1829.] The London Markets. 365 
area of Covent Garden—in the direct passage, too, between the two ex- 
tremities of the metropolis—we should have wished for a specimen of 
architecture, characterised by a little more embellishment than the artist 
has bestowed upon his design. P 
Covent Garden should not have been considered quite like a meat 
or a poultry market. It is the great mart, it is true of vegetables, and 
vegetables may be said to require no more display of taste in the shops 
‘than animal food. But it is likewise the great mart for fruits and 
flowers—for the beautiful productions of spring, summer, and autumn. 
It is the great garden of London for roses, carnations, and all the other 
blooming attributes of the season, which we should not like to see dis- 
playing their lighter beauties amidst the heaviness of granite columns. 
We would have had Covent Garden one large conservatory, of such a 
light style of architecture as is more adapted to the display of fruits and 
flowers, and such as this very architect is displaying, on a grand scale, 
for the Duke of Northumberland at Sion. 
Such a specimen of architecture as this might have made Covent Garden 
one of the show places of London, and have ranked it, in the flower 
season, among one of the most agreeable lounges of the metropolis. Our 
imagination can easily conceive gallery on gallery, leading into apart- 
ments of this sort, tending, at once, to display, to the best advantage, 
the articles to be sold, as well as helping greatly to their preservation. 
As only one of the sides of the quadrangle is yet built, we are still in 
hopes that the architect has the intention of making at least two of the 
others a little more conformable to our ideas on the subject; or if such 
should not be his present intention, we trust that some such reasons as we 
have advanced will now have their influence upon him, and induce him to 
make the parts of the building which are to front St. Paul’s church and 
Russel-street, of a lighter description of architecture. 
The Ionic order, surmounted and: backed by conservatories, in which 
stained glass might be introduced, would be far preferable, and then the 
present buildings might be preserved as wings, and used for the sale of 
vegetables, while the others might be kept exclusively for flowers. We 
earnestly hope the architect will not permit such an opportunity of 
giving to London so unique and splendid an embellishment as _ this 
would present, to pass without availing himself of it. 
In the centre of the square, too, something of this sort might be very 
well adapted, in the form of a temple, whose dome of glass might give 
additional effect to the whole pile. Such an opportunity as this presents 
has seldom been afforded to an architect, and much blame will certainly 
attach to him if he neglects or loses it. His present building is of too 
mean a character — the wide-stretched, low slate roof — the balustrade 
parapet—and, indeed, the common appearance of the whole, disappoints 
us exceedingly ; and the only redemption will be in the other parts 
of the building being composed something in the lighter style above 
proposed. 
The arch in the centre, springing from columns, is bad in architecture. 
An arch should always have an APPARENTLY strong abutment, as well 
as a real one, otherwise the idea of insecurity will enter the imagination 
in spite of our knowledge of its fallacy. In the present instance, this 
arch is also surmounted by a pediment, which really puts one in mind of 
the distich— . 
