouldings are also in due character with 
 the leading features of the design, and the whole arrangement 
 of the plan is judicious, convenient and appropriate. Much as 
 I love the Greek style for real beauty, and apt as I am to ex- 
 claim with Dr. Johnson " so much Greek, so much gold," I 
 
 u 
 
66 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 must admit on viewing this beautiful specimen of English 
 domestic architecture, that a villa of the Grecian style, for the 
 master of St. Katherine's Hospital, in the sight of and overlooking 
 as it does, the church and dwellings of the hospitallers, would 
 have been as inappropriate, as it would be to raise the beautiful 
 spire of Salisbury cathedral upon the apex of the pediment of 
 the temple of Minerva Parthenon, and finishing its acroteria 
 with gothic pinnacles, crockets, and florid finials. 
 
 The materials with which this assemblage of buildings are 
 constructed, are similar to those of our ancient architects, brick 
 and stone. But modern art, in giving a fine and pure stone 
 colour, and more than the hardness of stone to brick, has im- 
 proved upon the heterogeneous mixture of red and black bricks,, 
 and white stone of our ancestors, by a happy union of stone- 
 coloured bricks, and free stone. Some critics have decried 
 bricks, as inimical to architecture, grounding their objections 
 upon the marble edifices of Greece. Let these critics, before 
 they decry the use of bricks, or attribute the want of grandeur 
 in modern architecture to the use of that comparatively homely 
 material, reflect, that the Romans, to whose works no want of 
 grandeur can be imputed, used them in their structures with pro- 
 digious effect, and that we may almost attribute the invention 
 of the arch, the vault, and the cupola, with which they so 
 gloriously displayed their architectural powers, to the practice of 
 brick-making. Palladio constructed some of his finest works 
 of brick, as did Wren and other eminent modern architects. 
 The judicious- mixture of the white brick and stone by Mr. 
 Poynter in these buildings, is infinitely better than the common 
 grey brick, either coloured, or its native poverty concealed by a 
 deceitful covering of cement. 
 
 Wishing the gallant lay-master of the collegiate church and 
 hospital of St. Katherine, a long life to enjoy his new and com- 
 modious abode, and thanking him for this last half hour's 
 shelter of his roof, we will with your leave, gentlemen, proceed 
 on our perambulation. 
 
 That palatial-looking pile of buildings before us on our left, 
 with the majestic cupola of Mr. Hornor's Colosseum rearing itself 
 over its corniced head, is 
 
'uhlished April 25, lS>2a ov Jones b C.°3.Acton J-*i 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 67 
 
 Chester Terrace, 
 
 named from the royal earldom of Chester. It is designed by 
 Mr. Nash, and like most of that gentleman's works, combines 
 genius and carelessness. Genius, and powerful conception, in 
 the composition, and a grasp of mind equalled by no artist of 
 the day in the design : and carelessness, sometimes degenerating 
 to littleness, with a deficiency of elegance in the details. 
 
 It is of the Corinthian order of architecture, of a feeble and 
 effeminate character in its details, surmounted by a balustrade 
 of lanky proportions and tasteless forms. The capitals do not 
 spread sufficiently for the graceful beauty of the gay Corin- 
 thian, and the volutes are too small, and are pinched up, as if 
 the acanthus, whence the Callimachus of Chester Terrace 
 gathered them to decorate his order, had been withered by a 
 frost. See plate of Chester Terrace. 
 
 Passing by these defects of detail, and of material of which 
 the composition is constructed, Chester Terrace is a grand, bold 
 and commanding row of mansions ; and forms a noble compo- 
 sition, and a charming series of residences for such whose good 
 fortune may enable them to take up their abode in this new 
 city of palaces. 
 
 The Corinthian arches at each end are novel in idea, grand in 
 conception, imposing in effect, and have the appearance of 
 some of the lesser triumphal arches of Rome. Inscriptions in 
 memory of some of our minor but splendid victories, such as 
 that of Maida, or the defence of St. Jean d' Acre against Na- 
 poleon Buonaparte, would make them pleasing records of British 
 prowess. 
 
 Before we part from Chester Terrace, let me call your atten- 
 tion to the pavilion-like houses which project at each end, and 
 are connected with the main body of the terrace by the Corin- 
 thian arches, as productive of a fine and novel effect. 
 
 ' The next row of houses past the Corinthian arch of Chester 
 Terrace, is named 
 
(io 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Cambridge Terrace, 
 
 after his Majesty's royal brother the duke of Cambridge, the 
 popular viceroy of Hanover. It is smaller in every respect 
 than its neighbour of Chester, and has less architectural pre- 
 tensions. The centre, and the two wings are distinguished by 
 porticoes of the Roman ( or pseudo-Doric order, with rusticated 
 columns, which, although in bad taste, are productive of variety, 
 in a situation where variety is much wanted, and form a good 
 contrast with the delicate Corinthian of Chester Terrace on the 
 one hand, and the majestic Doric of the Colosseum on the other. 
 The superstructure, above the porticoes, which are of the height 
 only of the ground story, is plain and sufficient for the purpose 
 to which it is applied. The plantations which fill up the interval, 
 between Cambridge Terrace and the Colosseum are judiciously 
 executed, and when more grown will prevent too great a con- 
 trast between the isolated Colossus and the group of dwelling- 
 houses. 
 
 Now we will sit ourselves down, before one of the Greatest 
 individual enterprises, of which modern art can boast. That 
 magnificent polygonal structure, covered with the vast cupola, 
 and embellished with that beautiful hexastyle portico of the 
 Doric order, is named, (why and wherefore is yet to be dis- 
 cussed), 
 
 The Colosseum ; 
 
 and is intended for the reception and exhibition of a general 
 panoramic view of London and its surrounding country as far 
 as the eye can see, taken by Mr. Hornor from an observatory 
 that was raised above the cross of St. Paul's Cathedral, during 
 the recent construction of the new ball and cross. In taking; 
 the views, Mr. Hornor was aided by his topographical knowledge 
 of the country as a skilful land-surveyor, by powerful teles- 
 copes, and by curious machinery, for executing his sketches. 
 The distant buildings, villas and features of the country, were 
 also taken on the spots, and the artist-like atmospherical dis- 
 tances, are detailed from them with a fidelity, rarely found in 
 pictures of this nature. The view from this elevated spot 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 61) 
 
 which I enjoyed during the progress of the works, furnishes a 
 fine illustration of the poet's view of the vast metropolis of the 
 United Kingdoms, from an elevated spot in Surry, 
 
 " Th' impatient muse ascends the Turret's heigLt 
 Where ample prospects charm the roving sight : 
 A richer landscape ne'er the sun survey'd, 
 With lovelier verdure crown'd, or nobler shade ; 
 The whole horizon, to its utmost bound, 
 One bright and beauteous picture glowing round ! 
 Here freighted with the gems of India's clime, 
 On Thames' broad wave rich navies ride sublime: 
 There, proudly crowning her imperial stream, 
 The lofty turrets of Augusta gleam. 
 New objects on the dazzled vision break, 
 And in th' admiring soul new transports wake. 
 Here, many a league along th' admiring tide, 
 A thousand villas stretch in rural pride ; 
 There glittering spires and swelling domes ascend, 
 And art and nature all their beauties blend." 
 
 Mautuce. 
 
 During the progress of the work, I was often a witness 
 to the indefatigable perseverance and intrepidity of the artist in 
 making his sketches, which he has executed with a correctness 
 that cannot be surpassed. Circumstances have since separated 
 us, and I can now only bear witness to his progress as any other 
 of the public. The painting of the panorama is in a very for- 
 ward state, and ere long the public will be gratified with its 
 exhibition. 
 
 The building is a polygon of sixteen sides, 130 feet in dia- 
 meter. Each angle is strengthened by a double anta of the 
 Doric order, which supports a continuous entablature without 
 triglyphs, that circumscribes the edifice. The cornice is 
 crowned by a blocking course, and surmounted by an attic, 
 with a suitable cornice and sub-blocking, to give height to the 
 building. On the summit of this upper order, the majestic 
 cupola, supported by three receding scamilli or steps, is con- 
 structed. The lower part is covered with sheet copper, and the 
 upper part with a curvilinear sky-light, and finished with an 
 immense open circle or eye to the cupola. 
 
 The grandest feature of this handsome building is its portico, 
 which is one of the finest and best proportioned of the Greco- 
 
70 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Doric in the metropolis, and gives a majestic feature to this part 
 of the park, that cannot be surpassed. The lodges are in equal 
 good taste, and do great credit to their architect, Mr. Decimus 
 Burton. 
 
 Looking at the Colosseum, either in front, on the opposite 
 side of the road, from the north in coming from Chester Terrace, 
 or, from the south, (see the plate of the Colosseum) it forms a 
 grand and majestic composition; imposing from its size, and 
 varied from its connection with the beautiful (little I was 
 going to say, from their contiguity to their colossal chief) 
 lodges that support the pyramidal principle of the group, 
 and add to its beauty by the creation of an agreeable variety. 
 The plantations, laid out by Mr. Hornor, add their share of 
 embellishments to the majestic scene, and the whole picture 
 is a fine specimen of architectural grandeur and sublimity, alike 
 creditable to Mr. Burton, jun. the architect, and his talented 
 employer Mr. Hornor. 
 
 Now, as to its name, which I have just hinted, deserved some 
 discussion. True it is, that Shakspeare says, a rose under any 
 other name, will smell as sweet, and no doubt this building 
 under any name would look as grand. But naming it after 
 the largest edifice in the world, and to which it bears no affinity 
 either in shape or destination, is doing it a manifest injustice, if 
 not a serious injury. 
 
 What associations of ideas, does this name " The Colosseum" 
 give rise to 1 " As long as the Colosseum stands," runs the pro- 
 verb, " Rome shall stand, when the Colosseum falls, Rome shall 
 fall, and when Rome falls, the world will perish." " Quamdiu stabit 
 Colosseus, stabat Roma, quando cadet Colosseus, cadet et Roma ; 
 quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus," runs the original, which 
 is attributed to the Anglo-saxon pilgrims who visited Rome in 
 the early part of the eighth century, and is thus versified by a 
 modern poet in quoting the historian of the decline and fall of 
 the Roman empire, 
 
 " While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand." 
 
 There can be but one Colosseum, any more than there can be 
 but one sun. The building more resembles, and might with 
 more justice be placed in contact and cognomen with the Pan- 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 71 
 
 theon, but when by a mere name, it is brought to the mind's 
 eye, in competition with that mountain of architecture, 
 
 " Which in its public shows, unpeopled Rome, 
 And held, uncrowded, nations in its womb ;" 
 
 it makes one wish such an inappropriate symbol had never been 
 adopted. Why ! the huge blocks of Travertine marble, heaped 
 on high by command of Vespasian, outnumber even the nine 
 inch bricks of the modern Colosseum. 
 
 Fie upon it, give it some other name, a name per se, and then 
 it will stand second to no other edifice in Europe of its sort. In 
 some of the newspapers, and in Mr. Britton's Illustrations of 
 the public buildings of London, it is called " The Coliseum,'" 
 deriving it, I presume, from the French Colisee ; a language that 
 also emasculates the manly Titus Livius into Tite Live, and other 
 lingual abominations. 
 
 Now I presume, that the sponsor of Mr. Hornor's panorama, 
 named it " Colosseum" in allusion to its colossal dimensions, 
 either from the Latin Colossus, a statue of enormous magnitude, 
 or from the Greek Kolossaion (whence Colosseium or Colosseum) 
 an edifice dedicated to, or containing, a colossal statue, as The- 
 seium, the temple dedicated to Theseus ; Pandroseium, that of 
 the nymph Pandrosus ; Erectheium, the temple of Erectheus, 
 and so on ; and careless writers indiscriminately named it the 
 Colosseum or Coliseum. 
 
 The interior, as I mentioned before, is being fitted up for 
 a panoramic view of London, as seen from the summit of the cross 
 of St. Paul's Cathedral. It has already employed Mr. Hornor, 
 the projector, and a host of artists upon the painting, more 
 than four years ; it is now rapidly advancing towards comple- 
 tion, and will, I understand, be opened to the public in the 
 course of the next spring. The costliness with which every 
 part of it has been executed, is commensurate with the scale ot 
 the majestic building that contains it, and the importance of 
 the subject to be delineated. 
 
 The object of the artist in this gigantic undertaking is to 
 present, through the medium of a panoramic painting of un- 
 paralleled size, and mode of exhibition, a full and accurate re- 
 presentation of the metropolis and all the surrounding country 
 that is visible from the summit of our magnificent cathedral. 
 
72 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 The preparatory sketches, the most of which I have seen, 
 had for several years engaged a considerable portion of Mr. 
 Hornor's attention. They were completed during the summer 
 of 1821, from an observatory purposely constructed on the top 
 of the scaffolding that was then erected for the construction of 
 the new ball and cross, and other repairs of the lantern over 
 the cupola of the cathedral, under the direction of Mr. C. R. 
 Cockerill, the tasteful architect of St. George's Chapel, in 
 Regent Street ; whose veneration for the great architect of the 
 building that he was intrusted to renovate, was a sure war- 
 ranty of his success. 
 
 Dividing the panorama, into four quadrants corresponding 
 with the four cardinal points of the mariner's compass, the first 
 or western view commences with the banks of the Thames to- 
 wards the south, and the picturesque arches of Blackfriars 
 bridge. 
 
 The leading features of this portion of the panorama, are the 
 beautiful meanderings of the silver Thames, the four great 
 bridges that bestride the flood, (that of Waterloo being parti- 
 cularly fine and effective,) the venerable abbey of Westminster, 
 the antique hall of Rufus, the distant palaces of Westminster 
 and the Parks, which are now undergoing such extensive and 
 manifest improvements. The sites and plantations of the spa- 
 cious squares, and the mansions of the leading streets of the 
 western end of the town are predominant beauties. The fore- 
 ground is finely marked by the two campanile towers of the west 
 front of the metropolitan cathedral ; and those double triumphs of 
 the architective skill and taste of their author, are productive of 
 an effect almost approaching to reality, by the value that they 
 give to the distance, and the scale which they form to the lineal 
 perspective of the streets and houses, between and on each 
 side of them. The rear of the pediment, and backs of the 
 colossal apostles that decorate the acroteria of the upper order, 
 are also productive of singular effect. 
 
 Beyond these, Ludgate Hill traversed by Bridge Street, 
 showing the gap by the side of the Norwich Fire Office, the 
 western end of the proposed New Street, that I have suggested 
 . among other improvements to the corporation of London, and 
 leading on by Chatham Square over Blackfriars bridge along 
 the wide expanse of the Surry Road to the Obelisk, where it is 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 73 
 
 lost in the labyrinth of roads and houses of that mazy neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 The centre part of this quarter of the panorama is occupied 
 by a multitudinous mass of buildings, in which are principally 
 distinguished the gardens and antique turrets of the temple ; 
 the spacious squares and plantations of Lincoln's-inn, Gray's- 
 inn, the Foundling Hospital, and the adjacent pretty modern 
 squares in that vicinity. The British Museum, and its sub- 
 stantial new additions for the library of George the Third, 
 which has been most munificently presented to the nation by 
 the patriotism of his son George the Fourth, stand also 
 predominant in this grand national picture ; with a great por- 
 tion of the new streets of Somers Town, St. Pancras, the site 
 of the New London University, and Camden Town, with the 
 palace-like workhouse of St. Pancras. 
 
 In the northern portion of this quarter of the view, Newgate 
 Street, the three great prisons of the metropolis, the late College 
 of Physicians, the churches of St. Sepulchre and of St. Andrew, 
 Holborn, and the adjacent neighbourhood, are conspicuous. 
 
 In the southern portion, the principal part of the canvas is 
 occupied by a considerable part of Lambeth, extending to 
 Vauxhall Gardens. The windings of the river, which here 
 forms so fine a feature in any elevated view of our metropolis, 
 has additional interest from the distinct view, which is obtained 
 from the elevated spot whence Mr. Hornor traced his sketches 
 of the fine bridges of Blackfriars, Waterloo, Westminster, and 
 Vauxhall. • 
 
 The handsome buildings of Somerset Place, and the Adelphi, 
 with their lofty terraces, and the succession of noble residences 
 between the latter place and Westminster Bridge are next in 
 consequence. In this -portion of the picture, Westminster 
 Hall, the pinnacles, and the east end of St. Stephen's Chapel, 
 the Abbey, Whitehall, the Horse-guards, the Admiralty, and 
 numerous other public and private edifices in this opulent 
 quarter of the metropolis, form conspicuous and picturesque 
 features. 
 
 Further westward, we see the polygonal Penitentiary at Mil- 
 bank, with its curious towers, a considerable portion of Chelsea, 
 with its noble college, the ranges of new buildings, between 
 that low point, and the new palace of Buckingham House, the 
 
74 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 park — and onwards to the great expanse of the west end of the 
 town, to the Regent's Park, where the colossal cupola of the 
 building which contains the picture itself shines conspicuous, 
 with its glossy glazed cupola. Primrose Hill, with the new 
 reservoir of water for the supply of the park overtops this part 
 of the picture ; and ranging northward, are the lovely hills, 
 crowned with the beautiful villages of Hampstead and High- 
 gate, in which almost every house, that can be seen, will be 
 found faithfully delineated. In the distant parts of this quarter 
 of the picture will be seen many of the prominent features of 
 Hertfordshire, Middlesex, and Surry, with the numerous beau- 
 tiful villas and hamlets that bespangle that range of country. 
 
 Turning, directly opposite to the eastern portion of the pano- 
 rama, the view commences, with the east end of the choir of 
 the cathedral, and the eastern side of the churchyard, where 
 the portico and cupola of the new St. Paul's school forms a 
 fine architectural fore-ground. It embraces portions of the 
 north and south sides of the church-yard, to which the fine 
 balustrades of the church, and the colossal statues on the pedi- 
 ments of the transepts afford both a fine contrast and a pictur- 
 esque relief. The New Post Office comes particularly grand, and 
 when I tell you that it occupies nearly 300 superficial feet of the 
 canvas, you may form some opinion of the colossal dimensions 
 of the whole picture. 
 
 The view is then extended down Cheapside, to the centre of 
 the commercial part of the city. In this the Mansion House, 
 the new fronts of the Bank of England, and the majestic stone 
 cupola over the Broker's Rotunda are eminently conspicuous. 
 The Royal Exchange, the numerous spires of the churches that 
 embellish this portion of the city, and other public buildings, 
 lift up their architectural heads in proud grandeur amidst 
 thousands of chimneys and roofs, upon which they seem to 
 look down with supreme contempt. 
 
 From these the eye is carried onward to the East India 
 House, where a dozen or two of English merchants rule an 
 eastern empire, and communicate wealth to two extremities of 
 the globe. The ancient turrets of the Tower of London, the 
 space now excavating for the intended docks of St. Katherine, 
 the Mile End and Commercial Roads, the forests of masts in 
 the river, the populous suburbs that surround the great com- 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 75 
 
 mercial docks, the spacious expanse of the Isle of Dogs, Plais- 
 tow Marshes, and the high grounds of Essex, to near Graves- 
 end, fill up a lively portion of the colossal picture. From 
 thence the windings of the Thames appear in occasional 
 glimpses, progressively to the magnificent and truly Royal 
 Hospital of Greenwich, which, with its spacious range of build- 
 ings and beautiful twin towers, complete the fascinating picture 
 in this point of view. 
 
 Tracing the course of the river upwards from Greenwich 
 towards the Pool, the view embraces its different reaches, its 
 multitudinous masses of shipping and countless masts, and the 
 costly establishments that line both banks of the river. On 
 the southern side, the elevation of nearly every edifice is dis 
 tinctly visible as it presents its front in almost a right angle to 
 the eye. 
 
 Toward the south, the view takes in a portion of the Borough, 
 nearly the whole of the hamlet of Bermondsey, the high 
 grounds and numerous villas of that portion of East Kent, ter- 
 minating with the beautiful distance of Shooter's Hill, and the 
 well known reminiscent tower of Severndroog Castle on its 
 summit. 
 
 Toward the north-east, are seen the ranges of streets that 
 lead to Finsbury Square and the City Road ; embellished by 
 the new City Circus, with the London Institution in its centre, 
 St. Luke's Hospital and Church, the handsome spire of Shore- 
 ditch, with the extensive village of Hackney, the hamlets of 
 Lower and Upper Clapton and the surrounding neighbourhood, 
 on both sides of the extensive and beautiful vale of the river 
 Lea, and the fine wooded uplands of Epping Forest, to Havering 
 Bower. 
 
 The nearer and more conspicuous portions of this quarter of 
 the circle, relates to the great city itself, and give a very faith- 
 ful representation of the architecture of many of its public 
 buildings, with portions of thousands of its well-known houses, 
 the lines of its principal streets, and the towers and spires of 
 its numerous churches. 
 
 The direct north view, includes the north side of St. Paul's 
 Church-yard, the colossal saints of the north transept, the 
 Blue Coat School or Christ's Hospital, with its magnificent 
 new gothic dining hall now building, the spacious hospital cf 
 
76 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 St. Bartholomew, and the misapplied area of Smithfield, with 
 its numerous diverging avenues. In the mid-distance are de- 
 lineated the Charter House and its gardens, the Artillery- 
 ground, part of Finsbury Square, Old Street, the City Road, 
 the numerous mercantile establishments on the banks of the 
 Regent's Canal and its basins, the greater portion of Clerken- 
 well, Cold-bath Fields, a considerable portion of Pentonville, 
 Islington, Britannia Fields, the London Field, Hoxton, the two 
 mills by the Rosemary-branch, Kingsland Road, Crescent, and 
 adjoining fields, Highbury and its commanding terrace, Stoke 
 Newington, Stamford Hill, Muswell Hill and Hornsey. The 
 extreme distance embraces a part of Epping Forest, with the 
 high grounds eastward towards Enfield, and the neighbouring- 
 parts of Hertfordshire. 
 
 The south quarter of the circle, commences with the south 
 side of St. Paul's Church-yard, including part of Thames 
 Street, St. Andrew's Hill, Blackfriars', St. Bennet's Hill, with 
 the college of Doctor's Commons, and the building formerly 
 occupied by the heralds :— all the adjacent churches, among 
 which are many of the best of Sir Christopher Wren's, and 
 other public buildings, the Southwark Bridge, the New London 
 Bridge and Bankside, from St. Saviour's Church, along the 
 line of warehouses and manufactories to the southern foot of 
 Blackfriars' Bridge. 
 
 The mid-distance of this view includes a considerable part of 
 the Borough of Southwark, with the line of Blackfriars' Road, 
 the Greenwich Road, and particularly displays the situation of 
 its numerous public buildings from Bethle'm Hospital to the 
 Kent Road. The more distant part comprises Kennington, 
 South Lambeth, Newington, Camberwell, Peckham, Denmark 
 Hill, Hearn Hill, the fine woods of Dulwich, Norwood and a 
 great extent of the surrounding country, with its numerous 
 villas, parks, paddocks and champaign scenery of the delightful 
 county of Surry. 
 
 Thus, this gigantic and unparalleled undertaking will give a 
 perfect representation of a continuous scene, from a lofty cen- 
 tral situation, of a prospect unequalled in extent, variety and 
 grandeur, whether considered in regard to those interesting ob- 
 jects which characterize the great metropolis with its extensive 
 port, to the accumulated memorials of architectural splendour 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 77 
 
 of various ages, or to the diversified beauty of the environs, 
 and rural residences by which they are surrounded. 
 
 The sketches that Mr. Hornor took, with an apparatus of his 
 own construction, by which the most distant and intricate 
 scenery may be delineated with mathematical accuracy, com- 
 prised nearly 300 sheets of large drawing paper, and extended 
 over a surface of 1680 superficial feet : a space which will not 
 appear surprising,whenit is considered that they include a portion 
 of almost every public building and dwelling-house in the me- 
 tropolis, with all the villages, fields, roads, rivers, canals &c. 
 that are visible from the summit of the Cathedral. 
 
 It is not exactly correct to describe the operations of an artist 
 during his progress, because of the probability of his altering 
 his intentions before their completion. But this great under- 
 taking is so nearly advanced to that desirable stage, that there 
 is now but little fear of such an event taking place in its ar- 
 rangements. 
 
 The mode in which Mr. Hornor proposes to exhibit his pano- 
 rama, when completed, is novel and ingenious. As the building 
 is of great height, more than 150 feet, and different views at 
 different heights are to be given, it would be a work of some 
 labour to ascend a staircase from the bottom to the top. To 
 avoid the necessity for this exertion, the room in which the 
 spectators are placed to see the picture, is raised by one effort, 
 visiters and all, from the level of the floor of the structure, to 
 the first platform or gallery, a height exceeding that of lofty 
 four storied houses, such as those of Portland Place. The ma- 
 chinery by which this elevation is accomplished, is both simple 
 and effective. The power employed is that of water, so con- 
 trived as to proportion its strength to the number of persons 
 it has to raise ; as each individual who enters, adds to the power 
 by such entrance in passing the door, a force equal to his own 
 weight. At a given signal the apartment then rises : the pano- 
 rama being all the while invisible to the spectator ; until at 
 length, arriving at the first platform, he stands on what appears 
 to be that portion of the cathedral that is called the iron gal- 
 lery ; with the enormous cupola, the turrets, and all those parts 
 of the cathedral which are visible from that position immedi- 
 ately below him ; and the whole of the metropolis of London, 
 with its various great features, the rivers, the bridges, the 
 
 z 
 
78 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 suburbs &c. spreading on all sides, and in every direction, 
 around him. This is a scene that, looking to the accuracy 
 with which all its details are painted, will not merely be highly 
 interesting both to Englishmen and foreigners ; but it is also a 
 view, which there are few opportunities of witnessing. For the 
 prospect from the iron gallery of the cathedral, is so often 
 dimmed and obscured by the smoke and vapour which hangs 
 over the city, that it is very uncertain when to obtain a clear 
 prospect, except at those very early hours in the morning when 
 access cannot be had. 
 
 The great size of the picture, added to the number of objects 
 contained in it, gives it indeed the appearance of a model on a 
 gigantic scale, rather than that of a painted panorama; and 
 the first impression that strikes the general spectator is, how 
 little he was acquainted with the great outline of the city, in 
 which, perhaps, he habitually resides. 
 
 From this first stage, the visiters then proceed by a spiral 
 staircase to a second gallery, about thirty feet above the first, 
 the ascent to which is so managed that they appear to be 
 mounting by a scaffolding erected round the lantern of the 
 cathedral, and they actually pass round the ancient ball and 
 cross, that was originally erected by Sir Christopher Wren, and 
 removed at the recent repairs ; two relics of that period which 
 Mr. Hornor has preserved. From this gallery a second view 
 of the picture is given ; and still higher up I think there is a 
 third ; and from thence winding still higher, the spectator sud- 
 denly emerges into an extensive gallery, built round the exterior 
 of the building, where it is no longer a picture that is before 
 him, but a living panorama of the whole circle around him, 
 with the Regent's Park, and the whole of its magnificent im- 
 provements ; with the hills of Highgate and Hampstead one 
 way, and St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey the other. This 
 part only forms an exhibition which thousands of persons in 
 the metropolis alone, would willingly pay a consideration to 
 view. 
 
 The improvements in the park proceed so rapidly, that, I 
 purpose, in the spring, taking another tour with you to inspect 
 their progress, and as I trust Mr. Hornor's panorama will then 
 be finished, we will make a day for the whole. 
 
 As our long rest before the panorama, has given vigour and 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 79 
 
 excitement to our spirits, let us take a finishing turn along the 
 front of Ulster Terrace, up the road opposite to York Gate, by- 
 Mr. Burton's villa, make a circuit of the ring, come out oppo- 
 site Chester Terrace, and conclude our perambulations by an 
 inspection of Mr. Soane's new church at the south-eastern ex- 
 tremity of the park. 
 
 Park Square, as I have before mentioned, is the improved 
 alteration of the originally intended circus, which is not, as 
 the celebrated Irish orator, Sir Boyle Roche, observed, "an 
 amendment for the worse" The row of houses that adjoins it 
 at the north-western angle, with four bow-windowed houses, is 
 
 Ulster Terrace. 
 
 It has nothing particularly architecturally striking in its 
 composition. The entrance story is of the Ionic order, with 
 semicircular headed windows between the columns. The enta- 
 blature is imperfect, being without a frieze, the upper stories 
 are composed of windows with handsome architraves and enta- 
 blatures by way of dressings, and the whole surmounted by a 
 well proportioned balustrade. See plate of Ulster Terrace. 
 
 York Terrace looks well with this oblique western sun upon 
 its bold projections; and the panoramic turns of the terraces 
 beyond, have a splendid variety of gilded lights and broad 
 shades, as they alternately present their faces or rears to the 
 glorious luminary that is now enlightening our hemisphere. 
 
 Let us hasten over the bridge, or time will press upon us. 
 South Villa, the seat of Mr. Cooper, does not present its best 
 aspect towards us in this road. It is best seen from the lake, 
 as is Mr. Burton's, which we before examined in every view. 
 This on our left, on the northern periphery of " the ring," is the 
 villa that was designed by Mr. Raffield, for C. A. Tulk, Esq. 
 the late member for Sudbury, and now the residence of John 
 Maberly, Esq. the member for Abingdon. See plate of Mr. 
 Maberly's villa. 
 
 The house is in the Grecian style of decoration, partaking- 
 somewhat of the Etruscan. The centre is ornamented by two 
 piers, which supports a pediment with acroteria ; and include 
 between them two pilasters of the Corinthian order. Between 
 these, is a large and lofty Palladian window. The wings project 
 
80 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 a little from the centre, and these are likewise embellished by 
 two large piers, with neat panels, and Grecian honeysuckles in 
 the caps. Below the large window is a spacious porch of two 
 well-proportioned piers, each supporting a lion. The centre is 
 marked by two columns and an entablature of the Pcestum 
 Doric, with a string-course substituted for the cornice, and a 
 blocking course in unison with those which support the lions. 
 A belfry of rather a pretty form, disfigures the design, which, 
 otherwise, has animation and variety in every part, and a happy 
 accordance between the flanks and the principal front. The 
 house, which I have several times been over, previous to Mr. 
 Maberly's occupation, is remarkably well built, by the Messrs. 
 Baileys, whose beautiful indurated cement, resembling the 
 finest Portland stone, shows off the architect's tasteful design 
 to the greatest advantage. 
 
 Let us now proceed, once more by the portico of the 
 Colosseum, pass by the Diorama, through Park Square, and 
 finish our morning's walk by an investigation of Mr. Soane's 
 new church, at the south-eastern angle of the park, on the verge 
 of the New Road. The exterior of the Diorama has nothing 
 more than the adjoining houses on either side, and its interior 
 has nothing in common with any thing else in the metropolis ; nor 
 has St. Andrew's Terrace much more to recommend it, except 
 the pretty pavillion-looking building of the Corinthian order at 
 the further end, which forms two houses, so contrived as to 
 appear like one. Therefore, as the unruly sun has been looking 
 upon us with his warmest regards for some hours, suppose we 
 enter the cool rotunda of the Diorama, and rest our wearied 
 bodies, and refresh our tired eyes, with the artificial beauties 
 of Messrs. Bouton and Daguere. 
 
 This delightful exhibition (let us sit down in the hall, while 
 the theatre and its audience, like that of Scribonius Curio at 
 Rome, is turning from one subject to another, during which 
 operation we cannot enter), is a display of architectural 
 and landscape scenery, painted in solid, and in transparency, 
 arranged and. lighted in a peculiar mode, so as to exhibit 
 changes of light and shade, and a variety of natural pheno- 
 mena in a really wonderful manner. The body of the picture 
 is painted, on what scene-painters technically term a flat, and 
 this main or perpendicular subject is aided by wings or side 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 81 
 
 scenes, by painting on the floor, by raised bodies and by other 
 optical and pictorial effects, till the delusion is perfect and almost 
 incredible. These paintings are lighted from behind by large 
 windows as big as the pictures, and by sky-lights over and in 
 front of them; and by the aid of opaque and transparent 
 screens and curtains of various colours and degrees of trans- 
 parency, the various effects of light, shade and gradations of 
 colour are produced. 
 
 These pictures, or scenes, are viewed from a very elegant 
 circular theatre, with pit, boxes and pas-sages, through an 
 opening, decorated by a proscenium. While the opening in the 
 theatre is before one picture, the whole body of the audience 
 part is slowly moved round by some admirable machinery be- 
 low, and the spectators, seats, attendants and all, are moved 
 imperceptibly round, from the Mary Chapel of Canterbury 
 Cathedral to the lake of Lausanne, or from the city of Rouen 
 m France, to the interior of Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. The 
 elevation next Park Square is from the designs of Mr. Nash, 
 and the interior of the theatre from those of Mr. Morgan and 
 M. Pugin. 
 
 The theatre has now revolved upon its axis, and one of the 
 openings removed to the door in the hall, therefore we may 
 enter, and be mystified by the delusions of these eminent 
 pictorial enchanters. 
 
 I hope you will admit, that I have not misapplied the epithet 
 of enchanters to these artists, and if you are sufficiently rested 
 and gratified by your inspection of the Diorama, we will walk 
 gently onward towards the new church, which is just com- 
 pleted on the eastern extremity of the immense parish of St. 
 Mary-le-bone. This new church is called the church of the 
 Holy Trinity, or for brevity sake, 
 
 Trinity Church. 
 
 This very handsome and well built church is erected by the 
 commissioners for building new churches, from the designs and 
 under the superintendance of Mr. Soane, the most original and 
 painter-like in conception, of modern English architects. 
 
 We have in this building the satisfaction of seeing, almost 
 for the first time since the days of Sir Christopher Wren, a 
 
 2 a 
 
82 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 steeple not sitting a straddle upon the back of the pediment, 
 like the giant Gog, in the Rabbinical fables, riding astride upon 
 Noah's ark during the flood. Mr. Soane has cut this Gordian 
 knot of church architecture, rather than unravelled it ; for to 
 accomplish his object he has omitted the pediment alto- 
 gether, instead of giving his tower a base from the earth, like 
 the campaniles of Wren and the best Italian architects. How- 
 ever it is a tasteful reformation of a contemptible practice, to 
 which Gibbs in his beautiful blunder of St. Martin's in the 
 fields, and the elder Dance, in his Wren-like imitation of Bow 
 church steeple, in the parish of Shoreditch, have given 
 currency. 
 
 This church, like its opposite neighbour St. Mary-le-bone 
 near York Gate, stands in the unorthodox position of north 
 and south, instead of the more general posture of east and 
 west ; but has its portico in the pleasing and more evidently 
 necessary situation of its face to the south, and its altar, or 
 principal end, at the north. 
 
 The portico is tetrastyle and Ionic, after one of the chastest 
 of the Greek specimens, that of the Temple on the banks of 
 the Ilyssus at Athens, and is raised upon a plinth, which is 
 level with the floor of the church. The floor of the portico is 
 approached by a flight of steps, guarded by a projecting block 
 of the same height as the plinth. Under this portico is the 
 door which leads to the nave, and on each side of the portico 
 is a lofty semicircular headed window, lighting the ailes, and 
 divided into two heights by a panelled transom between the 
 jambs j the upper portion lights the galleries and the lower 
 portion the pews beneath them. The cornice is continued on 
 every side of the building, but the architrave and frieze of the 
 entablature, only over the columns of the portico and of the 
 flanks. The frieze is sculptured with the formal Greek fret, 
 which is by no means so graceful or so elegant as the foliated 
 scroll and intervening honeysuckle of the same school. The 
 flanks have projecting sub-porticoes of six half-columns in antis, 
 corresponding in height and proportion with the portico-in- 
 chief ; and windows of a similar height and width, and similarlv 
 divided into two heights, fill up the intercolumniations. The 
 whole is surmounted by a parapet composed of a balustrade with 
 piers raised upon a well-proportioned blocking-course, breaking 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 83 
 
 with the entablature over each portico. These side sub-porticoes 
 are both original and pleasing, and the long windows, divided be- 
 tween the frames instead of two stories of windows, or the 
 galleries seen through the glass, are equally novel arid effective. 
 The lower story of the tower, or rather belfry story, has two 
 projecting columns on each face, with entablatures breaking 
 every way over them, of the Tivoli-Corinthian order, which at 
 this height has a remarkably bold and pleasing effect. The 
 blocking-course over each column, is finished by a very beauti- 
 ful cinerary urn, or pyramidal sarcophagus, which form pleasing 
 finials, and carry the eye with good effect, to the circular story 
 which surmounts it and fill up the angles of the square. 
 
 This upper story is a peristyle of six columns of the com- 
 posed order used in the portico to the octagon temple of An- 
 dronicus Cyrrhestes, commonly called the temple of the 
 eight winds at Athens. The capitals of this order are too 
 minute and ineffective for the height in which they are placed 
 in this steeple, and are very inferior to those of one row of 
 very bold leaves, and large volutes, which are used by Wren, 
 m the tambour of the cupola of St. Paul's. These upper 
 columns are supported on a circular stylobate, which gives 
 elevation to the edifice, and are surmounted by a semi-elliptical 
 cupola of rather lofty proportions, that carries the vane. 
 
 Since the days of Gibbs and Wren, I consider this steeple, 
 belfry, or whatever it may be called, as the fashion of the 
 day, or the will of the commissioners, insist on the perpetration 
 of such horrors on the roofs of modern churches, to be the best, 
 always excepting that of Shoreditch. The omission of the 
 pediment gives some approach to the solid tower, emanating 
 from the ground, and surmounted by the steeple, that was 
 the invariable practice of Wren and the best Italian ar- 
 chitects. 
 
 If the worthy professor of architecture in the Royal Aca- 
 demy were now with us, I would ask him, considering that he 
 was not bound to an east and west longitude, whether he might 
 not have made his Ionic portico, being either tetrastyle to the 
 nave as at present, or hexastyle, embracing at once the nave 
 and the aisles, complete with a pediment ; and instead of 
 placing his beautiful belfry a cock-horse on its apex, have 
 erected it on a square unornamented tower, the lower part of 
 
84 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 which would have served for a sacristy or vestry room, at the 
 north end ; giving it, that is the plain square tower, a greater 
 height to allow for the distance ? 
 
 A student should not dictate to his professor, but he may 
 ask respectful questions. 
 
 Now, my good sirs, we have finished our perambulation of 
 the Regent's Park, but hope that more villas may yet recall 
 our steps, as there is certainly no place in the whole metropolis 
 so completely fitted for the rus in urbe as this beautiful spot. 
 
 Before finishing our walk, I cannot conclude without reading 
 to you a sketch of this delightful place, written by Mr. Charles 
 Oilier, one of the proprietors and editors of the Literary Pocket 
 Book for 1823, which is often my pocket companion in literary 
 excursions. 
 
 " When we first saw," he begins, and I well remember hav- 
 ing a similar feeling, although my professional propensities lead 
 me to think lightly of the destruction of fair fields for formal 
 buildings, " that the Mary-le-bone fields were enclosed, and that 
 the hedge-row walks which twined through them were gradu- 
 ally being obliterated, and the whole district artificially laid 
 out, (there is nothing more wretched than the first process of 
 planting and making roads), we underwent a painful feeling or 
 two, and heartily deplored the destructive advances of what 
 generally goes by the name of improvement. Old recollections 
 — recollections of youth, upon which we love to dwell as 
 we advance into the shadowed part of our life's road, are re- 
 morselessly stricken aside by this change in pleasant localities ; 
 we almost mourn over the loss of the old trees and paths which 
 stood as quiet mementos of the cheerful rambles of our boyish 
 days, or, it may be, of love-hallowed walks and looks, and 
 tender words first ventured under the influence of the fields 
 and the comparative retirement. Nothing makes the lover 
 bold and the mistress tender, so well as the fresh and fragrant 
 air, the green herbage, the quiet and the privacy of country 
 spots, which, when near towns, are more exciting by the 
 contrast. 
 
 " A few years, however, have elapsed, and we are not only re- 
 conciled to the change alluded to, but rejoice in it. A noble 
 park is rapidly rising up, if we may use such an expression, and 
 a vast space, close by the metropolis, not only preserved from 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 S.j 
 
 the encroachment of mean buildings, but laid out with groves, 
 lakes, and villas, with their separate pleasure grounds, while 
 through the whole place there is a winding road," ( see the em- 
 graved pla?i of the Regent's Park) "which commands at every 
 turn some fresh features of an extensive country prospect. 
 
 " This is indeed a desirable appendage to so "vast a town 
 as London, more especially as the rage for building fills every 
 pleasant outlet with bricks, mortar, rubbish and eternal scaffold- 
 poles, which, whether you walk east, west, north, or south, 
 seem to be running after you. We heard a gentleman say, the 
 other day, that he was sure a resident in the suburbs could 
 scarcely lie down after dinner, and take a nap, without finding, 
 when he awoke, that a new row of buildings had started up 
 since he closed his eyes. It is certainly astonishing: one 
 would think that builders used magic, or steam at least, and 
 it would be curious to ask those gentlemen in what part of the 
 neighbouring counties they intended London should end. Not 
 content with separate streets, squares, and rows, they are ac- 
 tually the founders of new towns, which in the space of a few 
 months, become finished and inhabited. The precincts of 
 London have more the appearance of a newly discovered colony, 
 than the suburbs of an ancient city. For instance : in what a 
 very short time back were the Bayswater fields, there is now 
 a populous district, called by the inhabitants, ' Moscow ;' and 
 
 at the foot of Primrose Hill, we are amazed by coining' upon a 
 large complication of streets, 8tc. under the name of ' Portland 
 Town.' The rustic and primeval meadows of Kilburn are als<o 
 filling with new buildings and incipient roads; to say nothing 
 of the charming neighbourhood of St. John's Wood Farm, and 
 other spots nearer town. 
 
 " The noble appropriation of the district of which we are now 
 speaking, is not so much a change as a restoration. It was 
 formerly a park, and had a royal palace in it, where, we believe, 
 Queen Elizabeth occasionally resided. It was disparked by 
 Oliver Cromwell, who settled it on Colonel Thomas Harrison's 
 regiment of dragoons for their pay ; but, at the restoration of 
 Charles II. it passed into the hands of other possessors, till, at 
 length, it has reverted to the crown, by whose public spirit a 
 magnificent park is secured to the inhabitants of London. Th<e 
 expense of its planting, 8cc. must have been enormous, but 
 
 2 B 
 
86 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 money cannot be better laid out than on purposes of this lasting 
 benefit and national ornament. 
 
 " The plan and size of the park, is in every respect worthy 
 of the nation. It is larger than Hyde Park, St. James's Park, 
 and the Green Park together." Here my friend of the Literary 
 Pocket Book is in error, for Hyde Park, even since its robbery 
 of part of its fair proportions by Kensington Gardens, contains 
 395 acres, St. James's and the Green Park together, at least as 
 many, and the Regent's Park only about 450 acres, exceeding 
 little more than 50 acres Hyde Park alone. But, to proceed : 
 " And the trees planted in it about ten years ago are already 
 becoming umbrageous. The water is very extensive. As you 
 are rowed on it, the variety of views you come upon is admira- 
 ble ; sometimes you are in a narrow stream, closely overhung by 
 the branches of trees ; presently you open upon a wide sheet of 
 water, like a lake, with swans sunning themselves on its bosom ; 
 by and bye your boat floats near the edge of a smooth lawn 
 fronting one of the villas ; and then again you catch the per- 
 spective of a range of superb edifices, the elevation of which is 
 contrived to have the effect of one palace. The park, in fact, 
 is to be belted with groups of these mansions, entirely excluding 
 all sights of the streets. One of them is indeed finished (it is 
 now five years since this was written), " and gives a satisfactory 
 earnest of the splendid spirit in which the whole is to be accom- 
 plished. There will be nothing like it in Europe. The villas in the 
 interior of the park are planted out from the view of each other, 
 so that, the inhabitant of each seems, in his own prospect, to be 
 the sole lord of the surrounding scenery. 
 
 " In the centre of the park, there is a circular plantation of 
 immense circumference, and in the interior of this you are in a 
 perfect Arcadia. The mind cannot conceive any thing more 
 hushed, more sylvan, more entirely removed from the slightest 
 evidence of proximity to a town. Nothing is audible there, 
 except the songs of birds and the rustling of leaves. Kensington 
 Gardens, beautiful as they are, have no seclusion so perfect as 
 this. 
 
 " We cannot recommend a better thing to such of our readers 
 as have leisure, than a day spent in wandering amidst the union 
 of stately objects and rural beauty which constitute the charm 
 of Mary-le-bone Park." 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 87 
 
 Thus endeth our friend of " the Literary Pocket Book," and 
 so endeth our perambulation round the Regent's Park. 
 
 Our next excursion shall be, from this interesting spot, through 
 Regent Street to Westminster ; and till then, gentlemen, adieu. 
 
88 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 " A Realm gaineth more by one year's peace, than by ten year's war." 
 
 Lord Burleigh. 
 
 " Variety and intricacy, is a beauty and excellence in every other of the arts which 
 address the imagination ; and why not in architecture ?" 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds. 
 
 PARK SQUARE, FROM THE NEW ROAD— ITS PLANTATION AND PLEASURE GROUND 
 STATUE OF THE DUKE OF KENT CLASSIFICATION OF STATUES PARK CRES- 
 CENT PORTLAND PLACE LANGHAM PLACE SIR JAMES LANGHAM'S MANSION 
 
 THE LATE MR. JAMES WYATt's MANSION— ALL SOULS CHURCH— REGENT 
 STREET— THE CIRCUS, OXFORD STREET— ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, REGENT STREET 
 
 walk down regent street— the harmonic institution— the palacb- 
 
 LIKE ROWS OF SHOPS— BUILDINGS, THOSE BY MR. SOANE, MR. NASH, MR. 
 ABRAHAM AND OTHER ARCHITECTS— THE QUADRANT— THE CIRCUS, PICCA- 
 DILLY— MR. EDWARDS'S MANSION— MR. NASH's GALLERY AND MANSION- 
 UNITED SERVICE CLUB-HOUSE— WATERLOO PLACE— THE NEW BUILDINGS NOW 
 IN PROGRESS ON THE SITE OF CARLTON HOUSE— REMINISCENCE OF THE VIEW 
 OF THAT PALACE AND ITS ARCHITECURAL SCREEN FROM REGENT STREET. 
 
 The morning is again auspicious to our task, which I purpose 
 beginning, where we left off yesterday ; namely, at 
 
 Park Square. 
 
 On this spot it was originally intended to have completed the 
 crescent opposite, into a circus, which would have been the 
 largest circle of buildings in Europe. The foundations of the 
 western quadrant of it were even laid, and the arches for the 
 coal-cellars turned. For some reasons, however, this plan was 
 abandoned, and the entire chord of the semicircle left open to 
 the park, instead of being closed in by the intended half circus. 
 This alteration is a manifest improvement of the entire design, 
 and is productive of great benefit to the houses in the crescent 
 and in Portland Place. Park Square is erected in its stead, 
 and consists of two rows of houses, elongated upon the extre- 
 mities of the crescent, and separated from the New Road, from 
 the park, and from each other, by a spacious quadrangular area, 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 89 
 
 laid out with planted pleasure grounds, and enclosed by hand- 
 some ornamental iron railings. 
 
 Having the use of a key for the day, we will, as we are early, 
 take a stroll among its meandering walks, and enjoy ourselves 
 among its ambrosial shrubs, its natural symmetry and its trim 
 beauty; for in an enclosed garden in the neighbourhood of 
 buildings or other works of art, neatness, symmetry and trim- 
 ness, approaching to elegance, are the characters that should 
 be sought after by the landscape or artist gardener. How re- 
 freshingly cool and soft the velvet turf of this smoothly shaven 
 lawn is to the feet, after coming from the arid hardness of the 
 gravelled road ; and how delightful to the senses are the fra- 
 grancy of those gay flowers, the symmetry of those beauteous 
 dwarf shrubs, and the artfulness of those serpentine walks. I 
 am not partial to the wild, or what Gilpin calls the natural or 
 picturesque manner in the domestic garden ; but would rather 
 with Milton, 
 
 " Add to these, retired leisure, 
 
 That in trim gardens takes his pleasure." 
 
 This smoothness, this dressed gaiety offends against the laws 
 of the picturesque or Gilpin school. A master in this school, 
 would turn the velvet lawn into a piece of broken ground, 
 would plant rugged scrubby oaks instead of flowering shrubs, 
 would break the edges of these walks, would give them the 
 roughness of a new made road, would corrugate them with ruts, 
 would defile the beauty of its whole face by stones and brush- 
 wood, and by making all rough and dirty, where all is now fair 
 and smooth, would create what in his vocabulary he would call 
 the picturesque. 
 
 So would he act by a gorgeous piece of architecture, if it 
 were as perfect as the pencil of Callicrates, or the chisel of 
 Phidias could make it. Let the proportion of its parts, the 
 propriety of its ornaments, and the symmetry of the whole, be 
 as exquisite, as ever bore the impress of the mint of genius ; in 
 his eye it is formal, and does not please his picturesque imagi- 
 nation. Therefore, to give it the finishing touch, the master 
 mark of currency among the people of picturesquiescity, he 
 would take the mallet instead of the chisel, would beat down 
 one half of its splendid beauties and throw the mutilated mem- 
 
 2 c 
 
90 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 bers around the rest in heaps, and call exultingly aloud, " be- 
 hold my work ! " No painter, he would say, could hesitate a 
 moment which to choose. The Parthenon in all its glories, 
 during the splendid era of Pericles, a name deservedly dear to 
 every lover of the fine arts, would be inferior in his eyes, to the 
 same fine structure in its demolished state, when blown to 
 ruins by the bomb-shells of the barbarian Kcenigmarck, and 
 the villainous gunpowder of the still greater barbarians of 
 Turks, who desecrated it into a magazine of warlike combus- 
 tibles. 
 
 The rude and undefined masses of the overthrown temples 
 of Agrigentum, would please his eye more than all the majesty 
 of the Roman Forum in complete perfection. He would not 
 sing with Cowper, 
 
 " Alas for Sicily ! rude fragrants now 
 
 Lie scatter'd, where the shapely columns stood. 
 
 Her palaces are dust" — 
 
 but would rather rejoice, if some tasteful-minded earthquake 
 would topple down St. Paul's Cathedral into a more picturesque 
 object, than its finely proportioned columns, and ample cupola 
 built in the form of heaven, now presents to his dilapidating 
 eye. 
 
 Let us pass, beneath these 
 
 « Shades, 
 
 And walks beneath, and alleys brown," 
 
 under the New Road into the semicircular gardens of Park 
 Crescent. 
 
 The statue before us is erected by public subscription to the 
 memory of the late Duke of Kent, a prince of great public spirit, 
 who at the time of his lamented death, was fast working himself 
 into the good graces of his countrymen, and rapidly winning the 
 golden opinions of men. It is executed in bronze by Gahagan, 
 and elevated on a granite pedestal. The Royal Duke is represented 
 in a standing posture, dressed in a field marshall's uniform, over 
 which the artist has cast drapery, of his robes and collar of the 
 order of the garter. The attitude is simple and unaffected, and 
 with the bust is very like the royal personage that it represents. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 91 
 
 The figure is heroic, that is, between the natural and colossal 
 sizes, being seven feet two inches in height. Its weight of 
 metal is, I understand, about two tons. . 
 
 This statue of his majesty's lamented brother, is in a manly 
 energetic style ; but coarse in execution, and vulgar in concep- 
 tion. As a likeness of a duke, and as an imitation of a British 
 general, of royal rank, there is but little fault to find. As a 
 figure in modern costume it is vastly superior to that of another 
 royal duke (Cumberland) in Cavendish Square ; but inferior to 
 Flaxman's Lord Howe, in Westminster Abbey. " Imitation is 
 the means" says Sir Joshua Reynolds, " not the end of art ; it is 
 employed by the sculptor as the language by which his ideas 
 are presented to the mind of the spectator. Poetry and elocu- 
 tion of every sort make use of signs, but those signs are arbi- 
 trary and conventional. The sculptor employs the representa- 
 tion of the thing itself ; but still as a means to a higher end — 
 as a gradual ascent always advancing towards faultless form 
 and perfect beauty." The essence of sculpture is correctness, 
 and thus far the artist of this statue has accomplished his pur- 
 pose ; but we look in vain for dignity of character in this mere 
 portrait of the royal duke. 
 
 Mr. Gahagan has done well however in abandoning the lorica 
 and thoraca of the Roman school, and has arranged the military 
 costume of the day with becoming effect. The ducal robe 
 supplies the place of the imperial paludamentum, with appro- 
 priateness, and he has arranged it with skill. 
 
 The sculptor's art, in the present day, is both a limited and a 
 difficult one ; for it will be in vain for him to hope to surpass 
 the splendid relics of Grecian art, that have reached our times. 
 The painter on the contrary has a wider field, and his ancient 
 rivals Zeuxis, Parrhasius and Apelles, live but in the histo- 
 rian's volume. The Apollo, the Venus, the Laocoon and the 
 Phidian marbles of the Parthenon remain as proofs of the per- 
 fection to which the genius of the ancients brought this science 
 of abstract form. 
 
 As we are upon the subject of drapery, — the Greeks seldom 
 used it in their sculpture, and the Romans almost always; yet 
 did the Greeks surpass the Romans, even in this department 
 of the art. So completely was the naked statue reckoned of 
 Greek workmanship, that Pliny (book xxxiv. chap. 5.) says the 
 
92 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Romans called all the unclothed male statues, Achillean statues, 
 on account of the number of statues of which they had of that 
 Grecian hero armed only with his javelin. 
 
 The Romans named their draped military statues after the 
 name of the costume in which they were clothed • and the 
 statues belonging to persons of the civil class from the order of 
 vestments in which they were arrayed. They also named them 
 Equestrian, Pedestrian or Curuled, as they were either on 
 horseback, on foot, or seated in the Curule chair. 
 
 Thus might we form a classification of modern statues, and, 
 while we repose in this delightful alcove, I will try my hand. 
 
 The statue of Charles the First at Charing Cross, we would 
 call Equestrian as to its class, and royal as to its order. That 
 now before us is Pedestrian, and royal. That of his Grace of 
 Bedford, in Russell Square, Pedestrian, ducal from his robes, 
 and agricultural from its attributes and accessories. Charles 
 Fox at the other end of Bedford Place, Curuled and Sena- 
 torial The grand portrait of Lord Mansfield, by Flaxman, 
 in Westminster Abbey, Curuled in class and Judicial in order. 
 But this is not the way to go through our purposed survey of 
 the new buildings of the metropolis, in which I promised to 
 accompany you. Therefore, I must leave it to your future 
 leisure to complete my classification of modern statuary. 
 
 Now let us pass round one side of Park Crescent, and, as 
 the sun is darting his hottest beams upon us, the eastern 
 quadrant will be the more shady of the two. The great size 
 of this semicircle of mansions is more imposing in effect than 
 the details are choice in selection, which is the prevailing vice 
 of Mr. Nash's style. He comprehends a whole, he grasps the 
 extremities, he achieves variety — that variety and intricacy 
 which the accomplished Sir Joshua Reynolds considered as a 
 beauty and excellence worthy of being adopted into architec- 
 ture : but he sees not the detail, he either neglects it or despises 
 it, and certainly does not look at his art with a microscopic eye. 
 He does not finish in architecture like Denner or the Dutch 
 masters in painting ; but to pursue the analogy, designs like 
 a painter in fresco, and thinks with Michael Angiolo, that 
 a finished or exquisite detail in architecture is like oil 
 painting in the sister art, fit employment only for women and 
 children. 
 
Drawn hj Tbo. n. Stepnerd. . 
 
 BntfTavel "by J. Re da-way. 
 
 EAST' SIDE ©]F ?ASI (CMSOW. 
 
 Drawn "by Tio. K . Stepner 
 
 EAST £>1£1L£>E ©if FA1E1K S^WAJ 
 
 REGENT'S PAB-K. 
 
 Kbhahcl June 6, 18.29. ty Jones & CTempie of the Muses, ilashury Square. london . 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 93 
 
 This end of Portland Place is also by Mr. Nash, who has 
 joined his broad style to the finicking finish of the Messrs. 
 Adams, with good effect. No antipodes can be more opposite 
 than the styles of these masters, and yet there is somewhat of 
 resemblance. Both are fond of decoration, and both lay it on 
 with profusion ; but the former does not bedizen his exteriors with 
 confectionary so much as the latter, and his style is more bold. 
 It is also more pure, as approaching nearer to the Palladian 
 and ancient Roman, while that of the latter is of the de- 
 praved school of the middle and lower empire. The palace of 
 Diocletian, at Spalatro, is the Magnus Apollo of the Adams's, 
 as their buildings about the Adelphi, and the centre part of 
 Portland Place, which we are now approaching, are striking- 
 proofs. Many of their works, however, are of a more chaste 
 and manly character, as the front of the Duke of Bedford's 
 house, in St. James's Square, the house of the Society for the 
 Encouragement of Arts, &c. in the Adelphi ; the office of the 
 Amicable Society in Serjeants' Inn ; the street front of Draper's 
 Hall, in Throgmorton Street, and a few others of the same 
 character, whose names I do not at present remember. Nash 
 also aims at more variety and intricacy of form than the 
 Adams's, and has obtained more general beauty ; but has been as 
 unsuccessful in the purity of his detail, as the united brethren ;* 
 though from a different cause— he, from overlooking it, they 
 from a bad taste, derived from the Roman school of Spalatro. 
 
 Portland Place, from its size and the consequence of its 
 houses, is one of the most spacious and magnificent streets in 
 the metropolis, and, in its day, was one of the most architectural 
 that had been erected. Moreover, the novelty of the style, the 
 great width of the street, which is 125 feet in breadth, pro- 
 duced, when first erected, a striking effect. The style of its 
 architecture, however, is feeble and effeminate, and is rendered 
 tame by the bolder executions of more modern architects, with 
 which it is surrounded. 
 
 It extends from Park Crescent on the north, to Langham 
 Place on the south, where it was terminated in Adams's days, 
 by Foley House, which has been taken down for Mr. Nash's 
 improvements. The houses are lofty, elegant, and well suited 
 
 • So they called themselves in that fraternal union of their talents "the Adelphi.' 
 
 2 D 
 
94 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 for the more opulent classes of the community, but are, as you 
 may perceive, deficient in boldness and relief. 
 
 This isolated mansion on our left, which stands so far behind 
 the others, was the dwelling of that very distinguished orna- 
 ment of our profession, the late James Wyatt, who designed 
 and built it for himself. The front which now faces Portland 
 Place, was in his time the rear or back front, and looked into 
 the gardens of Foley House, and that which looks up Foley 
 Place, to the eastward, was the principal front. This accounts 
 for the plainness of the elevation, which has had, since the 
 death of its able original proprietor, a Doric portico added to 
 the centre door, by way of some distinction, and also to serve 
 as an occasional entrance from Portland arid Langham Places, 
 for it stands on neutral ground between the two. 
 
 The front next Foley Place, is well worth looking at, not 
 only as being the work of one of our most tasteful and original 
 architects, but from its own intrinsic beauties. It is also me- 
 morable, as being one of the first architectural fronts that was 
 covered with the stucco, first introduced into this country by 
 Mr. Wyatt, and known by the name of Roman cement. It is 
 superior in every way to the oil cement of Adams, which has 
 perished to the core, while the induration of Mr. Wyatt's is 
 perfect to this hour, and appears likely to equal that of the 
 finest stone. 
 
 Let us walk round by the new church, and take a survey of 
 this very elegant facade, which is nearly lost to the eye of taste, 
 by the dirt with which it is covered. 
 
 It consists of a centre, and two pretty pavilion-like wings, 
 which are decorated with elegant bassi rilievi, and give value, 
 as the painters call it, to the receding front which stands within 
 them. The principal, or entrance story, has three spacious 
 openings covered with segmental arches ; the centre of which 
 is occupied by a classically designed door of beautiful propor- 
 tions, and the side apertures with Venetian windows. The 
 spaces between the chord and circumference of the arches, are 
 decorated with delicate sculptures after the antique. 
 
 The drawing-room and chamber stories, are embellished with 
 pilasters or ante of a Corinthian order, selected from the portico 
 at Athens, the horns of whose abacus, contrary to those of 
 every other example, come to points instead of being cut off. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 95 
 
 The whole is surmounted by a handsome entablature, blocking 
 course, and balustrade. 
 
 For elegance of detail, for harmony of proportion, for good 
 taste, and a chaste suavity of domestic propriety, considering 
 its size, this handsome house is not surpassed by any in the 
 metropolis. It is now the residence of Colonel Mark Wilks, 
 of Kirby, in the Isle of Man, who was governor of the island 
 of St. Helena, before it was occupied by the commissioners for 
 the detention of the Emperor Napoleon. 
 
 We must return into Portland Place for a few minutes. The 
 house, that almost immediately adjoins this of Colonel Wilks, 
 with the cupola, balustrade, and Corinthian pilasters of Palladian 
 character, is the residence of Sir Anthony Carlisle, the late 
 professor of anatomy of the Royal Academy. It composes 
 well with the adjoining mansions and small plantations, and 
 although petite in style, from the want of height in the stories, 
 forms a pretty picturesque accessory to the groupe. 
 
 The island of houses that stands between Sir Anthony's 
 pavilion and the church, is by Mr. Nash, and in his prevailing 
 style ; as are those opposite, which, however, are of better pro- 
 portions. This is Langham Place, named after Sir James 
 Langham, the worthy baronet who occupies the villa-looking 
 mansion and pleasure grounds at the bottom ; Langham House 
 is also by Mr. Nash, and is a very good example of his best 
 style ; varied, architectural, and well relieved by appropriate 
 breaks and projections. It carries upon its face, good sense, 
 sound taste, and appropriate character. It is a city or rather 
 a town villa, and not a street mansion, built with a front and 
 no sides, as if waiting for its next door neighbour to be built 
 against its party walls. Whereas, this has side as well as front 
 elevations, stands as if meant to stand, detached with cornices 
 and architectural ornaments and openings on every side, bidding 
 as it were, all loving buildings to keep their distances, and 
 nothing to approach but living creatures and beauteous shrubs. 
 It looks as if the original design was drawn at once in perspec- 
 tive, and the front and flanks designed together with the pencil 
 of an artist, and that the drawing board and formal geometrical 
 elevation had nothing to do with its composition. This is the 
 variety, combination and composition that distinguishes the 
 artist from the artisan. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 The view from this tasteful Palladian villa, up Portland 
 Place, is strikingly grand and effective. The vista is one of 
 the finest in this fine.part of the metropolis, finished as it is, by 
 the paradisiacal views of the park. It is an inclined plane of 
 architectural beauty, rising from the spot whence we are viewing 
 it, to a climax of scenic perfection, in the distance, that cannot 
 be paralleled in Europe ; whether we consider the wealth that 
 it embodies, the salubrity of the site which surrounds it, or the 
 optical beauty which results from this charming combination of 
 architecture, sculpture and landscape gardening. 
 
 The season of the year too, adds to the beauty of the passing 
 scene. It is now the middle of the London season, the town is 
 resplendently full, the weather as splendidly gay and exhilirating, 
 the inhabitants all life and bustle, and the circumstance of the 
 last drawing room for the season being held to day, makes this 
 opulent and fashionable quarter of the town as lively as an 
 ant-hill. Every equipage is bearing towards Regent Street, in 
 its way to the palace. 
 
 This splendid carriage, with the armed hey-duke behind it, 
 coming out of Duchess Street, is Prince Esterhazy's, which 
 contains diamonds enough to purchase a manor. The crowd 
 now surrounding the carriages and front of the house on the 
 left, just above Weymouth Street, are waiting to see the 
 splendid cortege of the Prince de Polignac the French Ambas- 
 sador, who is going to pay the respects of his royal master 
 Charles X. to our justly popular sovereign. The Spanish 
 Ambassador on the opposite side, and the newly acknowledged 
 Colombian minister, Count Hurtad, his neighbour, are also pre- 
 paring to join in the same gratifying ceremony. 
 
 I say, gratifying, when I reflect upon the different feelings 
 that actuated our public men, during the last desolating and 
 expensive war, when rivalry in bloodshed and horrors devas- 
 tated the finest countries in Europe ; and now, when our greatest 
 rivalries are in the arts of peace, in commerce, in literature, in 
 the fine arts, in science, in all the elegancies that adorn and 
 support human nature. In these instances all parties are the 
 gainers, for even the unsuccessful for the paramount prize, reap 
 a profit, whilst, in war, the very conquerors are awful losers. 
 
 Now let us cross over to the portico of the south-eastern 
 building of Langham Place, and take a look at the singular 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 97 
 
 originality of All Soul's Church. Stay ! our station here, if the 
 carriages of the noble ambassadors do not rout us from our 
 post, is one of the best. The portico and wing of that house, 
 with the hatchment over it, bring an agreeable contrast to the 
 church, and with the superb coach manufactory of Messrs. 
 Marks, in the distance, form an architectural picture of no 
 small beauty. See the print of All Soul's Church, Langham 
 Place. 
 
 The circular perystyle of the whimsical Ionic portico, the 
 capitals of which are composed of winged cherubim, whose 
 heads peer between the volutes with which their wings are 
 intermingling, like owls displayed on the posts of a Dutch 
 barn, have a very good and very original effect from the situa- 
 tion where we now stand. The circular tower within it, that 
 pierces the soffit of the portico, is solid and effective, and where 
 it rises above the balustrade that crowns the cornice, into a cir- 
 cular stylobate to the Corinthian Peripteral temple that forms 
 the bell-tower, it is really productive of beauty, in form and 
 proportion. Nor am I disposed, now my eye has become some- 
 what used to the daring novelty, to object to the got hie innova- 
 tion of the impaling spire, with its sharpened iron apex, placed 
 as a finial to the Daedalian beauty of the campanile, as some 
 have done, who with more of wit than love for originality, have 
 compared it to a flat candlestick surmounted by a thick candle, 
 and a little non-fit extinguisher upon its top. 
 
 Elegancies, like the steeples of Bow and of St. Bride's, 
 would cloy, if stuck over every church and chapel in the me- 
 tropolis, and to omit all the credit due to Mr. Nash for his 
 bold originality in this singular tower and spire, would be un- 
 fair, for it really possesses much intrinsic beauty of form, and is 
 no mean ornament to the neighbourhood. 
 
 The manufactory of Messrs. Marks and Son beyond it, would 
 have been admired, even for a mansion, in the plain times of the 
 Portman Square architects, but is now lost among the archi- 
 tectural beauties of the new metropolis in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 The architectural fa§ade to the fronts of the row of stable- 
 offices fronting the coach-maker's is a skilful contrivance to 
 conceal an obvious defect, and is highly creditable to the skill 
 of the architect, as well as an architectural embellishment to 
 
 2 E 
 
98 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 the neighbourhood. The little continuous portico of the Doric 
 order, appended to the front of the dead wall, is a happy 
 thought, and produces one of those pretty accidental effects 
 that an original design often wants. 
 
 There is also much novelty and picturesque effect, in the 
 otherwise clumsy piers and sepulchral arches of the east en- 
 trance story to the houses between this part and Margaret 
 Street ; and the depth of their recesses affords a solid base for 
 the superstructure of the elevation. 
 
 Here we approach the commercial portions of the street ; and 
 m no part of Mr. Nash's style is he more happy than in the 
 adaptation of his means to his end. The style of architecture 
 now assumes a different appearance. The portion we have just 
 left, as forming the isthmus between wealth and commerce, is 
 composed of smaller houses, which can be let at smaller rents 
 than either those of the continent of fashion that we are 
 leaving, or those of the great peninsula of commerce that we 
 are approaching. They are also of that dual character that 
 partakes both of the shop and the private house, and can be 
 used for either as circumstances require. 
 
 Now, there is nothing doubtful in style; wide handsome 
 fronts, calculated for broad showy shop-windows, wherein goods 
 and manufactured articles of the most splendid description, 
 such as the neighbouring world of wealth and fashion are in 
 daily want of, may be displayed to the greatest advantage ; and 
 wide private doors for entrance to the handsome upper apart- 
 ments, for letting as furnished lodgings to the temporary visiters 
 of the metropolis, are the prevailing characters. 
 
 These spots were let to the original builders at heavy ground- 
 rents, and consequently the rents of the houses are proportionably 
 high, and nothing but the costliness of the articles, and the great 
 quantity of them which are sold, could enable the shop-keepers 
 and tradesmen to pay them and procure a living profit. The 
 rivalry of many persons of the same occupations prevent ex- 
 tortion, and keep the goods sold in this splendid mart of retail 
 trade at moderate prices. 
 
 The architecture of the shops is various, and sufficiently 
 whimsical in places to please the demon of fashion ; but it 
 can be changed as the fashion of the day, or the character of 
 the goods to be displayed within them require : the fronts 
 being supported on slender iron columns within them. 
 
Drawn bvTho* H. Shepherd. Engraved tjWWali 
 
 FART OF THE EAST S3I©E ©F K3EGEMT STREET. 
 
 fWished Sep. 10, 1827, by Jones t C? J.Acton Place. Kmgsland .Road- Ion don. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 99 
 
 The style of the elevations above the cornices of the shops, is 
 of the varied character of the Italian school, and of course is 
 highly picturesque ; and the domestic arrangements of the 
 dwelling houses are remarkably well adapted to the architec- 
 tural facades of the exterior. This is indeed a portion of our 
 art in which Mr. Nash eminently excels, and which has rendered 
 his majestic design of Regent Street so much the admiration of 
 strangers and intelligent foreigners. For, as Waller sweetly 
 sung, 
 
 " Glad, though amazed, are our neighbour kings, 
 To see such power employed in peaceful things, 
 They list not urge it to the dreadful field ; 
 The task is easier to destroy than build." 
 
 The circus which unites, or rather amalgamates Regent 
 Street with Oxford Street, is of a continuous style of archi- 
 tecture with the houses above it ; and its form, Avhich takes off' 
 the intersectional angles, is one of the best that can be devised 
 for the purpose. It gives an air of grandeur and of space to 
 the streets, and a free circulation of air to the houses. It 
 affords facilities to carriages and horsemen in turning from one 
 street to the other, and is as elegant in form as it is useful in 
 application. 
 
 The building on the opposite side of the street, with two 
 turrets and a cupola, just below Princes Street, is the chapel of 
 St. George, a tasteful production of Mr. C. R. Cockerell, whose 
 travels and researches in Greece have added much to our know- 
 ledge of the sublime architecture of the ancient Greeks. 
 
 As Mr. Cockerell is so classical an architect, he need not 
 fear severity of criticism upon his designs, therefore if you please 
 we will walk over to Welch and Hawes's musical repository, and 
 inspect it leisurely from the northernmost window of their 
 saloon. 
 
 In the composition of this church, Mr. Cockerell had that 
 gem of Sir Christopher Wren's, the interior of St. Stephen, 
 Walbrook, in his mind's eye ; and as the only difference that 
 ever arose between the tasteful architect of the building before 
 us and myself, was which of us bore the greatest veneration 
 for the memory of Sir Christopher, we shall most likelv not differ 
 much as to an application of some of the intricacy and variety 
 
100 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 of the school of Wren, to the severe simplicity of the architec- 
 ture of ancient Greece. 
 
 The building is of that order of ancient temples which we 
 call prostyle, that is, having columns only in the front ; and is 
 the second order of sacred buildings, according to Vitruvius. 
 It is of the Ionic order of columns, and has a portico to the 
 nave, and wings with cubical turrets to the aisles. See the print 
 of St, George's Chapel, Regent Street. 
 
 The portico is tetrastyle, with columns of that species of the 
 Ionic order, that was used by the ancient Greeks in the temple 
 of Minerva Polias, at Priene, a city of Ionia, near Miletus. 
 Behind the two outer columns are antse of elegant proportions, 
 flanking a receding pronaos or porch which contains the en- 
 trance doorway. This is of antique form, and of just propor- 
 tions. The portico is covered with a pediment of an extremely 
 elegant and antique form, surmounted by acroteria, which how- 
 ever, ,at present, support nothing. 
 
 The wings are composed of two antse, one of which supports 
 the epistylium or architrave of the portico, and the other forms 
 the extremity of the building between the front and flank. 
 The entablature is carried through the whole composition, 
 breaking over both portico and flanks. The architrave has three 
 faces, as in the original example ; the frieze is plain, the cornice 
 is decorated with dentels in the bed mould, and with lion's 
 heads after the antique in the cymatium. 
 
 I know not what the district surveyor would say to Mr. 
 Cockerell, if his lion's heads were spouts to carry the water 
 from the roof after the Athenian manner, casting their liquid 
 odour upon the heads of the beaux and belles that perambulate 
 the broad and handsome pavement from their carriages to the 
 splendid shops on a showery day. 
 
 The antae project sufficiently in either flank, to exhibit its 
 entire proportion and a part of the side walls of the chapel, 
 which are rusticated in square sinkings to mark the courses of 
 stones, in correspondence with those of the front. Between 
 the fronts of the antse, in each wing, is a very handsome aper- 
 ture, with Grecian dressings, and relieved from the ground of 
 the wall by sinkings similar to those in the flanks. 
 
 On each wing is raised a rusticated attic, surmounted by a 
 cornice of accordant proportions and a lofty blocking course ; 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 101 
 
 which supports a second that forms a base to four ante, one at 
 each angle of a cubical campanile or bell tower. The order of 
 which these towers are composed, is a species of Doric, some- 
 what resembling that of the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus, 
 at Athens. The ante are surmounted by a lofty entablature, 
 consisting of architrave, frieze and cornice in due proportion, 
 crowned by a moulded parapet, which breaks over every part 
 of the centre and conceals the roofs. 
 
 The eastern faces of the walls, between the ante, are divided 
 into ten square panels ; the sides are decorated with the two 
 upper panels, the lower part being plain ; and the whole of 
 them are ornamented by sculptured bosses. Those of the 
 upper panels are perforated, to serve as a passage for the sound 
 of the bells. 
 
 Between the towers (to see which, however, we had better 
 walk a short distance towards Oxford Street), is a lofty capaci- 
 ous hemispherical cupola, with glazed panels for the admission 
 of light to the interior of the church. 
 
 This cupola, together with this mode of distributing light to 
 the interior, is more in the Italian style of architecture than in 
 the Grecian. Not that I mean to assert that we have many 
 existing remains of Greek cupolas, or any finer than that of 
 the Pantheon ; but that it is not such a cupola as an architect 
 of ancient Greece would have appropriated to such an edifice. 
 Yet it is so recedent from the portico, is so mixed with the archi- 
 tecture of the adjoining houses, and is so little connected with 
 the composition of the front arrangement, that it must be par- 
 doned for the sake of the good effect which it produces in the 
 very handsome interior, which, as I said before, is founded upon 
 that of Wren's graceful example, St. Stephen's, Walbrook. 
 
 The effect from this spot, flanked by the well-filled and 
 handsomely displayed shops on each side of the towers, breaking 
 against those buildings beyond it, and relieved by those of the 
 other side of the street, is peculiarly fine and varied. The cu- 
 pola comes upon the eye like that of an eastern mosque, the glass 
 panels sparkling with the gilding rays of the sun ; whilst the 
 circular Corinthian pavilion, on the opposite side of the street, 
 makes a beautiful fore-ground mass for a picture of this original 
 and tasteful building. See plate of St. George's Chapel 
 
 The row of Corinthian houses, to the northward of St. 
 
 2f ; 
 
102 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 George's chapel, is a great and manifest improvement upon the 
 plain dingy brick elevations of our ancestors. The shops, pro- 
 jecting as they do from the line of the architectural elevations 
 above, serve as a kind of perforated and decorated stylobate 
 to the Corinthian order of the one and two pair stories. The 
 pilasters are arranged in pairs and singly, to accommodate 
 them and their interpilasterings, to the openings of the windows, 
 and the divisions of the party walls. 
 
 The entablature, which is complete, after the best Roman 
 specimens, is surmounted by a blocking course, on which is 
 raised a well-proportioned Attic order of dwarf pilasters, with 
 cornice and parapet. The windows of this story are nearly square, 
 and at the same time are both appropriate to their purposes 
 and in unison with the architectural character of the structure. 
 These houses, by being built an entire story loftier than those 
 which adjoin Mr. Cockerell's chapel, create an agreeable va- 
 riety and a beautiful undulation of form that is highly pictur- 
 esque and pleasing to the eye. 
 
 A cup of coffee, or some other slight refreshment, would, I 
 conceive, be agreeable to us j and after a short repose from our 
 labours, this very hot morning, we can resume our excursion. 
 
 This important winding up of our machine, which poor hu- 
 manity so often requires, and which poor humanity is so de- 
 lighted to have done, being now accomplished, we will cross 
 over to the chapel, and from the western side of the street take 
 a periscopic view of the eastern side. 
 
 That long range of building, which reaches from the corner 
 of Argyle Place to the shop buildings, with a continuous por- 
 tico of termini, is the Harmonic Institution of Messrs. Welsh 
 and Hawes, which is connected with the establishment for- 
 merly called the Argyle Rooms ; where the celebrated Pic-nic 
 Society, under the guidance of Colonel Greville, the Odecho- 
 rologeium, a long-named institution for long winded-spouters, 
 and other musical and oratorical societies were formerly held. 
 
 The Harmonic Institution was originally a species of share- 
 holding joint stock company, associated for the publication 
 of musical compositions, and other objects connected with 
 that fascinating art. But it is now conducted entirely by 
 the two eminent musical professors whose name it bears. 
 The portico of termini, with capitals formed of the heads of 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 103 
 
 females, and executed by Mr. J. G. Bubb, produce a pleasing 
 variety next the street ; but at the same time an unpleasant 
 darkness in the rooms within. This rises as much from the 
 want of height in the lower story, to which I believe the archi- 
 tect, Mr. Nash, was confined, as from the projections of the 
 portico itself. 
 
 The western part of London is as much indebted to the taste 
 for architectural splendour of our present sovereign, as the city 
 formerly was to that of Charles II., in whose father's reign a 
 love for art began to be cultivated by the rich and well educated 
 part of the community. 
 
 In this respect the wise measures of our present king are in 
 opposition to the cautious, but perhaps in those days necessary 
 policy of some of our earlier monarchs, who were fearful that 
 the metropolis would grow at the expense of the country, and 
 become as a head too large for the body. With these views, 
 our good old Queen Bess, as she is familiarly called, passed an 
 act (35 Eliz. c. 6) for the restraint of new buildings, converting 
 great houses into several tenements, and for restraint of inmates 
 and inclosures, and from building on any but old foundations, 
 in and near the cities of London and Westminster. But her 
 majesty's taste, which rejected a pictorial prayer book, and com- 
 manded Zucchero to paint her portraits without shadows, was 
 never proverbially great, either in painting or in architecture. 
 Her successor too, the cautious James, conceived also that 
 London was increasing in size beyond his conceptions of me- 
 tropolitan propriety ; and that its inhabitants cultivated metro- 
 politan architecture beyond what pleased the British Solomon, 
 who dealt out his wishes like commands, in oracular apothegms 
 and pedantic proverbs. This monarch, as Lord Bacon informs 
 us, was wont to be pressing upon the country gentlemen to 
 abandon London for their country seats ; and that he would 
 sometimes say to them, " Gentlemen, in London you are like 
 ships in a sea, which show like nothing ; but in your country 
 villages you are ships in a river, which look like great things." 
 
 To persons who, like Cobbett, think our vast and increasing 
 metropolis, a wen rather than a sound and well-proportioned 
 head, suited to the Herculean fame of the British empire; 
 reply may be made, that London in the Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury is not as it was in the fifteenth, the metropolis of England 
 
104 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 alone ; but that it is now the metropolis and mart of the united 
 kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, of our immense colonies 
 and territorial possessions in the East Indies : that communica- 
 tions with every part of which, by our improved roads, coaches, 
 the important discovery of the agency of steam, and other 
 means of locomotion, are of ten times the ease and rapi- 
 dity of former days ; and, that vast as has been the increase of 
 buildings in and about the metropolis, the important facts in 
 political ceconomy are elicited, that neither is it at present over- 
 built, nor inhabitants wanting for the colonies of towns that 
 are now surrounding the ancient capital of England ; nor, what 
 is yet of greater importance, has any part of the country, or 
 any provincial town or city, suffered loss or decrease, by the 
 gain and increase of London. 
 
 So steady has been the increase of London since the restora- 
 tion of the ancient power of our kings over every branch of the 
 state, and the consequent expulsion of foreign power over our 
 domestic policy, by the reformation, that its contemplation is 
 almost startling. So great has been the increase of knowledge, 
 by that great diffuser of learning, which no longer debarred the 
 people from instruction, nor made an exclusive caste of the 
 priesthood for the benefit of a foreign state, that no memorial 
 of gratitude we can ever raise, would be adequate to the debt 
 we owe to our enlightened and enlightening forefathers, who were 
 instrumental in this vital change in the policy of our country. 
 
 The growth of London in the reign of James I. was pro- 
 digious. Sir William Petty computes its population to have 
 doubled itself every forty years, from the year 1600 ; conse- 
 quently, in 1680 it must have contained four times as many in- 
 habitants as it possessed at the beginning of the century. Al- 
 though James endeavoured to drive his opulent subjects from 
 the metropolis to their country residences, few of our monarchs 
 had a greater number, or more splendid palaces, than the suc- 
 cessor of Elizabeth, whose metropolitan architectophobia he 
 seemed to inherit with her crown. Not content with reproving 
 and exhorting his nobles and country magnates, as Lord Bacon 
 records, in imitation of his predecessor, he also issued several 
 proclamations against the increase of new buildings in London 
 and Westminster ; yet, at the same time, had both the incon- 
 sistency arid the good taste to employ Inigo Jones, notwith- 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 105 
 
 standing his staunch papism, to build for him his splendid 
 palace of Whitehall; whose banqueting house and splendid 
 ceiling, by Rubens, together with its entire design, for 
 the preservation and knowledge of which we are indebted to 
 the patriotic liberality of the Earl of Burlington, attest the 
 grand imagination, sound taste and liberality, of both the 
 king and his architect. 
 
 Several edicts were, according to old Stowe, the historian, 
 thus issued. One of them forbade all manner of buildings 
 within the city, and a circuit of one mile thereof. Among its 
 enactments was the salutary one to a city built of timber ; that 
 henceforward all new buildings should have their fore fronts 
 built of stone or brick ; and some offenders were censured in 
 the star chamber for offending against its regulations. 
 
 From this period we may date the reformation of the archi- 
 tecture of London, which is also much indebted to the genius 
 and industry of Inigo Jones, the king's chief architect. 
 
 Of the principal reformers of taste among the learned 
 and noble men of this period, the great Lord Chancellor 
 Bacon stands in the foremost rank ; and his published opi- 
 nions on architecture and gardening, are decisive proofs of the 
 correctness of his taste. His maxim, that houses are built to 
 live in and not to look on, should never be forgotten by the do- 
 mestic architect ; and his description of a palace, in opposition 
 to such huge buildings as the Vatican, the Escurial, and some 
 others, which he pithily observes, have scarce a fair room in 
 them, is characteristic of the best architectural style of this 
 period, which Inigo Jones, Sir Henry Wotton and him- 
 self had so much improved. 
 
 As we purpose taking a preliminary view of the new palace 
 now building near Buckingham Gate, St. James's Park, pre- 
 vious to its completion, for my hereafter full, true and particular 
 account of its glories ; for I hold it a maxim religiously to be 
 observed, that every architect has a right to exclaim to the 
 premature critics, stay till it be finished; — a short account of this 
 elegant minded man's idea for a palace may be a good pre- 
 parative. 
 
 He informs his readers (you will find the details in his ad- 
 mirable volume of essays), and his opinions carry weight with 
 men of discernment, — that they could not have a perfect palace 
 
 2 G 
 
106 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 except they had two several sides ; one for the banquet, fes- 
 tivals and triumphs ; and the other for the household and for 
 dwelling. These sides he ordains should be not only returns, 
 but parts of the front, and should be uniform without, though 
 severally partitioned within ; and to be on both sides of a great 
 and stately tower in the midst of the front, that as it were 
 joineth them together on either hand. He desires to have on 
 the banqueting side, in front, only one goodly room above 
 stairs, of above forty feet in height, and under it a room for a 
 dressing or preparing place in times of triumph. How far 
 Inigo Jones followed this advice, may be seen in comparing it 
 with his design for the new palace at Whitehall, of which the 
 present grand and imposing chapel was one of four such build- 
 ings, and intended by the architect for the banqueting house. 
 
 On the other side, which is the household or dwelling side, the 
 noble and learned architect would have it divided at the first 
 into a hall and chapel, with a partition between, both of good 
 state and ample dimensions. These apartments were not to go 
 all the length, but to have at the further end a winter and sum- 
 mer parlour ; and under these rooms, a fair and large cellar sunk 
 under ground, and likewise some privy kitchens, with butteries, 
 pantries and the like. As for the tower, he would have it of 
 two stories, each eighteen feet high above the two wings, and 
 handsome leads upon the top, balustraded, with statues inter- 
 posed ; and the same tower to be divided into rooms as shall 
 be thought fit. The stairs, he directs, to be formed upon a fair 
 open newel, and finely railed in with images of wood, cast into 
 a brass colour, and a very fair landing place at the top. I 
 give you nearly the learned chancellor's own words, for I am 
 against modernising into fashionable cant, the nervous and 
 sinewy language of the time of Elizabeth, of Shakspeare and 
 of Bacon ; particularly of the philosophical architect himself, 
 whose sublime idea for a royal palace I am now repeating to 
 you, borrowing, not stealing, from the rich storehouse of his 
 splendid imagination. 
 
 His lordship commands, that by no means should the servants' 
 dining rooms be in any of these lower rooms ; for otherwise, he 
 says, you will have the servants' dinners after your own ; for 
 the steam of it will come up as in a tunnel. And so much for 
 the front ; only he directs the height of the first story to be 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 107 
 
 sixteen feet, the upper he had before ordered at about forty 
 feet. 
 
 Beyond this front he designed a fair court, but three sides of 
 it were to be of a far lower building than the front ; and in all 
 the four corners of the court, handsome staircases cast into turrets 
 on the outside, and not within the row of buildings themselves. 
 But these towers were not to be of the height of the front, but 
 rather proportionable to the lower building, He would not 
 have this court paved all over, because it would strike up a 
 great heat in summer ; but only some side walks, with a cross, 
 and the quarters laid with grass, kept shorn, but not too close. 
 The row of return, on the banqueting side, was to be divided 
 into stately galleries, in which were to be three or five cupolas 
 in the length of it, placed at equal distances, and embellished 
 with fine coloured windows of several works. On the house- 
 hold side, were to be chambers of presence and ordinary enter- 
 tainment, with some bedchambers ; and all three sides were to 
 be formed as a double house, without thorough lights on the 
 sides, that there might be rooms from the sun both forenoon 
 and afternoon. He would have it so disposed, that there might 
 be rooms both for summer and winter ; shady for summer, and 
 warm for winter. 
 
 Instead of describing an ideal palace, one would almost think 
 it was the philosophical Pliny the younger, describing his Tus- 
 culum or Laurentinum to his friends. 
 
 But to proceed with the Chancellor's royal palace : he com- 
 plains of some fair houses, that were so full of glass, that one 
 cannot tell, he says, where to go to be out of the sun or the cold. 
 Bowed windows he held to be good, except for cities, in respect 
 to the uniformity toward the street ; as being pretty retiring 
 places for conference, and at the same time keeping off both 
 the sun and the wind ; for that, he observes, which would 
 strike almost through the . room, doth scarce pass the window. 
 He would, however, confine them to few in number, not ex- 
 ceeding four in the court on the sides only. 
 
 Beyond this court, he would have an inner court of the same 
 square and height, which was to be environed with a garden 
 on all sides ; and in the inside cloistered or porticoed on all 
 sides, upon beautiful and well-proportioned arches, as high as 
 the first story. On the under story, towards the garden, it was 
 
108 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 to be turned to a grotto, or place of shade or estivation ; and 
 only have opening and windows towards the garden, and be 
 level upon the floor, and no way sunk under ground, to avoid 
 damps. He proposed also a fountain, or some fair composition 
 -of statues, in the midst of this court, which was to be paved 
 as the other court. These buildings were intended for privy 
 lodgings on both sides, and the end for priyy galleries ; whereof 
 one was to be for an infirmary on the second story, in case the 
 prince, or any special person, should be sick ; to have cham- 
 bers, antichambers, bedchambers &c. joining to it. Upon the 
 ground story he would have a fair gallery, upon columns, to 
 take the prospect and enjoy the freshness of the garden. At 
 both corners of the further side, by way of return, he directs 
 two delicate or rich cabinets to be formed, daintily paved, richly 
 hanged, glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in the 
 midst, and all other elegancies that might be thought upon. 
 In the upper gallery he wished there might be some fountains 
 running in divers places from the wall, with other conveniences 
 of that nature. 
 
 And thus much, says our philosophical architectural theorist, 
 for the model of the palace ; save that there must be, before 
 you come in the front, three courts, and a green court, plain, with 
 a wall about it ; a second court of the same, but more embel- 
 lished, with little turrets, or rather ornaments, upon the wall ; 
 and a third court, to make a square with the front, but not to 
 be built, nor yet inclosed, with a naked wall ; but enclosed 
 with terraces, leaded aloft, and fairly garnished on the three 
 sides, and cloistered on the inside with columns, and not with 
 arches below. As for offices, he advises to let them stand at a 
 distance, with some low galleries to pass from them to the 
 palace itself. 
 
 So far does this " Columbus of the philosophical world" 
 direct the architectural taste of his day; the fruits of which 
 were apparent, and coming to maturity, in the early part of 
 the reign of the unfortunate Charles. This ideal palace would 
 be an excellent task to try the abilities of a young architect to 
 design on paper, and would make an admirable probationary 
 gold medal study for the more advanced students of our Royal 
 Academy. Bacon was not the only philosopher who considered 
 architecture as worthy the attention of an elevated mind. The 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 109 
 
 wise, the enlightened Sir Henry Wotton, who acquired the 
 soundest elements of the art in the school of Palladio, at Ve- 
 nice, (where the only practical English architect of the day, 
 the elegant and accomplished Inigo Jones was then a resident,) 
 also imbibed the purest streams of art, entered still more 
 deeply into its theory, and gave the world his admirable " Ele- 
 ments of Architecture ;" an art which, he says, requires no re- 
 commendation where there are noble men or noble minds. He 
 modestly admits that he is but a gatherer and disposer of other 
 men's stuff; he yet gives to the world the soundest doctrines 
 of practice, and the purest of taste. 
 
 Inigo Jones was the great practical architect of this brilliant 
 period of our history ; the Lord Chancellor Bacon, the philo- 
 sophical director of the public taste ; Sir Henry Wotton, the 
 learned theorist ; and king James, with his son and their en- 
 lightened and brilliant courts, the truly royal and noble patrons 
 of architecture and the rest of the fine arts. These eminent, 
 architectural masters acknowledged Vitruvius for their principal 
 legislator, and estimated the learned labours of Palladio at their 
 due value. When monarchs, like James and Charles, patronize 
 architecture ; when statesmen, like Buckingham, Richlieu and 
 Colbert ; when magnates, like Pembroke and Bedford, encou- 
 rage its productions from love of its beauties, from principle, 
 and from a studious conviction of its importance ; when legis- 
 lators and philosophers like Bacon, ambassadors like Wotton, 
 and architects like Jones, study, practice and write upon it and 
 its principles — the art is both ennobled and ennobles, and it 
 must flourish abundantly. Jones and Wren, two of the greatest 
 names in English art, loved architecture as an art, practised it 
 as a profession, but despised it as a trade. When architecture 
 is so patronized, so studied, and so practised, it will rise to a 
 level with the best days of Greece and Rome ; but not till 
 then. It will be in vain that details are only sought for from 
 books, unless the spirit and the mind of the great geniuses 
 of antiquity animate the artist. Vain will it be, if he should 
 
 " Line after line, with painful patience trace. 
 This Roman grandeur, that Athenian grace ; 
 Vain care of parts ; if, impotent of soul, 
 Th' industrious workman fail to warm the whole." 
 
 Tickell. 
 
 2 ii 
 
110 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 What a community of master-minds were cotemporaneous in 
 the period upon which I have just been dilating ! Paterculus 
 observes, with much judgment, that great men generally 
 are cotemporaries. The spark given by one, is caught by the 
 others, and poets, painters, architects and philosophers, are 
 elicited into one bright blaze of cotemporary and universal in- 
 tellect. 
 
 Now let us continue our peregrinations, and examine that 
 circular building of the Corinthian order, which I before noted, 
 as forming so excellent a foreground . piece to the view of St. 
 George's Chapel. See the print of St. George's Chapel, Regent 
 Street, and that of part of the east side of Regent Street. It 
 stands at the south-west angle of Argyle Place, and breaks, by 
 its agi-eeable circular form, the monotony of perpetually re- 
 curring salient angles at the corners of the streets which inter- 
 sect the main body of Regent Street. Its rotund convex form, 
 also contrasts, in a very picturesque and satisfactory manner, 
 with the rotund concave forms of the four corners of the inter- 
 section of Oxford Street and Regent Street, and shews the 
 fecundity of the artist's mind who has produced so much va- 
 riety in similar situations. The main feature of the building is 
 a peristyle of coupled columns of the Corinthian order, raised 
 on a stylobate, and surmounted upon a basement of piers and 
 camber arches, which form the windows and door of the ground 
 floor, or shop story. The columns are covered by a proper en- 
 tablature of the order, of rather a feeble character, with a 
 blocking course, piers, and balustrades over the intercolumnia- 
 tions. Between the columns are the lofty windows of the one 
 pair floor, or principal story, and behind the balustrade is ele- 
 vated a well proportioned attic story, with windows over those 
 below. This story is crowned by a circular unbroken cornice 
 and scamilli, which are covered with a hemispherical cupola by 
 way of roof. 
 
 The design of this building, whether regarded as a portion of 
 the entire arrangement of the architecture of the street, or in- 
 dependently of it, deserves approbation ; since it displays utility 
 as a commercial building, with beauty as an architectural com- 
 position. 
 
 A slight turn from the continuity of the street, brings us to 
 a row of handsome shop buildings, which reach from the cir- 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 cular building on the north to the. corner of the next street 
 southwardly. This is as picturesque a range of buildings as 
 any between Portland Place and Pall Mall, and exhibits the 
 peculiar talent of its architect in a striking manner. The shop, 
 or ground story, forms one straight continuous line, of a simple 
 unbroken entablature from end to end, covering with its broad 
 frieze the upper parts of the windows. The epistylia of the 
 centre buildings are supported by antse or pilasters, and of the 
 wings by stylagalmatic termini of female heads. The shop 
 windows and doors intervene, and with a well-proportioned ba- 
 lustrade elevated on a blocking course above the cornice, com- 
 plete the composition ; which forms an appropriate, useful and 
 handsome basement for the architectural elevation of the 
 dwelling part of the houses. 
 
 The superior elevation consists of five parts, namely, a 
 centre, two wings, and two receding parts of the main body of 
 the composition. The latter part consists but of two stories 
 above the shop entablature, whilst the centre and the two wings 
 have three ; and project boldly before the main body of the 
 building : — indeed sufficiently so, as you may perceive by 
 turning a little this way, to hold windows for the centre house, 
 and returns of the panels in flanks for the wings, which pro- 
 duce a good effect in the returns, and show a composition in 
 perspective. See the print of part of the east side of Regent 
 Street, with a view of All Soul's Church in the distance. 
 
 I have before mentioned this mode of architectural composi- 
 tion, when we were examining the villa of Sir James Langham, 
 in Langham Place, and endeavoured to show its superiority over 
 the geometrical board and square elevations of the carpenter's 
 drawing schools, which omit all consideration of the flank in 
 their mode of composition. 
 
 The central building of this pleasing structure, to which I 
 crave leave to call your particular attention, as comprising all 
 merits and many of the defects of the school of the able ar- 
 chitect who designed it, is composed of an inverted tetrastyle 
 portico of the Ionic order, inclosed between large panelled piers 
 which support, with the columns, the entablature.. The wings 
 are similar, except that they are not so wide, and the porticoes 
 have but two columns included in the openings between the 
 piers. The main receding building has no columns, but the 
 
112 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 cornice of the wings and centre is carried through without any 
 break, except at the angles of the building. 
 
 In the intercolumniations are two stories of windows, the 
 upper tier of which rests upon a string which is carried through 
 the whole elevation, and forms a connecting tie, as well as an 
 appropriate division of the stories. The lower tier of win- 
 dows in the main receding building, is composed of six wide 
 and handsome Palladian windows with pediments ; and the 
 upper tier has dressings of architrave and cornice round each 
 window. This portion of the elevation is finished with a lofty 
 blocking course over the cornice, which elevates and serves as 
 a base for a handsome balustrade that crowns the whole, and 
 forms a light and handsome finish to the roofs. 
 
 The centre and wings have long attic windows over the whole 
 openings, formed by the piers beneath them, and a sort of 
 grotesque antae-baluster supports the upper part. Its square 
 panels formed of square sinkings in the stucco, serve as em- 
 bellishments to the piers both in face and in flank, over the long- 
 panels with Grecian angular frets in the corners of the prin- 
 cipal story. These are surmounted at a proper height by a 
 small sub-cornice and blocking course, with immense ill-pro- 
 portioned semicircular acroteria, ornamented with caricatures of 
 the Greek honeysuckle, which I heartily wish the first brick- 
 layer's labourer who may be employed next winter to throw the 
 snow out of the gutters, would have the good taste to pitch 
 over with the rest of the rubbish, to Macadamize the street 
 with. 
 
 Thus much for the elevation, which, as a whole, shows a 
 mind alive to picturesque composition, to light and shade, 
 to agreeable form, to proportion, and to most of the loftier fea- 
 tures of architectural composition ; but, in the minor graces of 
 detail, in which our masters, the Greeks, so eminently excelled 
 all that preceded or succeeded them, an eye, either cold to 
 beauty or contemptuous of its charms. The Ionic order of the 
 principal stories is robbed of its frieze, and therefore wants 
 height. This grammatical error gives the building the appear- 
 ance of being constructed like some of the churches in modern 
 Rome, with the columns of their predecessors ; which being 
 too lofty to admit of a perfect entablature, and, therefore the 
 frieze, an integral part of every order, is omitted by virtue of 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 113 
 
 that law, " compulsion," which even Falstaff himself would 
 not submit to. 
 
 Again, the cornice of the Attic order is too small and trivial 
 for its place, and the moulded semi-Gloucester cheeses on the 
 blocking course most outrageously too large. The stylagalmatic 
 termini, which support the shop cornice, are any thing but in 
 good taste ; and yet the whole, not because, but in spite of 
 these deficiencies in taste and selection of detail, presents a bold 
 and highly picturesque composition. The depth of the receding 
 parts between the centre and the wings, is productive of great 
 variety of light and shade, and the entire design forms a 
 pleasing composition, of which the combination discovers both 
 judgment and skill, with a very considerable share of novelty. 
 
 An amiable friend of mine, who, a few years since, occasion- 
 ally aided me with his friendly pen in " the Annals of the Fine 
 Arts,"* has some opinions so completely in accordance with my 
 own views on this head, that I cannot resist the pleasure of 
 calling in his aid. "Works of architecture," says my friend, 
 " are not to be judged by precisely the same rules by which we 
 appreciate the productions of the poet, the painter and the 
 sculptor. These, indeed, require no external assistance in order 
 to enable them to embody the conceptions of their minds. 
 With the architect it is different ; he is dependant upon cir- 
 cumstances, over which he possesses but small control ; and is 
 perpetually subjected to restraint arising from the caprice and in- 
 terference of others. To these causes, in conjunction with others 
 of a pecuniary nature, is to be attributed the vast disproportion, 
 both as to number and excellence, between buildings which have 
 been executed and those which have been merely projected." 
 
 In estimating the merits of a piece of architecture, the true 
 question is, Has the artist availed himself to the fullest extent 
 of all the capabilities of his plan ? Has he effected as much as 
 it was possible to accomplish in the allowed extent ? Has he ob- 
 viated the peculiar difficulties with which he has had to con- 
 tend? After mature examination, and in spite of the prejudices 
 which my unbounded admiration of the beauties of the Greek 
 school may have fastened upon my mind, I have often been led 
 to admire, not only the skill by which the Architect of Regent 
 
 * Vol. 4, p. 512. 
 2 i 
 
n4 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Street (and that is a title that will always distinguish and 
 honour his name), has surmounted many obstacles, but also the 
 happy contrivances by which in effecting these he has elicited 
 positive beauties. 
 
 The street that we are now surveying is replete' with such 
 qualities ; and when it was commenced, I took the opportunity 
 afforded me by my situation as Lecturer on Architecture at the 
 Surrey and Russell Institutions, where criticisms on the buildings 
 of the day were required of me, to state publicly, that " the 
 new street now in formation from Pall Mall to Portland Place 
 is a great and useful undertaking; possessing as a whole a 
 grand and commanding character, with more architectural fea- 
 tures and variety than any large work that we have seen since 
 the rebuilding of London after the great fire. Yet it has many 
 blemishes ;"* I thought so then, and the many and very parti- 
 cular examinations that I have given of its various buildings 
 from then till now, confirm me in this opinion ; and to borrow an 
 apology from my before-quoted friend of " the Annals" in the same 
 article, if I have at times presumptuously ventured to cavil at 
 slight imperfections, it is not because I consider them sufficient 
 to detract from the obvious and aggregate excellences of the 
 design ; but because I am of opinion that the criticism which 
 would really instruct, ought to discuss candidly both defects 
 and beauties ; and not actuated by sinister motives either invi- 
 diously disparage, or puffingly extol. Above all, it is my object 
 to avoid that nauseating sycophancy, which is generally found 
 to characterize the labours of those cicerones who, professing to 
 furnish the stranger with a guide, too often mislead the judg- 
 ment. Men, who hardly dare to " hint a fault, or hesitate dis- 
 like," and their unqualified commendations, says my friend, are 
 not likely to assist in arriving at the ninth beatitude, " Blessed 
 are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disap- 
 pointed." 
 
 Therefore, as I before hinted, with all these merits, I consider 
 Regent Street to possess many blemishes ; some of the archi- 
 tectural specimens being in a taste absolutely barbarous, and 
 mixed with others equally pure and refined. Its masses, great 
 parts and divisions, are grand and effective ; and its breaks and 
 
 » Lectures on Architecture, by J. Elmes, p. 403. 
 
ntfravei "bv "W^WaHi: 
 
 I'ublished Teh? 16. 13^5. "by Jones Z: C? J.-Acton Waco. Iunt?5laadP k oa.3..Londor* . 
 
 lEL&I&MOMEC EFTS TIT TUTEOH, ES.IE(&mW ^TlfSE 
 
 cton Place, TCingsiar.d }to ad. London . 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 115 
 
 general outline productive of an agreeable variety of light and 
 shade, whilst at the same time it is entirely free from that dull 
 monotony of elevation which is so wearisome in many of our 
 new streets. It is also, I there said, the finest work now in 
 progress, and has given an architectural feature to the metro- 
 polis, that was so much wanted as a relief from the eternal 
 two windows iron railing and a door, — two windows iron railing 
 and a door— of the (then) new streets and squares of St. Mary- 
 le-bone. 
 
 Until this great undertaking, our architecture seemed selfish 
 and internal. Windows undecorated externally, and made 
 solely to give light and air to the interior ; and doors placed in 
 square brick holes, whose only service seemed to be to exclude 
 strangers, were the prevalent features of modern English do- 
 mestic buildings ; whereas architecture, on the contrary, should 
 exhibit the taste and wealth of the master of the mansion, by 
 its exterior to the observing stranger ; as well as contribute to 
 the internal comfort and splendour of the family and its imme- 
 diate friends. 
 
 All the buildings in this street are not, however, designed by 
 Mr. Nash, who is entitled to the honour of being its first pro- 
 jector, its indefatigable continuer against obstacles almost insur- 
 mountable, and its successful completer against numerous pro- 
 phecies of its failure and ruin. The row below that which we 
 have just been examining, belongs to the eminent wine merchant, 
 Mr. Carbonel, who figures in the history of Brinsley Sheridan. 
 It was designed by Mr. Robert Abraham, who is also the ar- 
 chitect of the County Fire Office ; but he must give way for 
 the present to Mr. Soane, the classical professor of architecture 
 in the Royal Academy, who designed that long and lofty row 
 of buildings on the opposite side of the way. 
 
 How thronged the street is ! we must wait till this regi- 
 ment of Life Guards, and this, almost army of carriages, horse- 
 men and foot passengers have passed, before we can catch a 
 glimpse at it. Who, judging by this never ending throng, 
 which, as a moving mass, reaches from Hyde Park Corner to 
 Whitechapel Church, can think London too large for its wants ; 
 although its amazing enlargement on every side is almost a 
 miracle. If honest Tom Freeman, the Gloucestershire man, 
 who published, in a collection of epigrams, in 1614, one called 
 
116 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 " London's Progresse," were permitted to have a day or two to 
 witness its progress in 1827, he would have far more reason to 
 exclaim now than in his day, 
 
 " Why, how no we, Babel], whether wilt thou build? 
 
 I see old Holborne, Charing Crosse, the Strand, 
 
 Are going to St. Giles's in the field. , 
 
 St. Katerne she takes Wapping by the hand, 
 
 And Hogsdon will to Hygate ere't be long. 
 
 London is got a great way from the streame, 
 
 I thinke she means to go to Islington, 
 
 To eate a dish of strawberries and crearae. 
 
 The citty's sure in progresse I surmise, 
 
 Or going to revell it in some disorder 
 
 Without the walls, without the liberties, 
 
 Where she neede feare, nor mayor, nor recorder. 
 
 Well, say she do, 'twere pretty, yet 'tis pitty, 
 
 A Middlesex bailin should arrest the citty." 
 
 St. Katherine, however she may once have taken Wapping 
 by the hand, has now left her dingy spouse, and taken refuge 
 under the protection of the more fashionable and better dressed 
 Regent's Park ; buying her liberty by largesses of docks and 
 warehouses to her mercenary old yoke-fellow of Wapping old 
 stairs. 
 
 As we cannot yet obtain a favourable view of Mr. Soane's 
 structure, let me call your attention to that well-proportioned 
 arched gateway in the Italian style of architecture, with a 
 window and cornice over it. It is the new entrance front to 
 Archbishop Tennison's chapel, built in 1823, after the designs 
 of Mr. C. R. Cockerell, the architect of St. George's Chapel 
 in the upper part of this street, that we examined a short time 
 since. 
 
 The front next Regent Street consists of a wide and lofty 
 arch, with channelled rusticated piers and voussoirs. Over the 
 key stone is a string course of solid masonry, a dressed window, 
 and a cornice and blocking course by way of finish. The 
 arched gateway leads to the vestibule of the chapel, which 
 spreads behind the houses in the street. There is not in the 
 whole street a design more chaste in decoration, more harmoni- 
 ous in proportion, or more judicious in appropriation. Simpli- 
 city, and consequently modest dignity, distinguish this har- 
 monious elevation, which possesses, notwithstanding its narrow 
 limits, a general symmetry and proportion as delightful to the 
 eye as it is creditable to the taste of its author. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 117 
 
 Now that the cloud of human beings, horses, carriages and 
 the dust of Mr. Loudon M'Adam has somewhat dispersed, and 
 permits us to have a glimpse at Mr. Soane's row of buildings, 
 let us walk on and consider it in flank from the north, in front, 
 and again from the south. There are many reasons for this 
 peculiar consideration of this very original and singular com- 
 position. First, because the tasteful architect of the pile is 
 accused of having attempted in it what he himself calls " the 
 philosopher's stone of architecture," a new order : next, because 
 he was ridiculous enough to suffer himself to be persuaded, 
 while suffering under a painful disease of the eyes, to bring an 
 action against the critic for thus libelling him : and also, because 
 he has in one or two instances deviated from those sound rules 
 of Grecian architecture, which are not too lightly to be sacrificed, 
 or deviated from, only by a great master, who is thoroughly 
 conversant in the nature of all the combinations of his art. 
 
 Mr. Soane, I consider to be such a master, and therefore, 
 has by prescription, a right to make such deviations and to 
 take such liberties, as long as he keeps within the bounds of 
 good taste, and runs not into a capricious riot of doubtful 
 vagaries. 
 
 Let us take a stand in this quiet angle, and survey his com- 
 position, one of the largest examples of domestic architecture, 
 except perhaps his Bank Buildings in Lothbury, that he has ex- 
 ecuted ; and as he is one of the master-spirits of his art in our 
 days, an investigation of such a design from the hand of such 
 an artist cannot be a loss of time. 
 
 First, Mr. Soane was offended at the critic, for accusing him 
 of the crime of endeavouring to invent a new order of archi- 
 tecture, although he has introduced a novel description of co- 
 lumns as supporters to his balconies, which we will examine in 
 detail presently, when we cross the street. 
 
 On this subject, I remember hearing Mr. Soane declaim in 
 the Royal Academy to us of his students in the spring course 
 of lectures in 1819, when he said, that the ignis fatuus of phi- 
 losophy,* the search after the philosopher's stone, occupied the 
 attention and bewildered the minds of the learned for ages ; 
 
 * From manuscript notes taken by me in February 1819, and reported in the 
 Annals of the Fine Arts, vol. 4, p. 289. 
 
 2 K 
 
118 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 and some followers of architecture have also wandered out of 
 their paths in the endeavour to discover or invent a new order, 
 the philosopher's stone of architecture. The architects of Italy 
 in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries made many attempts of 
 this kind, and in the reign of Louis XIV. the fancy extended 
 to France. Would it had stopped there ; but unfortunately the 
 mania attacked this country also, and various futile attempts 
 were made in this way. In France a sixth order, absolutely 
 new in all its parts, mouldings and ornaments, was reported to 
 have been invented by Pierre de la Roche. In the reign of 
 our Edward III. his son, the black prince, in consequence of 
 his victory over the French at the battle of Cressy, adopted the 
 crest of ostrich feathers worn by the king of Bohemia, who 
 was killed in that battle, and it has been retained by all suc- 
 ceeding princes of Wales. With this beautiful badge, says 
 Mons. de la Roche, I adorn the capital of my new order, and 
 from the beauteous and graceful delicacy of the nodding 
 plumes, from their enlarged size and bold projections, they 
 must, when thus applied, rank far above the Corinthian order ! 
 We are further told, that this order was absolutely new in all 
 its parts, and that it must eventually and infallibly supersede 
 the Corinthian, as it only required the sanction of antiquity to 
 make it generally adopted ; and, says Pierre de la Roche, when 
 " my order" shall be hereafter found among the ruins of palaces 
 and cities, the effects of cotemporary jealousy having subsided, 
 then will posterity give the honour due to my invention ! How 
 far the inventor's anticipated idea of the opinions of posterity 
 upon the design may be justified, said our able professor, I 
 know not, for as yet this new order has never been executed in 
 any single instance. 
 
 Other architects, besides the one that Mr. Soane has cited, 
 have tried their hands upon a new order. In Sir William 
 Chambers' valuable treatise on civil architecture, there are no 
 less than six. One of Flora composed of leaves and tendrils, 
 which is but a species of the genus Corinthian, although Sir 
 William terms it Composite. A second of Mars, composed of 
 Amazons, with curved draperies over their elbows, supporting 
 the abacus at the angles for the volutes and caulicolai, an ar- 
 morial trophy with shields, and an empty helmet for the rose 
 in the centre. A third of Apollo, with a sphinx at every corner, 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 119 
 
 peeping out over the second tier of Corinthian leaves, under 
 the pent house of the abacus. A fourth, which he calls the 
 French order, composed of palms for the volutes, a cock for the 
 central flower, and tasteless lyres between the palm branches, 
 which serve as stems to the caulicolse. A fifth of Venus, the 
 lower part of which, the abacus and central volutes, are strictly 
 Corinthian, whilst the caulicolae and angular volutes are formed 
 of dolphin's tails, the heads of these loving fish nearly meeting 
 under an escallop shell, which supports the central volutes. 
 And the sixth is of Mars, which resembles that of his paramour 
 in the lower half, but has ram's heads and horns in the upper, 
 which, by the way, would be a more characteristic appendage to 
 the capital of the injured spouse of the goddess. 
 
 Yet of this attempt to make a new order, Sir William says,* 
 " the ingenuity of man has, hitherto, not been able to produce 
 a sixth order, though large premiums have been offered, and 
 numerous attempts have been made, by men of first rate talents, 
 to accomplish it. Such is the fettered human imagination, 
 such the scanty stores of its ideas, that Doric, Ionic and 
 Corinthian, have ever floated uppermost ; and all that has ever 
 been produced, amounts to nothing more than different arrange- 
 ments and combinations of their parts, with some trifling devi- 
 ations scarcely deserving notice ; the whole generally tending 
 more to diminish than to increase the beauty of the ancient 
 orders." 
 
 Sebastian le Clerc, a French artist of some ability, who wrote 
 and published a treatise on architecture, that was translated 
 into English by Chambers in 1732, and is much cited by him 
 in his own larger work, has also given two new orders. One 
 he names the Spanish order, and pronounces it to be more ele- 
 gant than the Roman or Composite, both in the whole and in 
 its parts. The leaves are plain, such as are often called water- 
 leaves, with grenate stalks rising among them. The horns of 
 the abacus are supported by small volutes, and the centre is 
 decorated with a lion's head instead of a rose, which noble ani- 
 mal, the author says, he need not mention, is the symbol of 
 Spain ; and that it expresses the strength and gravity as well 
 as the prudence of the people of that nation. He also gives a 
 
 * Page 153 of Gwilt's (that is the best modern^ edition of 1824. 
 
120 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 second design for a Spanish order, and leaves the architect at 
 liberty to choose which of them he likes best, flattering himself 
 that either the one or the other will do very well, if executed 
 by a good sculptor. Further, in the frieze, he says, over this 
 capital may be added a terrestrial globe with cornucopias, 
 palms and laurels, which are significant ornaments, he observes, 
 that explain themselves. To the globe in the frieze, he has ap- 
 pended the heraldric ornament of the knightly collar of the 
 golden fleece which hangs down on to the architrave. The other 
 he calls the French order, which he conceives to possess as great 
 a share of delicacy, richness and beauty as is practicable with- 
 out running into excess. The ornaments of the capital are three 
 fieurs de lis on each side, with palms, and the badge of France, 
 a cock; arms underneath, and a lyre in the shade of the 
 palms under each horn of the abacus, which are so many sym- 
 bolical ornaments, he adds, that persons of understanding will 
 conceive without any difficulty. Crowns are introduced as or- 
 ( naments in the frieze, and a sun shining in the middle ; whence 
 it will be easily apprehended, he says, " that this order is conse- 
 crated to the Glory of the Grand Monarque." Cock a 
 doodle doo ! " This order," he exultingly exclaims, " will have the 
 noblest, the most beautiful, and agreeable effect imaginable : 
 I have made," he continues, clapping his wings, " a little model 
 of it in rilievo, which I never see without pleasure." 
 
 Although Sir William Chambers translated this balderdash 
 in 1732, yet when he published his own matured treatise in 
 1759, in animadverting upon such vagaries, he says, "the sub- 
 stitution of cocks, owls, or lion's heads &,c. for roses ; of tro- 
 phies, cornucopias, lilies, sphinxes, or even men, women and 
 children for volutes ; the introduction of feathers, lyres, flower- 
 de-luces, or coronets for leaves ; are more alterations than im- 
 provements ; and the suspension of flowers, or collars of knight- 
 hood, over the other enrichments of a capital, like lace on 
 embroidery, rather tends to complicate and confuse the form, 
 than to augment its grace, or contribute to its excellence." 
 
 You may remember, that I have more than once during our 
 survey, spoken of the propensity of some of the architects of 
 this street and neighbourhood to despoil the orders of distinc- 
 tive parts, such as the omission of friezes, or architraves, and 
 sometimes both, and other similar violations of propriety. Of 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 121 
 
 this practice, Sir William says with the greatest truth, that " the suppres- 
 sion of parts of the ancient orders, with a view to produce novelty, has 
 of late years" (one would think that the worthy knight of the Polar star 
 was peeping down upon some of our new mansions and palaces), " been 
 practised among us with full as little success. And though it is not wished 
 to restrain sallies of imagination, nor to discourage genius from attempting 
 to invent ; yet it is apprehended, that attempts to alter the primary forms 
 invented by the ancients, and established by the concurring approbation 
 of many ages, must ever be attended with dangerous consequences, must 
 always be difficult, and seldom, if ever, successful. . It is like coining 
 words, which, whatever may be their value, are at first but ill received, and 
 must have the sanction of time to secure them a current reception." 
 
 As we have now taken a general view of the origin and progress of 
 the Metropolitan Improvements, let us proceed to a brief view of such 
 subjects that we have hitherto passed over, which are of sufficient im- 
 portance to require our investigation and the pencil of our artist. 
 
 We will therefore proceed to Pall Mall, and take a view northwards 
 up the street, which is approached, from the new opening into the 
 Park, by 
 
 Waterloo Place. 
 
 This grand opening is formed by the removal of sundry old dismal 
 looking houses on the north side of Pall Mall, opposite the late Carlton 
 house ; and consists of two sides of a large square, or piazza, open to 
 Pall Mall, and the new opening into St. James's Park. The third or north 
 side is perforated in the centre by Regent Street, to which Waterloo Place 
 forms a capacious opening, like that of a fine estuary opening from the sea, 
 and forming the mouth of a great river. 
 
 The east and west sides of Waterloo Place, are similar in design and 
 elevation. They consist of a centre formed by an Ionic portico raised on 
 a basement which forms the entrance story, and two flanks of Ionic pilas- 
 ters corresponding with the columns, and raised on a similar basement. 
 On the top of the entablature is raised an attic order, perforated by the 
 windows of the upper story. 
 
 The north side is similar in height, and consists of an Ionic tetrastyle 
 portico, projecting from the plain flanks of the first row of buildings up 
 Regent Street. These porticoes are crowned by a blocking course and 
 balustrades between solid pedestals over each column. The ground story 
 of these pavilion-like buildings are perforated by three windows, under the 
 intercolumniations of the order above it, decorated with architraves to the 
 sides and entablatures over the lintels. 
 
 The line of the principal story, is here well marked by a broad and very 
 
 2 L 
 
122 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 effective string course, on which the order of architecture that gives cha- 
 racter to the design, and which embraces the entire height of the prin- 
 cipal and two pair stories, is elevated. The upper stories of this edifice 
 are in the roof, and lighted by the balusters. 
 
 The principal story has semicircular headed windows, with archivolts 
 springing from moulded imposts, and the chamber story has plain square 
 windows without decorations. 
 
 The sides, or rather the principal fronts of these pavilions next Regent 
 Street correspond in elevation, except that the projecting porticoes have a 
 greater number of columns, and the receding sides are perforated by win- 
 dows, which are necessary in this instance for the interior use. 
 
 Waterloo Place, and this portion of Regent Street, which is imme- 
 diately attached to it, embrace all the beauties and all the defects of Mr. 
 Nash, their ingenious architect's style. Grand and effective as a whole, 
 •rich in composition and mind, but sadly defective in elegance and correct- 
 ness of detail. It is a reformed Italian, but still below Grecian purity. 
 
 Before we leave this spot, let us turn round, and take a farewell leave 
 of the remains of Carlton House, which once formed the southern termi- 
 nation of this magnificent street. See plate of Regent Street, from the 
 Circus, Piccadilly. When Carlton House, or Palace, stood on the 
 southern side of Pall Mall, with the before mentioned ordinary dismal 
 looking dwelling houses only in front of it, its then splendid portico and 
 beautiful wings looked of sufficient importance; but when these houses 
 were pulled down and the loftier houses of Waterloo Place erected, and 
 the rising ground of Regent Street opened, so that we looked down upon 
 and saw the majestic towers of Westminster rising above it, it assumed 
 a mean and low appearance. Its removal therefore is by no means to be 
 regretted, and the fine opening that is made in its stead, is one of the 
 greatest improvements in this spot of almost magical transformations. 
 
 We will now take a cursory view of 
 
 York House, St. James's Park, 
 
 built for his Royal Highness the late Duke of York, and purchased of his 
 executors by the Marquess of Stafford. 
 
 This splendid palace is quadrangular and insulated, presenting four 
 architectural elevations of great beauty and grandeur. 
 
 Its principal front, which has a projecting portico for carriages to chive 
 under, is to the north, next Cleveland Place ; the next in point of deco- 
 ration faces the east, and is entered from the stable yard, opposite the new 
 palace of Ins Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence ; the park front is to 
 the south, and overlooks St. James's Park and its own private grounds, and 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 123 
 
 the western front faces the Green Park and His Majesty's new palace, 
 now building on the site of Buckingham House. 
 
 Tliis beautiful mansion, which is hereafter to be the residence of that 
 munificent patron of the fine arts and artists, of Ins native country, the 
 Marquess of Stafford, is designed by the brothers Benjamin and Philip 
 Wyatt, Esqs., sons of the late James Wyatt, and is worthy of the name. 
 
 The character of the building is palatial^ and splendid; it is com- 
 posed of hexastyle porticoes of the Corinthian order, which occupy the 
 height of the principal story, ' raised on piers and the openings between 
 them covered with semicircular arches. On the roof is a raised story 
 which lights a spacious picture gallery. The house stands in its own 
 grounds, which form a beautiful horticultural accessory to the archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 The next recent great improvement is 
 
 The New Opening to St. Martin's Church, 
 
 the best view of which is from Pall Mall East. 
 
 The want of this opening was complained of so long ago as in 1734, by 
 Ralph, an architectural critic of some consideration, who has the credit of 
 first suggesting this manifest improvement, which forms an architectural 
 picture of great beauty. The building on our left is called the King's 
 Mews, and were formerly the royal stables. It is now used for an ex- 
 hibition of works of art, manufactures, &c. and was designed by the great 
 Earl of Burlington. That on our right is the portico of the College of 
 Physicians, a new building by Mr. Smirke, and forms, with its illustrious 
 opponent, a fine architectural frame to Gibbs's beautiful portico of the 
 church of St. Martin in the Fields, which is now seen to its deserved 
 advantage. The portico is fine, but the spire and tower, though far sur- 
 passing many of more recent date, is, compared with those of Sir Chris- 
 topher Wren, mean and inefficient. 
 
 We will now take a look at 
 
 Suffolk Street, Pall Mall East, 
 
 a street inhabited by architects, and replete with many architectural 
 beauties. Among these is the Italian Ionic house on our right, an 
 appropriate design enough for an Italian warehouse, whose purposes are 
 farther indicated by the oil jars on the acroterium of the entablature. 
 Another, the residence of Mr. Cresy, the architect, is a fac-simile of Andrea 
 Pallacho's house at Vicenza, and a third, on the same side of the way, the 
 house with a projecting Roman Doric portico, elevated on three semicir- 
 cular arches, is the house and spacious galleries of the Society of British 
 
124 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Artists, the portico of which is designed by Mr. Nash, and the suite of 
 six octagonal galleries, all on one floor, and lighted from above, were de- 
 signed by and erected under the directions of your humble servant. 
 
 Mr. Lewis Wyatt and Mr. H. Kendall, both architects whose talents 
 have tended towards the embellishment and improvement of the metropolis, 
 have houses in this classical little street, in which also is the stage en- 
 trance and green room of the Haymarket Theatre. 
 
 Another great improvement, and classical ornament to this portion of 
 the metropolis, is 
 
 The New College of Physicians, Pall Mall East, 
 
 another design of Mr. Smirke's, and which forms part of a fine group 
 with the Union Club House. The principal front of this substantial and 
 elegant structure is next Pall Mall East, and is composed of an hexas- 
 tyle projecting portico of the Ionic order, which supports a well-propor- 
 tioned pediment. The front is elongated by two antae, one on each side 
 of the portico, which are repeated with a break between them, in the flank 
 or eastern front, and has a distinguishing centre-piece, of two slightly- 
 projecting antac, and an elevated attic, with a balustrade in each wing. 
 
 The building is divided into two stories, and the windows are decorated 
 with architraves and sub-cornices. The columns are beautifully wrought 
 with a delicate entasis, or swell, so characteristic of the pure Greek school, 
 of which its architect, Mr. Smirke, is so distinguished a disciple. The 
 architrave, however, is disfigured by three facias, which should never be 
 allowed to enter (in spite of ancient precedent) into any order but the 
 Corinthian, in order to keep the characteristics of each distinct. 
 
 The effect of this portico, in the latter part of a fine summer's day, is 
 beautiful; diversified, as it is, by the deep and broad shadow cast from 
 the entablature and pediment; the perpendicular lines of the fluted 
 columns, and the contrast of the shadowed eastern front, which continued, 
 forms with a corresponding wing, and a receding portico of the same 
 order, the principal front of the Union Club House. In our view of the 
 new opening to St. Martin's Church, this portico now so beautiful in 
 light, forms in shade an equally beautiful forepiece to the picture. 
 
 We will now cross over to the other side of King Charles's statue, and 
 take a general view of the 
 
 Improvements, Charing Cross. 
 
 Foremost in this view is the statue of the unhappy and unfortunate 
 Charles the First, which is of bronze, and cast in 1633, by Le Sueur, a 
 French sculptor of great talent, who wrought the beautiful brass monument 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 125 
 
 of the Duke of Buckingham, in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, for the Earl 
 of Arundel. After the execution of the king, the parliament ordered it to 
 be sold by auction, when it was purchased by a cutler in Holborn, of the 
 name of Revett, who pretended to melt it down and make handles for 
 knives of it. He, in fact, caused knives with bronze handles to be exposed 
 to sale in his shop, by which he soon made a fortune ; the faction which 
 opposed the king being all desirous of having some part of his statue de- 
 based to a knife-handle. The loyal cutler, however, concealed it till the 
 restoration of Charles the Second, when he presented it to that king, 
 who caused it to be erected in its present situation. 
 
 The large building, directly opposite, is the Union Club House and the 
 Royal College of Physicians, the white house, in the middle distance, 
 the bank of Ransom & Co. and that with the colonnade, in the extreme 
 distance, crowned with a lofty slated roof, the King's Theatre, or Italian 
 Opera House. 
 
 The London University, 
 
 is erected upon the eastern side of an area of about seven acres of free- 
 hold ground, between Upper Gower Street, Bedford Square, and the New 
 Road. The council obtained designs from several architects of eminence, 
 and after due deliberation, finally adopted that of William Wilkins, Esq. 
 R.A. a selection in which their own judgment coincided with that of 
 almost every proprietor who inspected the drawings. The building in its 
 execution had the benefit of the superintendance of Mr. J. P. Gandy 
 Deering, A.R.A., the author of the well known Work on Pompeii, in con- 
 junction with Mr. Wilkins, and consists of a central part (see plate of the 
 London University) four hundred and thirty feet in length, with two 
 wings, forming together three sides of a quadrangle, the central portico 
 looking westward. 
 
 That part of the edifice which is now finished, contains four theatres 
 for lectures, each capable of containing four hundred and forty students ; 
 two lecture rooms that will accommodate two hundred and seventy stu- 
 dents each ; five lecture rooms that will accommodate about one hundred 
 and seventy each ; a library and museum, each one hundred and eighteen 
 feet in length, by fifty feet in breadth, and twenty -three feet in height ; a 
 hall for public occasions, ninety feet in length, by forty-five feet in breadth, 
 and twenty -three feet in height ; an anatomical museum ; a complete suite 
 of rooms for the professors and students of anatomy and surgery ; a labo- 
 ratory and apparatus room for the professor of chemistry ; rooms for the 
 reception of the apparatus of the professor of mechanical philosophy, and 
 several smaller apartments for the accommodation of the council, the pro- 
 fessors and officers of the establishment. 
 
 2 M 
 
126 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 The London Institution. 
 
 The gound story of this building is divided into an entrance hall, vesti- 
 bule, stairs to the library and corridor leading to the lecture room, labora- 
 tory, &c, besides reading and newspaper rooms, the librarian's private 
 apartments, &c. The upper story is the library, which occupies the whole 
 front. 
 
 The elevation, which faces the south, and catches great picturesque 
 variety from the sun, is divided perpendicularly into three principal parts 
 or features ; namely, a projecting portico of two stories, and two wings or 
 continuations laterally of the front, with two minor sub-wings, corresponding 
 with the lower order of the portico; and horizontally into two principal 
 orders and three stories. The lower order is appropriated to the ground 
 or entrance story, and is composed of a portico in antis of the Doric order, 
 after an ancient example of very sturdy proportions. The entablature is 
 carried through the whole line of front, and has wreaths of laurel leaves in 
 the frieze substituted for the more characteristic triglyphs, which belong 
 to the order. The front on each side of the portico is rusticated, and the 
 apartments are lighted by windows, with semicircular heads. 
 
 The upper stories are supported by the ground story, in the manner of a 
 basement or pedestal story, and consist of a tetrastyle portico, of that 
 species of the Corinthian order which Mr. Soane first used at the Bank 
 of England, copied from the beautiful circular temple, called the Sybils, 
 at Tivoli. 
 
 The sides are supported by antae between the windows, and an enta- 
 blature surmounted by a balustrade, the piers of which are ornamented by 
 heads of sarcophagi. The whole front is in good proportion, and harmo- 
 nizes with the adjacent buildings remarkably well. 
 
 St. Paul's School. 
 
 This building is composed of three principal parts, a centre and two 
 wings, connected by a continuation of the main body. The centre is a 
 hexastyle portico of the Tivoli-Corinthian order, elevated upon a rusti- 
 cated basement of solid piers, one of which stands under every column, 
 and leaves a footway for passengers between them. The wings are ele- 
 vated on a similar basement, the apertures between the piers being con- 
 verted into doors and windows. On these are raised an attached portico 
 of two three-quarter columns in antis. The wings project the width of an 
 antis, but the centre projects an entire intercolumniation more, and finishes 
 with antae against the wall to support the entablature. The basement or 
 entrance story is a continuation of the same arrangement as the wings and 
 
ST FATDTIL'S §CS§©1L, 
 
 INSCRIBED TO THE B.T SET* THE LORD BISHOP OF LLANDAFF. Src. fcc. DEAD OF ST PAULS, BY HIS OBLIGED SEKVT 
 
 JAMES ELMES. 
 
 Published Sep 29. .1827. "by Jones & C° 3. Acton Place.' Eingsland Road.London. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 127 
 
 centre, the openings between the rusticated piers being used for windows 
 and entrances to the master's houses. The centre is appropriated to the 
 school, and has lofty windows between the columns. The same height in 
 the wings and intermediate portion of the building is divided into two 
 stories, the lower of which has lofty windows, dressed with architraves 
 and surmounted by entablatures, and the upper, square attic windows, 
 with architraves on the tops, sides and sills. The wings are surmounted 
 by blocking-courses and acroteria upon the cornices, and the centre by a 
 low attic and acroteria, upon the summit of which rises a cupola, in too 
 fragile a style of decoration to accord well with the manly proportions of 
 the rest of the building. 
 
 Southwark Bridge. 
 
 This bridge was designed by the late John Rennie, Esq. and executed 
 under his direction. The magnificent centre arch is composed of a seg- 
 ment of a circle, whose chord or span is two hundred and forty feet, its 
 versed sine or height twenty-four feet, and the diameter of the circle of 
 the curvature at the vertex or crown of the arch six hundred and twenty- 
 four feet, the side arches being two hundred and ten feet in span. 
 
 The arches are composed of eight ribs of solid masses of cast iron, in the 
 form of the voussoirs of stone bridges. These ribs are rivetted to cast iron 
 diagonal braces to prevent racking. The frames of the arches are six feet 
 in depth at their vertices, and the extrados of the voussoirs extend to eight 
 feet at the springing of the arches. Many of the single pieces of this 
 gigantic skeleton are of the enormous weight of ten tons each, and the total 
 weight of the iron employed in its construction is between five and six 
 thousand tons. 
 
 This fine bridge, which is as elegant in its form as it is scientific in 
 construction, was entirely built at the expense of a joint stock company. 
 Its cost, including its present inefficient approaches, amounted to about 
 eight hundred thousand pounds. The preparatory works were begun on 
 the 23rd of September, 1814, and the first stone was laid by Admiral Lord 
 Keith, on the 23rd of May, 1815. On the 7th of June, 1817, the first 
 stone of the northern abutment, on the site of the ancient Three Cranes 
 Wharf, was laid by Alderman Wood, the Lord Mayor, and the bridge was 
 opened to the public in April, 1819. 
 
 Waterloo Bridge, 
 
 was erected by the late John Rennie, from the designs, it has been said, 
 of the late Mr. Dodd; but that great schemer only projected the work, 
 
128 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 and took the design from Perronet's bridge over the Seine at Neuilly near 
 Paiis. 
 
 The design as executed, consists of nine elliptical arches, with Grecian 
 Doric columns in front of the piers, covered by an entablature, and sur- 
 mounted by the anomalous decoration of a balustrade upon a Doric cornice. 
 The road way upon the summit of the arches is level, in a line with the 
 Strand, and is carried by a gentle declivity on a series of brick arches, 
 some of which are used as warehouses, over the road-way on the Surry 
 bank of the river, to the level of the roads about the Obelisk by the Surry 
 Theatre. The width of the river in this part is 1326 feet at high water, 
 which is covered by nine semi-elliptical arches, of 120 feet span, and 
 thirty-five feet high, supported on piers thirty feet thick at the foundations, 
 diminishing to twenty feet at the springing of the arches. They are eighty- 
 seven feet in length, with points in the form of Gothic arches as cutwaters 
 towards the stream. The dry or land arches on the Surry side are forty 
 in number ; tliirty-nine of which are semi-circular, sixteen feet in diameter, 
 and one semi-elliptical, over the road-way of Narrow Wall, of twenty-six 
 feet diameter. The entire length of the bridge and causeways is 2426 feet, 
 made up of 1380 feet for the entire length of the bridge and abutments; 
 310 feet, the length of the approach from the Strand; and 766 feet, the 
 length of the causeway on the land arches of the Surry side. The first 
 stone was laid on the 11th of October, 181.1. 
 
 We will now proceed to that great national, and tasteful building, 
 
 The Bank of England; 
 
 and first, we will begin with the principal front next Threadneedle Street. 
 Our best position to see this richly variegated, picturesque and beautiful 
 front, will be from Bank Buildings : from which spot the circular corner 
 next Princes Street forms a striking foreground ; the Royal Exchange on 
 the right forms a good middle distance ; the old church of St. Bartholomew 
 a capital object, from its singular antique tower, for the distance ; and the 
 far-famed lucky lottery office of Richardson, Goodluck, and Co., from its 
 solid form, and true Italian proportions of its Doric entrance story, (a de- 
 sign of Sir Robert Taylor's), and which is now in strong shadow, for a 
 powerful relief and contrast in the foreground. Thus have we in one ar- 
 chitectural picture, compositions by three great masters in our art, Sir 
 Christopher Wren, Sir Robert Taylor and Mr. Soane. 
 
 The establishment of this great and important corporation is principally 
 owing to the exertions of Mr. William Patterson, a native of Scotland, and 
 Michael Godfrey, Esq. These two gentlemen, after labouring with great 
 assiduity for nearly three years, at last obtained the sanction of govern- 
 ment, and in the spring of the year 1694 the Company of the Bank of 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 129 
 
 England was incorporated by act of parliament. Sir John Houblon was 
 its first governor, and Michael Godfrey, Esq., one of its founders, its first 
 deputy governor. 
 
 This great national structure, which has now become so great an orna- 
 ment to the heart of the city, was erected at various periods, and without 
 due regard to the uniformity of the exterior. The first stone of the 
 original building on the present site, then the dwelling-house and garden 
 of Sir John Houblon, was laid in 1732, and finished in 1736, from the 
 designs of Mr. George Sampson, in the Palladian style of architecture. 
 This building comprised the original centre next Threadneedle Street, that 
 has been recently pulled down by Mr. Soane, and the present pay-hall, 
 which is a spacious room seventy-nine feet in length and forty in breadth, 
 with a statue of King William, in whose reign it was founded, sculptured 
 by Cheere. The wings next Threadneedle Street, the exterior of the 
 Rotunda, stock offices, &c, next Bartholomew Lane, and of the dividend 
 and other offices next Princes Street, were designed and erected between 
 the years 1765 and 1788, by Sir Robert Taylor, from a design in 
 imitation of the celebrated garden front of the pope's palace in Rome, 
 which is published in Sir William Chambers's Treatise on Civil Archi- 
 tecture, as a design of Bramante, one of the architects of St. Peter's at 
 Rome. 
 
 The Rotunda was rebuilt in 1795, by Mr. Soane. It is a circle of 
 fifty-seven feet diameter in plan, and about the same in height. It is 
 covered by a hemispherical cupola, and lighted by a lantern light, sup- 
 ported and divided by caryatides, constructed upon the central aperture 
 or eye of the cupola. The perpendicular walls are divided at regular in- 
 tervals by semicircular headed recesses, three of which serve for entrances, 
 and the other for desks, &c. for the accommodation of the public. In this 
 vast rotunda, the cupola of which from the outside has so striking and 
 elegant an appearance, the general and preparatory business for the pur- 
 chase and sale of stock is transacted ; and the various offices appropriated 
 to the management of each particular stock branch out from it, and from 
 its classical vestibule, which opens from Bartholomew Lane. 
 
 In the year 1800 the widely increased concerns of the Bank made an 
 increased establishment, and more space for the transaction of its business, 
 necessary. The directors therefore made application to parliament for 
 powers to enlarge thgfr building. This was a favourable opportunity to 
 render the exterior of the Bank one uniform pile, and Mr. Soane lost no 
 time to embrace it. He therefore submitted to the committee of directors 
 a series of designs, to extend the north or Lothbury front westward, and 
 to connect together the whole of the old offices and those which they then 
 required to be erected, in order that the exterior of the Bank might there- 
 after form one uniform appearance, which design they have just accom- 
 
 2 N 
 
130 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 plished. The committee approved this design, which, I remember, at the 
 time, made a considerable figure in the Royal Academy exhibition, and a 
 great impression upon the cognoscenti of the day, from the novelty of its 
 arrangement and style of architecture, which was altogether new to the 
 critics. This design has been acted on, without any deviation, excepting 
 in the Lothbury front, where, after the old houses had been pulled down 
 and the site cleared, the space being found insufficient for the portico 
 which Mr. Soane originally proposed for the centre, it was unavoidably 
 contracted to meet this unforeseen circumstance, and to its great detriment. 
 See plate of the Bank from Lothbury. Had a portico of six columns of 
 Tivoli Corintliian been added to this front, as the architect intended, it 
 would have been one of the grandest and chastest elevations in modern 
 executed architecture. In other respects I have the architect's own au- 
 thority for stating that his general plan then submitted to the committee 
 has been followed. The whole of the exterior now presents as much 
 uniformity as could possibly be expected in a building of such extent, 
 continued progressively, as Mr. Soane observes in his new work, as cir- 
 cumstances required, during a period of upwards of thirty years. 
 
 When Mr. Soane was appointed to the important office of architect to 
 this wealthy corporation, the frivolous wings and petty style of Sir Robert 
 Taylor were comparatively new, having been recently erected at a very 
 considerable expense. Mr. Soane, as I have just mentioned, began his 
 operations by producing a design for an amalgamation of the heterogene- 
 ous fragments of his predecessors, with a foresight that a long life and 
 perseverance have just accomplished ; and in a style of architecture at 
 once masculine, appropriate and novel. 
 
 Mr. Soane, in the structure before us, which, like the villa of Hadrian 
 at Tivoli, comprises many buildings, introduced into this country the manly 
 and beautiful order of the circular temple at Tivoli, which he measured 
 and delineated during the completion of his professional studies in Italy 
 with praiseworthy care and accuracy. In this grand edifice the architect 
 has given a beautiful adaptation of a portion of this exquisite arcliitecturaJ 
 gem (which Claude has introduced for its endless beauties in many of his 
 works) in the round corner between Princes Street and Lothbury ; and 
 lias carried on his bold design upon a lofty base, emulating the beauties of 
 his predecessor Vanburgh, whose talents Mr. Soane has often honoured in 
 his lectures. 
 
 The general character of the entire building, as now completed, is that 
 of stability and strength, harmony and apt decoration, and above all, ap- 
 propriateness, or fitness of means to its ends. It is an irregular rhom- 
 boidal figure, measuring about three hundred and sixty-five feet on the 
 south or principal front, four hundred and forty on the western side, four 
 hundred and ten on the northern or Lothbury front, and two hundred and 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. J3J 
 
 forty -live on the eastern flank, next Bartholomew Lane. This area com- 
 prises nine open courts— the rotunda, numerous public offices of spacious 
 dimensions and elegant architecture, a court room, committee room, direc- 
 tors' parlour, an armoury, a printing office, and private apartments for the 
 residence of officers and servants of the establishment. The principal 
 apartments are on the ground floor, and there is no upper story over the 
 chief offices, which are all lighted from above. In the basement story are 
 numerous rooms, and fire-proof vaults for the conservation of bullion, coin, 
 notes, bills and other securities. 
 
 The Temple Church as restored. 
 
 This ancient and very beautiful church was founded by the Knights 
 Templars in 1185, when the western or circular part was built, and dedi- 
 cated to the Virgin Mary. It was re-dedicated in 1240, when the other 
 part is generally supposed to have been erected by the Knights Hospi- 
 tallers. 
 
 The western or circular part is peculiarly interesting, from its age, and 
 from being one of the earliest specimens of the pointed style of architec- 
 ture in this country. It has a circular external wall, with twelve openings, 
 which serve as doors and windows, with dwarf buttresses between them. 
 See plate of the Temple Church as restored. 
 
 The interior is formed by a series of six clustered pillars, with Norman 
 capitals and bases, which support the same number of pointed arches, 
 over which is a triforium and clerestory with semicircular intersected 
 arches, that form by their intersections the probable origin of the lancet- 
 shaped or pointed arch. The monuments of this church are all interesting 
 and valuable for their antiquity and the celebrity of the personages whose 
 fame they celebrate. The most remarkable of them are the recumbent 
 statues of knights templars on the pavement of the circular church, in two 
 groups of five each, lying north and south of the passage way to the 
 choir. 
 
 The choir, or present church, which is now used in common by the 
 Societies of the Inner and Middle Temple, consists of a nave and two aisles 
 of nearly equal height, but differing in width, the nave being the widest 
 of the three divisions. It has four pairs of clustered pillars, which sup- 
 port, with the addition of the eastern and western walls, six pointed 
 arches, which are supported laterally on the north and south sides by 
 strong dwarf stone buttresses. Between the buttresses are a series of 
 lancet-shaped pyramidal windows, with isolated columns, which add great 
 lightness to the building. 
 
 The walls of this church are of stone, strengthened by massive 'dwarf 
 stone buttresses, and a triple roof, one over each aisle, and another over 
 
132 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 the nave, covered with lead of great thickness. The whole edifice was 
 repaired in 1682, in 1811, and again in 1827 and 1828, under the direc- 
 tion of Mr. Smirke, who has restored it in a masterly style. 
 
 The Russell Institution, 
 
 in Great Coram Street, Russell Square, was originally erected by and 
 from the designs of James Burton, Esq. whose elegant villa, the Holme 
 in the Regent's Park, occupied our attention in the early part of this 
 work. The original intention of this substantial-looking building was for 
 an assembly, concert and card rooms. It was built about the year 1800, 
 and in 1808 was purchased by a company of proprietors, and appropriated 
 to its present purpose, — literature. It contains an extensive library, of 
 which the present librarian, Mr. Brayley, has recently published a sys- 
 tematized catalogue, consisting of a very select collection of the most 
 useful works in ancient and modern literature. 
 
 The reading rooms and library are also provided with all the leading 
 periodical publications, and the current pamphlets of the day. The library 
 is a spacious room, the whole length of the front, and there are also con- 
 venient newspaper rooms, a theatre for lectures and private rooms for the 
 librarian. 
 
 The front next Coram Street is distinguished by a tetrastyle portico of 
 the Doric order, with triglyphs ; the cornice and frieze of which runs 
 through the wings and flanks, divested of the triglyphs. See plate of the 
 Russell Institution, Great Coram Street. There are also two low sub- 
 porticoes which descend to a suite of baths ; but, as they are recent addi- 
 tions, they must not be considered in estimating the value of this imposing 
 and chaste elevation. 
 
 The New Custom House. 
 
 The first building ever erected for the purpose of transacting the busi- 
 ness of the Customs was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and near to 
 the site of the present extensive edifice. In the great fire of 1666 it was 
 destroyed, with all the surrounding neighborhood and the greater part of 
 the city, and was rebuilt on a more extensive scale than before this cala- 
 mity in the reign of Charles the Second, by Sir Christopher Wren. That 
 building also met the same fate in 1718, and was rebuilt upon much the 
 same plan. It was again consumed by fire in February, 1814, and was 
 rebuilt upon a still larger and more extensive scale, from the designs and 
 under the superintendence of David Laing, Esq. the architect to the Board 
 of Customs. 
 
L 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 133 
 
 In consequence of defects in its construction, which threatened a down- 
 fal to a considerable portion of the building, the long room was shored 
 up, the front next the river taken down, and the present river front, 
 which differs much from the preceding elevation, was erected in its stead 
 by Mr. Srnirke. 
 
 The south or river front is four hundred and eighty-eight feet in length, 
 and the east and west fronts, or depth of the building, are each one hun- 
 dred and seven feet. These three fronts are faced with Portland stone, 
 and the north front, which is next Thames Street, is faced with brick and 
 has ornamental stone dressings. The first stone of the new building was 
 laid on the 25th of October, 1813, with the usual ceremonies, at the south- 
 west corner, by the late Right Honorable the Earl of Liverpool, then first 
 Lord of the Treasury, and the Right Honorable Lord Bexley, then Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, attended by the Commissioners of His Majesty's 
 Customs, and in the presence of a great concourse of spectators. The new 
 building was opened for public business on the 12th of May, 1817. 
 
 The Statue of Achilles 
 
 was erected in Hyde Park, by a public subscription of ladies to the me- 
 mory of the great and important victories of the Duke of Wellington. 
 The inscription on the massive granite pedestal records the history of this 
 singular statue. See print of the Statue of Achilles in Hyde Park. 
 
 The colossus before us is a restoration in bronze of one of the celebrated 
 groupe on the Monte Cavallo at Rome, the first cast of which was brought 
 into this country by Mr. Charles Day, and exhibited by him first at the 
 King's Mews, Charing Cross, and since at the Egyptian Hall, Picca- 
 dilly. 
 
 This fine cast, which for some reason, is called Achilles, was executed 
 by Mr. Westmacott, the Professor of Sculpture in the Royal Academy. 
 The original statue has the straps of a shield on its left arm, which the 
 artist has restored to a perfect discus, or circular shield ; but has not given 
 him a sword. The original is placed by the side of a horse, as if in the 
 act of reining him in ; but the action would have been obscure in the 
 isolated statue without the shield, which is, therefore, in this case, both 
 explanatory and appropriate. 
 
 Entrance to the King's Palace, Hyde Park Corner. 
 
 This splendid triumphal arch, is of elegant proportions, florid de- 
 corations, and exquisitely finished workmanship. It is executed from the 
 designs of Mr. Decimus Burton, being one of the finest modern triumphal 
 arches in existence. 
 
 2 o 
 
134 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 The triumphal arches of Rome, that are now in existence, are of three 
 very distinct species, if I may so call them. First, those with a single 
 arch, like that of Titus of Rome, of Trajan at Ancona, and this before us. 
 See print of the Entrance to the King's Palace, Hyde Park Corner. 
 Secondly, those which are formed of two arches or arcades, such as those 
 of Verona, &c, which appear also to have served for entrance gates to the 
 city; and, thirdly, the species composed of three arches, the centre being 
 the principal or grand arch for cavalcades, chariots, &c, and the outer two 
 smaller, as posterns for foot passengers. 
 
 The arch before us is of the first species, consisting of a single arch 
 and suitable architectural decorations. The aperture, covered by the arch, 
 has an architrave, surmounted by an archivolt without a sculptured key- 
 stone, which is an innovation by no means pleasing. The sides are deco- 
 rated with Corinthian pilasters, and the space on the wall which corres- 
 ponds in height with the capitals, have sculptured wreaths of laurel 
 enclosing the initials G. R. IV., and crowns alternately. 
 
 From the four central pilasters, a portico of four columns projects on two 
 solid plinths, each of which support two columns of the Corinthian order. 
 The entablature is lofty and elegant, with a richly sculptured frieze, and a 
 row of boldly projecting lions' heads on the cymatium, marking the centres 
 of columns and other sub-divisions of the order. Above the entablature, on 
 a lofty blocking-course, is raised an attic, the body of which is embellished 
 with a sculptural representation of an ancient triumph. On each of the 
 columns is a statue of a warrior, and on the summit of the acroterium 
 which surmounts the attic, is a figure in a quadriga or ancient four horse 
 chariot. 
 
 The design of this very beautiful palatial entrance, is classical and ap- 
 propriate, is one of the most distinguished ornaments of our metropolis, 
 and possesses an originality of thought, that is rarely met with, in modern 
 compositions of this kind. The masonry and sculpture are beautifully ex- 
 ecuted, and tend by their perfection to the unity of appearance between 
 the artist's design and the artisan's execution, which is alike creditable to 
 both. 
 
 Surry Theatre. 
 
 This place of amusement was originally called "Hughes's," after its 
 proprietor, and like Ducrow's Royal Amphitheatre near Westminster 
 Bridge, was appropriated chiefly to horsemanship, and therefore named 
 the Royal Circus. 
 
 Like many of its betters, this Theatre has been the victim of the god 
 of fire, and was burned down about three and twenty years ago. It was 
 then rebuilt from the designs of Signor Cabanel, an Italian artist of great 
 
3 lib Ti sled Fel>716 
 
 Published f e 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 135 
 
 knowledge in theatrical buildings, under the directions and immediate super- 
 intendence of the late Mr. James Donaldson the younger, son of James 
 Donaldson, Esq., architect of Bloomsbury Square, and the brother of 
 Thomas Leverton Donaldson, Esq., the able author of the History of 
 Pompeii. This amiable young man fell a sacrifice to his great exertions 
 and anxiety to get the theatre finished within the time that he had en- 
 gaged ; and his fatigue, having to direct and control two gangs of work- 
 men, one by day and the other by night, was too much even for his 
 young and powerful frame. 
 
 The front, as you will see by a reference to the print of the Surry 
 Theatre, Blackfriartf Road, is more theatrical and scene-painter-like than 
 architectural ; but it is appropriate, and does not offend the canons of taste, 
 more than some prouder edifices that affect a greater state. 
 
 When Elliston first took this theatre he removed the ride, which he con- 
 verted into the best pit in London (as the seats rise so much from front to 
 rear), and from a theatre of buffoonery and balderdash, into one of a much 
 more rational character. He performed in it himself, introduced well 
 painted scenery, and as good a version of Shakspeare as the law would 
 allow. The public encouraged him, and he gained wealth in his well- 
 managed speculation, and gave it a new and better name, 
 
 * Ttvas called the Circus once, but now the Surry.'''' 
 
 EUiston then became the lessee of the immense establishment of Drury 
 Lane, when the Surry Theatre devolved to that clever manager and excel- 
 lent light dramatic writer Thomas Dibdin, who acquired far more reputa- 
 tion than profit in his speculation. 
 
 It next fell under the management of his brother Charles, who con- 
 ducted it with ability, and I have heard with profit ; but it has again 
 returned under the control of Elliston, who has resumed his station in the 
 Drama in this pretty theatre with unrivalled success. Elliston first set 
 the example in this theatre of improving the style of performance in the 
 minor theatres, and he has been followed to the manifest improvement of 
 the public taste, by all the others. 
 
 Drury Lane Theatre. 
 
 The principal front next Brydges Street is two hundred and thirty-one 
 feet in length, and, before the addition of the present ugly portico, con- 
 sisted of two slightly projecting wings, from which an elegant tetrastyle 
 portico of the Ionic order, the whole height of the building, was to have 
 projected. See print of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. These wings 
 are formed of four antae, surmounted by an entablature, the architrave 
 
136 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 of which is very properly omitted in the central part, and in the sides 
 which extend beyond the wings. This central part or entire fagade is 
 plastered with Roman cement in imitation of Portland stone, and joins on 
 to the north front in little Russell Street, (so named after the Duke of 
 Bedford, its ground landlord,) with great ingenuity and pleasing effect. 
 The cornice is surmounted by a lofty blocking-comse, breaking into piers 
 over the antse. The capitals of the antse are of the pure Greek Ionic, 
 after those of the temple of Minerva Polias at Priene; the echini of which 
 are embellished with eggs and tongues, and the hypotrachelion with the 
 beautiful foliage of the Grecian honeysuckle. Between the shafts of the 
 antae in each wing is a window, constructed upon a deep stone sill, which 
 corresponds in lines and height with the string-course of the north and 
 south front lines. The division of the stories is properly marked by a 
 larger or principal string-course, which runs through, and pervades the 
 whole composition. 
 
 The windows in the wings have dressings, consisting of architraves up 
 their jambs, with spreading shoulders near- their summits, which are car- 
 ried along the head, and support an architrave and appropriate cornice. 
 The three centre windows have similar dressings; but as a distinctive 
 mark, and not being protected like the others by a projecting epistylium, 
 they have triangular pediments, which create both variety and beauty, 
 arising from utility, in the composition. 
 
 Had this front been decorated, as originally intended by its architect, Mr. 
 Benjamin Wyatt, with an Ionic portico of columns in accordance with 
 the preparatory antse, its effect woidd have been extremely beautiful, and 
 produced as harmonious a composition as any in the metropolis. 
 
 The New Bridge over the Serpentine, Hyde Park. 
 
 This very elegant bridge was designed and executed by Messrs. 
 Rennies, and forms a beautiful object from either side. A good view is 
 obtained from the southern bank of the water, where the rich and luxuriant 
 foliage of the plantations in Kensington Gardens forms a fine back-ground 
 over its siimmit ; and the walks round the margin of the lake a lively con- 
 trast to the dark shadows of the arches, which cast their reflexes on the 
 surface of the silvery waters. See the Print. 
 
 The bridge itself, which is the object of our investigation, consists of 
 five Avater arches and two land arches. Its upper surface is level, and 
 connects by its roadway the northern and southern banks of the canal. 
 The river arches are segments of circles, with archivolts and key-stones, 
 surmounted by a block cornice, and a balustrade with equidistant piers. 
 The spandrels of the arches are filled by level courses of masonry, and no 
 projecting piers above the cut-waters. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 137 
 
 The land arches are semicircular between the projecting piers, and 
 have also a balustrade over them, the width of the aperture below. These 
 arches are also dressed with archivolts, that descend as architraves to the 
 plinth, at the level of the springings of the larger arches and key-stones. 
 The parapet of the road-way is plain and of the same height as the ba- 
 lustrade of the bridge. The entire design of the bridge is light, elegant, 
 and particularly well adapted to its situation. Its material is a durable 
 sand-stone, from Yorkshire, called Bramley Fall, which is esteemed by 
 many competent judges as less liable to be acted upon by the changes of 
 the atmosphere than even granite. 
 
 Richmond Terrace, Whitehall. 
 
 The design of this terrace is common-place, and exhibits neither taste 
 nor fancy. See print of Richmond Terrace, Whitehall. The order is 
 Ionic, of no peculiar beauty ; the antee not in character nor accordance 
 with the columns, and the entrance or ground story is of most veritable 
 carpenters' architecture. The whole is imposing from its size, and the 
 good finish of the workmanship. 
 
 The composition is divided into two parts, a centre and two wings, 
 raised upon a rusticated basement, which forms the entrance or ground 
 story, and projects under the centre and wings. The centre is a hexastyle 
 portico of three-quarter, or attached columns, surmounted by a pediment 
 and blocking-course. The wings are composed of two similar columns 
 between two antae, in imitation of the ancient tetrastyle portico in antis. 
 The whole entablature is continued through the whole front, which is pro- 
 ductive of heaviness in the parts between the wings. The cornice is sur- 
 mounted by a balustrade, and a continued balcony at the basis of the 
 columns runs along the entire front. 
 
 The terrace itself, that is, the part which is raised above the level of 
 Privy Gardens, and separated therefrom by a very pretty stone balustrade 
 and coping, elevated in the centre and with circular and scroll ends, ac- 
 commodated to the form of the carnage road, is both ornamental and useful 
 to the houses. 
 
 One of the New Lodges, Hyde Park. 
 
 Its composition consists of a centre and two flanks : the former pro- 
 jecting slightly, is embellished with an opening, which forms an inverted 
 portico of two columns, within which the entrance door is perforated. No 
 other opening breaks the simplicity of this front, the manly character of 
 which is increased by the continuance of the bold entablature on each face 
 of the building ; but the roof is crowned by a square chimney shaft, rising 
 
 2 P 
 
138 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 above the slated roof, which adds much to the architectural effect of the 
 picture. 
 
 The Grand Entrance to Hyde Park. 
 
 This elegant composition, designed, like the preceding, by Mr. Decimus 
 Burton, is divided into five leading parts, namely, three arched entrances, 
 and two connecting colonnades. The centre or principal arcade (See plate 
 of the Grand Entrance to Hyde Park, Piccadilly ) , is wider than the 
 side entrances, and decorated .by coupled columns of the Ionic order, which 
 is the pervading character of the whole composition. 
 
 The side entrances have two columns in antis, and the antae are re- 
 peated in the profile or ends of the structure. The colonnades are open 
 and support a beautiful entablature, in which the able architect has com- 
 mitted the anomaly of introducing an architrave of three faces, which 
 ought to be exclusively confined to the Corinthian order. The entablature 
 is carried through the entire composition, the side entrances having a 
 blocking-course with a raised and projecting centre, as if designed as a 
 base for a group of statues or a trophy. This feature, the blocking-course, 
 is omitted over the colonnade, and elevated into an attic or stylobate over 
 the principal arch. The pedestal or frieze of this portion of the design is 
 embellished with bassi-rilievi in the Athenian style of sculpture, repre- 
 senting a triumphal procession of equestrian warriors. Side or postern 
 entrances for foot passengers only, formed between stone piers, add to the 
 convenience of the public and to the picturesque beauty of the design, by 
 carrying the composition beautifully into a pedimental form. The iron 
 railing is of a very novel, beautiful and solid form, and the whole compo- 
 sition grand and effective. The sculpture of this beautiful ornament to 
 the western part of the metropolis was executed by Mr. Henning, and the 
 masonry by Messrs. Bennett and Hunt. 
 
 Furnival's Inn, Holborn. 
 
 The composition of the front of this Inn of court, is, like that of Rich- 
 mond Terrace, of three parts, a boldly projecting centre and two slightly 
 projecting wings. In height, it has four stories, the lower of which, the 
 entrance or ground story, is rusticated, and perforated by windows with 
 semicircular heads. The centre opening is a large gateway, covered by 
 an elliptical rusticated arch, and leads to the inner quadrangle. The one 
 and two pair stories have windows arranged according to interior conve- 
 nience, and decorated by architraves. Those in the wings have pediments, 
 but for what reason they are so protected, standing under a cornice of 
 
Drawn- "by Ho? H. Shepherd . Engraved "bvW.'Wallis. 
 
 ©EAST© EWTIEAMCIE T© HYDE PAJEJK, FICCABEILjLY. 
 
 TO DECIMTJS BURTON ESQ: THE ARCHITECT. THIS PLATE IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 
 Published Sep.29. 1828. oy Jones & C? Temple of the Muses. Pin stay Square. London. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 139 
 
 equal projection as the others, whilst the others have only horizontal cor- 
 nices, it would puzzle a critic to tell. 
 
 The centre part of this principal division is decorated hy what is meant 
 for a tetrastyle portico of the Ionic order ; but owing to the extraordinary 
 and unprecedented width of the centre intercolumniation, it looks more 
 like two sets of coupled columns, after the method of Perrault, than a well 
 arranged columniation of a Grecian order. In consequence of this mal- 
 arrangement of the columns, the epistylium over the centre opening looks 
 weak and frangible. See print of FurnivaVs Inn, Holborn. 
 
 The New Government Mews, Princes Street, Storey's 
 Gate, Westminster. 
 
 The front of this chaste and classical building from Mr. D. Burton's 
 design, is composed of three parts, a centre and two wings, inclosing the 
 body or leading feature of the composition, which is pure Doric. The 
 centre has a carriage way, and two posterns, the former being covered by 
 a semicircular rusticated arch, and the latter by lintels reaching from 
 antae to antae. It has two columns between the antse after the manner of 
 the ancient order of temples called in antis, and the angles guarded by a 
 pair of coupled antse, making the composition in a manner octastyle. See 
 print of New Government Mews. The entablature is continued through 
 the whole composition ; the antes are continued at regular intervals of two 
 triglyphs and three metopes distance, in the main body of the front ; and 
 the wings are distinguished by inverted porticoes of two columns in antis, 
 and covered by triangular pediments. 
 
 This length of entablature, unbroken except in the centre and the two 
 wings, is surmounted by a plain and lofty blocking-course, eminently in 
 character with the order of the building. The centre is marked by an 
 attic, which is not an unmeaning screen, but a solid building, the full 
 depth of the gateway below. 
 
 From the place in which we are now standing, this elegant and classical 
 composition has a charming effect, which is much increased by the vener- 
 able turrets of Westminster Abbey, that tower above its centre in pic- 
 turesque grandeur. 
 
 The New Church, Stepney, 
 
 is from a design of the late John Walters, Esq., and erected by private 
 subscription in 1819. It is one of the best designs in the later pointed 
 style of English architecture that has been recently erected. The western 
 front (see plate of the New Church, Stepney) is composed of a lofty 
 centre, forming the nave, and two wings which form the aisles. 
 
140 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 The centre part has a low entrance door, with a flat pointed arch in a 
 square moulded frame, below a wide and lofty transom window, covered 
 by a gable. At the angles are octangular buttresses surmounted by pin- 
 nacles. 
 
 The aisles have also low doors with obtuse pointed arches, and angular 
 buttresses surmounted by pinnacles, which are repeated between every 
 window in the north and south sides. The parapets in the west front are 
 perforated, and in the others plain, and the spaces above the doors which 
 lead to the aisles are handsome canopied niches, with pedestals for figures. 
 The whole composition has a very striking English and ecclesiastical 
 character. 
 
 The New Hall, Christ's Hospital. 
 
 The exterior of this building is raised upon an arcade of flat pointed 
 arches, which form a cloister for the boys to play under in wet weather, 
 and is terminated at each end by two large and lofty octagonal turrets 
 finished on the top with panels and embrasures. The hall, which is 
 erected above the cloisters and separated by an ornamented string course, 
 consists externally of nine lofty and spacious windows of the pointed 
 style, divided into three heights, and four widths by moulded stone mul- 
 lions. The windows are divided by buttresses that support the principal 
 trusses of the roof, and are finished by lofty octagonal pinnacles and foli- 
 ated fmials. The centre of each window is again marked by intermediate 
 pinnacles supported by sculptured corbels, and the parapet is formed be- 
 tween them of moulded embrasures. 
 
 This beautiful elevation is constructed with fine Hey tor granite, of a 
 close compact nature, and of a beautiful gray colour, which harmonizes 
 well with the architecture. 
 
 The interior is two hundred feet in length by fifteen in width. A spa- 
 cious gallery runs along the side opposite to the windows and the two 
 ends, from which the public at certain times of the year are admitted to 
 hear the children sing anthems and other pieces of sacred music, and sup 
 in public. At one end is a fine organ, and a pulpit is affixed under the 
 centre window for the purposes of divine service. The decorations are bold 
 and massive, the brackets of the ceiling, the beams, and the galleries of 
 oak, and walls finished a plain light stone colour. 
 
 Crockford's Club House, St. James's Street. 
 
 This building, of great extent and expensive execution, is from the de- 
 signs of Messrs. Benjamin and Philip Wyatt, and does great credit to 
 their well known name. It consists of a lofty ground story, lighted by 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 141 
 
 five spacious Venetian windows, and a magnificent upper or principal 
 story, with an equal number of French casement windows decorated with 
 proper entablatures. The two outermost of these upper windows, being 
 without the pale and protection of the central projecting part, have the 
 additional embellishment of pediments. See plate of Crockford's Club 
 House, St. James's Street. 
 
 The entrance is byway of the lower central window, up a flight of stone 
 steps to the elevated ground floor, imder which is a lofty, airy, and exten- 
 sive basement story, containing the kitchen and other offices and domestic 
 apartments. This story is lighted by a wide area, which is separated 
 from the street by an elegant stone balustrade. On the pedestals of this 
 balustrade are raised a series of bronzed tripods, that support as many 
 elegant octagonal lanterns. 
 
 The front is composed of a centre, formed by a slightly projecting 
 tetrastyle portico of Corinthian pilasters or antae, which support an en- 
 tablature, and two slightly receding wings, in which the epistylium is pro- 
 perly omitted, being supplied by the wall itself. On the upper part of the 
 cornice is a raised blocking course, with a lofty balustrade, and piers over 
 each pilaster, as well as beneath them. 
 
 In the order of which this elevation is composed, the brother architects 
 have followed the heresy of Mr. Nash, by giving an Ionic entablature, 
 strictly so in every respect, to Corinthian pilasters ; or, vice versa, have 
 given Corinthian pilasters to an Ionic entablature, instead of the rigid 
 orthodoxy of their father, whose beautiful facade (Brookes' Club House) 
 just below this, stands in awful rivalry of their defection from the true 
 faith. Yet it is a pleasing, and from its magnitude a grand composition ; 
 and the interior, which is finished in all the rich and gaudy style of Louis 
 XIV., is a fine specimen of that overloaded but magnificent style of do- 
 mestic architecture. 
 
 Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly, 
 
 a design of Samuel Ware, Esq., the author of a very scientific volume 
 of tracts on vaults and bridges, and architect to many excellent build- 
 ings in Ireland, the splendid alterations at Chatsworth, at Northumberland 
 House, and other places for the Dukes of Devonshire and Northum- 
 berland. 
 
 Whittington's Alms Houses, Highgate, 
 
 is a building of English domestic architecture, by Mr. George Smith, the 
 architect of St. Paul's School, the New Corn Exchange, and other works 
 noticed in these pages. It is a handsome and collegiate looking building 
 
 2 Q 
 
142 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 (see plate of Whittington's Alms Houses, Highgate), as indeed it should 
 be ; for it is in lieu of that benevolent and munificent citizen's ancient col- 
 lege on College Hill, near Queen Street, Cheapside, which was by license 
 from King Henry IV., in the year 1410, made a college of the Holy Spirit 
 and Saint Mary, by Sir Richard Whittington, four times Lord Mayor of 
 London, for a master, four fellows, clerks, choristers &c. Contiguous to 
 which was erected an alms house, denominated God's House, or hospital, 
 for the accommodation of thirteen persons, one of whom is the chief, with 
 the appellation of tutor. It is still under the management of the worship- 
 ful Company of Mercers. 
 
 Every city apprentice must remember the legend of the poor truant 
 Dick Whittington, sitting disconsolate on a stone at the rise of Highgate 
 Hill, and fancying the city bells ring — 
 
 "Turn again Whittington, 
 Thrice Lord Mayor of London," 
 
 and may have his early associations roused, at seeing Whittington's College, 
 for so I must call it, a magnificent structure in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood of Whittington's stone. 
 
 It has a central chapel, of the pointed style of architecture, the gable of 
 which is surmounted by a lofty pinnacle. It has also two square and two 
 angular buttresses, with pinnacles and fmials in accordance. The two 
 wings have also gables, buttresses, pinnacles, and fmials in a corresponding- 
 style of architecture. The doors and windows are square-headed, and 
 covered with moulded water tables ; and the whole composition is at once 
 useful and highly ornamental. 
 
 The Brewer's Alms Houses, Mile End, 
 
 is a smaller, but very picturesque structure, in a very neat and effective 
 style of domestic architecture. The front elevation is composed of a re- 
 ceding centre, between which and the wings are two slightly projecting 
 transepts, if they may be so called, which are embellished at the corners 
 with angular buttresses surmounted by pinnacles. The cliimney shafts are 
 capped in the old English style, with separate funnels connected at the 
 top. The whole building is agreeably relieved by appropriate and at the 
 same time useful breaks, which produce a gratifying diversity of light 
 and shade over the entire elevation. 
 
 London House and Carriage Repository, Gray's Inn Lane. 
 
 This may justly rank among the " Metropolitan Improvements." It is 
 situated at the Junction of Gray's Inn Road with the New Road, and 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 143 
 
 City Road, presenting a noble structure of a quadrangular form, with a 
 spacious arena in the centre. The internal arrangements are on a grand 
 scale, affording accommodation for about two hundred horses, and galleries 
 for more than double that number of carriages. The lofty, light, airy 
 stalls, and loose boxes, show that greater regard has been had to the 
 health of that invaluable animal (as the horse may with great truth be 
 styled), than will be found in any other public establishment in the 
 British empire. 
 
 Besides the extensive horse and carriage departments, the south front 
 comprises a spacious mansion, the principal story in which is wholly 
 occupied by one entire grand room, in which, by the gratuitous permission 
 of the spirited proprietor of this unique establishment, (William Bromley, 
 Esq., of Euston Square,) some benevolent ladies lately held a bazaar, for 
 the benefit of the Spanish Refugees, when this splendid room was proved 
 to be capable of containing upwards of one thousand persons ! 
 
 The large field (about ten acres), adjoining hereto, is about to be con- 
 verted into a handsome square and gardens, a la Tivoli, with a superb 
 theatre, to be called the Panarmonion, under the immediate patronage of 
 His Majesty ! The whole projected by Professor Lanza, and is without 
 parallel in this country. 
 
 Lord Lowther's excellent Act— which comes into operation in January 
 —by removing the turnpike gate nuisances from those delightful drives, 
 the Edgeware Road, New Road, &c, will, together with the aforenamed 
 novelties, combine to render this part of the metropolis a principal object 
 of attraction with the fashionable world. 
 
 The Haberdashers' Alms Houses, Hoxton. 
 
 The original building, which has been recently pulled down to make 
 room for the present neat structure, was a truly palladian design of that 
 great philosopher and co-student of Sir Christopher Wren, the inventive 
 Robert Hooke. It was erected in 1692 by the worshipful Company of 
 Haberdashers, pursuant to the will of Robert Aske, Esq., a member of that 
 company, who left an almost unexampled legacy of thirty thousand pounds 
 for erecting a proper edifice for the accommodation of twenty decayed 
 members of his company. 
 
 The former building was very spacious, being four hundred feet in 
 length, with an ambulatory in front three hundred and forty feet long 
 under a colonnade of the Tuscan order. The present building is much 
 smaller in dimensions, and consists of a central Doric tetrastyle portico, 
 witli its frieze emasculated of its manly triglyphs, and a substitution of 
 hybrid wreaths. The wings are decorated with brick piers instead of 
 classical stone antae. The apartments of the men are on each side of a 
 
144 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 spacious quadrangle (see plate of the Haberdashers' Alms Houses, 
 Hoxton), in the centre of which is a statue of its benevolent founder 
 on a lofty pedestal, which bears inscriptions of his bounty. 
 
 Covent Garden Theatre. 
 
 One of the best views of the front of this theatre is from the opposite 
 side of Bow Street, somewhat to the south of the south-east angle. See 
 plate of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. This front, which is the 
 principal, and in fact the only architectural front, if I may be allowed to 
 use the expression, is two hundred and twenty feet in length, and divided 
 into three principal parts, which project from the main body of the 
 building and form its most attractive features. These are the portico and 
 the wings. The former is tetrastyle of the Athenian Doric order, after 
 that of the temple of Minerva Parthenon at Athens, and the latter are 
 formed of antse after the same example. The columns both in front and 
 flank are equidistant, and have one triglyph and two metopes to each 
 intercolumniation, and the antas of the wings have the interval of two 
 triglyphs and three metopes between them. 
 
 The entire entablature is carried over the portico and the wings ; but 
 the architrave, frieze, metopes, and mutules are omitted in the intervening 
 portions of the front, to make room for the sculpture. The portico is 
 crowned by a pediment surmounted by acroteria. The cornice of the 
 wings and main building are surmounted by a blocking-course and 
 parapet, crowned by a surbase moulding, like that which the same archi- 
 tect has used in the United Service Club House. Behind tins, the lofty 
 walls of the body of the theatre rear themselves in stern simplicity, and 
 form an admirable architectural back ground to the ornamental fa§ade 
 below. 
 
 The lower part of the building on each side of the portico, and between 
 the wings, is perforated by three arcades of segmental arches, which have 
 been complained of, as not according in style with the Athenian purity 
 of the other portion of the edifice. Above these, and over the plain 
 square-headed doorways under the portico, are a row of nine sash win- 
 dows, raised over a string-course that pervades the whole front, on lofty 
 sills, decorated with architraves to the jambs and complete entablatures 
 upon their upper surfaces. 
 
 Above these windows, on each side of the portico, are two long panels, 
 extending their entire width, in which are sculptures in flat relief, and in 
 niches between the antse of the wings, of statues in the round, repre- 
 senting Tragedy and Comedy, from the chisel of Flaxman. 
 
 The bassi-rilievi in the panels are sculptured in freestone, from designs 
 by Flaxman, one by Flaxman himself, and the other by Rossi, who also 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 145 
 
 carved the figure of Shakspeare, in the anti-room of the principal box 
 entrance ; the northern compartments representing the ancient, and the 
 southern the modern drama. 
 
 CoLLEGfE OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 
 
 a building more remarkable for strength and goodness of construction than 
 for elegance of design. It looks more like the baldness of northern Cal- 
 vinism, than the chaste beauties of the simply decorated church of Eng- 
 land. Some one must have stripped this edifice of its laudable embellish- 
 ments, as brother Jack did his garment in the Tale of the Tub. Its 
 architect is Mr. William Brooks, whose works of the London Institution, 
 Finsbury Chapel, and other ornaments of the metropolis, we have more 
 than once had occasion to notice with approbation in these pages. It 
 consists of a centre and two wings, without a single attempt at architec- 
 tural decoration. See plate of the College of the Church Missionary 
 Society, Islington. It is however a plain, substantial, useful building, 
 adapted to a very laudable purpose. 
 Another similar establishment is, 
 
 Highbury College, 
 
 a building of more pretensions, and of more real architectural beauty. It 
 consists of a centre and two very deeply projecting wings. In the middle 
 of the centre building is an hexastyle Ionic portico, of the Ilyssus ex- 
 ample, with a pediment above it. The ends of the projecting wings are 
 tetrastyle in antis, and have also pediments and acroteria which conceal 
 chimneys within them. See plate of Highbury College. The portico is 
 raised a few steps above the court yard, which is enclosed from the high 
 road by iron railings raised upon a lofty plinth, and a handsome carriage 
 and two postern entrances. It reflects much credit on the architect for 
 the selection of his materials from the choice storehouse of Ionian an- 
 tiquities. 
 
 Lord Grosvenor's Gallery, Park Lane. 
 
 This building forms the western wing of a large and splendid town 
 mansion, now in the course of erection from the designs of Mr. Cundy. 
 It consists of a colonnade of the Corinthian order, raised upon a plain 
 jointed stylobate. 
 
 Over each column of the principal building is an isolated statue with 
 an attic behind them, after the manner of the ancient building called by 
 Palladio the Forum of Trajan at Rome. On the acroteria of the building 
 
 2 R 
 
146 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 are vases and a balustrade (see plate of Lord Grosvenor's Gallery, Park 
 Lane J, and between all the columns is a series of blank windows with 
 balustraded balconies and triangular pediments, introduced in a manner 
 that disfigures the other grand parts of the design. Over these are sunk 
 panels with swags of fruit and flowers. But for these stopped-up windows, 
 and the overpowering and needless balustrade over the heads of the sta- 
 tues, this building would rank among the very first in the metropolis ; 
 even with these trifling drawbacks, that can easily be remedied before the 
 whole is completed, it is grand, architectural, and altogether worthy of 
 its noble proprietor. 
 
 The Royal College oe Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 
 We have nothing that for chaste simplicity and harmony of proportion 
 surpasses this fine portico, which, like a pension to a faithless patriot, is a 
 good thing ill-applied, so little does it belong either in conjunction or re- 
 lation to the awkward elevation behind it. 
 
 The portico consists of six lofty columns of the Ionic order, selected 
 from the temple on the banks of the Ilyssus at Athens. See plate of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Lnn Fields. The entablature is in 
 due accordance, and in the frieze is the following inscription: — Col- 
 legium • Regale • Chirurgorum • 
 
 On the upper surface of the cornice is raised a solid stylobate, pro- 
 jecting, after the manner of pedestals, over each column. On these pedes- 
 tals is placed a row of antique bronze tripods, which are attributes of the 
 Apollo Medicus, and over the centre intercolumniation a second blocking 
 is raised, which supports a shield on which is sculptured the armorial 
 bearings of the college, supported by two veiy classical figures of JEscula- 
 pius with his club and mystic serpent. 
 
 The dwelling behind is so common-place that it can be compared, in 
 relation to its fine portico, to nothing better than some of the additions by 
 the modern Romans to the fine antique porticoes of their illustrious an- 
 cestors. 
 
 The New Corn Exchange, Mark Lane. 
 
 A new building recently erected by a joint stock company, as a market 
 for the rise of the corn factors, &c, of the metropolis. It is from the 
 designs of George Smith, Esq., and is one of the most agreeable composi- 
 tions in the city. See plate of the New Corn Exchange, Mark Lane. 
 
 It is composed of a centre, formed of a receding hexastyle portico of 
 the genuine Doric order, but robbed of its triglyphs, a la mode de Mr. 
 Nash, and for which laurel wreaths are substituted. The echinus is em- 
 
TTjEJIE MEW 8t^&4&Q3&9 MJ^MM MI, 
 
 ■p riffliO n-a Nov 1, 1828. "by Jones it C Temple of tie Muses. KnsVnry Square. London 
 
 Published Nov.l, 1828. by Jones & C° Temple of the "Muses Knsaury Square. London 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 147 
 
 bellished with a lion's head over each column, which among the Greeks 
 were used for the outpouring of the rain water from the roof, but which 
 would be a libation, upon the heads of His Majesty's lieges frequenting 
 the Corn Exchange, that the district surveyor would not allow. 
 
 The cornice is crowned by a magnificent blocking course of extraor- 
 dinary height and boldness, which supports a stylobate bearing the imperial 
 arms of the united kingdoms, with agricultural trophies, and the following 
 inscription : — Corn Exchange, Erected by Act of Parliament, 
 Anno Domini M.DCCC.XXVII. 
 
 The Suspension Bridge, over the Thames, at 
 Hammersmith. 
 
 A communication across the Thames by a bridge at Hammersmith had 
 long been necessary to the neighbourhood, when a proposal for the erection 
 of this bridge was made by Mr. J. Tierney Clarke, the Engineer to the 
 Hammersmith Water Works Company, and a sum necessary for its execu- 
 tion was raised under the powers of an act of parliament. 
 
 The Bridge itself is composed of two square towers, with pilasters and 
 cornices of the Doric order, just below low water mark, and with apertures 
 in them for the road-way. In these towers the chains that carry the 
 road-way are supported (see plate of the Suspension Bridge, over the 
 Thames, at Hammersmith) in the same manner and on the same prin- 
 ciple as that of the chain pier at Brighton. It forms a novel, picturesque, 
 and highly agreeable feature among our recent Metropolitan Improve- 
 ments. 
 
 New London Bridge, with the Lord Maror's Procession 
 passing under the unfinished arches, November 9, 
 1827. 
 
 The upper surfaces of the arches were decorated with flags of the 
 principal nations of both hemispheres, and crowded with spectators, who 
 cheered and loudly greeted the splendid and novel procession as it passed 
 under and between the timbers of the centres which supported the huge 
 masonry of the arches. See plate of New London Bridge, with the 
 Lord Mayor's Procession passing under the unfinished arches, No- 
 vember 9, 1827. The workmen cheered, and the watermen and other 
 persons connected with the river service added their voices and their 
 hearts to the united shouts, as the stately barges glided nobly tlirough the 
 narrow aperture of the centre arch. This ceremony was repeated on the 
 following Lord Mayor's Day, with equal splendour, and less difficulty, as 
 more of the centres were removed from beneath the arches. 
 
148 
 
 METROPO LIT AN IM PRO YEMEN TS. 
 
 The New Treasury, Whitehall. 
 
 This work of legitimate art is by Professor Soane, and it comprises, be- 
 sides the Treasury, the Privy Council Office, the Board of Trade, and 
 other government offices. Several designs were made by Mr. Soane, but 
 afterwards relinquished in favour of the present building, about which so 
 much has been said both in and out of parliament. By way of apology 
 or defence against those who have impugned his taste, Mr. Soane says, that 
 " in every architectural composition, the style of the exterior determines the 
 character of the interior decorations : and, whenever the application of 
 this axiom is neglected, the want of sound judgment and good taste in the 
 architect will always be manifested. Upon this principle, and with due 
 regard to the character and destination of this building, the Privy Council 
 Chamber assumes an appearance of magnificence ; whilst the other rooms, 
 as offices, are finished in the most simple and substantial manner, suitable 
 to the character of public offices. The New Board Room of the Board 
 of Trade owes the manner in which it has been finished to the same cause 
 as determined the decorations of the Privy Council Chamber, and to the 
 old Board Room, being the identical chamber in which the unfortunate 
 Duke of Monmouth was born. To preserve the recollection of this room, 
 the New Board Room is decorated, by Mr. Soane, in the same character ; 
 and such of the ornaments as could be taken down, and preserved, now 
 form the enrichments of the new room of the Board of Trade. From 
 these offices there is a direct communication with the Board of Treasury, 
 the Treasury Chambers, and with the official residence of the First Lord 
 of the Treasury. 
 
 The Italian Opera House, Haymarket, from Pall 
 Mall, East. 
 
 This is a joint design of Mr. Nash and his tasteful pupil Mr. Repton. 
 It is as fine a specimen of the Palladian style of architecture as any in 
 London, and the difficulty of the inclined plane on which it is erected is 
 overcome with the skill of a master. The design is eminently theatrical, 
 and therefore characteristic. Its arcades and colonnades are necessary 
 appendages to such a building. The sculptures in the panels over the co- 
 lonnade, representing the origin and progress of music and dancing, are 
 executed in terra cotta by Mr. Bubb. 
 
ityTto! H. Shepherd. Ungraded. Tax . 
 
 tii wnw TmnAsuaor, w is htm mail jl. 
 
 TO .JOHN SOiHE ESQ? F.E..S. J\ S.A. fee. THIS PIRATE IS EBSPECT7UHY DEDICATED . - 
 
 Published TeW23, 1828, ~ty Jones fc C°. 3. Acton Place, Tfinp'sla.na Uotd. London . 
 
 Published. Feb?" 25. 1826. "by Jones fc C° S.Acton Place Kmrisland Road. London. 
 
mm 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 149 
 
 St. Bride's Avenue 
 (see plate) 
 
 opens to public view Sir Christopher Wren's majestic steeple of St. 
 Bride, Fleet Street. This church is a fabric of great strength and beauty, 
 and forms one of the most striking features of the metropolis. Its interior 
 is at once spacious, commodious, and elegant, is one hundred and eleven 
 feet in length, fifty-seven feet in breadth, and forty-one in height; com- 
 posed of a lofty nave, covered with an arched ceiling and two aisles, 
 separated below by solid piers, which form pedestals and support coupled 
 columns of the Doric order above, from the capitals of which spring the 
 arches of the nave aisles. 
 
 To a fire, which happened on the 14th of November, 1824, we are in- 
 debted for the present Avenue, designed by J. B. Papworth, Esq., thus 
 opening to view a structure that is acknowledged to be the chef d? auvre 
 of one of the most eminent architects England, or perhaps Europe, ever 
 produced. 
 
 London Ophthalmic Infirmary, &c, Finsbury, 
 
 has no architectural feature beyond that of plain utility in its entire 
 composition. It is three stories in height, faced with brick, and divided 
 by string courses of Portland stone, and crowned by a moulded cornice 
 and blocking course, on which is inscribed, " London Ophthalmic 
 Infirmary" (see plate.) 
 
 As tliis institution is for the cure of persons afflicted with incipient 
 blindness, another laudable charity for those afflicted with total blindness 
 presents itself in the 
 
 Asylum for the Indigent Blind, Westminster Road. 
 
 a building more commendable for utility than for its beauty, and apparently 
 designed for its patients ; any of whom would be supremely blessed, could 
 they but see its glaring disproportions. The centre is composed of a 
 ground story of three openings, covered with semi-elliptical arches, raised 
 upon their narrow diameter, and on which is raised a principal story of 
 three windows, with a facade of four ill-proportioned squat pilasters with 
 Ionic columnar capitals. See plate of the Asylum for the Indigent 
 Blind, Westminster Road. 
 
 2 s 
 
150 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 On these capitals is raised an entablature and blocking course, with an 
 inscription on the frieze and architrave, indicating the building to be a 
 
 " School for the Indigent Blind, instituted M.DCCC.XIX. 
 Supported by Voluntary Contributions," 
 
 and also on the string courses of the principal and wing building, that 
 articles manufactured on the premises by the indigent blind, such as hearth 
 rugs, baskets, turnery, &c, may be purchased by the public. 
 
 In this praiseworthy and well conducted establishment, which it is quite 
 a treat to visit, about sixty indigent persons, male and female, are sup- 
 ported and taught the aits of manufacturing baskets, mats, clothes' lines, 
 sash cords, hearth rugs, &c, ,from which a produce of from eight hundred 
 to a thousand pounds a year is generally produced. This institution was 
 originally established in 1792, and the present erected in 1807, and en- 
 larged in 1819, so as to accommodate two hundred children. 
 
 The Penitentiary, Millbank, Westminster. 
 
 The plan of this building is principally on the Panopticon, or all-seeing 
 principle of Jeremy Bentham, and was constructed for the purpose of 
 trying the effect of a system of imprisonment, founded on the humane and 
 rational principles of classification, employment, and reform. The pri- 
 soners, who are offenders of secondary turpitude, and who are confined 
 here instead of being transported or sent to the hulks, are therefore sepa- 
 rated into classes, are compelled to work, and their religious and moral 
 habits, as well as those of industry and cleanliness, are properly attended 
 to. 
 
 The external walls of this vast building, which resembles a fortification, 
 or rather a continental fortified chateau, form an irregular octagon, en- 
 closing no less than eighteen acres of ground. This large space compre- 
 hends several distinct though conjoined masses of building, the centre one 
 being a regular hexagon, and the others branching out from its respective 
 sides. By this means the governor, or overseer, can at all times have the 
 power of overlooking every division of the prison, from windows in the 
 central part. See plate of the Penitentiary, at Millbank, Westminster. 
 
 This institution is to accommodate four hundred male and four hundred 
 female convicts. It is governed by a committee nominated by the privy 
 council, which forms a body corporate, and has the appointment of all the 
 officers, and the exclusive management of the prison. The prisoners are 
 allowed a per centage on their labours, and the amount is given them 
 when discharged. The expense of building this vast edifice amounted to 
 nearly five hundred thousand pounds. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 151 
 
 New Bethlem Hospital, St. George's Fields. 
 
 This building, which is for the cure of lunatics, presents a front of ex- 
 traordinary grandeur and beauty, being scarcely inferior in harmony of 
 proportion to George Dance's exquisitely proportioned hospital of St. 
 Luke in Old Street, with more of architectural decoration. It is five 
 hundred and eighty feet in length, and is composed of three principal and 
 two subordinate parts, namely, a noble central building, embellished with 
 an hexastyle portico of the Ionic order, which embraces only a part of its 
 length, two side pavillions or wings, and two receding intermediate parts, 
 which form the body of the building. See plate of the New Bethlem 
 Hospital, St. George's Fields. 
 
 The central building, besides its before-mentioned Ionic portico, has a 
 continuation of its main building to an extent of three windows on each 
 side of its outer columns. It is surmounted by a pediment, above which 
 is erected a handsome attic, which serves as a base to a cubicular building 
 surmounted by a hemispherical cupola. 
 
 In the hall, which is entered under this beautiful Grecian portico, are 
 the inimitable statues of raving and melancholy madness, by Cibber. 
 These exquisite statues, which are quite classics in their way, formerly 
 decorated the piers of the principal gateway to the former hospital in 
 Moorfields. 
 
 The wings and body of the building are in happy accordance with the 
 central composition. In these the patients are accommodated, and in the 
 area behind, which comprises nearly twelve acres, are separate buildings 
 for offices, &c, and enclosed grounds for the exercise of patients. This 
 establishment contains accommodation for two hundred patients, exclusive 
 of about sixty others, who are confined for acts of criminality, the charges 
 of whom are defrayed by government. The building cost about one 
 hundred thousand pounds, and the annual income of the institution is 
 about eighteen thousand pounds. 
 
 The New National Scotch Church, Sidmotjth Street, 
 Gray's Inn Road, 
 
 where that spirit of the age, Rev. E. Irving, astonishes and delights his 
 countrymen. 
 
 The elevation next Sidmouth Street is composed of three leading parts ; 
 namely, two towers, over the entrances into the aisles, and a central part 
 surmounted by an embattled gable, that conceals the roof, over the nave. 
 The doors are recessed into the thickness of the walls with clustered 
 pillars and mouldings, and the central one is finished by a handsome 
 
15 2 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 crocketed gable and finial. Plain buttresses are introduced at the angles 
 of the building and between the openings which run up the whole 
 height of the lofty towers, and finish with pinnacles crocketed up the 
 angles, and elaborately carved finials. 
 
 Over each door are windows that light the aisles, and over the centre a 
 six light mullioned window, with rich tracery in the triangular part, with 
 which it is finished. Over this is a triangular gable, intersecting a 
 moulded string course, on which is inscribed in large capitals— Eccle si A 
 Scotica. The towers have on each of their faces handsome pointed 
 windows, finished with crocketed labels and finials, and the parapets are 
 embattled. The architect of this handsome specimen of the beautiful 
 pointed style of our ancestors is William Tite, Esq. 
 
 Salter's Hall, 
 
 in Swithin's Lane, Cannon Street, is a handsome and -very elaborate eleva- 
 tion, by George Smith, Esq., the architect of St. Paul's School, and 
 many other excellent civic structures. It consists of a tetrastyle portico 
 of the Ionic order, which supports an attic that forms a base or pedestal 
 for the armorial bearings and supporters of the company it belongs to. 
 See plate of Salter's Hall. The side portions of the elevation have 
 semicircular headed windows, over which are tablets beautifully sculp- 
 tured with the Grecian honey-suckle. The building is prettily situated 
 in a planted garden, with dwelling houses and offices on each side. 
 
 The Guildhall of the City of London, 
 
 the front of which is designed by the late George Dance, Esq., the city 
 architect. The interior is ancient as high as the cornice, and the upper 
 part, which was rebuilt after the fire of London, is about as ugly an upper 
 story and roof as ever disguised a beautiful hall, and the corporation will 
 be for ever deserving of censure, till they restore the ancient groined roof, 
 the pillars of which are absolutely groaning for their airy partners in lieu 
 of the mountains of masonry that now defile them. This fine— and, in 
 spite of its roof, it is still a fine— hall is one hundred and fifty-three feet in 
 length, forty-eight in breadth, and nearly sixty in height, and will contain, 
 it is said, about seven thousand persons. 
 
 The windows of the principal front are all pointed, which has given 
 occasion to some writers to call the style of its architecture Gothic. It i« 
 divided into three pails by four piers, pilasters, or buttresses, I know not 
 which to call them, which are surmounted by octagonal pinnacles. The 
 square pails of these pinnacles are ornamented with sculptural representa- 
 tions of the city sword and mace, and the central part with the shield, 
 arms, and supporters of the corporation. 
 
ltyTho. a. Shepherd . Engravel TjyW.neebi 
 
 TIE IE FAM.IL II AM E N T TOUTSE, FIROM ©IL® FAliACl "STAffi®. 
 
 "WESTMINSTER. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 153 
 
 The King's Entrance to the House of Lords. 
 
 Early in 1822 Mr. Soane, the architect, was directed to prepare a 
 design for the improvement of His Majesty's Entrance into the House of 
 Lords, which being approved by His Majesty, the works were begun and 
 carried on with such zeal and attention, that on the 30th of January, 
 1823, the carriage entrance and the royal staircase were finished as far as 
 the door leading into the Prince's Chamber. Daring the progress of this 
 work, Mr. Soane made other designs to complete the entrance from this 
 staircase into the House of Lords, which having also been approved by 
 His Majesty, the foundations of the building were laid on the 30th of 
 October, 1823 ; and, by continuing the works night and day, the whole 
 was completely finished on the 1st of February, 1824. 
 
 At the ceremony of the Sovereign's opening the Parliament of the 
 United Kingdoms, His Majesty enters by this way. On arriving at the 
 new carriage entrance (see plates of the King's Entrance to the House 
 of Lords, from Poet's Corner, and the Parliament House, from Old 
 Palace Yard, Westminster), the procession is formed, His Majesty 
 alights, passes along the corridor which leads to the grand staircase, 
 through the Ante Room, the Royal Gallery, and the Painted Chamber, 
 into the Robing Room, and thence into the House of Lords, where His 
 Majesty then takes his place upon the throne. For the better and more 
 suitable accommodation of the King on these grand occasions, the floor of 
 the noble apartment called the Painted Chamber, wherein the conferences 
 between the two Houses of Parliament are held, has been raised to a per- 
 fect level, and the doorway from the Royal Gallery into the Painted 
 Chamber suitably enlarged and decorated. 
 
 The exterior of these additions to the House of Lords are plain and 
 simple specimens of the pointed style of architecture, embattled on the 
 top, and composed in a corresponding style with the less recent portions 
 of the building. 
 
 Belgrave Chapel and the West Side of Belgrave Square. 
 
 Belgrave Chapel is a chaste and elegant design of the Ionic order by 
 Mr. Smirke, after the example of the temple on the banks of the Ilyssus 
 at Athens. The cell or body of the chapel is parallelogramatic in plan, 
 and Grecian in decoration, with antae at the angles, the entablature car- 
 ried over them, and a well proportioned stylobate by way of blocking 
 course to the cornice and of parapet to the roof, crowning the elevation. 
 
 2 T 
 
154 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 The principal front has a tetrastyle portico, flanked and supported be- 
 hind with antae, proper to the order, and raised on a handsome flight of 
 steps above the street. See plate of Belgrave Chapel, and West Side of 
 Belgrave Square. The columns are covered by a lofty epistylium, a plain 
 frieze, and a cornice in flank, resolving itself into a beautifully propor- 
 tioned pediment in front, which, by its becoming projection, adds a singu- 
 larly effective play of light and shade over the whole composition. 
 
 Behind the central intercolumniation is a single doorway of large di- 
 mensions, embellished with architraves to the jambs, and an entablature 
 proper to the lintel : — and windows, with diminishing jambs, like the little 
 gem of a circular temple at Tivoli, ornament the wall between the antae. 
 
 Beyond this is the west side of Belgrave Square, named after one of 
 the titles of the Earl of Grosvenor, the ground landlord of this noble es- 
 tate, which is of the great extent of nearly one hundred acres, lying be- 
 tween Knightsbridge and Pimlico from north to south, and between 
 Chelsea and Buckingham gate from east to west. 
 
 This extensive area is now covering with mansions and handsome 
 houses, laid out with beautiful plantations, into two spacious squares, a 
 crescent, and several detached villas. This great undertaking, equal in- 
 extent and value to many cities, and destined (say the projectors) to be 
 the future residences of the highest class of the fashionable world, is con- 
 structing over a district formerly known as the Five Fields, and as the re- 
 sort, on Sunday mornings and Saint Mondays, of pugilists and black- 
 guards. 
 
 North-east side of Belgrave Square, 
 
 is composed of five principal parts ; a lofty centre, with a row of dwelling 
 houses on each side of it, forming the main body of the composition, and 
 two extreme wings which terminate the facade. The centre is marked 
 by a sub-portico or porch on the ground story, with an attached hexastyle 
 portico above of three greater columns, which have always a poverty- 
 struck would-be-fme sort of effect, particularly in the centre of a composi- 
 tion. The columns are of the Corinthian order of architecture, sur- 
 mounted by an entablature bereaved of a third part of its fair proportions, 
 and a consequent part of its height, and crowned by an attic, surmounted 
 by vases. 
 
 The wings are en suite, but have tetrastyle porticoes, and a less aspiring 
 attic, with a pyramidal form that is always graceful to the composition. 
 The parapets of the wings and. centre are imperforated, but those of the 
 intervening houses have the common-place vulgarity, that Wren so vi- 
 gorously but vainly tried to explode, of a useless balustrade. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 155 
 
 The Guildhall, Westminster, 
 
 is an insulated structure, designed for the use of the municipality of West- 
 minster, standing on the south side of the ancient sanctuary, near to the 
 Abhey. In this building are held the sessions for the city, and the trials 
 in the court of the High Bailiff, and it afforded accommodation for the 
 various high courts of law and equity, during the repairs of Westminster 
 Hall. It is a quadrangular brick building, with recesses at the angles, 
 that give it somewhat the form that continental architects call a Greek 
 cross ; and has a tetrastyle portico of the Doric order, with a pediment in 
 the principal front. The centre of the building is crowned by an octan- 
 gular tower, with semicircular windows in every face, that give light to 
 the principal court below. At each angle is a pier that serves for a but- 
 tress, which, with a connecting moulding that runs round the entire build- 
 ing, crowns and connects the whole. On this cornice is a blocking course, 
 and a light and lofty balustrade, in three panels to each face. The roof 
 meets in a point over the centre of the building, on which is a lantern 
 and vane. It was designed and executed by the late Samuel Pepy 
 Cockerell, Esq. a pupil of Sir Robert Taylor's, and father of the able and 
 travelled architect, Mr. C. R. Cockerell, who designed the beautiful Ionic 
 chapel of St. George in Regent Street, which is noticed at page 100 of 
 this work. 
 
 New Buildings Pall Mall East, and the University 
 
 Club House, 
 
 the former designed by Henry Rhodes, Esq. and the latter the united work 
 of William Wilkins, Esq. R.A. and John Peter Dering, Esq. A.R.A. 
 
 The United University Club which meets at this house, is a society 
 composed of members of the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 
 elected by close ballot, which keeps them eminently select. 
 
 Being a corner house, it has the advantages of two fronts, one opening 
 to Suffolk Street, and the other to Pall Mall East. Both fronts are raised 
 upon a rusticated surbasement, which is occupied by the ground story, 
 and that next Pall Mall East, which may be considered as the principal, 
 although not the entrance front, is distinguished from that next Suffolk 
 Street by a tetrastyle portico of the Ionic order. The entrance front, next 
 Suffolk Street, has an enclosed portico or porch to the ground story, and a 
 series of antae in correspondence with those which appertain to the columns 
 in the principal front. Between all the columns and antse are a series of 
 spacious and lofty windows that give light to the grand apartments of 
 
156 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 the principal story. Upon the upper surface of the entablature is a para- 
 pet, designed in the proportions of a stylobate or continued pedestal, with 
 piers over the antae. 
 
 The other building before us, from the designs of Mr. Rhodes, is also 
 elevated upon a rusticated surbasement, which is occupied by the ground 
 story ware-rooms. The windows are divided by rusticated and panelled 
 piers, which are surmounted by a plain and. efficient cornice, the lofty 
 blocking course of which is used as a plinth for the Corinthian order 
 of the principal story. In front of each window is a perforated panel, 
 which ingeniously converts the styles on interstices into sub-plintns for 
 the columns above. The front is divided into three parts, a centre of four 
 Corinthian columns in antis, which forms a receding portico, and two 
 slightly projecting wings, with coupled antae at each angle. In the inter- 
 columniations of all the columns and anta?, are a row of semicircular- 
 headed windows. 
 
 Upon the entablature of the Corinthian order is raised an attic story, 
 with vases over the columns and dwarf pilasters over the antae. This 
 handsome front is cleverly connected with that in Cockspur Street, to 
 which it forms a very obtuse angle, by a circular recessed dyastyle portico 
 in antis, and other ornaments above and beneath, in accordance with dif- 
 ferent parts of the building. See plate of the New Buildings Pall Mall 
 East, and the University Club House. 
 
 The New Caledonian Asylum 
 
 is a chaste and classical design of the pure Doric order, consisting of a 
 tetrastyle detached portico in the centre of the front, and four windows on 
 each side. The extreme angles are marked by antae in accordance with 
 those behind the columns. The windows have architraves to their jambs, 
 and lintels and trusses under their sills. Those of the lower story have 
 cornices above the lintels. In the tympanum of the pediment is a shield 
 containing the royal arms of Scotland, which for want of decorative and 
 appropriate sculpture presents a very meagre appearance. See plate of 
 the New Caledonian Asylum. Above the cornice of the pediment are 
 plain acroteria, well adapted to the order of the building to which they are 
 applied, and on the central one, is elevated a statue of St. Andrew with 
 his cross. This appropriate and useful building, which was instituted in 
 1815, for supporting and educating the children of soldiers, sailors, 
 marines, &c. natives of Scotland, or born of indigent Scottish parents resident 
 in London, is situated in front of a new cross road, leading from Holloway 
 to Battle Bridge, by which a considerable distance is saved in the ap- 
 proach to the west end of the metropolis from the leading North Road. 
 
Published TTov. 22 .1828, by Jones & C°Temple of the Muses. Hnstrary Square, London 
 
CT FULLY LISTS ( 
 id Road. London. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 157 
 
 The Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, 
 
 was originally designed, in 1812, by P. F. Robinson, Esq. for W. Bullock, 
 Esq. of Liverpool, as a receptacle for a Museum that went by his name, 
 but was afterwards dispersed by auction. The elevation is completely 
 Egyptian, that is, supposing the ancient Egyptians built their houses in 
 stories. The details are correctly taken from Denons' celebrated work, 
 and principally from the great temple at Tentyra. The two colossal 
 figures that support the entablature of the centre window are novel in 
 idea and application, picturesque in effect, and add variety to the compo- 
 sition ; while the robust columns beneath them seem built exactly for 
 pedestals to the sturdy Ethiopians above them. See plate of the Egyp- 
 tian Hall, Piccadilly. The large projection of the superior cornice, 
 rising from the colossal-sculptured torus that bounds the entire design, is 
 grand and imposing. 
 
 Islington Tunnel, &c. 
 
 This Tunnel is a very successful and curious example of the modern 
 method of canal work, and is worthy the inspection of the scientific. See 
 plate of the double lock, and east entrance to the Islington Tunnel, 
 Regents Canal. Viewed from a short distance, such as from the inter- 
 mediate space between the double lock, under the three-quarter elliptical 
 arch of the Frog Lane Bridge, the western aperture in White Conduit 
 Fields appears reduced to a point of great brilliancy, resembling a star 
 surrounded by a halo of Rembrandtish darkness. It is perfectly straight 
 and level through its whole course, and is upwards of nine hundred yards 
 in length. Its form is an ellipsis, eighteen feet in height, and seventeen 
 in width, having seven feet six inches depth of water, and being capa- 
 cious enough for two canal boats, or one river barge to pass at the same 
 time. 
 
 The Licensed Victuallers' School, Kennington, 
 
 is an establishment more to be regarded for the benevolent views of its 
 patrons, than for the architectural beauty of the building. The Society 
 was established, and is supported by the respectable body of Licensed 
 Victuallers of the metropolis, as an asylum and school for the orphans 
 and children of the destitute part of their brethren. The profits of the 
 journal called " The Morning Advertiser" is also added to its funds, 
 and every member is of course called on to contribute by taking in that 
 newspaper. The building is a series of dwelling houses, added together at 
 
 2 u 
 
158 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 various times, as the funds and objects of the institution increased, and 
 has been somewhat improved in architectural appearance, by a central 
 tablet of stucco over the pedimented door as a sort of centre to the com- 
 position. See plate of the Licensed Victuallers' School, Kennington. 
 
 The New Post Office, St. Martin's Le Grand, 
 
 is a handsome structure by Mr. Smirke, begun in 1818, and for want of 
 sufficient funds was for some time at a stand. It is divided into three 
 portions; namely, a central hexastyle portico of the Ionic order, the 
 columns fluted, the entablature of good proportions, the frieze plain, and 
 the cornice has the appropriate ornament of dentals in its bed mould. 
 This central portico (see plate of the New Post Office, St. Martin's Le 
 Grand) is finished with a pediment of just elevation, the tympanum of 
 which contains the imperial arms of the united kingdoms. This arrange- 
 ment gives a pyramidal appearance to the group which forms the compo- 
 sition. The side porticoes, which are tetrastyle of the same order, are 
 finished with a low attic raised on the blocking course, instead of a pedi- 
 ment, which aids the composition and forms a pleasing contrast to the 
 central or principal subject of the group. 
 
 The portions of the building between the centre and the wings have 
 two stories of lofty windows, which are well arranged for harmony, and 
 complete the composition, which is chaste, simple, and imposing. 
 
 The basement story is constructed of granite, and the superstructure of 
 hard bricks, faced with Portland stone ; the principal front, that which we 
 have now been reviewing, is three hundred and eighty feet in length. 
 
 The Royal Exchange, Cornhill. 
 
 The principal entrance is on the south side next Cornhill, and consists 
 of a tetrastyle detached portico of the Corinthian order, with a lofty arch 
 between the central columns. The columns are surmounted by a lofty 
 entablature, on the acroteria of which are sculptural armorial bearings of 
 the United Kingdoms, the City of London, the Mercers' Company and Sir 
 Thomas Gresham. On each side of these is a balustrade surmounted by 
 statues representing the four quarters of the globe. These, as well as 
 the bassi-rilievi below them, are by Mr. J. G. Bubb. In niches below the 
 architrave are statues of the unfortunate Charles the First, and his son 
 Charles the Second, by Bushnell. The new entablature, balustrade, bassi- 
 rilievi, statues, and the new tower, are by Mr. George Smith, and in a 
 purer taste than the original building. 
 
IB 
 
r 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 159 
 
 Vauxhall Bridge. 
 
 The first stone of this bridge was laid by the late Duke of Brunswick 
 on the 21st of August, 1813, and on the 4th of June, 1816, being three 
 years from the time of Mr. Walker's engagement with the company, the 
 ceremonial of opening the bridge was performed. 
 
 The width of the river Thames at Vauxhall is about nine hundred feet, 
 the depth at low water from eight to ten feet, and the rise of the tide about 
 twelve feet. The bridge, as may be seen in the plate, consists of nine 
 arches of seventy-eight feet span, and eight piers, each thirteen feet wide. 
 The length of the bridge, clear of the abutments, is eight hundred and 
 six feet ; the rise of the centre arch above high water mark twenty-seven 
 feet ; the clear width of the bridge is thirty-six feet, divided into a car- 
 riageway of twenty-five feet, and two footways of five feet six inches 
 each. The rise of the roadway upon the bridge is one foot in thirty-five 
 to the middle of the fourth arch from each side ; the line of the roadway 
 over the centre arch, and half an arch on each side of it, being curved to 
 meet the inclined planes formed by the roadway over the other arches, as 
 shown in the view. 
 
 The Auction Mart, St. Bartholomew Lane, 
 
 is a very useful commercial building, originally constructed by a joint 
 stock company, principally composed of auctioneers. The front next 
 Bartholomew Lane is rendered architectural by an attached portico of 
 two stories, the lower of which is of the Doric order, and the upper of the 
 Ionic surmounted by a pediment. The lower order is tetrastyle in antis, 
 and occupies the height of the principal and mezzanine story. See plate 
 of the Auction Mart, St. Bartholomew Lane. The side next Throg- 
 morton Street is rusticated to the upper part of the mezzanine windows, 
 and the cornice of the upper order is continued in both fronts. 
 
 The upper story is contained within the space of a curb-roof, and, 
 being lighted by three large lantern lights, forms three spacious auction 
 galleries. The area between the pavement and the building, which gives 
 light to a basement story of offices, is protected by a plinth and balus- 
 trade instead of iron rails, and thus gives a very architectural appearance 
 to this part of the structure. 
 
160 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 The North-west Facade of the New Covent Garden 
 
 Market 
 
 is erected in the centre of Inigo Jones's beautiful Piazza, which is now 
 rendered by fire and alterations very incomplete. It is composed of four 
 great principal parts, each of which have similar characteristics. The 
 centre consists of an arch raised upon the entablature of two Tuscan 
 columns, with a single-faced archivolt supported by two piers, which carry 
 a lofty triangular pediment, the tympanum of which is embellished by 
 the armorial bearings of the noble owner of the soil, the Duke of Bedford. 
 On each side of this appropriate centre, which is high enough to admit a 
 lofty loaded waggon into the central area, is a colonnade of the Tuscan 
 order, projecting before the shops. The columns are of granite, and of 
 the Palladian or rather Chambersian Tuscan, disfigured by an ornamental 
 balustrade, which has no use but to contain market business, totally out of 
 keeping with the massiveness of the order. See plate of the North-west 
 Fagade of the New Covent Garden Market. 
 
 At each of the extreme angles of the four portions of this new market 
 is a raised quadrangular pavilion, which breaks the monotony of the com- 
 position in a very satisfactory and artist-like manner. 
 
 Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner, 
 
 is now the town mansion of his Grace the Duke of Wellington, as it was 
 formerly that of his brother the Marquess of Wellesley. This splendid 
 mansion, has been recently enlarged, renovated, and made architectural ; 
 the situation being one of the finest in the metropolis, standing at the very 
 beginning of the town, entering westward, and commanding fine views of 
 the parks, with the Surry and Kent hills in the distance. 
 
 The principal front consists of a centre and two wings. See plate of 
 Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner. The portico is tetrastyle and of the 
 Corinthian order, raised upon a rusticated arcade of three apertures, which 
 lead to the entrance hall ; the wings have each two windows in width, 
 and the whole of the ground story, which forms the basement of the 
 building, is also rusticated. The west front has two wings, and the centre 
 slightly receding has four windows, to which are appended a handsome 
 balcony, and the portico here is surmounted by a pediment of graceful 
 proportions. 
 
. X-awnby Tho.H .Shepr.crd 
 
 £©T!EMT (SAMEir SSL& 
 
 Jones St C° 
 
 sbur_y Square. London. 18?9. 
 
Jones k C? Temple of the Muses. Fmsbury Square .London , Sep-26 1829 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 161 
 
 The Gas Works, near the Regent's Canal, 
 
 are an immense pile of buildings, in the parish of St. Pancras, in the road 
 leading to Kentish Town, and have a degree of architectural beauty 
 arising from their intrinsic magnitude, the simplicity of their component 
 parts, and the imposing grandeur of the two large columnar chimneys that 
 surmount the roofs. See plate of the Gas Works, near the Regents 
 Canal. The composition of the principal front is pleasing, although 
 deviating from the generally received notions of composition, by having 
 its centre lower than its sides, which is improved by a slightly projecting 
 centre and a pediment. The flanks have each a series of circular-headed 
 windows in each story, which, like the arcades of an ancient aquaeduct, 
 are pleasing from the reduplication of a number of simple parts, which 
 when alone produce scarcely any effect. 
 
 Buildings, Highfield, Camden Road. 
 
 Among the various recent improvements of the Metropolis and its En- 
 virons, there are few more likely to be permanently useful than the new 
 line of road now made from the Gloucester Gate, Regent's Park, to Hol- 
 loway, and intended to be continued through Stamford Hill to Essex and 
 Hertfordshire ; thereby shortening the distance between and approximat- 
 ing all the adjacent villages and the western parts of the metropolis, the 
 parks and places of public resort. 
 
 It is upon the highest point of this road where it crosses the road leading 
 from Battle Bridge to Highgate that these buildings (see plate of Build- 
 ings, Highfield, Camden Road), have been erected, being the first of 
 any importance in that part of the environs of the town, and which from 
 its elevated site and magnitude forms a most distinguishing object. The 
 view from the top is without exception unequalled within the same dis- 
 tance from town, being completely panoramic, and taking in the surround- 
 ing country to a vast extent, far into Essex, the hills near Rochester, the 
 Thames, Shooter's Hill, the Surry hills, Richmond, and to Windsor, with 
 all the intermediate objects. 
 
 The principal building we have shown is ninety feet long, forty-five wide, 
 and sixty-six high, besides others of nearly equal dimensions, which, we 
 are informed by the proprietors Messrs. Mann and Sargon, are required to 
 contain their stock of cloth, the quality of which depends in a great 
 degree upon its age and long exposure to the air, and to accomplish which 
 the stock on hand is always from 30 to 40,000 yards. 
 
 2 x 
 
162 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 The New Library, &c. in the Temple. 
 
 The pile of buildings called the Temple is divided between two societies, 
 named the Inner and the Middle Temple, both possessing a hall, a 
 library, a garden, chambers, &c. but using the ancient church described in 
 our former pages in common. 
 
 The new library now in progress of execution, belongs to the society of 
 the Inner Temple, whose improvements of their ancient structure deserve 
 high praise. See plate of the New Library, %c. in the Temple. The 
 design is in the pointed style of ancient English architecture, by Mr. 
 Smirke, and is in complete accordance with the ancient parts of the 
 Temple, which I learn will be persevered in till complete. The style of 
 architecture is simple, useful, appropriate, and the works are most sub- 
 stantially and scientifically built. 
 
 Church of St. Barnabas, King Square, 
 
 between Goswell Street Road and the Regent's Basin in the City Road, 
 an edifice built more for use and duration than particular ornament. The 
 portico is tetrastyle of the Ionic order, without a pediment, having a 
 blocking course and balustrade in its stead. On either side of the portico 
 is a circular-headed window of true tabernacle cut, and sunk panels above 
 them, like attic windows bricked up to avoid the window duty. Above 
 the balustrade that crowns the portico is a square tower with belfry win- 
 dows, and a dial in the upper part of the one that faces the west ; and 
 upon this is raised an octagonal obeliscal spire of good proportions, which 
 however does not harmonize with the Ionic building beneath it. 
 
 The New Church, Camden Town. 
 
 The western front of this church is light, airy, and Grecian in an emiment 
 degree. The portico, which forms the centre of the composition, is semi- 
 circular in plan, the entablature of which, projecting over the centre door, 
 is supported by four columns of the Ionic order, and connected to the 
 building by antae. The cornice is surmounted by a series of sepulchral 
 stele, which, being introduced instead of the bold blocking course or plain 
 scamilli, detract from the simplicity of the design. The side buildings or 
 aisles have doors in correspondence with those of the nave, and the win- 
 dows in the flanks are raised on a species of stylobate, which contribute 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 163 
 
 by their plain simplicity to the general good effect of the whole. The 
 tower, or steeple, in accordance with the circular portico, is also circular 
 in plan ; which form pervades every story, as the octangular does that of 
 St. Pancras. 
 
 Finsbury Chapel, 
 
 is from a design of William Brooks, Esq. the architect of the London 
 Institution. The principal feature in its front is an elevated hexastyle 
 portico of three-quarter columns of the Ionic order, standing on a rusti- 
 cated basement, and crowned by a lofty entablature and a well-propor- 
 tioned pediment. Two wings, which occupy the whole of the rusticated 
 basement, and about two-thirds of the Ionic columns in height, form the 
 entrances ; and, as they project beyond the main line of the building, they 
 break the formality, and give a pleasing relief of light and shade. The 
 entablature of the order is carried over the main wings, with the omission 
 of the cymatiiun or sima. The intercolumniations of the Ionic order have 
 apertures, formed by. dwarf antse on a string course supporting an archi- 
 trave cornice, which serve as the windows. The lower story is lighted by 
 dwarf windows, with dressings, which occupy four courses of the rusti- 
 cated masonry. The entrance doors in the wings are ornamented on the 
 jambs and lintel, with an architrave in accordance with the order of the 
 building. They are covered by a cornice, surmounted by a blocking 
 course and an attic order of two pair of coupled antae ; between which 
 are inscriptions of texts from Scripture. The composition is pleasing and 
 full of variety. It was erected by a congregation of Protestant Dissenters 
 for the Rev. Alexander Fletcher, formerly of Albion Chapel at Moorgate. 
 
 Chapel of Ease, West Hackney, 
 
 which, without the bell tower, and aisles, would be a respectable version, 
 or rather abridgment, of the portico of Covent Garden Theatre, and 
 almost as characteristic. As a portico, it is a good copy from that of a 
 Grecian temple, but its effect is destroyed by the wings and conventicle- 
 headed windows, and the incubus of a bell tower that is riding upon its 
 back. 
 
 The New Church, Haggerstone, 
 
 a design of the style termed Gothic, and by Mr. Nash. The west front 
 is divided into five principal parts, which have variety and picturesque 
 beauty. The central portion of the design is the lofty tower, which rises 
 from the ground. Each angle of the tower is protected by an octagonal 
 
164 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 buttress, between two of which is the entrance door leading to the nave. 
 Above this door are two plain stories separated by moulded bands or string 
 courses, and a small pointed window to each. The parapet is terminated 
 by a battlement on every face, and at each angle the buttresses rim up to 
 a lofty elevation, and are terminated by crocketed pinnacles and finials. 
 Between these pinnacles, and behind the battlements, is a lofty quadran- 
 gular lantern, supported by flying buttresses. The doors leading to the 
 aisles are covered by pointed arches and square water tables. Above 
 each door is a narrow loop-hole window, surmounted by a gable, with a 
 pinnacle on its apex, and at each side of these entrances is a spacious 
 flanking octangular tower, two stories in height, which contains the gal- 
 lery stairs. 
 
 St. John's, Hoxton. 
 
 The front is composed of three parts, a centre, which defines the width 
 of the nave, and two wings, which belong to the aisles and galleries. 
 The centre has a portico of three-quarter fluted columns of the Ionic 
 order, between two antas, which are repeated, slightly receding, at the 
 angles of the aisles. An entablature and blocking course crowns the 
 order and connects the entire building. 
 
 Above the entablature is a square panelled tower with a Grecian- shaped 
 window, filled in with louvres. The tower then sets off to a circle in plan 
 with projecting piers on four of its faces, and a lofty cylindrical tower is 
 erected on this base. It is divided into eight parts, by slightly projecting 
 Grecian antae, which have windows with semicircular heads between 
 them. 
 
 New Church of St. Luke, Chelsea. 
 
 The western or principal front of this church, by Mr. Savage, is a lofty 
 commanding elevation of three parts ; namely, a central tower of great 
 originality and beauty, and two equally good side porticoes in front of the 
 aisles. 
 
 The portico, for it is too decided in its character to be called a porch, 
 consists of five principal parts, a grand central arch under the middle of 
 the tower, and two side arches of smaller dimensions on either side. These 
 arches are separated from each other by piers and buttresses, and are sur- 
 mounted by a perforated parapet of tracery work and pinnacles with 
 crockets and finials. 
 
 Behind this arcade, or portico, which is terminated at either end by an 
 arch in correspondence with those in front, and a perforated parapet fol- 
 lowing the rake of the roof, is seen the western windows and raking pa- 
 
T-neraved by W."Wttkiiis 
 
 (DIE "fsr T 9 S W&MM. 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 165 
 
 rapet of the two aisles, and the flying buttresses which spring from the 
 lower wall-buttresses of the aisles to the upper buttresses of the lofty 
 nave. These upper buttresses rise beautifully above the panelled tracery 
 of the upper parapet, and are richly decorated as they rise with delicate 
 foliated crockets and finials ; illustrating the practice of our ancient 
 English architects of adding richness as they rise. 
 
 The Chapel of Ease to Mary-le-bone, Stafford Street, 
 
 New Road, 
 
 is a composition of the Ionic order of architecture, consisting of a 
 tetrastyle portico in front, which faces or represents the nave, and an 
 Italian window on each side of this Athenian colonnade to bear witness 
 to the aisles, and on the flanks are repetitions of the columns; The 
 parapet is balustraded, and above and behind the pediment rises a plain 
 square tower. Above this square tower, whose monotony is broken only 
 by the clock, is a square portico of four columns on each face, somewhat 
 resembling one of the tiers of that strange building called the Septizonium 
 of Severus, and the steeple is finished by a campanile and cupola Avhich 
 support a ball and cross. It is substantial, but inelegant and inappro- 
 priate. 
 
 St. Mary-le-bone Chapel, St. John's Wood Road, 
 
 is a substantial unpretending chapel of the Ionic order, designed by the 
 late Thomas Hardwick, Esq. It is divided into two stories, with square 
 windows to gi^e light to the pews under the galleries, and with lofty 
 semicircular-headed windows to light the galleries and body of the edifice. 
 The portico is tetrastyle, and has a dial or clock-face in the tympanum of 
 the pediment. Above this is a cubical tower, with steps, which forms a 
 pedestal to a handsome ]antern of the Roman Doric order. Apertures be- 
 tween the columns give light to the belfry, which is covered by a hemis- 
 pherical cupola, ball, and vane. 
 
 The Church of St. Mark the Evangelist, Pentonville, 
 
 a design by W. C Milne, Esq. is a small but pleasing composition of 
 three parts, in the western or front principal elevation ; namely, a tower 
 of four stories, which contains the entrance to the church generally, and 
 two lancet-headed windows, which light the aisles. 
 
 The door is deeply recessed, within a series of pointed arches, supported 
 by circular pillars, between two square projecting panelled buttresses, 
 The upper surface of the outer arch is decorated with crocketing, which 
 
 2 y 
 
166 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 terminates in a finial beneath the great western window, and the span- 
 drells are filled up with panelling. The parapet is ornamented externally 
 by triangular panels, and the angles of the towers are strengthened by 
 square projecting buttresses, carried up above the parapet and finished 
 with crocketed pinnacles and finials. The flanks have angular buttresses, 
 finished in a similar manner at each corner, and dwarf buttresses, which 
 finish below the parapet, between each window. 
 
 St. Mary's Church, Wyndham Place, and District 
 Rectory to St. Mary-le-bone, 
 
 is, like the before-mentioned church at Camden Town, composed of a 
 semicircular portico, and a circular tower. It is a substantial structure of 
 brick and stone of the Ionic order, and from the designs of Mr. Smirke. 
 The novelty of the porforated parapet, as a substitute for the orthodox 
 balustrade, is no improvement, and the steeple is deficient in lightness for 
 want of that pyramidal gradation which distinguishes the steeples of 
 Wren above those of eveiy other architect. The interior is in the same 
 plain unornamented style as the exterior, except that over the altar is a 
 large window of stained glass, representing the resurrection of Christ. 
 
 The New Church of St. Pancras 
 
 is an edifice of a very commanding character, and designed by Messrs. 
 W. and H. W. Inwood, after the purest Athenian examples. The portico 
 to the west front is hexastyle, of a very elaborate and highly enriched 
 specimen of the Ionic order, copied from the celebrated temple of Minerva 
 Polias at Athens. On the columns is raised a lofty entablature, which is 
 covered with a tympanum, and its cymatium sculptured with the foliage 
 of the Grecian honeysuckle. The tower is octagonal, with eight isolated 
 columns on a stylobate and an entablature of the order of the temple of 
 the winds at Athens. On the cell of this story is raised another octan- 
 gular stylobate, which also supports a similar octangular temple of smaller 
 dimensions ; the summit of which is crowned by an octagonal attic, with 
 sculptural figures on each face. The eastern end is in imitation of the 
 half of a circular temple of the Ionic order, with attached or three-quarter 
 columns. The side elevations are decorated with continuations of tlie 
 entablature, and of the heads or capitals of the antse. On each side are 
 two sub-porticoes, supported by four canephorse, after those of the Erec- 
 the'ium at Athens, and behind them are entire sarcophagi to indicate 
 that they lead to the mansions of the dead. The vaults or catacombs be- 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 167 
 
 neath the church, and to which these side porticoes lead, are constructed 
 to hold two thousand coffins. 
 
 St. Philip's Chapel, Regent Street. 
 
 The portico is tetrastyle and of the Doric order. The central inter- 
 columniation is wider than the rest, having a metope in the centre, and 
 the entablature is surmounted by a triangular pediment. The metopes 
 are ornamented by bulls' sculls and paterae, the emblems of pagan sacri- 
 fice, and so far inappropriate to a Christian temple. . In the wings, the 
 cornice and mutules only are continued, the triglyphs being judiciously 
 omitted, which gives room for a loftier window than could otherwise have 
 been introduced. Above the cornice of the wings is an attic decorated by 
 sculptures of bulls' sculls and sacrificial wreaths, surmounted by a 
 blocking course with an acroterium in the centre. The campanile is 
 erected on a lofty cubical pedestal, which is embellished by a square 
 panel including a circular one. The tower itself is a copy from the beau- 
 tiful little circular temple at Athens, called the choragic monument of 
 Lysicrates, but better known to travellers as the lantern of Demosthenes. 
 
 St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square, Pimlico. 
 
 This classical edifice is composed of an hexastyle portico of the Ionic 
 order, which extends the whole width of the church. The columns are 
 fluted and detached the entire width of an intercolumniation from the cell 
 or body of the building. They support a lofty entablatoe, which is 
 crowned by a pediment. Between the columns, in the main west wall of 
 the church, are three doorways, panelled with square lacunarias and equi- 
 distant styles, bounded by bold architraves, and crowned by handsome 
 cornices supported by cantalivers. Above the pediment, and in the per- 
 pendicular line of the back wall of the portico, is a raised building the 
 whole width of the church, terminated at each end by pediments, much 
 resembling the excrescences on the Mansion House in the city, and similar 
 erections on the church of St. George, Hanover Square. Upon this spe- 
 cies of stylobate is raised another parallelogrammatic pedestal, occupying 
 the width of the four central columns, and decorated with panelled piers 
 at each extremity ; and upon the upper surface of this, as upon a platform, 
 the square bell tower is abruptly placed. This portion of the steeple is a 
 handsome moulded cube, with a dial in each face, upon which is erected a 
 classical tower and circular finial, the former being of the Ionic order. 
 
168 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 St. Paul's Church, Ball's Pond, 
 
 is a church very recently built from the designs of Mr. Barry, whose new 
 church at Brighton has given such general satisfaction. It is one of the 
 most rural looking of all our suburban churches, and wants but a little 
 discolorisation, and better planting around it, to pass for a veritable 
 country church. It is composed of a lofty nave lighted from above the 
 roofs of the aisles, a square substantial brick tower with angular buttresses 
 surmounted by crocketed pinnacles, and two aisles lighted by lancet- 
 . headed windows, which are separated by dwarf buttresses. The design 
 is pure in taste, and drawn from the best sources of our ancient English 
 architecture. 
 
 The New Church, Regent Square, Sidmouth Street, 
 
 a composition similar, but inferior to that of St. Pancras, which may be 
 considered at present as the masterpiece of the Messrs. Inwood. The 
 western front consists of a hexastyle portico of the Ionic order, but which 
 has the incorrect architrave of three faciae. The doors are in a similar 
 style of majestic boldness with those of St. Pancras, and the steeple is a 
 variation of the other, converting the octagon into circles. The windows 
 in the flanks harmonize well with the front, and the whole edifice is a 
 chaste and pleasing composition. 
 
 The New Church, Somers Town, 
 
 is a district church in the parish of St. Pancras, in the pointed or 
 English style of Gothic architecture, built of brick with stone dressings. 
 The western front is simple and unpretending, and divided into five prin- 
 cipal portions, the central of which forms the tower and entrance to the 
 nave. The next two portions are plain, and the two extreme divisions 
 are perforated by doorways which open into the aisles. These are sepa- 
 rated by plain buttresses and surmounted with pinnacles. The tower is 
 divided into three stories, the lowermost of which contains the principal 
 entrance ; the next, which is mezzanine, holds the clock, its apparatus' 
 and dial, in a square sunk and moulded panel, and the upper story is ap- 
 propriated to a belfry. The parapet is perforated and panelled, and at 
 each angle is a buttress finished with an octagonal pinnacle and foliated 
 finial. 
 
'Jrawnby Tho. H-STiephrrd 
 
 Knpravcd by J. Havell. 
 
 ST PAUL'S LBAILILS PV^IJ. 
 
 irawn by "lTio. Tl. Shepherd 
 
 aved by J.T. HaveTl . 
 
 Published Auft 16 1B^6 
 
 1 3, Aclon IMacc. Kmtfr.land Road. London 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 169 
 
 The Church of the Holy Trinity, Cloudesley Square, 
 
 Islington, 
 
 a Gothic edifice of similar good taste to that recently mentioned at Ball's 
 Pond, and by the same architect, Mr. Barry, and it deserves the same 
 praise, for characteristic design and solidity of construction, as that very 
 rural looking church. 
 
 The Unitarian Chapel, Finsbury, 
 
 is unorthodox in every respect, and dissents from the true faith of legiti- 
 mate architecture. Its principal front consists of four three-quarter Ionic 
 columns, guarded by two pairs of antae, and a remarkably ill-proportioned 
 entablature and pediment, which is surmounted by something like a minia- 
 ture stack of chimneys. It is also disfigured by the introduction of 
 dwelling house sash windows. 
 
 The New Church, Waterloo Road, 
 
 dedicated to St. John the evangelist, was built from the designs of Mr. 
 Bedford in 1824. It has some faults and many beauties ; the columns of 
 the portico are of the lightest style of the Doric order, and, though rather 
 effeminate for that masculine order, are beautifully proportioned and sys- 
 tematically arranged. The portico is hexastyle and joined to the body of 
 the church, with antique propriety, as a continuation of the lateral cornice 
 and roof. But all this propriety of annexation, and real beauty of pro- 
 portion, is absolutely destroyed by the atrocity of a steeple, the ugliest 
 perhaps in London, which is straddled a cock-horse across the pediment. 
 
 The entablature is weak and fragile, when the order to which it is 
 adapted is taken into consideration. The frieze is denuded of its charac- 
 teristic triglyphs and metopes, and trivial wreaths of laurel inefficiently 
 substituted ; the steeple is a series of quadrangular buildings, placed one 
 upon the other and diminishing seriatim as they arise. At the angles are 
 affixed quadrants of spheres and Grecian honey-suckles sculptured in 
 their sectional faces. 
 
 The New Church of St. John, Holloway, 
 
 is another of Mr. Barry's examples of pure ancient English architecture, 
 and is equally creditable to his good taste in that beautiful department 
 of our art as his new church in Cloudesley Square, his restoration of St. 
 Mary (Stoke Newington), his new churches in the Ball's Pond Road and 
 
 2 z 
 
170 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 at Brighton. It is composed, like that of St. Paul's, Ball's Pond, of a 
 nave and two . aisles, with pointed windows and dwarf buttresses between 
 them, and a substantial square tower, with angular buttresses surmounted 
 by crocketed pinnacles. This durable and handsome church is built with 
 brick and stone, after the ancient English method, which is as pleasing in 
 appearance as it is strong in principle. 
 
 Albion Chapel, Moorfields, 
 
 is a neat and unaffected building, with a pretty little diastyle portico in 
 antis of the Ionic order, designed by a young architect of the name of 
 Jay. The roof gives it somewhat the air of a theatre, but it possesses a 
 character of original thinking in its design that is highly pleasing. It 
 was formerly occupied by the Rev. Alexander Fletcher, a clergyman of 
 the Scots Secession Church, who has removed to the more spacious and 
 handsome chapel in the neighbourhood, before noticed under the name of 
 Finsbury Chapel. 
 
 The London Orphan Asylum, Clapton. 
 
 This laudable charity provides for and accommodates three hundred 
 destitute orphans, and is situate at Clapton, near Hackney, and is from a 
 classical design of the Grecian Doric order. It consists of four parts, a 
 centre and two wings, and a chapel connected with the latter by a dwarf 
 colonnade. The most striking feature of this pleasing edifice is the 
 central building in front, which is used for the chapel. It is a pure Greek 
 prostyle temple, with a tetrastyle portico of the Doric order, bearing an 
 inscription on the frieze, instead of triglyphs, importing that it was insti- 
 tuted in 1813, and erected in 1823. The pediment is plain, but in just 
 altitude to the order, and has mutules under the corona. The wing build- 
 ings have ant£e at their angles, and the roofs form pediments to the order. 
 The centre behind the temple accords in elevation with the wings, and has 
 a wide and lofty pediment to give it its proper consequence. The central 
 temple is joined to the wings by a low Doric colonnade, the roof of which 
 affords shelter to an ambulatory below, that leads from the wings to the 
 chapel. 
 
 Asylum for Female Orphans, Westminster, 
 
 a charitable institution, originally established by Sir John Fielding, in 
 1758, for the laudable purpose of preserving poor friendless and deserted 
 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 171 
 
 girls under twelve years of age from the miseries and dangers of prostitu- 
 tion ; whilst its neighbour, the Magdalen, endeavours to reform those who 
 have fallen into such ways. 
 
 The centre of this architectural composition is a portico, or rather 
 porch, of the Ionic order, selected from a choice example of the purest 
 Grecian elegance, and the whole building, notwithstanding some defects 
 of detail, is one of the prettiest productions of the present day. 
 
 Temple of the Muses, Finsbury Square, 
 
 a building so named by its eccentric founder, the late James Lacking-ton, 
 who realized a competency, by the sale of second-hand books, on the sure 
 principle of small profits and quick returns; and was succeeded m busi- 
 ness by his nephew, of the firm of Lackington, Allen, & Co. On then- 
 removal westward, this large concern was for a long time empty, till it 
 was taken by Messrs. Jones & Co. the proprietors of the present work, and 
 opened by them for the publication and sale of their works only. It may 
 be thought unseemly here to descant on the merits of these particular 
 editions, nor can it be necessary, since the immense circulation, not only 
 at home, but throughout the Continent of Europe, America, and India, is a 
 sufficient test of superiority and of the successful issue of a bold and 
 original plan. Suffice it to say, that the object was to combine a vast 
 saving of expense, portability, and facility of reference, with correctness, 
 tvpographical beauty, and good taste. This has been effectually applied 
 to the most popular and valuable works in English literature, comprising 
 an Historical Series— The British Classics, or Essayists— 
 a Dramatic and a Poetical Series, all in an OctavO library size— 
 a Cabinet Edition of Select British Poets, in Four Volumes Duo- 
 decimo, (comprising nearly as much as the Sixty Volumes of "Johnson's 
 Poet's," and including recent authors, in lieu of those of inferior merit,)— 
 A Diamond Edition of the Poets— Classic Tales, &c. (the smallest 
 ever printed— and each author detached, as a sort of waistcoat pocket 
 companion),, besides many other works of miscellaneous character. Last, 
 though not least in success and popularity, has been the present work, 
 forming part of a general series, under the title of "Jones' Great 
 Britain Illustrated ;" and of which London—Edinburgh— Bath, 
 Bristol, and Wales— and Gentlemen's Seats, (North and Western 
 Series,) are now in progress. In addition to the above-mentioned series 
 of British authors, and intended as a companion, they have also announced 
 
172 
 
 METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 a Series of the most approved Translations from the Greek and 
 Roman Classics, which is in a forward state of preparation — to com- 
 mence with Baker's Livy, complete in One Elegant Octavo Volume, 
 at one-fourth the price of former editions.