1829. ] Metropolitan Improvements. ‘ 155 
therefore, at this moment, in addition to the plans of Mr. Allen, one of 
Mr. Gwilt’s, anda sixth plan of the Messrs. Rennie’s, under the considera- 
tion of the city, it being still undetermined which shall be adopted. As 
there appears incontestable evidence that none of these latter plans were 
copies of the others, their similarity is extraordinary ; and, as the same 
idea, with regard to the Southwark approach seems to have struck three 
ingenious and scientific men, it may well be imagined that the outline of 
the plan is the best that can be devised. In this their sixth design, the 
employed engineers at last concur in recommending that the approach 
to the new bridge, from Tooley Street, be made to open in front of 
St. Saviour’s Church ; we may, therefore, guess that this plan will, at 
last, meet the approbation of the New Bridge Committee. 
The most probable approaches, on the Southwark side, therefore, will 
be, by widening the High Street in the Borough, from the present Town 
Hall, and by a proposed new street, to lead from Bridge-yard, in Tooley 
Street, till it intersects the High Street, opposite to St. Saviour’s Church. 
From this intersection a wide Street, adorned on either side with hand- 
some buildings, will lead immediately to the bridge. In this plan, sites 
are marked out for a new Town Hall, and other public buildings— 
St. Thomas’s and Guy’s Hospitals are left unmolested—and the line will 
be the least expensive that can be planned. The great object, however, 
and certainly the grand desideratum of this plan, is to lay open St. 
Saviour’s Church. It has long been the regret of every man of taste, 
that so many of the finest buildings which the Metropolis can boast, 
should be concealed from view by the mass of rubbishing houses which 
surround them—and none of them has occasioned more regret from this 
circumstance, or would excite more public admiration, if more exposed 
to view, than this structure of St. Saviour’s—now scarcely perceptible in 
the dirty neighbourhood by which its beauties are hidden. To display 
the long hidden architecture of such venerable structures as this, is one 
of those objects to which some considerable expense of property may be 
legitimately sacrificed. 
For this purpose it is proposed to lay open a circular site, and thus form 
a circus round the church, which is to be approached by steps, leading 
to a platform from the High Street, towards which the whole front of 
the church will remain open ; by this means the whole of this beautiful 
church, with its venerable architecture, will be in full view, and form a 
striking object at this entrance to the metropolis. In front of the church 
will be a large open space, from which the road will gradually ascend, 
to meet the slope of the bridge. 
Such is the general outline of the plan which will, most probably, be 
adopted on the Southwark side of the bridge ; and as there is no possi- , 
bility of obtaining a direct line of street from the Bricklayer’s Arms, 
without such a destruction of property, including the two hospitals 
above-named, as would render the accomplishment of such a plan nearly 
impossible, it is, perhaps, the best that could be adopted. 
By this design, the present Tooley Street will pass under a dry arch, 
similar to that of the Commercial Road, at Waterloo Bridge, and lead 
into a new street, proposed to form a more direct line of communication 
with Blackfriar’s Road, along the banks of the river, than is afforded by 
the tortuous path that at present forms the only connection between the 
two bridges. Upon the whole, this appears to us, both as it respects con- 
venience and economy, and as affecting the property in the neighbour- 
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