364. —(C«w The London Markets. [Aprin 
for, has, for years, been looking out, with all the laudable anxiety of a 
‘good mother, for means of doing so. The market afforded, not only 
the present means of additional income, beyond the common interest of 
capital, but, also, the opportunity of a real benefit to the estate, and a 
permanent improvement to the public convenience. 
Designs were therefore made, according to Mr. Fowler’s ideas; the 
interest of the noble proprietor got a bill through the house which must 
set at rest all future disputes, and diminish the fees of certain barristers, 
and the costs of certain solicitors, most materially, and the long-talked of, 
and long-wanted, work, is now not only began, but one side of the 
quadrangle nearly completed for occupation. 
We have frequently observed, in our former lucubrations on the archi- 
tectural improvement of the metropolis, that it is unfair to criticise any 
building until it is complete, for nothing but completion can convey to 
the eye and mind of the spectator the idea or the intention of the archi- 
tect. We have ourselves seen many buildings, which from ugly and 
rude masses, promising neither beauty nor proportion, have become, 
when the whole was put together, good specimens of architecture ; 
and, in the same manner, we have frequently admired parts of a building 
in progress, the completion of which has disappointed our expectations. 
In architecture that may be bad, as a part by itself, which, by be- 
coming a part of a whole, is essentially good ; and vice versa ; a column— 
a wing—a porch, may be good in itself, yet from some want of propriety 
in appropriation, or from the incongruity of other portions of the structure, 
there are instances in which it may become a deformity. One front, 
however, of Covent Garden Market being completed, the critic is fully 
competent to judge of its merits and defects; and presuming that two 
sides of the quadrangle are intended to correspond, the one half of this 
large building may be contemplated in the “mind’s eye” of the spectator. 
This front, which is towards James-street, consists of two ranges of 
granite columns of the Greek doric, connected by an arched centre, 
forming an entrance, and terminated by a square building at either end ; 
on the other side of which four columns are returned so as to give uni- 
formity to the flank elevations. These columns are surmounted by a 
balustrade which we do not at all think compatible with the simplicity 
of the style of the architecture ; and from the base of this balustrade 
rises the slated roof, giving light to the upper apartments by sky- 
lights. The buildings at each end form the boundaries of this balus- 
trade; and, by being one story higher, or, rather, by the upper story 
being an attic instead of a garret, the elevation is rendered complete. 
The centre is formed by simicircular arches springing from two columns 
of the same order with the other, and each arch is surmounted by a 
pediment. A waggon head ceiling is carried over this entrance, and, 
by the plastering works going on, it seems the intention of the architect 
to. bestow a little more decoration in this than in the other parts of the 
building. 
The construction is divided into small shops, with staircases leading to 
the sleeping apartment or store room over, and display no pretensions. 
whatever to any architectural appearance. _ 
For all the purposes of its construction the plan and disposition of the 
building appear extremely well calculated, and perhaps we ought to look . 
for no further excellence than this. But we confess that in asituation, so _ 
conspicuous, and so well adapted for architectural display, as the insulated 
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