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SUGGESTIONS 
 
 ARCHITECTURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 WESTERN PART OF LOxNDON. 
 
SUGCxESTIONS 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 ARCHITECTURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 WESTERN PART OF LONDON. 
 
 By SYDNEY SMIRKE, F.S.A., F.G.S. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRIESTLEY AND WEALE. 
 
 MDCCCXXXIV. 
 
I.ONnoN : 
 IRINTED BY T. nilLTTELL, HITLRT STnr.I.T, HAYMAHKDT. 
 
iL 
 
SUGGESTIONS, 
 
 The Author of the following pages is not 
 insensible of the difficulties which oppose them- 
 selves to the execution of any extended scheme 
 of improvement in the architectural disposition 
 of a great and ancient city. A village or town 
 of infant growth, or of humble pretensions, 
 readily submits itself to the operations of a 
 skilful reformer. Where the rights of pri- 
 vate property are the objects of a less jealous 
 protection than with us, the fiat of the govern- 
 ing power, when it wills the regeneration of a 
 city, meets with few obstacles to its projects of 
 improvement. Fairer still is the field for 
 architectural achievements, when the establish- 
 ment of a new town on some tract hitherto 
 subject only to the labours of the husbandman, 
 or to the casual visits of the woodsman or the 
 
 B 
 
 X057572 
 
liimtcr, oHl'i's to tlic enviable fouiul(M- a caytc 
 hhiinhi' upon uliicli lie nia\ la\ onl his scpun'os 
 and j)aralloloi;ranis, liis circles, polygons, cres- 
 cents, pia/.zas and l)oule\ards, Avitli no otlier 
 check to the e\])atiations of his senilis than the 
 limits ot' his paper, or ot" the superficial acres 
 which it rej)resents. 
 
 In this coinitry, and especially in this metro- 
 polis, the case is far diU'eient. Here we liave 
 opposini;' interests and clamorous ol)jecti()ns to 
 satisfy and surmount at every ste]). Tlie 
 tenants of streets and shops, from which a 
 new ly projected avenue is destined to divert the 
 current of ])assengers, are to be combated or 
 pacified. The owners of liouses, which must 
 be leveled in order to give place to our im- 
 provements, are all to receive compensation at 
 the hands of a jury, often too much under tlie 
 influence of fellow fcelini;- to confine their 
 assessment of damage ^vithin the strict bounds 
 of a mere indemnity. 
 
 l^y some objectors we are told to " live as 
 our lathers ha\c' lived before us," Avho, being 
 content to jostle through crooked and devious 
 lanes, were fain to make their fortunes in blind 
 allies, with the internal satisfaction that, like 
 the celei)rated tax oi" ^c's]Klsian, their monies 
 
3 
 
 contracted no offensive taint from the fetid loca- 
 lity in which they were earned. It cannot indeed 
 be denied, that the present avenues of London 
 do, in a certain degree, answer the essential 
 purposes for which they were intended. It 
 must undoubtedly be conceded to such objectors, 
 that a person, either on foot, or in a carriage, 
 to whom dispatch is no object, who is regard- 
 less of his personal convenience, and who can 
 encounter without apprehension the collision 
 of omnibuses, the crush of carriages, the con- 
 tusion of loaded porters, and the perils of over- 
 driven oxen, may, even in the present state of 
 the metropolis, eventually effect his passage 
 from Piccadilly to Whitechapel, or from Tothill 
 Fields to Hoxton. Yet, after all, it is a sorry 
 argument that would arrest the progress of 
 improvement, because some of the essential 
 wants of society are already, to a certain degree, 
 provided for : 
 
 " O reason not the need; our basest begfjjars 
 
 " Are in the poorest thin<T su])erfluous: 
 
 " Allow not nature more than nature needs, 
 
 " Man's life is cheap as beast's."" 
 
 We are assured, by authentic historians, that 
 our aboriginal predecessors in this country were 
 
toiiiid contentedly livinii,- in luits of turf, with 
 tlk'ir bodies nraily destitute ot" clothin^^;, and 
 only decorated witli iii;nres painted or tattooed 
 upon llie snrtace of the skin. If, therefore, the 
 ari^innent of necessity is to lje ri<^()rously en- 
 forced, and each generation is to remain satisfied 
 with the clothing" and ]ial)itation whicli were 
 found sufficient for tlie ])receding one, it is plain 
 that we should ])re})are to re-enter our wigwams, 
 and revert to the simple, economical costume 
 of our British forefathers. J>ut objections of 
 this kind, though not uncommon in the mouths 
 of men, are hardly deserving of reply ; for they 
 do not, in fact, exercise any practical influence 
 over their acts. INFan is truly an improving 
 animal. It is, doubtless, part of the wise con- 
 stitution of our nature that he should be so. 
 All the brilliant results of civilization— all the 
 wonders of art and science, are due to the 
 ceaseless aspirations of human ingenuity and 
 activity ; and it would be as fruitless a task to 
 attempt to stoj) the lapse of time itself, as to bid 
 civilized man be content with mediocrity, when 
 excellence is once opened to his view. 
 
 It is, however, not true, in ])()int of fact, that 
 we are as well provided for as our ancestors, 
 by the ])resent arrangement of metropolitan 
 
thoroughfares. It is a remarkable fact, that, 
 with comparatively few exceptions, the principal 
 avenues of London are such as they were nearly 
 two centuries ago, whilst the population which 
 frequents them has become more than three 
 times as numerous. 
 
 If the same quantity of blood that is generated 
 in the frame of vigorous manhood, were forced 
 to circulate through the veins and arteries of 
 a child, would not the current of life burst 
 asunder its appointed channels, and become 
 the instrument of death ? Yet, not more un- 
 reasonable is it to expect that the highways of 
 the seventeenth century should satisfy the wants 
 and convenience of the present time. 
 
 Since that period, how immeasurably has the 
 traffic in our streets increased ! Not only have 
 our numbers, and, consequently, the demand 
 for all the necessaries of life, increased three-fold, 
 but a thousand new sources of activity have 
 been opened ; new trades and manufactures 
 have been introduced ; new wants created ; new 
 luxuries invented. The habits of the people 
 have undergone the most striking changes. A 
 private carriage was, in those days, a luxury 
 very limited in its use ; stage-coaches and 
 hackney-coaches were scarcely known ; and the 
 
6 
 
 river Thanu's, ^^lli{•ll at the ])eri()(l under review 
 must be looked upon as having been a leadin<2; 
 avenue to connect A\'cstniiiister and its inha- 
 bitants with the cit\, has, for various reasons, 
 ceased to l)c entitled to the preference, in this 
 respect, which it Ibrnierly enjoyed. 
 
 It is, therefore, ])al})ahly faUacious to conclude 
 that the town is now suited to our bulk, because 
 two ccntui'ies ai>-o it appeared to lit us tolei-ably 
 Avell. Xoi- will it avail any thini^ to tell us 
 that, althouii,h the j)()])ulation of London and 
 its dependant borouii,hs is greatly increased, the 
 area covered by its buildings has proportionably 
 expanded : for, whilst the calls of business and 
 pleasure daily bring all its scattered inhabitants 
 into the same old and beaten tracks, it is 
 obvious that no lateral extension of the city can, 
 in any degree, tend to relieve its most fre- 
 quented thoroughfares from the daily concourse 
 of passengers ; but must, indeed, have a directly 
 contrary effect. 
 
 Another, and far more formidable ohjection, 
 is apt to he reasonably and successfully lU'ged 
 against m;iny ])rojects of the most unecjuivocal 
 improvement ; namely, the ])ecuniary sacrifice 
 which is commonly necessary to carry them into 
 effect. 
 
As long as his speculations are circumscribed 
 by the four corners of his paper, the architectural 
 regenerator of cities may act the autocrat with 
 little ceremony or compunction. Public faith, 
 and the rights of private property, oppose a 
 feeble barrier to the career of his destructive 
 innovations. Whole rows of unresisting houses 
 are proscribed to leave space for the stately 
 structures that " rise like exhalations" on their 
 site. Brantome tells us of the cool conciseness 
 with which the famous constable of France, 
 Montmorenci, used to issue such mandates as 
 the following : — " Hack me into pieces that 
 mob !" — " Set fire to that village !" — *' Burn me 
 all the country round for a mile ! " &c. It is to 
 be feared that some similar spirit prompts the 
 pencils of many of those imaginative youths 
 who annually adorn the walls of the Royal 
 Academy with the day-dreams of their inventive 
 genius. But it is in vain to overlook the real 
 difficulties which must always attend the practical 
 execution of plans of a public nature involving 
 the property of private individuals. It is not to 
 be expected that the Legislature should listen to 
 any scheme by which private rights would be 
 compromised without amjile indenmity ; or by 
 which the owners of ])r()])erty would be deprived 
 
cS 
 
 of their just controul over it in so o:reat a 
 cle«rree as materially to ali'ect its value. 
 
 'IMie saerilice whieli is too often essential to 
 the execution of any })lan of inn)rovenient is 
 so serious an impediment in the way of deahng 
 \\itli the property of })ri\ate individuals, that it 
 \\ ould, indeed, have been fortunate liad a larger 
 portion of the town belonged either to the Crown, 
 or to some bodies of a corporate character. It 
 is to such bodies, possessed of large ])owers of 
 alienation, and unfettered by any specific trusts, 
 whose mem])ers are not personally interested in 
 the revenues arising from the cor]:)orate property, 
 that we chiefly look for the means of improve- 
 ment, wherever measures of general amelioration 
 can be effected only at the expense of some 
 local and ])artial loss. It is not just, nor rea- 
 sonable, nor agreeable to the ])olicy of our law, 
 to compel private ])ers()ns to su])mit to the loss 
 or (lei)reciation of their ])r()perty, in order to 
 facilitate designs of public usefulness, which, 
 however desirable in themselves, are not of in- 
 dispensable iiecessity. The safety of a city 
 may justify the destruction of a house to pre- 
 vent the spreading ravages of a fire, not merely 
 because the })ul)li(' interest recpiires it, but be- 
 cause it is ])lain that the proprietor will be 
 
9 
 
 equally injured by the unchecked progress of 
 the flames. But no one contends for the right 
 to carry a public road, canal, or railway, through 
 the possessions of a private individual without 
 tendering him adequate amends for the damage 
 which he is obliged to sustain. In the case 
 of the Crown, or of lands vested in such a 
 corporation as we have described, no similar 
 difficulty presents itself; and although the law 
 can compel neither the one nor the other to cede 
 its rights at the requisition of public convenience, 
 yet it is not unreasonable, nor contrary to ex- 
 perience, to expect that, where a clear case of 
 public improvement is established, they will 
 cheerfully submit to a sacrifice which involves 
 no personal or individual damage. Nor is it 
 indeed a necessary, or frequent, consequence 
 that any pecuniary injury whatever should in fact 
 ensue : for it often happens that the permanent 
 o\ generals ^WQ of corporate property is increased 
 by the very act which occasions a temporary out- 
 lay, or a local loss. Hence it is that the most 
 striking examples of modern improvement in 
 the older parts of the metropolis have been due, 
 either to the official advisers of His Majesty, 
 in the disposition of the crown lands, or to 
 
10 
 
 the spirited exertions of \hc corporation of the 
 citv of liOiuIoii, and of its depentlant companies. 
 Nor would it be a ditlicult or an nnj)leasin<^ task, 
 to ])oint out many similar instances in our ])ro- 
 vincial cities and towns, which owe their origin 
 to the same henelicial and liberal ap})lication of 
 cor])orate lands or corporate funds*. 
 
 It is under a sense of the diiliculties alluded 
 to, that the Author has studiously endeavoured 
 to exclude from the followini;' pages all those 
 chimerical projects which, however attractive or 
 desirable in themselves, cannot be recommended 
 to the consideration of a sober judgment, as 
 reasonable and practicable in the executionf. 
 He trusts, at least, by the moderation of his 
 views, to procure for liis plans something more 
 than the usual amount of attention w liich simi- 
 lar lucubrations have liitherto received. It is 
 apprehended that few suggestions will there be 
 
 * It is jTrcatlv to be wislicil, that tlu-se uii(|iiestional)le facts 
 ^vill not I'si-api.' the notic-c ot" tlu- I ALjislaturi', in the new 
 iiiunii'ij)al ineorjjorations which ai\' niuleistood •() l)e con- 
 tcni})latetl. 
 
 ■f The sufjf^cstions which tonn the suhjeet of the two phitcs 
 apptiiiled to tliese |)a<;es must j)rohahlv he regard id, in some 
 measure, as exceptions to tliis plural rule of strict sobriety. 
 
11 
 
 found, that will not recommend themselves as 
 acknowledged improvements, demanding a com- 
 paratively moderate outlay of capital, and 
 involving no sacrifice which may not either be 
 met by a reasonable indemnity, or repaid by the 
 improvement itself. 
 
 It should be remembered that the increased 
 value of ground and houses in the immediate 
 vicinity of the parts improved would, in many 
 cases, be a source of considerable profit. As 
 soon as a communication between different 
 parts of a city is established by opening a wide, 
 commodious, and direct avenue, the public 
 are not slow to accept the advantages which 
 it offers : houses of a higher consideration and 
 value are immediately required in it, and it is 
 not difficult to conceive that, in many instances, 
 the owner of the property may be more than 
 repaid for any loss of space to which he may 
 have submitted. 
 
 It should not be overlooked, too, that a very 
 large portion of the west end of London is 
 covered by houses built long before the existence 
 of the present Building Act, and that they are, 
 consequently, precarious property, requiring 
 a higher insurance, a greater annual expenditure 
 in repairs, and therefore commanding a lower 
 
12 
 
 rent tlian houses of a more recent date and 
 better construction*. 
 
 It may not hv out of ])lace to ol)serve here, 
 that no mechanical art lias, within late years, 
 ex])erienced im])r()vements more numerous and 
 important than that of l)uildinu!;. An old house 
 in London is rarely i)ulled down without re- 
 vealing- a construction faulty in principle and 
 careless in execution. Common sense is shocked 
 by finding a thick wall of brickwork, carrying 
 probably three or four floors besides the roof, 
 built over a void space, u])on a piece of timber, 
 the ends of which are of course liable to become 
 rotten in a few years, and the whole of which 
 may be, and often is, reduced to ashes in a few 
 minutes : yet this mode of construction was uni- 
 versal until lately in our shops, and, in truth, is 
 
 * There is another consideration will worth the attention 
 of the owners of houses in London. After the fire in 16CG, 
 and a<;ain after tlie Uevohition in 1()88, the extraordinary 
 nunil)i"r and extent of tlie biiildin<i;s, then set on foot, oeea- 
 siouid M) <rreat a diinand for l)uiI(Hn^ materials, that a vast 
 quantity of had hrieks were frauchdently made, and worked 
 up witli tlie okl and half-decayed materials of the ruined city. 
 'J'his evil was the suhject of ])articular coni])laint hv Sir Chris- 
 topher Wren, and wi- arr now snderini,^ from its effects ; for 
 many of the houses of that jjcriod are in a vcrv rotten and 
 unsafe condition. 
 
13 
 
 still allowed to be practised by some builders, 
 who have not yet opened their eyes, nor used 
 their understandings. 
 
 The substitution of iron for timber, is an 
 improvement in the art of building that can 
 hardly be over-rated : it has banished at once 
 the unwieldy girders which our ancestors were 
 wont to truss, until they could hardly support 
 their own weight : it has given us pillars that 
 neither fire nor water can affect ; and may almost 
 be said to have afforded us the means of erecting 
 an indestructible house. 
 
 The very expensive, and often unsuccessful 
 process of piling for foundations, has but of late 
 years yielded to the use of the artificial concrete 
 substratum ; the surprising strength and imperish- 
 able nature of which, give it a value that cannot 
 be too highly estimated by the architectural 
 practitioner. 
 
 The mode of baking bricks in clamps, instead 
 of kilns, is a practice unknown until recent times, 
 by which their hardness and durability are 
 greatly increased ; whilst, with regard to tim- 
 ber, the other most important material of a 
 building, it is hardly extravagant to say that 
 the late introduction of the tanking process 
 bids fair, at no distant period, to render the 
 
14 
 
 destructive ravages of tlio di'V rot a matter of 
 tradition. 
 
 Such are some of ihc iin])r()vements (and 
 there are maiiv others not necessary to be 
 enumerated liere;, of which the ])r()])rietor of 
 land in the streets of London may avail himself 
 at the present day, to increase the value and 
 ])ermanence of his pro])erty. 
 
 There is no <i;round on which the judicious 
 improvement of a city can be advocated, more 
 important than the health of its iidiabitants. It 
 is a consideration of ])aramoinit interest, and 
 the common feelings of humanity urge us readily 
 to welcome any plan which has for its end so 
 desirable an object. 
 
 It is not to be anticipated that any doubt can 
 be entertained of the influence which the ])lan 
 and dis])osition of a city exercise over the health 
 of its ])opulation. Were no other fact to be 
 adduced, we might well be satisfied by the 
 evidence to l)e drawn from the circumstance, 
 that during the period between 1 (>()() and 1G()(>, 
 upwards of IMS, ()()() ])crs()ns died of the plague 
 in London, whilst since the latter year the 
 visitations of this deadly disease have compara- 
 tively ceased. The salutary effects of the 
 improved arrangement of the city after the 
 
15 
 
 great fire are abundantly attested by this com- 
 parison ; but it is much to be lamented, that 
 the golden opportunity which then offered itself, 
 of establishing on a durable basis the beauty, 
 order, convenience, and salubrity of the town, 
 was suffered to escape irrevocably. 
 
 It is true that a large portion of the western 
 suburb, now proposed to be discussed, had no 
 existence at the period above referred to, nor 
 was any part of it affected by the fire ; yet it is 
 impossible not to perceive at once the advantage 
 that must have resulted from so noble a model 
 held out for the standing imitation of succeed- 
 ing builders, had the ancient city been restored 
 from its ruins on the splendid plan of Evelyn, 
 or of Wren. 
 
 Every medical man, whose avocations lead 
 him to visit the poorer districts of the town, 
 must be prepared to testify that there are parts, 
 even of the west end, scarcely ever free from 
 the affliction of some malignant and contagious 
 disease* ; and amidst the conflicting opinions of 
 the Faculty, during the discussions occasioned 
 
 * The plague in 1G65, one of tlie most destructive on 
 record, began in St. Giles's, at the upjicr end of Drury Lane. 
 — See Hancock on the Laws and Pkenomena of Peatilencef 
 p. 52. 
 
by tlie riH'eiit ])revalcnce of cliolera, on this, at 
 least, they were all mianimous, that the ill- 
 Nciitilated and scjualid abodes of poverty in 
 those nei>lected (juarters were uniformly the 
 seenes of its earhest appearanee, and ol* its most 
 destructive ravai^-es. 
 
 By the total removal of tliese infected districts, 
 or if that be (as there is too much reason to fear) 
 at present impracticable, by widenini>' some of 
 the streets within them ; or by opening tln*ough 
 their centre a straight and spacious avenue, 
 and thus diluting the noxious miasmata, by the 
 injection of a purer atmosphere*; by removing 
 old decayed houses which have become the hot- 
 beds for the growth of vermin and disease, and 
 rebuilding them in such situations, and in such 
 a manner, as to prevent their ever becoming 
 a similar nuisance ; by providing complete and 
 effectual drainage to every house and in every 
 district where no such provisions have either 
 
 * The captain of a vessel in tlie East India Company's 
 service infornieil the Author, that, in his ship on its passiige 
 from India, thi- ehoKra rafjjed severely, killing twenty or 
 thirtv of the men, tiie sea l)ein<^ so rourrh as to make it neces- 
 siiry to shut the j)orts to the windward ; hut that as s(K)n as tiie 
 weather permitted them to be opened, the disease disappeared 
 wholly, and almost innnediately. 
 
17 
 
 been entirely neglected or inadequately made ; 
 by these and similar means the great object 
 of civic purification is to be attained, and it will 
 be found that, in the following suggestions, 
 these are the means that have been especially 
 studied. 
 
 Whilst enumerating the motives to improve- 
 ment which readily present themselves, the 
 writer has abstained from laying any great 
 stress on the opportunities it would offer of 
 contributing largely to the architectural beauty 
 of the town ; because, in pursuing so smooth 
 and tempting a theme, he might be led to give 
 undue prominence to an object of secondary 
 importance, which, however desirable in itself, 
 will not probably be allowed to possess any 
 great weight or value as an argument. We 
 may, however, at least be justified in assert- 
 ine: that even this is a consideration which it 
 would not become a wise government and a 
 cultivated people wholly to disregard. 
 
 The inferiority of London in point of archi- 
 tectural merit to many of the continental 
 capitals, must have forced itself on the convic- 
 tion of every traveller who has quitted the 
 shores of his country ; and our neighbours are 
 ready enough to draw from thence very plausible 
 
 c 
 
IS 
 
 inferences in disparafrcment of our taste and 
 •2;eniiis. That the standard ol" pubHc taste is 
 lower in 10ni;land than on some ])arts of the 
 continent nuist ])i()l)al)ly be eoneeded. In those 
 branches of our manufactures wliich more 
 es])ecially seek aid from the arts of design, our 
 o-eneral deficiency in this respect is evinced by an 
 ahnost total want of originahty. Frencli ])ooks 
 of patterns are the text books of our operative 
 artists, who seem ambitious of nothing beyond 
 a successful imitation. In carpets, cottons, silks, 
 paper hangings, and furniture, there is alike the 
 same poverty of decorative design. Even the 
 natives of China and India are in some respects 
 our masters ; for the delicacy, variety, and rich- 
 ness of their designs are not unfrequently even 
 beyond our imitation. 
 
 In consequence of the incompetency of 
 English manufacturers on this point, our 
 French neighbours have usually been successful 
 competitors with us in all those branches of 
 trade that depend on the arts of design ; and 
 thus our want of feeling for the Fine Arts, and 
 the defective cultivation of the public taste, 
 become im])ortant in the view of the political 
 economist himself 
 
 A man of ordinarv observation, who has had 
 
19 
 
 an opportunity of becoming acquainted with 
 the principal cities of Europe, has only to walk 
 through the streets of London, to convince 
 himself that w^e are, at present, a people deplor- 
 ably devoid of a taste for the picturesque. 
 Where, except in this country, shall we find 
 streets of interminable length, composed of 
 houses without cornice, architrave, or any of 
 the most simple features of architectural deco- 
 ration ? We look in vain for a Corso, a Strada 
 nuova, a Canal grande, or a Herrengasse ; and 
 the noblest and wealthiest of the most opulent 
 country in the world are for the most part 
 content to shelter themselves, during the season 
 of their residence here, in houses utterly des- 
 titute of all the dignity or grace of architecture. 
 
 The slow progress of our national museums 
 and galleries, and the inadequate funds destined 
 for their completion and their support, are 
 proofs (it is to be feared) of the same tasteless 
 habits, of the same Boeotian insensibility to the 
 attractions of a refined and rational })leasure. 
 
 It is indeed humiliating to contrast our parsi- 
 monious tardiness in this respect with the bold 
 munificence of other countries. Whilst we 
 have been deliberating and doubting, llerlin 
 has raised a beautiful gallery, worthy alike of 
 
20 
 
 its acconiplisluHl autlior Schinkel, and of tlie 
 country that has earned eelel)rity by so many 
 enh<>htened reforms. I^ven the state of Bavaria, 
 a country of very hmited territorial extent, 
 can ])()int with just pride to the noble work 
 of Klenze, a production in point of magnitude 
 and magnificence far removed beyond the 
 range of our economical conceptions. 
 
 In addition to this latter gallery, Munich has 
 lately raised another monument of its taste in 
 the Gly])tothec, consisting of a range of sculp- 
 ture galleries sumptuously finished, and covering 
 a ])r()digious extent of ground ; a magnificent 
 public library is in progress ; whilst a theatre 
 larger than the largest in London, a royal palace, 
 an observatory, and many other buildings of great 
 beauty and importance, are striking evidences 
 of that enlightened taste for tlie ])eaceful and 
 elegant acts which distinguishes the present 
 sovereign of Bavaria*. 
 
 * The followinff may be taken as a popular example of the 
 effect of these architectural iin])n)vemcnts on the mind of a 
 casual visitor. 
 
 " The strauf^er who for the first time pi'ramhulates the 
 " streets of Munich, perceives at once that he is in a flourish- 
 " intr city, and in a country in which the blessings of peace 
 " have left leisure for the cultivation of those arts which 
 
21 
 
 Before concluding these preliminary remarks, 
 it may be well to consider what aid might be 
 required and reasonably expected from the 
 Legislature towards the adoption of some sys- 
 tematic general plan of municipal improvement. 
 
 Besides our Building Act, the Westminster 
 Improvement Act, and the multifarious provi- 
 sions contained in many local statutes for the 
 regulation of various metropolitan districts, there 
 is scarcely a town or city of any considerable 
 magnitude in the British Isles which has not 
 derived some advantage from the operation of 
 certain parliamentary enactments aiming at its 
 architectural amendment. To examine and 
 collate these ; to extract from them their most 
 valuable clauses ; and to ascertain, by actual 
 
 " spring out of it ; he sees new and splendid streets stretching 
 
 *' in every direction, magnificent pui)lic edifices erected, or 
 
 " rapidly approaching their completion ; the hand of im- 
 
 " provement everywhere visible, and industry directed in every 
 
 " channel in which it can be made subservient to the wants 
 
 " of opulence, and to the desires or caprices of taste and re- 
 
 " finement."" — The Tyrol, hy H. D. Inglis, Vol. /., page G9. 
 " This most chaste and beautiful edifice (the Glyptothec), 
 
 " destined for the reception of ancient statues, was not quite 
 
 " completed when I visited Munich, but it had made so much 
 
 " progress towards completion, that one might form an 
 
 *' opinion of its claims to distinction. I do not hesitate to say 
 
 " that a journev from London to INTiinicli would be well 
 
 " repaid by a visit to the Glyjitothec." — lb. Vol. /., po<je 93. 
 
^)0 
 
 iii(|uii\ , to wli.it statutable provisions, or other 
 eaiises, I lie most strikiiii;' iiislaiiti's of arehitee- 
 tural cinhillislnnent and ol'i»'eneral amelioration 
 are to he aseribed, would l)e a work of some 
 labour, hut of i!;reat and obvious utility. From 
 the materials j)rovided by sueli an extended 
 iii([uiry, and by freely borrowing' from the most 
 eminent eontinental eities sueh munieipal regu- 
 lations of a similar tendency as may be adapted 
 to our own, we might hope to frame a eode of 
 metro j)oli tan imj)rovement, which would super- 
 sede the existing acts on the subject, and con- 
 duce not less to the symmetry and beauty, than 
 to the convenience, security, and liealth of the 
 city. 
 
 Nor let it be objected, that the decorous 
 appearance of the town is an object unfit for 
 legislative interference, or one not heretofore 
 regarded as within its proper })rovince. As 
 long ago as the period immediately succeeding 
 the great fire, it was not deemed undeserving 
 of parliamentary attention to provide for the 
 " onifuiioit as well as the convenience" of the 
 (it v ; and a bill, matured under the eye of Wren, 
 and stamix'd \\\(\\ the a])])roval of some of the 
 most ciuinciit judicial authorities of that day, 
 furnislit's a ))i('c('(lent lor ])rescribing the very 
 materials of which houses were to be built, 
 
23 
 
 as being " more comely and durable" than 
 those which were before then commonly in 
 use*. 
 
 In order to effect the objects of such an act 
 as we have recommended, it may deserve con- 
 sideration whether the favourite project of 
 Gwynn and others, who have written on the 
 architectural embellishment of London, might 
 not be so modified as to be fit for adoption. 
 The formation of a permanent Board, or Com- 
 mission, invested with certain limited powers of 
 superintending and controlling w^orks of this 
 nature was suggested by him, and, since his 
 time, has been plausibly urged by others. The 
 constitution of such a commission would, indeed, 
 be a matter of some moment — whether it should 
 be nominated by the Crown, or should be made 
 elective, qr formed by a union of both methods 
 of appointment, is a question of policy which 
 it is not within the scope of this work, or the 
 capacity of its author, to discuss. Unless, how- 
 ever, some security could be obtained that its 
 members should be duly qualified by sound 
 discretion and judgment, strict impartiality, and 
 a reasonable share of cultivated taste, the crea- 
 
 * Stat. 11), Car. II., tap. 3, sect. 7. 2J>, 23, &c. 
 
24 
 
 tion of such a Board would be worse than 
 useless. 
 
 Independently of any authority which it 
 niii;ht be thought ])r()])er to confide to them for 
 the purpose of re^i^ulatinj^ the exterior architec- 
 ture of the town (on the policy of which reason- 
 able doubts may be expected to be entertained) 
 their influence mi2;ht at all events be beneficially 
 exerted in su*i^gesting, superintending, and di- 
 recting the execution of all practicable schemes 
 for promoting the interests and convenience of 
 its inhabitants, in so far as they are connected 
 w ith the architectural arrangement of the town, 
 and the disposition of its streets and houses. 
 
 No plan of a new street should be carried 
 into execution, nor any building of im])ortance 
 erected, without lieing previously submitted to 
 this Commission : not that any vexatious inter- 
 ference should be authorised in matters of taste, 
 or of small moment ; but a general control 
 should be exercised with a continual view^ to 
 the promotion of the principal objects of the 
 Board, viz. : the commodiousness of the town, 
 and the health of its p()j)ulation. Even if no 
 other benefit would result from this provision, 
 it would, at all events, be of no small advantage 
 that there should be in existence an official 
 
25 
 
 standing body of men, to whom all buildings, 
 plans, and improvements in progress in every 
 part of the town would be fully known, and 
 who might avail themselves of that knowledge, 
 for the purpose either of suggesting ulterior 
 plans, of aiding in the accomplishment of 
 schemes of public utility, or of inducing the 
 authors of different and independent projects 
 to coalesce in some object of common benefit. 
 
 It should be part of the instructions of this 
 Board to be watchful of every opportunity that 
 the casual destruction of any building, or other 
 accidental circumstances, may afford of widen- 
 ing streets, opening convenient communications, 
 removing obstructions, and of making gradual 
 advances in those plans of extended improve- 
 ment w hich, though they cannot be immediately 
 carried into full effect, ought constantly to be 
 kept in view. 
 
 The commission might be invested with the 
 general supervision of the various local and 
 district Boards for sewage, paving, &c., and 
 should be required to see that their powers are 
 adecjuate to their object, and that they are 
 exercised with an unity of purpose. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive that a permanent 
 Board of this nature, whose attention should be 
 
2G 
 
 (li]('('t(Ml almost solely to the business of im- 
 provement, would liave tailed loni»; a^'o to call 
 tor the correction of many admitted tlefects in 
 the subsisting- laws that rei^ulate the buildings 
 of the metropolis. Among these may be men- 
 tioned the strange anomaly that the present 
 Commissioners of Sewers have, in many instances, 
 no power to compel a man who builds a house 
 to provide the requisite means for (h*aining it ; a 
 matter in which their authoritative interference 
 seems not merely justifiable, but absolutely 
 essential*. 
 
 The Commissioners might, perhaps, be in 
 the nature of a Council to advise the Govern- 
 ment on all questions relating to the public 
 buildings of London ; for the ablest ministers 
 may be scantily informed on subjects of this 
 nature, nor will their arduous avocations atford 
 them leisure to enter into them with the 
 requisite detail. I'he influence of a commission 
 thus employed, might help to preserve us in 
 future from those grievous blunders in municipal 
 architecture that have hitherto been too apt to 
 
 * Tlu' clffective jjrovisions of the law in this ivsj)(.'ct have 
 l)i'(.'n clearly shown and stronp^ly exposed in a pamphlet by 
 Mr. Davis, of" Lincoln's Inn, entitled Sen-age considered in 
 cnnnriion uifh Cliolt'ra. — Walk i.it, 1832. 
 
27 
 
 occur, and which are the more to be deplored, 
 inasmuch as they are in their very nature 
 irremediable and permanent. Had such a com- 
 mission existed formerly, can it be supposed 
 that we should have had a great public work, 
 like the Council House at Whitehall, so placed 
 (contrary, it is said, to the intention of the 
 architect), as to defy all future attempts to com- 
 plete it satisfactorily according to the original 
 design, of which it formed a part ? Or should 
 we have seen, as on the site of the late Royal 
 Mews, tall, plain barracks, pre-occupying, by 
 their unsightly masses of brick-work, one of the 
 best situations for architectural display that 
 London affords ? 
 
 The formation of a Board of this nature 
 would, incidentally, afford an opportunity of sup- 
 plying another important defect in the law, as it 
 now stands. An opinion has recently prevailed 
 that all buildings of a public nature, i.e., to 
 which the public in general are invited to resort, 
 are subject to the surveillance of the Secretary 
 of State for the Home Department, and that 
 minister has on several occasions been accord- 
 ingly called upon to interfere for the purpose of 
 ascertaining the security of the structure, and, 
 if needful, of directing substantial repairs. The 
 theatres afforded the earliest and most obvious 
 
28 
 
 op])(»it unities for such interposition, because 
 tlicir (l(.'j)i>n(laiKC' on tlie Lord ('h;nnl)erlain, or 
 the necessity of a periodical renewal of their 
 licences, i>ave to the minister a very o])vious 
 instrunuMit for enforciniz; his directions, l^ut it 
 was soon discovered that, where no licence or 
 patent from the ollicers of the Crown was indis- 
 pensable, the proprietor of a public building, who 
 com])lies with the very imperfect re(|uisitions of 
 the Building Act, may safely defy all other inter- 
 ference with the enjoyment of his property ; and 
 that the ])ii])lie have an indefeasible right to 
 trust themselves to walls, however dispropor- 
 tioned to their load, or to expose themselves to 
 a living burial beneath roofs, however inartifi- 
 cially constructed. 
 
 To the establishment, however, of such a 
 board many objections would no doubt be 
 raised, and it is to be feared that the necessity 
 of it must become more generally felt and 
 acknowledged than it is at present, or at least 
 there must be more legislative leisure for its 
 consideration, before this measure is likely to be 
 seriously entertained. 
 
 Having eiunnerated some of the most urgent 
 motives tliat should induce us to undertake 
 certain im])r()vements in the town, and having 
 endeavoured to ])oint out how deeply the in- 
 
29 
 
 terests of the public are concerned in them, it is 
 perhaps needless to say, that the writer has 
 thought himself justified in looking to Par- 
 liament chiefly, for the means of carrying his 
 suggestions into effect. It has been no unusual 
 practice of the Government to grant loans out 
 of the public purse, returnable with interest, in 
 aid of useful works of a public nature ; and it is 
 submitted that there can be imagined few 
 purposes more immediately, as well as ulti- 
 mately, beneficial than some of the proposed 
 improvements. It may, however, be reasonably 
 expected that local districts will regard it as 
 well their interest as their duty, to assist in 
 these desirable operations; nor can we doubt 
 that companies, composed of men of public 
 spirit and intelligence, will be found actively 
 engaged in forwarding the scheme of architec- 
 tural reformation, wherever a reasonable profit 
 may be anticipated. 
 
 Before we proceed to describe in detail those 
 plans which form the subject of the following 
 pages, it may not be irrelevant, or at least 
 uninteresting, to indulge in a brief retro- 
 spective view of that portion of London to 
 which our future remarks will be confined, 
 and to present a rough sketch of the probable 
 
30 
 
 aspect it })reseiited in the earlier periods of its 
 history. 
 
 Let us (lien i*evert, in our imaginations, to the 
 dynasty ot" our Norman ])iin('es, and su])pose 
 the western gate of the t'ortitications nearest to 
 tlie Thames, named Lud-gate, to he our ])()int 
 of de])arture from tlie city. An ()])en coimtry 
 immediately presents itself to our view, and the 
 road conducts us hy rather a quick declivity 
 to the river of the Wells*, a stream of con- 
 siderahle commercial importance, as we may 
 perceive by the numerous vessels which line 
 both sides of its channel from its entrance into 
 the Thames up to the bridge over which passes 
 the highway we are pursuing. The waters of 
 this river are chiefly supplied by the overflowings 
 of the Clerk's or Clerken Well, the Skinner's 
 Well, and several other springs rising in the 
 high ground to the north, augmented by the 
 streams which result from the surfoce drainao^e. 
 
 After crossing this river of the Wells, the 
 country before us presents a scene of an agree- 
 able and picturesque character : on our left the 
 bank slopes gently down to the Thames, whose 
 })ure waters loll on, as yet unpolluted by the 
 
 ♦ Aftorwanls cMllod tlif l-'loti". 
 
31 
 
 excretions of the thousand manufactories which 
 in after times are to disfigure its banks. This 
 sloping ground on our left (probably well 
 wooded), is intersected by several rivulets flow- 
 ing from springs at a short distance to the right 
 of our road ; the favourite resort of the citizens 
 in summer time, who, whilst they repair thither 
 after the labours of the day to enjoy the 
 comparative seclusion which it offers, are 
 perhaps not altogether uninfluenced by those 
 feelings of superstitious reverence, which are 
 wont to commend the spring and fountain to 
 the guardianship of some favoured saint. Of 
 these cool retreats St. Clement's Well* and 
 Holy Well have been especially recorded. 
 
 Upon crossing the river, several mills are 
 seen to the left, turned in some cases by an 
 artificial stream that has been led off from that 
 river ; in others by the rivulets already men- 
 tioned. As the road proceeds over several 
 small bridges, the eye of the traveller commands 
 to the right an unimpeded view over a pleasant, 
 cultivated country, terminated by a thick and 
 
 * A cast-iron pump now stands over this desecrated well, 
 as a monument of its altered destinies, whilst the pin'ity and 
 abundance of the water it still affords, })rove that the kindness 
 of Providence remains unchanged. 
 
32 
 
 far-spreading forest, abundantly stocked with 
 staors, ])oars, wild l)iills, and other " beasts of 
 venery, " affbrdini;' a I'aNoinite anuisement to the 
 more o])ulent citizens, who have long secured 
 to themselves the privilege of hunting in it. 
 Towards the south, beyond the stately river 
 at our feet, our view ranges over extensive 
 meadows, and flat marshy land, terminated by 
 a range of woody hills. 
 
 After ])assing a cross road on our right, called 
 the " Aldwich " road*, our way leads us at the 
 distance of nearly a mile to the village of 
 Charinge, where it separates, and diverges into 
 several branches : the most frequented branch 
 turns to the left, and passing a ])alace built for 
 the occasional residence of the Scottish 
 monarchf and pursuing the course of the river 
 over flat marshy lands, leads us to the cele- 
 brated Monastery of St. Peter's, with its 
 adjoining palace, recently built by Edward the 
 Confessor. 
 
 Here extensive marshes ])rcvent our farther 
 progress, we therefore return to Charinge, 
 where we find ourselves fairly in the country, 
 
 * Now \\'\(li Stii'it, Diury Lane, 
 •j- Now Scotland ^'aI•(l. 
 
33 
 
 surrounded by cultiviited fields presentiiif^ to 
 our observation few indications of the neigh- 
 bourhood of a large city. Let us therefore 
 retrace our steps to Lud-gate, and following the 
 line of the city wall, again issue out by the 
 New-gate, which has been lately built. This 
 exit has hitherto been used under the name of 
 " the Chamberlain's-gate ;" but it has now 
 become a far more frequented thoroughfare, in 
 consequence of the recent erection of the 
 Episcopal Church of St. Paul's, which, being 
 placed in the middle of the principal thorough- 
 fare and now occupying a far larger area than 
 the old church had formerly done, has partially 
 obstructed the current of traffic through the 
 old line of Lud-gate. 
 
 Issuing, then, by this New-gate, we pass on 
 our right the Smethe or Smooth-field, used by 
 horse-coursers and sellers of oxen, sheep, swine, 
 and other stock from the surrounding country ; 
 and, descending a second time the banks of the 
 river of the Wells, we cross it l)y another 
 bridge called after the Aulde, or Old bourne*, 
 rising in the west near the spot where the city 
 bars were afterwards erected. Here the road 
 
 * Now Holboni. 
 I) 
 
34 
 
 at once presents a rural scene unimpeded by 
 buildinu's, except an occasional wind-mill on the 
 hi^h land to the north, and, |)assino; a vineyard, 
 we ])ursue our course in this direction about 
 a mile onward before any remarkable object 
 attracts our attention. 
 
 Kut what newly-erected structure is that 
 wliich rises so gracefully amidst the verdure of 
 the surroundino; trees and meadows, and by the 
 grave sim])licity of its character seems harmo- 
 niously contrasted with the smiling scenery and 
 refreshing sweetness of this sequestered s])ot ? 
 It is St. Giles'! and the building, whose flat 
 buttresses, narrow circular windows, and deeply 
 moulded and enriched doorways display them- 
 selves to our view, is the hospital founded and 
 dedicated to tliat Saint by the Queen of llemy T. 
 
 At this point there is a divergence of roads ; 
 on our left we observe a road, called the 
 Eldestrate*, and affording a means of comnumi- 
 cation with the village of Charinge, which we 
 have just visited; but the highway we have 
 been j)ursning, leads rather abru])tly to the 
 right, and following the garden wall of St. Giles's 
 Hospital enters the ancient way, which by its 
 
 * Since called Hog Lane and now Crown Street. 
 
35 
 
 straightness betrays its Roman origin, and 
 which leads eastward into Essex, and westward 
 to Tybourne and the parts beyond*. It is 
 scarcely necessary to say that the country is 
 now open on all sides ; but without proceeding 
 so far onward as to the Village of Tybourne f, 
 let us return to the city, and recommence our 
 survey of its suburbs, as they appeared at the 
 distance of four centuries after the period which 
 we have just reviewed. 
 
 Under Elizabeth, we find a surprising change 
 effected : the general progress of civilization, 
 and a more settled form of government, have 
 greatly altered the character of our nobility; 
 military pursuits no longer engross their minds, 
 and their mansions are become scenes of peace- 
 ful festivity. Hence their ancient inns, cooped 
 up within the crowded precincts of the fortified 
 city, have become ill-suited to the tastes and 
 habits of their noble owners, and are ceded to 
 the wealthy trader and merchant ; a new class, 
 called into existence by the same happy political 
 changes which have so much improved the 
 
 * Now Oxford Street ; tlie continuation of tliis ancient way 
 eastward may be traced along Old Street, and Old Street Road, 
 and across the Lea at Old Ford. 
 
 •f- Afterwards called Marylcbone, i. e. St. Mary 07i the bourn y 
 and not, as some imagine, St. Mary la bonne. 
 
36 
 
 condition of the nobility, and the ircneral aspect 
 of society. For the hitter, new and stately 
 mansions spread themselves over the suburbs, 
 no lonL!,('i' frownini!; witli defensi\(.' loops and 
 battlements, but adorned with a thousand 
 curious and fanciful devices, and planned for 
 gay and festive pageants. 
 
 On crossing the River of the Wells, which 
 has now assumed the name of the Flete, a suc- 
 cession of these noble mansions fringe the 
 north bank of the Thames, and a continuous 
 line of houses, or shops, extends on both sides as 
 far as Charinge, where, to the left, and parallel 
 with the course of the river, connnence a series 
 of royal buildings. First, among these, the 
 old Palace, formerly appropriated to the Scottish 
 Monarch, again presents itself; and next adjoin- 
 ing, is the vast irreguUu' pile, called Whitehall 
 Palace, whiclK dniing the reign of the 8th Henry, 
 became the ])r()))erty of the Crown. To this 
 succeeds the old Palace of Westminster, nuich 
 altered and increased in dimensions since the 
 period of our fonner survey, but in a state of 
 decay and dilapidation. The rich Monastery of 
 St. l-*eter's, now dissolved, and since erected into 
 the short-lixcd IJishopric of Westminster, has 
 induced niaiiN to fix their residence in its innne- 
 diate neighbourhood ; and, from this circum- 
 
37 
 
 stance, as well as the establishment upwards of 
 two centuries ago of the great wool market 
 near this spot, we find that a city of considerable 
 extent has already grown up around it. It is 
 lamentable, however, to see that, although it 
 no longer deserves the epithet of " terribUis 
 " locuSj' applied to it by King Edgar in the 
 tenth century, yet a large proportion of its 
 inhabitants may be truly described as " being 
 *' for the most part of no trade or mystery, and 
 *' become poor, and many of them wholly given 
 " to vice and idleness, living in contempt of all 
 " manner of officers, &c*." Indeed, the western 
 suburb of London can by no means be generally 
 characterized as the seat of industry and order ; 
 for it is observable that " almoste everye four the 
 " house without the liberties of the citie" is an 
 ale-house, harbouring '* all sortes of lewde and 
 " badde peoplef." 
 
 To the west of the road, extending from 
 
 * See Preamble to an Act of Parliament, 27th Eliz. 
 
 ■f" See MS. of the date of James I., printed in Archa?ologia, 
 Vol. 23. 
 
 It is consolinfT to find that the prevalent complaint against 
 beer shops is not unparalleled in the annals of London. Let us 
 hope we are not so greatly degenerated from our ancestors as 
 is commonly supposed. Stephanides, writing in the twelfth 
 century, says " Sohe pestes Londini sunt ini mode rata stulto- 
 rum pofatio, et frequens incendium.'' 
 
;5S 
 
 Chariiii^c to this monaslerv, lies a low s\vam])y 
 tract of land recently t'in])arkecl by the Crown, 
 and extenclini;' heyoncl the site ot" the very 
 ancient Hospital of St. James's, which, (hnini; 
 the last Henry's rei<2:n, was pnlled down to make 
 wav for a loyal residence, subordinate to the 
 j)rincipal palace at AN hiteliall. 
 
 On returning to Charinge, we find extensive 
 buildings occupied by the royal stud lately 
 removed hither from the former stables in the 
 ])arish of Dloomsbury. Ever since the reign of 
 llichard II. they liave been appropriated to the 
 rearing and keeping of the King's Falcons, and 
 have from thence been called the King's Mews. 
 Here several lanes, as formerly, are to be seen 
 turning off towards the north and west ; but the 
 whole country, in these directions, still })resents 
 little beside meadow and pasture lands, sprinkled 
 here and there with solitary alehouses or 
 chapels on the road-side, for the bodily or 
 spiritnal refreshment of the wayfarer. 
 
 Following one of these lanes, named after 
 the extensive })arish of St. Martin's, but more 
 anciently called Charinge Road*, and, pursuing 
 its sinuous course between continued hedge- 
 rows, we reach the " verie pleasante village of 
 
 * TW\> road ran into Eldestrate, above alluded to. 
 
39 
 
 " St. Giles's," which has formed itself around the 
 hospital already visited in our former excursion : 
 It still preserves much of its rural character, 
 and is disconnected from the city by an interval 
 of considerable extent. 
 
 Leaving this village, the lane we have alluded 
 to intersects the old Roman way described in 
 our former survey, and conducts us northwards 
 by the manor of Tottenhall* into the retired 
 parish of St. Pancras. It is at this point of 
 junction in the roads that, according to ancient 
 usage, criminals are executed. Still more an- 
 ciently executions took place on West Smithfield, 
 but the extension of London has occasioned 
 their removal to this spotf. 
 
 Westward of St. Giles's all is still in the 
 hands of the husbandman, and towards the 
 north, a portion of the ancient forest remains, 
 in which the wild boar is still hunted J. Nor 
 even on this very spot are the good citizens yet 
 deprived of their favourite sports, for we may 
 
 * Now Tottenham. 
 
 •j" To be again transferred, for similar reasons, to a more 
 remote part of the same high road, where it was crossed by 
 another Roman military way, called Watling Street, near 
 Tybourne. 
 
 I HoUingshed's Chronicle. 
 
40 
 
 ohsi rvc ilu> I^orcl Mayor, witli a ])ravc company 
 of Aldi'iiiu'ii, and otlicrs, wcarinfi; scarlet i»;o\vns 
 and lnL:,li Spanish t'clts, \\\\{) have issued from 
 their l>an(|nettin2; House* on the 'I'yborn lioad, 
 and " witli ii,reat liaU()\vini»- and l)h)\vini>- of 
 " liornes" announce the capture of a I'ox f in 
 tlie adjoining; fields of St. Giles's, where, a 
 century hence, ])erha])s, more exceptionable 
 vermin than he will lind a safer refuse. 
 
 J'.astward, the road to London passes some 
 detached buildings, and near the Ould-bourne 
 skirts the botanical garden of old Gerrard, the 
 herbalist, whose rare and curious plants are 
 refreshed by healthy breezes on a spot where 
 the Londoner of the nineteenth century will 
 search in vain for even a weed. 
 
 A few noblemen have their residences on, 
 or near, this road ; but the general aspect of 
 the country is still almost as open as in the 
 reisn of llichard II., when Wat Tyler and his 
 rout, encamped in Smithlield, descried the king 
 and his nobles afar oif in Long Acre. 
 
 'Hie most considerable mansion on this road 
 is Ely Palace with its extensive gardens, well 
 
 * 'V\\v sitf of wliieh i^ now occviined by Stratford Dace. 
 ■f Stow's Siirvry. 
 
41 
 
 known for the excellence of the strawberries 
 which they produce*. During the present 
 reign a portion of this palace was leased by the 
 Bishop of Ely to the Lord Chancellor Hatton, 
 and a clause in the lease reserves to the Bishop 
 the right of entering the gardens, and gathering 
 twenty bushels of roses anniialbj\. Hereafter, 
 we find this Selymnia and its rich tribute of 
 roses giving place to the more equivocal 
 fragrance of Saffron Hill and Leather Lane. 
 
 At the River Flete a more populous district 
 has now commenced, and a busy suburb 
 stretches itself from the Stone Bridge which 
 crosses that stream, as far as the city walls. 
 We may, however, state generally on the 
 authority of the contemporary map of Aggas, 
 that, except an inconsiderable cluster of houses 
 about the hospital of St. Giles's, and the more 
 remote village of Marylebone, the whole quarter 
 of the town north of the Strand and west of 
 Chancery Lane remained unbuilt in the latter 
 part of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Let us now pursue our inquiries into the 
 state of west London at about the beginning 
 of the last century. 
 
 * Ilollingslicd and Sliakspcarc, in tlic Play of Richard III. 
 ■f- Malcolm's Londiniuni redivivuni. 
 
42 
 
 At this period we find a ])r{)diii:ious change in 
 the aspect of thini^s. Cattle no h)nger graze in 
 Long Acre ; neither arc laiiiuh-esses seen drying 
 thi'ir linen on the grassy surlace of Leicester 
 Fiekls. The whole space comprised between 
 the Strand and Ilolhorn is now entirely covered 
 witli houses, extending in a compact mass as 
 far as St. Martin's Lane; and thence still farther 
 westward the growing sul)ur]) stretches its long 
 arms in various directions. St. Giles's, now no 
 longer in the iields, comprises a population of 
 30,000 souls ; Charinge has become entirely 
 merged in the town, and the Parish of St. 
 Martins, which in Henry VIII. 's time w'as too 
 poor to pay the cost of rebuilding its own 
 church, is now become so populous as to admit 
 of division into four considerable ])arishes. 
 
 Pall Mall, St. James's Street, and Piccadilly, as 
 far as Devonshire House, together with all the 
 intervening streets are now built : but the sloping 
 ground beyond this mansion, called " Penniless 
 " Hank," and indeed all the district westward, 
 still remains for the most part unincumbered 
 bv habitations, whilst the fields, north of Vigo 
 Lane, in wliieli the city conduits stand, also con- 
 tinue unconscious of the burdens which are 
 destined to be imposed upon tliem. 
 
43 
 
 In another direction a mass of houses ex- 
 tends as far as Berwick Street, but it is bounded 
 by Oxford Road, to the north of which scarcely 
 a tenant is yet to be seen. A cow-yard marks 
 the future site of Bedford Square, and the 
 whole district north of Great Russell Street 
 presents a surface still unbroken by the hand of 
 the speculator. 
 
 Various circumstances conspired to occasion 
 this extraordinary increase. A fearful check 
 had, indeed, been given to all the pursuits of 
 peace by the melancholy intestine struggles 
 w^hich occurred in the middle of the seventeenth 
 century, but the restoration w^as succeeded by 
 a period of great activity and enterprise. The 
 fire of London also, without doubt, greatly 
 conduced to the rapid extension of the suburbs. 
 
 With an energy that astonished Europe, the 
 citizens applied themselves to the re-edification 
 of the prostrate city, and in four or five years 
 its restoration appears to have been complete. 
 This rapid renovation would not have been 
 practicable without the greatest exertions. The 
 government held out every inducement to 
 labourers to come from all parts of the country, 
 and the certainty of obtaining employment was 
 not among the least encouraging allurements. 
 In fact, multitudes of building workmen flocked 
 
44 
 
 to London, and when their task was done, they 
 remained to l)e eni])loyed. The snpply created, 
 or, at U'ast suii;a;ested, tlic demand; new works 
 were undertaken ; new streets and buildings 
 ])rojeeted ; and the suhurl)s presented a wide 
 jii'ld for ini])rovenient and ex])ansion, which 
 was not overlooked. We accordingly find Sir 
 Christ()})lier Wren at this time busily engaged, 
 under the direction of the govermnent, in 
 examining and re})()rting uj)on various building 
 projects designed lor the extension of the town 
 at its west end. 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted, that this eminent 
 man was never called upon to lay down (as far, 
 at least, as private rights would permit) a ])lan to 
 regulate the future growth of the district in 
 question. It would, doubtless, have presented 
 an asjKHt far diiferent from that which has 
 suggested these pages : but the whole seems to 
 have been built in distinct and independent 
 patches, with reference to no eidarged views of 
 general amelioration, and with but little regard 
 to the future convenience of the town. 
 
 Since tbe date last referred to, tlu^ (Milarge- 
 ment of this ([uarter of liondon has been 
 constantly i)rogressive ; the letting of the city 
 lands north of Piccadilly caused the erection of 
 Conduit Street and its surrounding district 
 
45 
 
 about the year 1720, the recent accession of 
 the House of Hanover being indicated by the 
 names of the square and adjacent streets ; and 
 thus the whole space between Piccadilly and 
 Oxford Street became covered with buildings. 
 The subsequent erection of several noblemen's 
 houses on the northern side of Oxford Street 
 attracted speculation to that vicinity ; the 
 property of the Earl of Oxford became the scene 
 of its operations, and many years did not elapse 
 before Marylebone became an integral part of 
 the Metropolis. 
 
 If we now turn our eyes towards Westminster 
 we find that the erection of the bridge was 
 speedily followed by the growth of houses on 
 the Marshes beyond the river, whilst in an 
 opposite direction the munificent establishment 
 of the Foundling Hospital, in 1739, was the 
 precursor of a general extension of the town 
 over tracts hitherto sparingly occupied by habi- 
 tations. So great indeed was the activity 
 prevalent about the middle of the last century, 
 that 20,000 houses are said to have been built 
 in London between the years 1750 and 1765*. 
 
 * It has l)ecn calculated that the f]^rouncl covered by 
 buildings in the parishes of St. Martin's and St. Giles\s alone, 
 
46 
 
 But we are now arrived at a period almost 
 within li\ini;- memory : omittinor therefore any 
 description of thi' very important additions and 
 aherations that have heeii effected (hn'inti; tlie 
 two hist rei^'ns, k't us consider what schemes of 
 future ]ira(tieal)k* im]n'ovement may hiy a fair 
 claim to our attention, and what pros])ective 
 arrangements and regulations may })e bene- 
 ficially adopted. 
 
 Among the most obvious improvements that 
 even a cursory glance over the map of London 
 suggests, is the extension of Piccadilly and 
 Coventry Street towards the east. When the 
 narrow courts beyond Leicester Square were 
 first built, Marylebone was nearly a mile chstant 
 
 from the fire of T^ondon to the vcar 18!20, exceeds in surface 
 the united cities of York, Bristol, and Kxeter : and if we 
 coni))are the ])lans of London at tlu'se two jx'i'iods, it will hi- 
 found that an area exceed in<r 1500 acres, has been covered 
 witli streets and houses, on the west side of Temple Bar alone. 
 A surjjrisiufif instance of the increasetl value ac(|uired by 
 land from tlu- enterprises of architecture, is afforded by certain 
 ^roinid held by the City in the vicinity of liond Street, which 
 in the early part of last century was let for X*10 or J?12 
 per annum, but which now returns a nntnl of X'12,0(X) ])er 
 annum, htsides a i\uv of" i'80,000 j)aval)le every fourteen 
 years. 
 
47 
 
 from town : a small portion only of the district 
 contained between Piccadilly and Oxford Road 
 was occupied by houses, and the western termi- 
 nation of Piccadilly itself was at or near Devon- 
 shire House. Of course the populous suburb 
 beyond Grosvenor Place and Hyde Park Corner 
 was not in existence. Thus a very large por- 
 tion of that population which now pours its 
 streams daily through these narrow channels 
 has sprung up since the nuisance was created. 
 
 The opening a free passage on this line of 
 communication has been a measure repeatedly 
 urged, and it may fairly be supposed that no 
 one will be found to deny the very great con- 
 venience that would result from it to the public. 
 As far as Leicester Square, nothing could be 
 more easy of execution ; the two sides of 
 Sidney's Alley should be pulled down, the 
 houses on the left rebuilt on a larger scale, and 
 their fronts brought forward in a line with the 
 north side of Coventry Street ; the houses on 
 the right-hand side would of course be wholly 
 removed, a valuable frontage being thereby 
 afforded to the houses now of little value 
 whose sides would be laid bare by such removal. 
 The only property of high value that would 
 require removal would be the premises of the 
 
48 
 
 eminent 2;ol(lsniith at the corner ; but tlie in- 
 tended rclireinent of tliat gentleman from 
 business, will pcrliaps oiler a favourable oppor- 
 tunity of elleetini;' this phni. 
 
 How the j)roposed new hue would be pursued 
 east ol" Leicester S([uare, may admit of some 
 difference of opinion, (iwyim's suggestions on 
 this point are perha})s rather too destructive, 
 alth()U!^h ado])ted in recent times by the Crown 
 surveyor*. A wide street leading- directly from 
 the corner of Leicester Square to Lon«^ Acre 
 would traverse various thoroughfares in such a 
 way as to require the demolition of much valuable 
 property, and to render it questionable whether 
 the ])enefit derived, great as it would be, were 
 worth the sacrifice; nor would a new street thus 
 directed afford to those great points of confluence 
 Covent Garden market and the theatres, so 
 conq)lete and effectual a relief as could be 
 desired. A more ex])edient ])ro])osition a]ipears 
 to be, to alter the north side of JJear Street, 
 and to ])ull down the lu)uses on the same 
 side of the narrow court which leads into St. 
 Martin's Lane, a highly-improved frontage 
 being consequently obtained by the houses 
 
 ♦ See Fifth llc-port of tlir Coinniissioiu-rs of His Majesty's 
 Woods, &c. 18^(). 
 
49 
 
 remaining on the right-hand side of both the 
 street and court above named. 
 
 If tliis alteration were effected, an easy and 
 straight carriage avenue would be opened from 
 Piccadilly to Covent Garden market and the 
 theatres, which are now accessible only by the 
 most circuitous and inconvenient routes. It 
 will of course be considered very desirable to 
 equalise the width of New Street and King 
 Street ; but this is not to be regarded as imme- 
 diately necessary, although certainly no im- 
 provement of this line of communication can 
 be considered complete, that does not comprise 
 the expansion of the former. 
 
 Having reached the two great theatres by the 
 new track above described, it becomes a matter 
 of very urgent importance to eifect some im- 
 provement in the vicinity of those splendid 
 establishments. The proposition now to be 
 made is, to form a large Piazza *, somewhat in 
 the shape of a quadrant, of which the two straight 
 
 * The vulgar application of the word Piazza is so ob- 
 viously incorrect, that it is perhaps scarcely necessary to say, 
 that an open space is here intended, similar to what, with 
 almost e(jual impropriety, is called a s(piare. Tlie centre 
 of this Piazza would afford a favourable situation for a sculp- 
 tural monument commemotative of Shakspeare. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 sides, or radii, uould he tlic two theatres, 
 u!i(l tlie curNC would be d handsome range of 
 houses havinn,' a covered eolonnaile in front. 
 The area tluis cleared would l)e highly con- 
 venient for the reception of tlie crowd of car- 
 riages wliicli are niglitly collected round these 
 two buildings*, and it would essentially aid 
 their architectural chaiactei- and effect. The 
 facades of l)otli suffer much from tlie pressure 
 and contiguity of the surrounding liouses. 
 That of Covent Garden Theatre, unquestion- 
 ably the first pure example of the Greek Doric 
 style erected in London, has on this account 
 never yet been adequately seen. There is in- 
 deed no style that so much requires the accom- 
 paniment of space as the Greek Doric ; for the 
 perfect synnnetry of all its component parts, 
 which is one of the principal charms of this 
 style, is utterly lost to the eye by the distort- 
 ing effect of perspective, when the point of 
 sight is too near to the object. 
 
 * It is ])r()l)a1)U' th.it ;mv iiR'asiiri- that would diminish tlu' 
 alanuint;" and ivcn danr^iTous confusion now attindant on the 
 simultaneous departure at ni^ht of sonic thousands of persons 
 from the two f;rroat tlicatrcs, would ojiorate favoural)ly to the 
 interests of their proprietors. 
 
51 
 
 A very beneficial puro-ation would be con- 
 sequent upon this improvement ; some courts 
 of very indifferent pretensions would be sup- 
 pressed, and the parish of St. Martin's would 
 probably be induced to sacrifice a cemetery 
 already too crowded with the dead to be any 
 longer available for the purposes of decent 
 interment. 
 
 The new avenue now in progress ' from 
 Waterloo Bridge to Long Acre will greatly 
 facilitate the improvement of this vicinity, 
 and, in conjunction with other improvements 
 about to be suggested, will give a value to this 
 spot in some respects unequalled in London, 
 ensuring the speedy erection of a superior class 
 of buildings. Hereafter we shall have to advert 
 to the necessity of extending northward this 
 avenue ; at present let us continue the course 
 w^e have been pursuing eastward. 
 
 It cannot fail to be observed, that the public 
 would derive great advantage from continuing 
 this proposed line of communication onwards 
 through the populous and ill-arranged district 
 lying between Holborn and Temple Bar. It is 
 probable that many persons of delicate percep- 
 tion have never ventured to visit the precincts 
 of Clare Market : to them, any path, however 
 
circuitous, would be preferable to one wliih 
 lies through this ehstrict. Others, however 
 less tasticlious habits, will bear testimony to ne 
 compoimd of impurity and oletiance in te 
 lanes and comts which it contains : and ill 
 will join in the opinion that, next to a compke 
 and fundamental reformation, the best mode 'f 
 improvmg the state of this district would e 
 to open a spacious avenue through the cenre 
 of it. Let us suppose tliis effected by carryig 
 from the corner of the new Piazza at tiis 
 theatres, a wide street eastward to Carey Strec, 
 and connecting it with the Strand near " 
 Clement's Church by a branch in the directiQ 
 of the present Clement's Lane ; two new ad 
 commochous facilities of access would thu^ c 
 offered to all persons on their way to the ciy 
 or the mns of court, and the present met 
 inconvenient outlet, called "VVych Street, throuh 
 which there is now of necessity much trafb, 
 would be altogether superseded. 
 
 It is needless here to point out to those wJo 
 are interested in the improvement of St. Ce- 
 ment's and New Inns, that the execution *f 
 such a plan as vre have above described woid 
 be of inestimable advantage to those estats, 
 and would hold out a tempting invitation o 
 
1^ spirase of ^e 
 
 f jB£r part ef DkiHT Lane ^ n h JU ^fi^ 
 seic't^: inapraf ^kekttenl jtne^ani 
 
54 
 
 scantily j)i()\ ided, pass vciy (jb)ec'tiuiiably under 
 l)iiil(liiiij,s in snth a manner as to render access 
 to llu'ni, lor llie ])ur|)osL' of" rcpairinii; and cleans- 
 inii,-, always inconvenient, and sometimes almost 
 inij)ra(ti('al)le. 
 
 'riiere is a minor improvement connected 
 with the new avenue under consideration, to 
 which it will l)e well here to allude. Every one 
 must be aware of the extreme inadequacy of 
 Chancery Lane as the principal and (with the 
 exce])tion of the still narrower and more 
 crooked lane, called Fetter Lane) the only 
 means of direct communication between the 
 two ii^reat highways of Fleet Street and IIol- 
 boni : the southern extremity of this lane forms 
 a })ass constantly exposed to ^reat and even 
 dani^erous obstruction. 
 
 To obviate this, let Serle Street be extended 
 southward throui;h the intervening^ allies, and 
 let it enter the Strand at Picket Place : a most 
 advantageous tlioroui;hfare will thereby be 
 obtained with very little sacrifice of ])roj)erty; 
 and by farther converting Great Turnstile into 
 a serviceable carriage way, the cross connnuni- 
 cation between the two great parallel thorough- 
 fares will be satisfactorily established, and will 
 make what has l)een justly described by Gwymi 
 
55 
 
 as " one of the most convenient communications 
 *' in town." 
 
 The next improvement, of which the expe- 
 diency will probably be allowed by every person 
 acquainted with London, will be to form a 
 direct line of communication between the east 
 end of Oxford Street, and Holborn, without 
 having recourse to the present sinuous access by 
 the way of St. Giles's. 
 
 To w^hat accident this singularly awkward 
 point of flexure at St. Giles's Church owes its 
 origin it is difficult now to discover ; it may, 
 however, with some probability be conjectured, 
 that the wall of the garden, attached to the 
 ancient hospital here, ran along the west side of 
 High Street, and deflecting the road sharply to 
 the right compelled it to intersect the old 
 Tyburn Road, in the very objectionable man- 
 ner we now observe. 
 
 But whatever may have occasioned this 
 strange irregularity, it is for us no longer to 
 follow the ill-directed line hitherto taken, but 
 to form a broad thoroughfare at once from the 
 end of Oxford Street, in such a direction as to 
 enter Holborn near Lyon Street. The advan- 
 tages of this measure would be very striking. 
 Without dwelling on the actual danger arising 
 
from tlu' iiarrowiu'ss of soinc^ parts of the 
 present avenue, nor on tlie incTcased facility 
 that would he therehy alforded to the transit of 
 passengers and earriaij^es alonii,' this important 
 hi«rli\vay, how effective a su])})ly of fresh air 
 would the pro])osed communication ])our into a 
 district now one of the worst ventilated in 
 London ! 
 
 In executing' this ini])r()vement, we sliall he 
 strong'ly tem])ted to extend the s])here of our 
 oj)erations in a manner conducive as well to the 
 moral amendment as to the convenience and 
 physical health of this (quarter of the town. 
 For centuries this district has heen known by 
 the appellation of the " Rookery," and more 
 vulgarly, of the '' Holy Land." The unuttera- 
 ])le abominations of it can only be conceived by 
 those who, in the exercise of charity or in 
 quest of Clime, have been forced to become 
 familiar with its recesses. It is indeed the 
 retreat of wretchedness, the nest of disease, 
 and at once the nursery and sanctuary of vice. 
 A very short excursion into this ])lace will be 
 enouL!;h to convince any one, through the me- 
 dium of every sense, that it was built before the 
 ])resent wholesome regulations respecting build- 
 ing and cleansing were in force ; and no part of 
 
57 
 
 the town can more strongly attest the imperfec- 
 tions of the law on the head of drainage. Indeed 
 there is scarcely a single sewer in any part of it ; 
 so that here, where there is the greatest accu- 
 mulation of filth, there is the least provision 
 made for its removal. 
 
 The plough of civic improvement must be 
 driven over the greater part of this district ; it 
 must be levelled, and entirely rebuilt ; and no 
 Parliamentary measure could be more truly 
 patriotic than one which would enforce and aid 
 the gradual accomplishment of so desirable an 
 expurgation. 
 
 The execution of this object would of course 
 require more careful consideration than it has 
 yet received from the author of these pages. 
 The extent to which the removal of property 
 should be carried, the precise direction of the 
 streets which it might be eligible to form, the 
 future appropriation of the acquired area, are 
 all points demanding minute and detailed inves- 
 tigation : in the mean time the following hints 
 may not perhaps be regarded as useless or out 
 of place. It does not appear necessary to take 
 down any of the buildings now fronting the 
 present main street, except at the points where 
 the new street or streets would intersect it. 
 
«8 
 
 This would be inexpedient, because the build- 
 ings oii that frontao-e are of course the most 
 valual)lc, and their rcmoNal is less imperative, 
 because the evils which call the loudest lor 
 correction are to be found in the back lanes 
 and allies behind this frontage. A tolerably 
 comely ran^^e of shops exliibit their fronts to 
 the public passing along High Street and Broad 
 Street, but it is a ])ainted sepulchre of wliicli 
 the abominations lie hidden from the general 
 view*. Let the rotten core therefore be cut 
 out ; let all the tenements from Bain])ridge 
 Street, southward, as far as the backs of the 
 houses in Broad Street, be taken down, and let 
 the same be done from the back of High Street 
 as far as Charlotte Street, eastward, without 
 sparing such of the worst parts farther east- 
 ward as may be necessary to com])lete the 
 desired avenue. An ari-angement might ])ro- 
 
 * SoiiK' idi'.i may I)c' toniicd of tlu' rxtt-'iit of these evils, 
 when it is stated, that in consequence of the totid absence of 
 the usual facilities for cleansing the houses, the parish doctor 
 is sometimes ol)li<^ed to have a bridfje of l)oards laid over the 
 exerc iiieiitarv hiaps in his wav, hifore he can arrive at the 
 door of iiis patients. The state of the interior of the houses 
 mav l)e <ruessed from the fact, that it is no uncommon occur- 
 rciui' for ]V\rrs or asses to pass the night in the same room 
 with their hiiiiiau c()ni|)ani()ns. 
 
59 
 
 bably be adopted that would render it unne- 
 cessary to touch those properties which, by 
 reason of their value, may be supposed to be 
 the most difficult to deal with : the l^rewery of 
 Messrs. Meux and Co. w^ould of course remain : 
 and the large timber yard, with one or two other 
 considerable establishments in this vicinage, 
 need not be disturbed. 
 
 Let us next consider how to appropriate the 
 cleared ground. A glance at the plan of this 
 quarter of London will satify us that this point is 
 a focus towards which there is a general tendency 
 in the direction of the neighbouring streets to 
 converge ; and its central position will be still 
 more apparent when the improvements hereafter 
 to be described are taken into the account. A 
 general market therefore might be most fitly 
 placed here, receiving readily the produce 
 of the country which arrives from the north 
 and west, and dispersing it at once throughout 
 a district as closely peopled as any part of the 
 metropolis. The same site also presents obvious 
 advantages for the formation of a military depot. 
 Here also men of business would be anxious to 
 fix their offices and even their residences, from 
 the perfectly central position of this spot, lying, 
 as it would, in the direct line of connnerce 
 
(>0 
 
 between the eastern and western extremities 
 of tlic (own. There would in short he no 
 dillicuhy in the a])|)ro])riatioii ol" the vaeant 
 i^rouiul ; k't it l)ut ho onee eleared, and new 
 and handsome huildiui^s woukl not be slow to 
 sprinii; u]) on every side ; for no ])uilder would 
 he williiin- to waste liis ca])ital on the suburbs, 
 ^\hen an o])portunity offered of more l)ene- 
 fieially employin*;' it in the heart of the town. 
 
 It may ])ossibly liappen that some persons 
 will he found to exclaim against this crusade 
 \\\)un the "Holy Land," and tell us that if the 
 needier classes of citizens are to be dislodij;ed 
 from their favourite quarters, it is absolutely 
 necessary that we should at least be prepared 
 to find them some commodious and fitting 
 shelter elsewhere. Nothing indeed is more 
 certain than that the humbler ranks of society 
 must be provided with suitable lodgings some- 
 where, though the ])ampered children of artifi- 
 cial refinement may turn with distaste from the 
 coiit('in])lati()n of their offensive habils or their 
 scpialid condition. Ihit it is a humane regard 
 for tlicir intei't'sts that rui-nishes one ol'the most 
 cogent arguments lor the execution of this ])lan 
 of improxcnient. An im])ortant ])art tlierefore 
 ot" our plan, is to suggest the sul)stitution of 
 
61 
 
 healthy, clieerful, and cheap lodgings, in lieu of 
 the dismal ahodes we propose to remove. 
 
 Portions of unoccupied ground should be 
 taken in the skirts of the town (such for ex- 
 ample as the waste land beyond Vauxhall Road, 
 the open fields west of the Edgeware Road, 
 those behind Euston Square, or other similar 
 spots) and let a village, expressly dedicated to 
 the working classes, be there erected. The 
 avenues should be so laid out as to be wide, 
 clear, and regular; and every means that in- 
 genuity can devise for securing cleanliness and 
 airiness should be adopted. The houses should 
 be arranged and constructed upon a plan totally 
 differing in every respect from the small, close, 
 inconvenient tenements usually let out into 
 lodgings*, and each should be built with a 
 
 * " One house in the neighbourhood of Monmouth Street, 
 when the above dreadful fire took place, was a short time 
 since let out to various families consisting of fifty-tliree iiuman 
 beings, and yielded a rent to tlie landlord of between £. 90 
 and oC.lOO per annum. Tlie underground floor, consisting of 
 one apartment, was occupied by one man, one woman, and 
 five children ; the ground-floor, two apartments, occuj)ied by 
 two men, two women, and eight children; the first floor, two 
 a})artments, stuffed Avith two men, three women, and five 
 children ; second floor, two apartments, containing three men, 
 four women, and six children; garrets, two rooms occupied 
 
62 
 
 view to consult in cNcry possible way tlie 
 conilort ol" tlu* inhabitants*. Except in tlie 
 boarded floors, timber inii»,lit l)e entirely dis- 
 carded in the consti-nction ot" the liouses, as 
 wvW to ensure tlicni iVoni liic and dilapidation, 
 as to ])roinote their })urity. The roofs and 
 fioors should he su})ported ])y iron or ])rick, and 
 even tlie win(h)W sashes and frames niii>'ht l)e 
 advantageously made of the former material. 
 The rooms should be lofty ; the passages and 
 staircases wide ; a perfect system of drainaij^e 
 should be adopted throughout, and an abund- 
 ance of water supplied to each floor, a ])ro- 
 vision of indescribable comfort to the poor, whose 
 unhealthiness and unclean habits are to be 
 
 1)V tliiTc nun, thri'i- women, and six cliililivn. Tims it aj)))i';u-s 
 that a liou-M' (and tlu-re arc huiulreds let in a similar manner) 
 in a drnsilv |)()j)iilatrd and cxtri'mi'Iy unlualthy nei^hbour- 
 h<Kxl, consistinfi^ ot" nine small rooms, was occupied l)y no 
 less than eleven men, thirteen women, and thirty diildren, 
 brcathinpj the air of pestilence in thi' dop^-days, and such is the 
 conlincd state of the ni'ii;hl)i)iiih()n(l, that a l)ri'ath of air can 
 scarcilv enter within its puilieus." — Kifrnrf fnini thr Timks 
 Nrirsj,n},rr, Sept. L', 1S.'J;3. 
 
 * Ml-. Hninrl has su<^<Tcsted to the author the j)ractieal)ility 
 of lay'ni;i on Iwnf to a hmj]; range of these dwellings from one 
 common source; a contrivance which, if })erfected, would be 
 of iiustimahle importance in London, where the high price of 
 fuel is so great a hurtlicn upon tlic pool-. 
 
63 
 
 mainly attributed to the scarcity of this article 
 in their present wretched hal3itations. 
 
 Nor should we forget to provide for the in- 
 mates of these groupes of dwellings some open 
 place for recreation, where healthy exercises 
 and the innocent pleasures of society might be 
 enjoyed during the hours of leisure and the 
 days of rest. 
 
 The ground should be purchased by the 
 public money, and appropriated to the use of 
 the labouring classes ; and a commission or some 
 such permanent Board as we have already 
 described (which might be called the Board of 
 Metropolitan Improvement), should assume the 
 whole direction and superintendance of the 
 works. If the requisite sum for the completion 
 of this project be advanced by way of a loan, 
 and entrusted to the management of the Board, 
 there is every reason to hope that, even sup- 
 posing these tenements to be let at a rate far 
 lower than the usual rent which this class of 
 people are accustomed to pay, an income would 
 arise quite sufficient to pay reasonable interest 
 on the money expended, and to yield a surplus 
 that might form a sinking fund for the ultimate 
 repayment of the principal. 
 
 In considering the execution of this ])lan, we 
 
iiiiii,ht ri'fcr with ;i(l\aiita<i,'c to ihc course 
 adopted l)y llu' Hoard of Ciistoiiis with respect 
 to the Coast (iiiard SeiNice, ior whose use 
 a i;reat nuinl)er of cottages liave been built on 
 the coast under the diii'ction of that IJoard. 
 An inconsiderable rent, always much lower than 
 that paid for similar accommodation in adjacent 
 villai>'es, is paid ])y the crews of the diflerent 
 stations, which is found to ])rodiice fair interest 
 on the outlay, notwithstandini;- the ])eculiar dis- 
 advantages of situation under which most of 
 these cottages were necessarily built. 
 
 In the present case, the extent, uniformity, 
 and simplicity of the buildings would be nuich 
 in favour of their economical execution, situated, 
 as tliey would ])e, in the midst of com])etition 
 so keen as sometimes to reduce the ex])eiise of 
 a building to the level of its ])rinie cost : nor 
 does it ap])ear unreasonable to expect that in 
 the execution of such works expressly under- 
 taken for the exclusive benefit of tlu^ labouring 
 classes, the duty on the various building ma- 
 terials used might be wholly or in part remitted, 
 as in the case of the erection and repair of 
 churches, &c. 
 
 Let us, however, su])])ose, notwithstanding all 
 the means we have in London of reducing the 
 
65 
 
 expense of these tenements that they cost as 
 much as the Coast Guard Cottages we have 
 alluded to : each of these, consisting of nine 
 rooms, has, on the coast of Kent and Sussex, 
 cost on an average £.330 ; if, then, these nine 
 rooms were let at the rate of eighteen-pence 
 a week per room, the annual rent of a house of 
 this capacity would be £.35 2*. and thus an 
 interest of £.10 12*. Od. per cent, would be 
 realized on the outlay. 
 
 To provide airy, pleasant lodgings, supplied 
 with all the conveniences we have described, at 
 so low a rate would indeed be an invaluable 
 boon to the mechanics and labourers of Lon- 
 don. The poorest vagrant now pays six-pence 
 per night for leave to lie down on a wretched 
 pallet in some foul chamber in St. Giles's with 
 a dozen or more forlorn beings like himself; 
 and a workman is obliged to pay from 3s. to 4*. 
 per week for the hire of a single room in which 
 he, his wife, and perhaps a numerous family, are 
 condemned to live day and night. It is delight- 
 ful to contemplate the vast accession that would 
 be made to the domestic happiness and health 
 of that family, if the father were enabled to 
 take two cheerful rooms, abundantly supplied 
 with water and fresh air, at a rent no higher 
 than he now pays for one miserable chamber. 
 
 F 
 
GG 
 
 It has been siij)])()sed that some pu])hc fund 
 mi^iZ;]it \)c made available for the execution of 
 this ^ood \\()ik, and it has been sliown that it 
 would involve no unproiitable employment of 
 capital. Indeed any Act of Parliament for the 
 extensive hn])rovement of St. Giles's Parish, or 
 of other parts of London of similar character, 
 should certainly contem])late an ample and 
 careful provision for trlie numerous tenants 
 whose habitations, such as they are, would be 
 destroyed, and whose situation in society gives 
 them peculiar claims upon our sympathy and 
 attention. Should the plan, however, of pro- 
 vidinf^ better dwellings for the working classes 
 be left to be carried into effect by private 
 speculators, a higher rate of profit must tempt 
 them to embark in the project, and the rents 
 must be proportionably raised ; and if indi- 
 viduals are not found adventurous enough to 
 engage in the work, we have yet seen companies 
 established, and large capitals found for objects 
 far less beneficial to the public, and far less 
 lucrative to the undertakers, than the erection 
 of such buildings as we have described. 
 
 Before we pass from this subject, it may be 
 well to add another suggestion, which it is 
 hoped may receive a ])r()per consideration. 
 The tenements we have been hitherto contem- 
 
67 
 
 plating, are calculated for the various classes of 
 mechanics employed in trade and manufactures, 
 who can afford to enjoy the comforts of a home ; 
 but for the poorest and most destitute classes 
 of labourers, and for those who live by the 
 humblest occupations, we have yet to provide. 
 
 It is well known that, in the district 
 under consideration, as well as in many other 
 quarters of London, there are lodging houses 
 for the reception of the latter description of 
 persons. They generally consist of six or 
 eight small rooms, each of which often contains 
 six beds ; and it is no uncommon circumstance 
 for sixty persons to be sleeping in one of these 
 loathsome abodes. For the use of these 
 wretched beds (if such they may be termed) 
 four-pence or six-pence is required per night, 
 and it is a fact familiar to the parish officers that 
 great properties have been, and still are, accu- 
 mulated in this way*. The bad effects of such 
 
 * Six-pence per night is the regular charge for a bed, and 
 four-pence for half a bed. The profitable nature of these 
 establishments may be imderstood from the fact, that the 
 proprietor of four of the above lodging houses in St. Giles's, 
 himself originally not much removed in rank above his present 
 tenants, is now said to be in circumstances sufficiently affluent 
 to enable him to educate a son at one of the universities. 
 
68 
 
 a system are ()])vious : the sole and natural 
 object of the lodi^inc^-house keeper is of course 
 to amass tiie largest amount of money in the 
 shortest time ; he exacts his nightly rent with 
 the utmost strictness, and too frequently resorts, 
 it is said, to measures of great harshness in its 
 collection, lie crowds his miserable tenants 
 together with utter disregard of decency ; men, 
 women, and children lie in one promiscuous 
 heap : for them there is no alternative but this 
 odious accommodation, or the bare pavement of 
 the streets. It is painful to imagine what 
 must be the feelings of the honest labourer, 
 who, not unmindful of the decencies of life, 
 nor insensible to the moral welfare of his family, 
 still iiiuls himself thus compelled to expose 
 them to the inexpressible abominations of such 
 a scene. Let it then be our task to devise some 
 means for remedying an evil so destructive of 
 the comfort and morals of the humbler classes. 
 It is proposed to construct dormitories, 
 arranged on a simple plan, in suitable parts of 
 every parish. Although not in conspicuous 
 streets, they should be in the most open and 
 airy situations that can be obtained, and should 
 consist of several light, capacious rooms or 
 galleries, wanned and ventilated with the 
 
69 
 
 utmost care. The floors should be of slate, 
 stone, or stucco : the walls of stuccoed brick- 
 work : each room should have a wide passage 
 down the middle, or along one side, communi- 
 cating with a range of compartments, six or 
 eight feet square, separated by partitions about 
 six feet high of slate or sheet metal : and at 
 the end of each room should be a large sink 
 and cistern with a copious supply of water. 
 The rooms thus arranged would much resemble 
 in plan the wards of Chelsea Hospital. 
 
 Each of the compartments, decently sepa- 
 rated, and containing an iron bedstead with 
 comfortable bedding, might be let out by the 
 night or the week to any poor person who 
 should apply for it. 
 
 There is little doubt but that one of these 
 dormitories, containing eighty-four beds or com- 
 partments, with a staircase, rent-collector's 
 room, and other requisites, could be completed 
 for £.2,400. If, then, each of the compartments 
 were let for two-pence per night, an annual 
 rental would be produced of about £.252, being 
 the interest of 10^ per cent, on the cost. 
 Thus, when the expense of collecting the rents, 
 the supply of water, the ground-rent, and a 
 few other contingent expenses, have been 
 
70 
 
 deducted (the cleansing and regular household 
 work l)e'ini;- done by the ])arish |)au})ers\ an 
 income \\()uld still I'cniain suflicicnt ])rol)al)ly 
 to jiistiiy a prudent Vestry in sanctioning a 
 project, the direct aim and end of which would 
 be to relieve the indigent from ])rivate extortion 
 and oppression ; to allbrd them a decent, 
 wholesome, and comfortable accommodation ; 
 and, by inducing habits of more order and 
 morality than are now to be found in these 
 receptacles of disease and \ ice, eventually to 
 disburthen the parish itself of no inconsiderable 
 load of poor-rates. 
 
 It is time, however, to return from this 
 digression, and to enter upon the considera- 
 tion of other improvements which invite our 
 attention. 
 
 Since the close of the seventeenth century, 
 when the streets and lanes that intervene be- 
 tween Broad Street, St. Giles's, and the Strand 
 were formed, a suburban district of vast and 
 continually increasing extent has arisen to the 
 north, and rendered ])opulous the whole sur- 
 face from the former line of street as far as 
 Camden and Somers' Towns. Narrow and in- 
 convenient as those streets and lanes are, they 
 were sufficient, ])crhaps, in their day, and no 
 
71 
 
 salutary interference was exercised to secure 
 their adaptation to the wants of the future. 
 
 Tlie urgent necessity of some good avenue 
 running north and south through this part has 
 long been felt and acknowledged ; nor can there 
 be a question but that, to effect this desirable 
 object, the new street now in progress from the 
 Strand to Long Acre should be prolonged still 
 farther northward. This could, perhaps, be 
 done with the least invasion of property by 
 adopting the line of Hanover and Belton streets. 
 If the streets in this line were considerably 
 widened by throwing back one side and re- 
 building the houses on the new frontage in a 
 neat and uniform manner, the other side might 
 be safely left to improve itself; for the owners 
 of the old houses, finding their property in a 
 greatly improved situation, and commanding a 
 much higher rent, would naturally be led to 
 consider the expediency of bettering the ap- 
 pearance and increasing the stability of their 
 respective buildings. 
 
 From Belton Street a slight inclination would 
 be necessary to lead the line of the proposed 
 new street into Broad Street, at a point imme- 
 diately opposite Plumtree Street. The latter 
 short street might then be widened by removing 
 
72 
 
 the houses on the west side of it, and thus 
 expandin*^ it to the lull width of C'haHotte and 
 Gower streets, with which it already alliiijns. 
 
 By this plan, a tolerai)ly straii!;ht and eom- 
 modious thorouirhfare, nearly two miles and 
 a-half in length, would be obtained, extending 
 from the Obelisk in Surrey to the Hanipstead 
 road, and thence into the great north road. 
 
 There can be no doubt but that it would be 
 still more conducive to the convenience, as well 
 as the architectural beauty of the town, to form 
 a fine straight street, on an entirely new line* ; 
 but the merit of the above plan is, that it would 
 substantially procure for the ])ublic those bene- 
 fits which are the most recjuired at half the 
 cost of a wholly new street; nor, considering 
 the quarter through m hich this new street would 
 pass, does it ai)))ear altogether justifiable to 
 
 * The Autlior has been informed ])y tlie very able survcvor 
 for the MtTcers"' Conipaiiv, to wliicli all the adjacent property 
 belongs, that, owing to tlie aetidtntal faliiiiL!; in of a number of 
 leases, this entirely new line might at the present moment be 
 opened at the insignificant cost of o(!M2,000, although of course 
 the necessity of s])ei'dilv granting new leases, will s(x)n enliance 
 very consiiliTahlv the cost of such an undertaking. 'J'his case 
 forcibly illustrates the advantages to be derived from the 
 api>ointment of a IJoard, whose duties and jxjwcrs have been 
 sketche<l out in the preceding pages. 
 
73 
 
 double the expense of it for the sake of laying it 
 down in an exactly straight line, and giving to 
 its two sides a perfectly architectural symmetry 
 and correspondence. 
 
 The next line of communication to be con- 
 sidered is one of great public importance, and 
 will become still more so when the proposed 
 innovations in St. Giles's shall have rendered 
 that quarter a more inviting neighbourhood. 
 The only tolerably direct path at present open 
 to those who are desirous of going from West- 
 minster to Tottenham Court Road and its adja- 
 cent region, is St. Martin's Lane. This lane, 
 which, as we have seen above, was anciently 
 almost a random track, followed in all its 
 windings by the builders of succeeding times, 
 may be traced under the name of Hog Lane 
 (now called Crown Street), to St. Giles's Pound 
 at the bottom of Oxford Street. At the end of 
 the seventeenth century, upon the erection of 
 the streets about the Seven Dials, a straighter 
 and wider way, nearly in the same direction, was 
 opened by St. Andrew's Street. In 1826 the 
 attention of the officers of the Crown appears 
 to have been attracted to the further improve- 
 ment of this line; and in the Fifth Report of 
 the Commissioners of Woods and Forests we 
 
74 
 
 find a plan for a most extensive improvement 
 here, consistini]^ of a liandsonic and entirely new 
 street, as wide as the llaymarkot, from St. 
 Martin's Church to the middle of 15road Street, 
 St. Giles's. The new street was then to turn 
 to the rii;lit into Hart Street, which was to be 
 also fj;reatly widened, and a spacious (juach-anf^le 
 in front of the British Museum was to be formed, 
 for which ])urpose all the houses from Hart 
 Street to Great Russell Street were tobe removed, 
 Bloomsbury Cluuxh being left standinf^ in the 
 centre of it. Without denying the merits of 
 this extensive project, we may be ])ermitted 
 to o])serve that it seems liable to some objec- 
 tions. Taking its course, as this street would, 
 through the midst of one of the meanest districts 
 of London, it would be vain to erect ranges of 
 handsome edifices of the kind that must have 
 been contemplated in ])rojecting so spacious 
 a street. Surrounded on all sides by such a 
 neiiihbourhood, who would be found to be the 
 tenants of them ? It seems, too, rather a gra- 
 tuitous act of demolition to destroy upwards of 
 a hundred houses, and those by no means of a 
 very low character, for the purpose of forming 
 a ((uadrangle opposite the INIuseum. JJlooms- 
 bury church, notwithstanding its striking portico, 
 
75 
 
 might ill bear the naked exposure of all its 
 fronts, for which, in the original design, they 
 were never calculated ; and with regard to the 
 Museum, that edifice when completed according 
 to the design approved by the Trustees, and 
 partly carried into execution, will include within 
 its own limits an area in front sufficiently ample 
 to secure to the fopatle an advantageous display. 
 It seems then more expedient to divert the 
 zeal which gave birth to this project, and to 
 direct it to some improvements more impe- 
 ratively demanded. We must for the present 
 satisfy ourselves with clearing from some of its 
 worst encumbrances the line of avenue in 
 question (which has the advantage of being at 
 present the course of a large and recently 
 constructed sewer), and to this end, all that is 
 now absolutely necessary is to widen the throat 
 of St. Martin's Lane near the Church, by setting 
 back the fronts of several houses ; to make 
 similar alterations at the end next to Lonsr 
 Acre, and to straighten as well as to widen 
 Little St. Martin's Lane; which latter object 
 might probably be most economically effected 
 by confining ourselves to the west side of the 
 Lane, and setting back and straightening its 
 frontage. 
 
76 
 
 If we a^ain refer to a <z:eneral Map of this 
 part of London, we shall perceive that, from 
 causes similar to those alluded to in a former 
 instance, there is a great want of ready and 
 direct communication l)etween the north and 
 south throuirhout the district com])rised between 
 Oxford Street and Piccadilly. Eastward of the 
 spacious avenue of Regent Street, there is really 
 no continuous line of communication, except 
 the very inadequate one by way of Wardour 
 and Princes Streets. 
 
 To supply this obvious want, a most useful 
 thoroughfare might be provided for the public 
 by prolonging the Haymarket into Poland 
 Street : not that it is intended to convert this 
 into a spacious avenue of a handsome architec- 
 tural character, such as some years ago was 
 proposed by the Crown land surveyors ; for 
 Regent Street is too near to render such a pro- 
 ject necessary or expedient ; but a connnodious 
 and direct thoroughfare is undoubtedly de- 
 sirable, and might be effected without involving 
 any very extensive sacrifice. Let a ])()rtion of 
 the east side of Great Windmill Street at the 
 south end be taken down, and let the new 
 frontaire be thrown back so as to leave a street 
 of ffood and sufficient width ; and farther north, 
 
77 
 
 let a portion of the west side undergo a similar 
 operation. The whole of the houses on the 
 east side of Little Windmill Street and Cam- 
 bridge Street should then be taken down and 
 set back : a wide and nearly straight street 
 would be the result, leading from the Hay- 
 market to Broad Street ; and though it would 
 be necessarily irregular in its architecture, from 
 the intermixture of new and old houses, an 
 opportunity would be afforded of giving it 
 something a picturesque effect, by indulging 
 in greater freedom of style than could with 
 propriety be admitted in Regent Street, and 
 by attempting to impart to it some of those 
 irregular beauties which form so striking and 
 agreeable a feature in many of the old conti- 
 nental cities. 
 
 It may reasonably be expected that, as in the 
 case of the proposed expansion of Hanover and 
 Belton streets, the owners of the old houses, 
 remaining undisturbed in the new street, would 
 soon see their account in improving their ex- 
 terior in order to reap the full benefit of their 
 altered situation. 
 
 Our new street, after emerging into Broad 
 Street would then be continued on the opposite 
 side by Poland Street, a sorry completion (it 
 must be allowed) of this new line, but its actual 
 
78 
 
 existeiKi' must be our a|)olo<>;y for adopting it 
 as ])art of" our ])laii tor tlic ])ii'sent, and Icavini:; 
 its further iiiiproNcnicnt to tlie aniendini;' liand 
 of a future <;eneration *. 
 
 It has not been the intention of tlie Author, in 
 these pages, to enter into any detailed investiga- 
 tion of the ])ecuniary expenditure or proiit 
 attendant on the improvements suggested ; ])ut 
 it may not, in the present ease, be improper to 
 refer to the First Report (1812) of the Commis- 
 sioners of ^^'oods, cVc, in wliich will be found a 
 calculation made by the very able and experi- 
 enced Crown land surveyors, of the cost of the 
 entirely new avenue on this line which was in 
 agitation ])reviously to the formation of Regent 
 Street. The estimated cost of that great under- 
 taking was £290, ()()(). Now as the far more limited 
 and modest ])lan here suggested would involve 
 the purchase of considerably less than half of 
 the property then taken into account (property 
 whicli it must be remembered cannot but be 
 deteriorated in some degree by the lapse of 25 
 years) we might safely estimate the cost of our 
 plan at less than €I.")(), ()()(); an outlay which it 
 seems reasonable to su])pose would be far more 
 
 * 'I'lir opulent parish w itliiii wliosc limits I'olaiid Strcot is 
 incliulrd, lias for soiiu' time iMitiTtaincd tin- project of witk'ninfr 
 this street at its entrance into Oxford Street. 
 
79 
 
 than balanced by the greatly improved value 
 of upwards of 4400 feet of frontage which 
 this new street would comprise, together with 
 the value of the fee simple of the ground pur- 
 chased. 
 
 As immediately connected with this part of 
 our proposal it should be here mentioned, that 
 the removal of only two houses in Poland Street 
 would open a communication between Great 
 Marlborough Street * and Noel and Ilollen 
 streets : a change indeed trifling in extent, but 
 recommended to the public by its convenience, 
 and to the owners of houses in the two latter 
 streets by the accession of value which would 
 accrue to their property. Noel Street is at 
 present a worthless and ill-conditioned cul-de-sac , 
 whilst HoUen Street, though scarcely superior 
 in its pretensions, stands on Crown land, and is 
 therefore especially entitled to the attention of 
 His Majesty's officers, whenever Poland Street 
 shall have become, by the adoption of the pre- 
 ceding suggestion, an important thoroughfare. 
 
 We will now turn our attention to the 
 
 * The architectural pretensions of the metropolis a luni<hed 
 years a<]jo, are amusingly illustrated by the remark of Italph, 
 who, in his Critical lleview, refers to Great Marlborough 
 street as being generally esteemed one of the finest streets in 
 Europe ! 
 
80 
 
 courtly ([uarttT of the town, beii;inning our 
 observations w itli St. James's Park. As we are 
 now upon the lands ot" the Crown, the author 
 is sensible that some apology is due tor a])])a- 
 rently invadin«^ tlie province of officers to whom 
 the management of tliese lands is entrusted, 
 and who are undoubtedly (juite competent to 
 the task of im])rovement. Let it, liowever, be 
 borne in mind, that while their official duties 
 chiefly engage them to maintain the revenues 
 of the crown and to reconnnend such mea- 
 sures only as may tend to improve the perma- 
 nent value of the property of which they 
 are the good and faithful stewards, the author 
 prescribes to himself the task of pointing out 
 such improvements as a})])ear calculated to 
 promote the ]Mi])lic convenience, and the 
 general embellishment of the city. 
 
 The first proposal is to open a new carriage 
 entrance to St. James's Park directly from the 
 Strand. When, in 1G99, William the Third 
 conceded to the public the present footjxith 
 into the Park at the end of New Street Sj)ring 
 Gardens, it was perhaj)s all that the circum- 
 stances of the town then demanded. l>ut the 
 ])r{)digi()us augmentation of the town farther 
 westward since that period, has rendered a 
 horse and carriage entrance here most desirable : 
 
81 
 
 nor can we doubt that the same graceful and 
 considerate kindness which prompted his pre- 
 sent Majesty to direct the opening to be made 
 at the bottom of Regent street, would secure 
 the favourable reception of any representation 
 that his subjects might make to him respecting 
 this additional privilege. 
 
 The best situation for the proposed opening 
 appears to be in Spring Gardens, a little to the 
 right of the chapel. In order to effect this 
 object in a handsome manner it would indeed 
 be eligible to purchase and take down two or 
 three houses, yet it fortunately happens that 
 this is not absolutely necessary. The removal 
 of one house, only, in Spring Gardens, and 
 that the property and in the occupation of the 
 Crown, with the addition of a narrow slip of 
 garden ground at the back of it, would be 
 sufficient to form an almost direct Hue of Com- 
 munication from Temple Bar to Chelsea. 
 
 The road that would be entered upon by 
 this proposed gateway is, it is true, rather 
 deflected from its direct course by Buckingham 
 Palace : the exit must be by the lodge gate 
 south of the palace, and when the livery 
 stables and public house at the corner of 
 Stafford row, as well as the adjoining dwelhngs 
 
82 
 
 are removed (which must necessarily be done 
 before tlie pakice can be considered to be com- 
 plete), an obli(iue road will of course be formed 
 from the gate above-mentioned to the Royal 
 stables. 
 
 The infelicitous selection of the site of most 
 of our ])ul)lic buildings is lamentably exem- 
 plified in this palace. Ever since the fire in 
 1698 which destroyed Whitehall Palace, the 
 King of England has been worse lodged than 
 the sovereigns of most of the petty German 
 and Italian states : the propriety, therefore, of 
 providing a new Royal residence has long been 
 acknowledged : but that a palace, after this 
 long delay, should at length have been rebuilt 
 in a situation destitute of almost every quality 
 that can recommend it to an architect, must 
 ever be a subject of deep regret. Nor is our 
 regret lessened by remarking that the spot 
 selected is within a few hundred paces of 
 one of the finest sites for architectural effect, 
 which London affords. Had the palace been 
 built in the centre of the Green Park upon 
 an elevation at least equal to that of the 
 neighbouring reservoir, and made to lift its 
 head proudly u})()n wide-spreading terraces 
 and hanging gardens like the ancient palace 
 
83 
 
 of tlie Caesars at Rome, an architectural scene 
 of surprising splendour could not have failed 
 to be the result. The road up Constitution hill 
 would in that case have been diverted from 
 its present course, and have been led through 
 the gardens of Buckingham House, across 
 Grosvenor Place, and thence directly into the 
 fine avenue in the middle of Eaton square. 
 Our regrets, however, are now unavailing : an 
 expense (which has yet by no means reached 
 its maximum) has already been incurred exceed- 
 ing that of any building in England, if not in 
 Europe, since the erection of St. Paul's ; and 
 he would be a bold man who would now pro- 
 pose to relinquish the unfinished work and 
 recommence it under more favourable circum- 
 stances. 
 
 With regard to St. James's Palace, its partial 
 demolition appears a probable corollary to the 
 establishment of the court at the new palace. 
 Its gardens, as well as those of Marlborougii 
 house, present too tempting a field for building 
 speculations to leave much chance of their long 
 continuing undisturbed. There are, however, 
 some parts of this palace which it would be 
 barbarous to destroy. The German chapel, 
 probably the work of Inigo Jones, is a substan- 
 
8-1 
 
 tial stiiic'tiirc of very i;rcat internal hoauty. 'IMie 
 l>an(jurttini>- room, hclievocl on i>()o(l ti,r()Uiids 
 to he till' work of Sir Christ()i)her Wren, 
 and the state apartments adjoininir, are very 
 s])len{li(l ; the l>all room, especially, is of 
 admirahle ])roportions. These ou^ht certainly 
 not to be included in any scheme of destruc- 
 tion, and it may be well worth consideration 
 whether some of these apartments, if ever 
 a])andoned by His Majesty, mii>:ht not be 
 advantai!;eously appro])riated to Almack's balls, 
 and other similar re-unions of rank and fashion. 
 The vulgar and ill-adapted room at present 
 used for this purpose is wholly unworthy of the 
 purposes to which it is applied, and cannot be 
 successfully defended from the severe criticism 
 of a recent German tourist. 
 
 The ""ate tower at the bottom of St. James's 
 street has a venerable character, but it is in 
 a crippled and nmtilated state, and has been 
 so often repaired and rebuilt in its various parts 
 that the two small archways on each side of 
 the great gate are nearly all that now remains 
 of the original Tudor architecture. The central 
 arch, the windows, battlements, S:c., are all of 
 recent date, and altogether unlike the corres- 
 ponding parts of the original building, of which 
 
85 
 
 the engraved representations by Hollar and 
 others are hardly now to be recognised*. 
 
 Whatever portions of this palace it may be 
 the pleasure of His Majesty to remove, all that 
 the public are interested in securing is a 
 carriage way into the park at the foot of St. 
 James's street, and this end would be attained 
 by only sacrificing the Flag court, a part of 
 the palace certainly of little interest or beauty. 
 
 The throwing open of the lower end of 
 St. James's street would give to it an air of 
 greater cheerfulness than it has hitherto worn, 
 and would afford a far more convenient access 
 to the park than the present gateway from 
 the Stable yard, which would of course cease 
 to be in general use. 
 
 Opposite this new gateway should be pro- 
 vided some mode of communication with West- 
 minster over the ornamental water within the 
 enclosure. The wooden bridge which formerly 
 
 * Although the general design of this palace is usually 
 attributed to Cromwell, Earl of Leicester, it is highly pro- 
 bable that he was assisted by the genius of Holbein. The 
 ceiling of the Chapel Royal may be confidently pronounced 
 to be his work, and is a very curious specimen of his style. 
 The initials of Henry and Ainic Boleyn are painted in iiiauv of 
 the j)anels. 
 
86 
 
 stood here was a o-r^at |)ii])lic' convenience, and 
 niii>lit ])erlia])s be usefully replaced by some 
 similar structure. If a li^ht suspension brid«re 
 of co])p('r wire were thrown over here, similar to 
 that at CJeneva, the effect would not be inele- 
 i;aiit, and tlie cost of it very moderate. 
 
 If we now turn our attention to the parade 
 in front of the Horse Guards, we shall perceive 
 an instance of an excellent situation spoilt by 
 a deplorable want of order and fitness in the 
 architecture which occupies it. The genius of 
 dulness must indeed have presided over the 
 arts, or at least over those who controuled and 
 directed their exercise, when this incongruous 
 group of spiritless buildings was erected. The 
 whole site, including even Spring Gardens, was 
 Crown land, encumbered by few existing build- 
 ings, so that the field was open and no ])lea of 
 constraint or necessity can be urged on their 
 behalf. If instead of the present building of 
 the Horse Guards, which is said to be very 
 inconvenient within, and whose exterior, broken 
 up into a confusion of small parts, is generally 
 allowed to l)e wanting in that grandeur of style 
 wliich should distinguish a public edifice, a 
 large building of simple and elevated character 
 had been erected, having circular, advancing 
 
87 
 
 colonnades, somewhat similar to those which 
 embrace the cortile of St. Peter's at Rome, 
 comprehending the whole of the parade, a 
 very different and, it is apprehended, a very 
 superior effect ^vould have been produced. 
 But the eighteenth century may be too truly 
 characterized as the Boeotian age of architecture 
 in England ; the bold, masculine freedom of 
 the previous century was lost ; and of all the 
 numerous productions of that period very 
 few rose above a tame mediocrity. The pro- 
 fession of an architect had indeed hardly any 
 separate existence at this time, and works of 
 great magnitude were often left to the taste 
 of the mason or carpenter, who, with Paine and 
 Batty Langley for their guides, piled up one 
 huge amorphous mass after another, without 
 any pretension to originality and without even 
 slender merit of being correct copyists. 
 
 The buildings, however, on this parade are 
 chiefly works of too substantial and expensive a 
 character to justify any proposition for their 
 removal ; and it is to be feared, therefore, that 
 we must submit for a season to their present 
 unsatisfactory appearance ; but there can be no 
 reason why a few touches of improvement 
 should not be given to it. The shabbv stabling, 
 
88 
 
 and the (uinncr's old Iiduso, on i\w Admiralty 
 side, sliould not continue to disfii»,'Lire the 
 parade; and on the Treasury side, the old 
 buildin«;s of Downini;- street may give ])laee to 
 somet]iini>' that ^vould embellish the ])ark. In- 
 deed the natural ])eriod of their dissolution is 
 drawini;- iiii»h, ibr the Foreign Office stands 
 only by the aid of wooden props, and tlie 
 l^remier's lioiise has long been the victim of 
 the dry rot. 
 
 INluch of the surrounding property now 
 belongs to the Crown, and if a few more houses 
 in Fludyer street w^ere purchased a handsome 
 piazza miglit be formed, comprising exclusively 
 official buildings and uniting with the present 
 Treasury, the Council Office, and other con- 
 tiguous offices. This piazza should be quadran- 
 gular, three sides being {)ccu})ie(l by buildings, 
 and the Iburth or west side left o])en towards 
 the ])ark with a rail and central gateway. 
 By a judicious economy of space and l)y 
 omitting all su])ertiu()us accommodation, a great 
 nund)er of j)ul)lic otiices might be compre- 
 hended within this comparatively small area. 
 The system of housing oHice-keepers, door- 
 keepers, and others cjusdem ireneris, is ])roduc- 
 tive of nothing but c\pens(\ entailing on the 
 
89 
 
 Crown a variety of indefinite charges for fur- 
 nishing, repairing, altering, and beautifying, 
 which the utmost vigilance cannot controul. 
 The same observation applies, perhaps, to 
 official residences generally, w^hich occasion 
 great annual expense, the more objectionable 
 because it is incapable of being previously 
 defined or ascertained. 
 
 His Majesty's ministers are said to entertain 
 the project of transferring to Somerset House 
 such public offices as that building can be made 
 to accommodate ; but it is to be hoped that this 
 arrangement will not be considered as defini- 
 tively made. The distance of Somerset House 
 from the principal seat of government business 
 has often been matter of complaint, and it was 
 owing to this admitted inconvenience that the 
 removal of some of the navy offices was, not 
 long since, actually in contemplation. 
 
 It is therefore with much respect submitted 
 that the better course would be to concentrate 
 the public offices by bringing some or all of the 
 scattered, out-lying departments, whose remote- 
 ness from the Treasury chambers must neces- 
 sarily obstruct the dispatch of public business, 
 to the locality which is now under our observa^ 
 
90 
 
 tion. Somerset House might then be ultimately 
 made over to the service of hterature and the 
 arts and seiences, ^vhic•h stand nuuli in need 
 of a suita])le and (hi^nified seat. That King's 
 College will, at no distant })eriod, ou^^row its 
 present dimensions is fairly to be inferred from 
 the rapid })rogress it has already made, and its 
 extension could scarcely be effeeted Avithout the 
 appropriation of some portion of the building in 
 question. The Royal Society is at present 
 constrained within limits very inadequate to its 
 wants, and the Antiquarian Society would long 
 ere this have been in possession of a valuable 
 collection of English antiquities, had not the 
 narrow limits to which it is confined, precluded 
 the possibility of accepting the numerous con- 
 tributions that have been at various times 
 offered to it ; whilst the neighbouring establish- 
 ment of the Geological Society is already at 
 a loss to find room for its rapidly increasing 
 museum, a collection which, like that of the 
 Hotel des Mines at Paris, might be made 
 available to purposes of the highest public im- 
 portance in a commercial and economical point 
 of view, were apartments of suitable dimen- 
 sions at the disposal of the society. Lastly, 
 
91 
 
 no similar institution in this or perhaps 
 in any country is more indifferently lodged 
 than the Royal Academy. During about one 
 quarter of every year the library and all the 
 schools are closed, and the whole business 
 of instruction stands still to make room for the 
 exhibition of pictures. An arrangement has, 
 indeed, been made, by which a portion of the 
 new building for the national collection of pic- 
 tures at Charing Cross is to be assigned to the 
 Royal Academy ; it is, however, much to be 
 doubted, whether it can be the prevailing wish 
 of the academicians, or of artists generally, to 
 remove the academy from its present central 
 seat, in which it was first fixed by the generosity 
 of its Royal founder, and in which it has attained 
 its present honourable maturity. It is not to be 
 disguised, that the interests of English art or of 
 its living professors are not likely to be ad- 
 vanced by placing the annual exhibition in 
 immediate juxta-position with a collection like 
 that of the National Gallery, consisting of the 
 choicest specimens of ancient and modern art, 
 culled from the produce of many countries and 
 many centuries. One injurious result may be 
 regarded as highly probable, that this institution, 
 
92 
 
 which has never yet received or sohcitcd a 
 shiHini;- of the ])uhhc money, must hereiit'ter be 
 suj)|)orted (if at all) by parliamentary <i;rants : 
 Ibr when in one wini>; of the ])rojected national 
 buildini;- visitors lind i^ratuitous admission to 
 a collection of some of the finest pictures in 
 the world ; and in the other, they are recjuired 
 to ])ay to be admitted to view the miscellaneous 
 works of various merit ])ainted within the 
 current year; it recjuires but little foresi<^ht to 
 perceive that the effect will be prejudicial to the 
 revenues of the academy, from which alone it 
 derives its present sup])ort, and out of which, 
 provision is made for its various schools, for its 
 professors, and officers, for the maintenance of 
 travellini>* students, and for the relief of those 
 whose distresses have made them dependent on 
 the sympathy of their brother artists. 
 
 It is therefore worth while to consider, 
 whether it may not be preferable to appro- 
 priate the whole of the new buildino- at 
 Charimv Cross to the reception of the public 
 collection (to meet the future increase of 
 which, additional s])ace will undoubtedly be 
 soon re({uired), and to satisfy the uii>'ent wants 
 of the Royal Academy, by ceding- a much lari^er 
 
93 
 
 portion of Somerset House to that valuable 
 institution. Convenient galleries might then 
 be formed and exclusively devoted to the 
 purposes of the annual exhibition, and the 
 Academy would also be in a condition to 
 extend its sphere of usefulness by establishing 
 attached and subordinate schools of instruc- 
 tion. Among these, a school of architecture *, 
 in which it should be treated and syste- 
 matically taught not only as one of the 
 arts of design but also as a mechanical art, 
 would supply a great deficiency in the present 
 education of an architect, and would serve to 
 place us in this respect more on a footing of 
 equality with the practitioners of other countries. 
 But the plan that promises the greatest political 
 benefit to the country is the establishment 
 of a lower school of design for the instruction 
 of young men destined for those trades or 
 
 * The anxiety of the Royal Academy to promote this 
 branch of the fine arts is evinced by the recent purchase of 
 the beautiful and valuable collection of architectural sculpture 
 since presented to the British Museum. The Academy felt 
 the importance of preventing the dispersion of this collection, 
 although the crowded state of the apartments in Somerset 
 House rendered its reception within tlieir own walls absolutely 
 impracticable. 
 
94 
 
 inaiuifac'tures which are essentially connected 
 with, aiul dependent on, the line arts. It is in 
 this department that we are chiefly in the rear of 
 European refinement, in conseciuence of the entire 
 absence of all accessible means of instruction. 
 To the wise measures of Colbert, who in tlie 
 midst of the vast and coni])licated concerns of a 
 great empire was never unmindful of the political 
 value of these aj)])arently humble ]Kiths of excel- 
 lence, France is at this day indebted for her 
 acknowledged su})eriority in most of the manu- 
 factures connected with the fine arts. The 
 manufactories at Gobelin, Sevres, and other 
 similar establishments, have stamped a character 
 of taste on all articles of French ornamental 
 manufacture, from which that country is at the 
 present moment reaping the greatest profit. 
 Nor is it probable that our neighbours will 
 retrograde in this respect, so long as the French 
 government continues its present munificent pro- 
 vision for public instruction by rendering the 
 lecture- rooms of all the most eminent men of 
 science in Paris accessible to the poorest citizen*. 
 
 * Since the ahove was ])n*nte(l, tlie Parliamentary Reports 
 (loth April) furnish additional and very cogent reasons 
 against the removal of the Royal Academy. 
 
95 
 
 Reverting from our digression to the district 
 included between Downing street and Great 
 George street, we find it composed of houses 
 for the most part of inferior stamp. Gardner's 
 lane is disgraceful to the whole neighbour- 
 hood, and King street is an old thorough- 
 fare that ill accords with the general character 
 of the street out of which it leads. The 
 Commissioners for the Westminister improve- 
 ments seem at one time to havo contemplated 
 the amendment of this street, and it is to be 
 regretted that the design was abandoned, though 
 the proximity of the wide avenue of Parliament 
 street renders this a measure of less imperative 
 urgency *. 
 
 We now arrive at New Palace yard, which 
 has recently seen improvements so extensive 
 and judicious that it may appear unreasonable to 
 express any dissatisfaction : yet even here there 
 is room for still further reform. Who can 
 remain satisfied so long as this spot continues 
 
 * To remove the wliole island of houses contained between 
 Parliament street and King street, and so to extend Whitehall, 
 in its full width, as far as New Palace Yard, was a project 
 worthy of the nobleman with whom it originated, and though 
 it cannot perhaps be prudently lu-ged at present, nuist be 
 classed among the architectural desiderata of the metropolis. 
 
9(> 
 
 to he (lisfii»ured by the barbarous architecture 
 ()l"St. Marij:aret's ("hiirch ? It is recorded that 
 tlu" Piok'ctoi- Somerset \v;is very nearly sue- 
 cessiiil in eai-iyini;' a measure lor the removal of 
 this buil(liiii»; altoi>etlier ; but although our ad- 
 mi lat ion lor tlu' sublime edifice adjoining- would 
 almost lead us to reiz;ret the failure of his design, 
 it would argue extreme temerity in these days 
 to suggest a similar attempt. We may, how- 
 ever, be ])ermitted to hope that this wealthy 
 and res])ectable parish, aided perha})s by that 
 branch of the legislature to whose use it is in 
 part applied, may ere long be induced to incur 
 the moderate expense of reforming the exterior 
 of the church, and amending an object now so 
 ofi'ensive to good taste by closely assimilating its 
 architectin*e to that of the neighbouring Abl)ey. 
 While we are considering the subject of 
 ecclesiastical buildings, it may not be incon- 
 sistent with our ])lan to allude here to the 
 Chapter House adjoining the south transept of 
 the Abbey. This s])ecimen of the architecture 
 of the thirteenth century has from a very remote 
 period been in the occupation of the Crown, and 
 for a centuiy and a half has been the rece])tacle 
 ol" cei'tain legal and othei* I'ccoi'ds, for which 
 j)urpose the building is said to have been fitted 
 
97 
 
 up under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren. 
 The necessity of providing some building for the 
 reception of all public records is now so 
 generally admitted, that this chapter house 
 will, in all probability, be ere long vacated. 
 An opportunity will then be afforded of restoring, 
 or at least bringing to light, the concealed, 
 beauties of this once highly decorated structure, 
 a task to which we might not unreasonably 
 expect that the funds under the controul of the 
 Dean and Chapter of Westminster would be 
 readily applied, if this building so long and so 
 unnaturally severed from the Church which it 
 adjoins, were again restored, conditionally, into 
 ecclesiastical hands. 
 
 Before we quit this spot, let us entreat the 
 Reverend authorities to consider whether it be 
 consistent with a due regard for the conserva- 
 tion of these venerated monuments of antiquity, 
 to permit the old, worm-eaten, timber and brick 
 buildings which lean against the walls of this 
 chapter house and of the south transept of the 
 Abbey, any longer to defile the presence of the 
 sacred edifice, and to endanger its security ? 
 Besides encumbering, and indeed wholly con- 
 cealing from view this portion of its architecture, 
 what risk is not hourly incurred by the close 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 contiu:iiity ot" tliesr iliy aiitl hall" decayeil j)i\'- 
 beiulal houses! A single s])ark tVoiii {\\v candle 
 of a cai-eless domestic iiiii;,lit uol only iinoKe in 
 destnittion all these aiiciciit records 'including, 
 among many other documents of historical and 
 ])olitical interest, the memorable vohnne of 
 Domesday), but might expose to innninent 
 liazard the main fabric of the A])bey itself. 
 
 A\'hilst suggesting tlie proj)riety of removing 
 these buildings whicli are obvious encroach- 
 ments of com])aratively recent date, and which 
 possess no quahty whatever tliat can reasonably 
 recommend them to our respect, let us add that 
 when all the houses in Poet's corner are taken 
 down and their site cleared, then, and not till 
 then, will full justice be done to this vene- 
 rable ])ile, which it should be our pride to ex- 
 hibit to the fairest advantage, and to protect and 
 ])rcserve with the most devout solicitude. 
 
 If wc now revert to New Palace yard, we find 
 at the cast end a vacant space of ground next 
 the river, of which the approj)riation continues to 
 be imsettled. Here, too, stand the old decayed 
 offices of the Exchequer, consisting of some 
 gable-ended buildings of Tudoi- aichitecture. 
 'J'hough the hand ot" refonu should be lifted up 
 with reluctance ai^ainst the thne-honoured relics 
 
99 
 
 of antiquity*, yet these buildings are so ruinous, 
 so utterly inconvenient and unfit for their pur- 
 pose, and so liable to destruction from the 
 fragile and combustible nature of the materials 
 with which they have been constructed, that 
 their removal is inevitable ; and ever since 1 808 
 they have accordingly been regarded by the 
 Government as condemned buildings upon the 
 repair of which any further expenditure would 
 be unwarrantable. 
 
 After having cleared all the surrounding 
 ground at a great public expense, it would be 
 unpardonable to allow this spot to remain longer 
 in its present unsatisfactory state. Of the va- 
 rious plans that suggest themselves, the most 
 ehgible, on public grounds, would perhaps be 
 to leave the space unoccupied by buildings, and 
 to continue it to the water's edge by means of 
 an embanked terrace embellished with a balus- 
 trade and having in its centre a broad and 
 
 * A room in these buildings, erroneously supposed to be 
 the ancient star-chamber, is embellished with the badfi^es of 
 Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon. The Gargoyle, or 
 rain water shoot, protruding itself from the face of one of the 
 gables, is probably the only surviving relic of that nature in 
 London. 
 
100 
 
 stately flight ot" stairs leading clown to the sur- 
 face of tlie water. Whether viewed from tlie 
 bridge or fioni Palace "^'ard, tliis termination 
 could not fail to have a good effect, and might 
 be executed at no very considerable cost. We 
 shall liereafter have to advert to the expechency 
 of continuing this terrace on the water's side 
 along the whole length of the ])ul)lic' buildings 
 in this cjuarter. 
 
 If we now turn our faces to the northern end 
 o( A\'estminster Hall, it must strike every ob- 
 server that the arcliitecture of the western 
 wing must inevitably be repeated on the eastern 
 side, whenever the Exchequer buildings shall 
 be removed. 
 
 On entering the Hall (the total demolition of 
 which was certainly one of the least haj)py of 
 Gwynn's suggestions), a scene of no very cre- 
 ditable nature presents itself. It was the origi- 
 nal intention of the author to offer some sug- 
 gestions on the repair and restoration of this 
 ancient fabric ; but the subject lias, it seems, 
 already engaged the attention of the proper 
 authorities. Under their directions, its present 
 opprobrious state of chla])idation and disfigure- 
 ment will, doubtless, ere long be rectified, and 
 
101 
 
 we may hope again to survey with emotions of 
 unmixed admiration a structure consecrated in 
 our eyes by so many historic recollections*. 
 
 We now approach a subject of peculiar inte- 
 rest at the present moment, inasmuch as it 
 has recently come under the consideration of 
 Parhament. 
 
 The building, or rather the confused group 
 of buildings, now used as the place of assembly 
 of both Houses of Parliament, is a work of 
 various ages and styles, from that of William 
 II. or perhaps Edward the Confessor, down 
 
 * The turret which formed a finial to the south gable of 
 this hall, being in imminent danger of falling, was taken down 
 a few years ago under the direction of the author. It presented 
 tlie appearance of an octagon turret with an ogee canopy, but 
 it was found that this appearance was by no means its original 
 one. Embedded in the solid stonework were discovered stand- 
 ing in situ two statues of kings, back to back, with the orb 
 in their hands. An open groined canopy surmounted these 
 effigies, which having been found probably in a dangerous 
 state, had at some later period been filled in with masonry. 
 By the desire of Sir Benjamin Stephenson, the then Surveyor 
 General (who in his official capacity never laid aside the 
 feelings of a man of taste and an antiquary), these regal 
 figures were deposited in a place of security ; it is possible, 
 however, that since the dissolution of the Board of AVorks 
 these mutilated images may liave been credited as old materials 
 to the metropolitan roads commission. 
 
102 
 
 to the |)i-('S('iit \('ar. Many parts have been 
 l)uilt loi- |)iir])()sc>s widely (lilfereiit from those 
 to uhicli they are now apphed, and have 
 been sul)ieeted to a succession of changes 
 botli in llieii- foiin and destination. Tlie result 
 has been that the building is as ill suited to 
 the wants, as it is unbecoming the dignity, of 
 its present ap])r()})riati()n. Neither chamber is 
 capable of holding conveniently lialf the mem- 
 bers who are recpiired to attend in it, and 
 although in regard to the dependent offices, the 
 Upper house has greatly the advantage, yet 
 even there the time is not remote when a very 
 large expense must be incurred in strengthening 
 or rebuilding the whole range of offices that face 
 Old Palace yard. These offices originally con- 
 stituted merely a row of ordinary private houses, 
 which were afterwards hastily thrown together 
 and a])plied to their present use under the 
 direction of the late Mr. James Wyatt. The 
 incoherent and patchwork character of the con- 
 solidated tenements was indeed concealed by a 
 layer of cement ; but this is already in an ad- 
 vanced stage of decay, and, like the modern 
 Gothic work of St. Stephen's chapel, is now 
 fast crumi)ling away. 
 
 If from a survey of the details of these build- 
 
103 
 
 ings we turn our attention to their relative 
 situation, we observe them to be inconveniently 
 linked with others of very different destination, 
 and we find the area on which they stand so 
 limited on one side by the river, and on the 
 other by public ways, as to admit of no conve- 
 nient extension. 
 
 Notwithstanding the weight of these objec- 
 tions, there are yet many who are averse to the 
 removal of the legislature from the scene of 
 its most important deliberations during so 
 many centuries of its eventful history. There 
 are those who think with Burke that the 
 " spirit of reform is tempered with an awful 
 " gravity," when it acts as it were " in the 
 " presence of canonized forefathers*;" and who 
 are therefore unwilling to dissolve the spell of 
 those venerable associations by transferring the 
 Houses of Parliament to some less consecrated 
 spot. Without stopping to inquire what im- 
 portance may be justly attached to such consi- 
 derations, it may be remarked, that if the 
 parliamentary buildings are to remain in their 
 present position, it will be found very difficult 
 to obtain room for any large addition to their 
 
 * Reflections on the French Revolution. 
 
104 
 
 present accommodation without encroaching 
 upon the sj)ac'e now occu})ied by the different 
 courts of hiw. It must at all events be pro- 
 nounced im])racticable to reconcile the extension 
 of the parliamentary establishment with any 
 enlari^ement of the buildings connected with 
 the judicial department. Were we therefore to 
 contemplate the removal of the latter, the 
 author is inclined to think that no site more 
 connnodious or suitable for the erection of 
 buildings connected with the administration of 
 justice could be selected, than the centre of the 
 great area of Lincoln's Inn Fields. To accom- 
 plish this plan no destruction of houses or 
 other property w^ould be necessary ; and, it is 
 a])prehended, that though it might perhaps occa- 
 sion a partial change in the character and a])pro- 
 priation of some of the buildings which now form 
 three sides of that square, yet the result would 
 ])e to improve, rather than to diminish, the 
 value of the surrounding property. At the 
 same time abundant provision might be there 
 made, not only for the princi])al courts, but also 
 for that species of business which is now usually 
 transacted before a single Judge at chambers, 
 and which recent rules and enactments are said 
 to have very greatly augmented. 
 
105 
 
 It is certain, however, that the very heavy 
 expenditure occasioned by building and fitting 
 up the present courts in Westminster Hall will 
 dispose the public to listen with reluctance to 
 any proposition for undoing what has been done 
 so lately, and at so great a cost. It will, there- 
 fore, be our object to point out some other 
 arrangement, which will not involve the removal 
 of the courts, and by which the legislative assem- 
 blies will be released from their present confined 
 limits. 
 
 When the Confessor first fixed his dwelling 
 under the shadow of the sacred Minster, and his 
 successors called their barons to take counsel 
 with them *' circa ardua regni," the spot may 
 not have been unsuited to their purpose. Even 
 in after-times there were many advantages in it 
 which have long ago vanished : the river was 
 the great and fashionable thoroughfare ; most 
 of the nobility occupied mansions on or near its 
 banks, and the long residence of the Court at 
 Westminster had occasioned many persons of 
 high consideration to settle in its immediate 
 vicinage. It was not indeed until the final 
 removal of the Court to St. James's, after 
 the fire at Whitehall, that this ancient seat of 
 
royalty ceased to be a point of central attraction*. 
 At this (lay, there seems to be no very sub- 
 stantial aclvantag-e that can give to this part of 
 Westminster a pre-eminent claim to preference. 
 But in a(l()])ting the opinion of those who 
 have recomnuMuled the removal of the Houses 
 of Parliament, the author is not prepared to 
 coincide with those who advocate the fitness of 
 St. James's Palace for the future site. It is 
 moreover extremely probable that it may be His 
 Majesty's pleasure that this palace, or a large 
 portion of it, instead of being dismantled or 
 alienated, shall be maintained as an appendage 
 to the new royal residence, which is by no 
 means likely to be so convenient or ample as to 
 afford full accommodation to the whole of the 
 royal establishment. No professional person, 
 however, will venture to affirm that the site of 
 St. James's Palace is by any means eligible for a 
 fine architectural object. We cannot fully jus- 
 tify our ancestors in having originally placed the 
 hospital for leprous citizens at the foot of a hill 
 and on the very verge of a marsh; still less should 
 
 * The departure of the Court from Whitehall was calcu- 
 lated by a contemporary writer to have reduced the rental of 
 tile whole district in cjuestion thirty per cent. 
 
107 
 
 we ourselves be warranted in selecting for the 
 most prominent public building in the country 
 a spot so depressed that its chimnies w^ould not 
 rise above the level of some of the neighbouring 
 streets. 
 
 Where then shall we look for a site ? Let us 
 turn again to the fovoured spot already pointed 
 out as the fit locality for a palace ; and as we 
 must despair of inducing the Commons of Eng- 
 land to authorise the erection of another royal 
 residence, and to appropriate to their own use 
 the new one at Pimlico, let us hope that the 
 united Houses will concur in fixing the common 
 seat of legislation on the sloping side of the 
 Green Park. Contiguous to the King's palace, 
 in the midst of the best quarter of the town, 
 adjacent to a leading thoroughfare, and yet 
 sufficiently removed from its ceaseless din and 
 noise, standing out free and unencumbered on a 
 terrace level with the highest part of Piccadilly, 
 the proposed edifice would indeed combine many 
 signal advantages. The surroiniding park might 
 be laid out in a manner subservient as well to 
 its use as to its effect, with terraces spreading 
 themselves at its base, and stately walks en- 
 riched with sculj)ture and formal parterres of 
 shrubs. Indeed it is impossible for the critical 
 
108 
 
 eye to resist the conviction that this plot of 
 ground, <2:ently inclined towards the sun, and 
 sheltered Ironi the noith, irregular in its levels, 
 and free from all mean and nnseenily accom- 
 paniments, ])resents a surface remarkably sus- 
 cej)til)le of being moulded into beauty and 
 ennobled by architectural display. 
 
 \\ ithout attempting any detailed description 
 of a building which must, for the present at 
 least*, be regarded as the mere emanation of 
 fancy, the accompanying sketch will convey, 
 though most inadequately, some idea of its 
 general appearance in the position and with 
 the adjuncts which we have ventured to 
 recommend. 
 
 But let us retrace our steps to Westminster, 
 where the appropriation of the parliamentary 
 
 * The question whether any new biiiklinf]!; for Parliament 
 shall be immediately imdertaken seems to have been suffi- 
 ciently set at rest last Session. Until such permanent and 
 suitable provision be made, the ventilation of the Commons' 
 house (whieli apjx-ars to be the sul/jeet of unanimous com- 
 plaint), would beirreatlv improved if the si/e of the room were 
 increased l)v simplv raisini; the ceiling; for it would of course 
 rccpiire a longer time or a greater crowd to corru})t the air 
 thus increased in its cubic quantitv, than is now sufficient to 
 render it disagreeable to breathe. This might be done in ten 
 days, at the cost of a very few hundred pounds. 
 
100 
 
 buildings, supposed to be now vacated, next 
 claims our attention. The proper application 
 of them is however obvious. Let justice 
 continue to be administered where the Great 
 Charter first fixed it, in the hall of the 
 ancient palace of Westminster. The witnesses, 
 who have now no waiting room in any of the 
 courts ; the attornies and solicitors, who have 
 been clamorously petitioning for that personal 
 accommodation in the courts to which the 
 annual payment by them of £.50,000 into the 
 Treasury seems to give them a fair title; the 
 counsel, whose convenience is very inadequately 
 consulted ; the Judges, for whom and for whose 
 officers the utmost ingenuity of the architect has 
 been able to find only small apartments with 
 little light and less air; — these are the parties 
 who will each put in a fair claim to a dividend 
 of the surplus space left vacant by the secession 
 of the Parliament. Nor are these the only 
 claimants whose present circumscribed accom- 
 modation demands our sympathy. The Master 
 of the Rolls, when he sits at Westminster, is 
 condemned to seek a temporary refuge in an 
 old repository for records. The new Court of 
 Review in Bankruptcy, equally houseless, " can 
 call no spot in all the world its own ;" it holds 
 
IK) 
 
 its fugitive sittings now in one committee room, 
 now in another ; and when the meeting of Par- 
 liament deprives it of this precarious, eleemosy- 
 nary, acconnnodation, it is fain to take slielter in 
 the sale room of the Masters in Chancery. 
 
 Finally, there is the whole mass of the legal 
 records of the country which have no general 
 place of deposit, hut which are reported by the 
 record Commissioners to be rotting in one place, 
 exposed to fire in another, and inaccessibly 
 situated in a third. No place can be more 
 proper for these judicial rolls than the vicinity 
 of the courts themselves ; nor would it be dilh- 
 cult, even after clearing away all the ill built 
 and inhrm ])arts, to find among the buildings 
 now occupied by the two houses abundance of 
 space for the safe reception and com))lete 
 classification of them*. The adoption of this 
 
 * It luiiy })rol)al)ly he ur^od as an objection to this plan, that 
 the provision which it makes for tlie records would be thereby 
 made contingent on the execution of no less a project tlian the 
 entire removal of Parliament to a new l)uil(Hn<i^, whereas the 
 completion of the national n^allery renders the sjieedy removal 
 of such ri'cords at least as are now laid up in the hite royal mews 
 at Charing Cross, a measure of pressing importance. This 
 objection would be satisfactorily overcome by the discovery of 
 a good tem])orary deposit for these rolls. There is within a 
 few lumdred feet of the present de|K)t, a sjjaeious, dry, insulated 
 
in 
 
 plan would at all events save the immediate 
 expenditure of a large sum in the erection of the 
 proposed repository in Chancery lane ; and the 
 value of the crown property there, on which it 
 is intended to be built, might be advantageously 
 employed in furthering other pubhc works of 
 more indispensable utility. 
 
 In adapting the old buildings at Westminster 
 to their new purposes, it would be most desirable 
 to repair and restore all the genuine remains of 
 the original palace ; and the necessary alterations 
 or adcUtions might easily be so contrived as to 
 present a regular front to the river, bounded by 
 the straight broad terrace which we have already 
 alluded to, and which, extending for about 800 
 feet along the water side, would afford at all 
 times a most agreeable and useful public walk. 
 
 and secure building, which was formerly used as the riding 
 house attached to Carlton House: the cubic content of this 
 vast room is such (about 260,000 feet), that not only the 
 records in question could be amply accommodated in it, 
 but probably all others that are reported to be at this 
 time insecurely or improperly deposited elsewhere. There 
 can be little doubt of obtaining His Majesty's permission to 
 transfer the stores, at present kept there, into the vacant halls 
 of Buckingham palace, although some indeed (lieing furniture 
 forty or fifty years old), might perhaps be more suitably 
 disposed of by an auctioneer. 
 
112 
 
 llavin<>; now made a liberal provision for both 
 Houses of Parliament ; havinii,- found ade(juate 
 repositories for the judieial reeords; and satisfied, 
 to a certain extent, the wants of all concerned 
 in the administration of justice, little more 
 remains to be suggested in this quarter. Indeed 
 the ancient city of Westminster has already 
 found so bold an im])rover in the very ranks of 
 our representatives, that it would be superfluous 
 in the writer of these pages to intrude u])on the 
 ground which has been so ably pre-occupied*. 
 So hopeless is any plan of partial amendment in 
 the parts immediately south of St. James's park, 
 that no measure, short of the absolute razure and 
 re-edification contemplated by the honourable 
 gentleman above alluded to, would be entirely 
 satisfactory. Should this scheme, however, like 
 other similar projects, sink under the weight of 
 its own vastness and magnificence, we may at 
 least be permitted to hope tliat Westminster 
 may be purged of some of its most o]:)probrious 
 lanes and allies, south of Tothill streetf ; nor 
 
 * See the Report of a Select Committee of tlie House of 
 Commons upon the im])rovc'nu'nt here ri'ferred to, ordered to 
 be printed iHth July, 18^^'. 
 
 ■f- This object would be in some measure effected by the 
 
113 
 
 can we doubt the expediency, on public grounds, 
 of opening a new and direct line of street from 
 Queen's square opposite the proposed bridge in 
 St. James's park, conducting us through Stret- 
 ton's ground to the Horseferry road, thence 
 eastward to the intended new Lambeth bridge, 
 and southward to Regent street and Rochester 
 row, which must hereafter become avenues of 
 considerable traffic when the genius of specula- 
 tion has extended its influence over the wide 
 tract beyond the Vauxhall road ; a period which 
 the enterprising spirit of a Cubitt will not allow 
 to be far distant. 
 
 The author has already far exceeded the 
 limits he had prescribed to himself when he 
 commenced this essay, yet having dwelt so long 
 upon the living abodes of our vast metropolitan 
 population, he may be allowed, before he con- 
 cludes his labours, to devote a few reflections to 
 the depositories of their mortal remains. 
 
 The gradual exclusion of sepulture from the 
 interior of the town, and the establishment of a 
 decent necropolis in various adjacent spots, are 
 measures so evidently beneficial, that few will 
 
 new street, which is said to form one of the projects of the 
 above honourable j^entlcnian, leading from the west end of 
 Westminster Abbcv to the Chelsea Road. 
 
in 
 
 1)1' toinul to (liMiy the expediency of promoting 
 them : l)ut there is one proposcil in connection 
 witli tills siil)je(t, which strongly recommends 
 itself to the attention of a great, an ancient, and 
 a rehned j)eople. 
 
 W here are the tombs of our heroes and 
 statesmen ? Where are the monuments of those 
 eminent men whose exertions or whose genius 
 luive bequeathed to tlieir country the inheritance 
 of a noble name ; who have enriched it w ith 
 intellectual treasures, or consecrated to its 
 service the fruits of their learning and wisdom ; 
 wlio have defended its liberties, or well admi- 
 nistered its laws ; who have advanced its welfare, 
 retrieved its fortunes, or extended and consoli- 
 dated its empire ? — Alas, for the patriotism and 
 gratitude of our country ! In reply to these 
 (piestions we point to Westminster Abbey, 
 where, by slinking down a bye lane and 
 creeping through the wicket of a back door, 
 the in([uiring stranger will (on payment of two- 
 pence) be admitted to survey, in a corner of 
 the south transept, a more motley, ill-assorted, 
 and giaceless collection of bad sculpture than 
 ever dishonoured the worksho]) of a marble 
 mason. 
 
 ^'(■t it" v\v\[ this mean display of monumental 
 
115 
 
 relics could awaken in the bosom of Addison 
 those sublime musings which his pen has per- 
 petuated, what a train of holy thoughts and 
 noble aspirations might we not hope to kindle 
 by the habitual contemplation of such eloquent 
 memorials of the dead, well and tastefully 
 arranged, and viewed in the religious twilight 
 of some lofty temple specially dedicated to their 
 reception ! It was the familiar saying of the 
 most renowned men of antiquity, that they never 
 gazed upon the sculptured forms of their 
 ancestors without feeling themselves deeply 
 moved to emulate their virtues : " Saepe audivi," 
 says Sallust, " Q. Maxumum, P. Scipionem, 
 " praeterea civitatis nostrae praeclaros viros solitos 
 ** ita dicere, cum majorum imagines intuerentur, 
 " vehementissim^ sibi animum ad virtutem 
 ** accendi. " It was to cherish such sentiments, 
 to be the perpetual monitor of succeeding 
 generations, that France has dedicated her 
 Pantheon, and Germany, whilst we speak, is 
 raising to the memory of her illustrious com- 
 patriots, a fabric worthy of its high destination*. 
 It is surely no vain hope, that at some future 
 
 * The beautiful Greek temple of niar])le, uow in proiiress 
 on the banks of the Danube, at J{atisl)on, from the designs 
 of Klcnze. 
 
timr, ^^luMl the waves of political agitation shall 
 have subsided, and the increased resources of 
 tlie country shall make the execution of so 
 great n work ])racticable and ])rudent, iMigland 
 will not he slow to ado])t the same generous 
 policy. The ])r()ject may indeed sleej) for a 
 while, hut ought not to die ; and the author, 
 ere these pages are closed, may therefore be 
 permitted to ])ut on record a suggestion for its 
 site. 
 
 There is, on the north hank of the Serpentine 
 
 river, are tired spot sloping towards the water 
 
 and backed by venerable trees, which is well 
 
 adapted to receive a building of the character 
 
 just described. Here a lofty pile of anticpie 
 
 architecture might fitly stand, designed in that 
 
 style which from its familiar recurrence in our 
 
 ancient ecclesiastical remains, as well as from its 
 
 intrinsic beauty and grandeur, seems best to 
 
 accord with the })urpose to which it would be 
 
 devoted. In its long aisles and cloistered 
 
 arcades might he deposited the mortal remains 
 
 and the monumental effigies of those who should 
 
 be deemed worthy of sepulture within its walls. 
 
 Withdrawn from the busier aveiuies of the 
 
 town, yet readily accessible to all ; with graceful 
 
 scenery around, and the tran(|uil water spread 
 
117 
 
 out at its base ; the effect of a structure of 
 this character, in such a place, could hardly 
 fail to be highly imposing and picturesque. 
 
 The most striking features of a scene of this 
 kind are dependent on circumstances incapable 
 of being transferred to paper, and therefore 
 cannot be successfully represented in any 
 drawing ; the accompanying sketch will, how- 
 ever, serve at least to explain the ideas of the 
 author, and may, perhaps, assist the reader in 
 forming some conception of the probable effect 
 of such a building as it would present itself to 
 the eye of a spectator on the opposite bank of 
 the river. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BV T. BRETTELL, RUPERT STREET, )IAYMARKET. 
 
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