1904.] on the Queen Victoria Memorial, 543 



vie with it, the appropriateness, practical and ornamental, of the 

 design from beginning to end — especially with certain modifications 

 now introduced — these were the merits which have secured it the 

 support of the Committee to whom fell the difficult task of selecting 

 among the fine designs of several of the leading architects of the day. 

 Mr. Webb is to be credited with having the widest experience in lay- 

 ing out plans on a large scale, and in such work in harmonising the 

 claims of the artist with the needs of the public and the exigencies of 

 official requirements. He has rejoiced in the opportunity, rare in 

 England, of bringing a fine road straight up to the great feature to 

 be viewed. Although everyone abroad recognises this simple and 

 obvious truth, in England it has been consistently ignored even to 

 the present day. In other countries the road leads up to the object, 

 or palace, or view ; in England we approach them sideways. You 

 cannot drive straight up to the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall, to the 

 Mansion House, to the Bank, to the Houses of Parliament, to Somer- 

 set House, to the British Museum, or see them from any approaching 

 roadway without turning your head. St. James's Palace is one of the 

 only buildings which can fairly be driven up to. Even the recently 

 erected Law Courts and Albert Memorial are passed by sideways 

 on the road. 



If the Processional Road were carried straight, with a view to 

 making an outlet on the east, it would have necessitated the acqui- 

 sition of Drummond's Bank at a probable cost of 150,000Z. or 

 200,000Z., and the result would be an oblique opening into Whitehall, 

 ending nowhere, and revealing a view of a gigantic specimen of ex- 

 tremely commonplace hotel architecture. 



Therefore, taking the central axis of the West Strand, and having 

 in mind the noble efiect of that great thoroughfare, making it inter- 

 sect with the axis of the Mall, Mr. Webb obtained a point just behind 

 Drummond's Bank, where he masks more or less the change of axis 

 by a large circular " place," in the centre of which he proj^oses to 

 erect a statue of Queen Victoria at the time of her accession, so that 

 the figure of the Queen at the commencement of her reign, begun in 

 hopefulness, looks towards the end of it, accomplished in splendour. 

 Large spaces are equally to be left opposite Waterloo Place and 

 Marlborough Gate, until with a pleasing series of statuary at the 

 west we come to the great central feature of Mr. Webb's design. 

 Here we have careful and thoughtful planning, with approaches from 

 Constitution Hill on the right and Buckingham Palace on the left, 

 symmetrical and monumental, with a large opening into the fore- 

 court from the Mall as well as north and south, from all three of 

 which points an unimpeded view of Mr. Brock's monument may be 

 obtained. There are to be fountains inside the colonnade, and the 

 monument is backed by a screen. By the later modifications, the 

 roadway outside the quadrant of the colonnade is brought within and 

 nearer to the palace, and the traffic is taken inside the great forecourt, 

 in order that the people should not be banished so far away, and that 



