138 Plans for Improving London. 



may still be accomplished, and that even the ducal Northum- 

 berland Palazzo may not be allowed " to stop the way." 



" A new bridge is designed from the Savoy across the 

 river Thames/'' 



By referring to the plan it will be seen that three radiating 

 straight lines of streets diverge from a crescent at the foot of 

 the bridge, the centre one leading to Bow Street and Long 

 Acre, the westward one to Southampton Street in the Strand, 

 and that to the east to Catherine Street in the Strand. The 

 situation thus marked out for St. George's Bridge by Gwynn 

 one hundred years ago, has, in our times, been very nearly 

 adopted in the construction of Waterloo Bridge by a public 

 company, but unfortunately without the radiating streets 

 Gwynn laid down. That this bridge, an important entrance to 

 London, should be allowed to continue a toll bridge is most 

 degrading to a great nation ; indeed it ought to have been a 

 national work in the first instance, and suitable approaches 

 made at both ends of it, with buildings of character and im- 

 portance, instead of the mean and wretched tenements in 

 Wellington Street, and the abominable common lodging-houses 

 on the Surrey side. With the successful completion of Somerset 

 House, Wellington Street ought to be rendered worthy of the 

 name it bears and of the bridge it leads to. 



" Carey Street is continued into Vere Street, and widened 

 at the end next Chancery Lane." This alteration has been 

 effected, and there is hardly any part of the metropolis which 

 of late years has been so much improved as the south end of 

 Chancery Lane. The widening of Carey Street, the new 

 Union Bank, and other commercial buildings, have all tended 

 to make this an important thoroughfare ; but with all the large 

 outlay with which this has been effected by the City of London, 

 the north approach from Holborn is only of sufficient width 

 for one carriage, and the corner house was allowed to be rebuilt 

 upon the old site only a few years since. 



The above are only a few of the numerous improvements 

 in Gwynn' s first and second plates. The third map relates to 

 the City proper, in which many alterations are suggested about 

 the Mansion House, the Royal Exchange, and Moorfields, some 

 of which have been adopted entirely, and others with modifi- 

 cations ; but as it would occupy too much space in this paper to 

 describe them fully, we will pass on to the present century, and 

 take a rapid view of what has been done since Gwynn produced 

 his London and Westminster Improved. The Houses of Parliament 

 have been rebuilt, Victoria Street, Westminster, is in the course 

 of completion, Buckingham Palace has been rebuilt, the new 

 and extensive quarter of Belgravia formed upon swamps and 

 open fields where snipes have been shot in the memory of 

 living Londoners. 



