178 The Street Architecture of London. 



liave seen it. "What!" he exclaimed, "all this expensive 

 material of marble, and no Quadriga, no statues, no inscrip- 

 tions — nothing upon the columns but those wretched scrolled 

 blocks which I believe are called trusses ? If you are at a 

 loss for a subject, send to Birmingham foundries for a car with 

 a Victory riding over Mayne force. You need not wait till 

 Sir Edwin and the Baron have finished Nelson's lions; for, as 

 you prefer employing foreigners, we can spare you a corps of 

 sculptors who would turn them out for you presto-presto." 



Our companion, in his walk down Oxford- street, was much, 

 struck with the meanness of many of the houses at the south 

 side of it, and suggested what a tine boulevard might have 

 been formed when Oxford Road was converted into a street 

 of shops. The Paris boulevards are about the most pleasing 

 and agreeable thoroughfares of that most magnificent of all 

 European cities, and our humble London does not produce 

 one — a want which is ever to be deplored, as Tottenham Court 

 Road, the Marylebone Road, the City Road, the Borough Road, 

 and the thoroughfares leading from the Elephant and Castle to 

 Lambeth, would all have been most applicable for the forma- 

 tion of boulevards. A detour from Oxford Street into Han- 

 over Square was much to our tourist's taste. He considered 

 the view of the Square and George Street, with the Church, 

 as one of the most scenic in London; the street not being 

 parallel, and several of the houses being built of red brick and 

 stone dressings, in a quaint Queen Anne style, renders this 

 part of London very picturesque. A ride from the Regent's 

 Park down Portland Place and Regent Street elicited many 

 remarks and shrugs of the shoulders from our observant com- 

 panion. The first shrug was at the Lilliputian statue of the 

 late Duke of Kent, at the termination of a spacious avenue. 

 The new Langham Hotel could not be passed by without an 

 observation of its gigantic size, putting all around into shade, 

 and thoroughly extinguishing its neighbouring church and 

 spire. The Circus and Regent Street were considered worthy 

 of a much better class aud style of house than what prevails. 

 The Quadrant is not altogether a disagreeable feature, although 

 it has been shorn of its colonnade*. 



Victoria Street, Westminster, now in progress, was seen 

 by our young friend, who thought that in this case the houses 

 were rather too high for the width of the street, and that at 

 times we should feel it dark aud gloomy. The buildings at 

 the Grosvenor Place end, now being erected, are very superior 

 in design to those in Victoria Street. They are quite French 

 in character, with Mansard roofs, terra cotta enrichments, and 

 ornamental zinc-work on the curbed roof's. Our friend thought 

 that one of his countrymen must have been emjnoyed ; but 



