The Street Architecture of London. 179 



we believe that the Marquis of Westminster entrusted his 

 London architect with the work with the request that the 

 style should be Parisian in character. When completed, the 

 Marquis will have every reason to be proud of his estate as 

 being one of the most attractive in London. Montague House 

 was much to our young friend's taste. The new Foreign 

 Office and the facade of the Treasury elicited no favourable 

 expression. The screen of the Admiralty especially delighted 

 him, but he complained sorely of the removal of the columns 

 to form side entrances. We do not think our young architect 

 agreed with our boastful expression that Trafalgar Square was 

 " the finest site in Europe." It possibly might have become so 

 had a Visconti been engaged on it; but with its National 

 Gallery, College of Physicians, its puerile .fountains, its 

 pedestal without an equestrian figure, and the base of Nelson's 

 Column still bare of the joint productions of the pet painter 

 and the titled Italian sculptor, made us quite ashamed of our 

 position as cicerone. Our friend saw our distress, and adroitly 

 expressed his admiration of the statue and pedestal of Charles 

 the First, and the fine portico of St. Martin's Church. The 

 latter, he remarked, from its skilful arrangement of plan ap- 

 peared to him infinitely larger than its real dimensions would 

 warrant. The Charing Cross Hotel was found rather too pro- 

 nonce, and the erection of the Eleanor Cross only to be ex- 

 cused on archaeological grounds. Somerset House was next 

 pointed out, and greatly delighted our friend by its grandeur 

 of outline towards the Strand, and the exquisite detail of its 

 enrichments ; the cortile and facade towards the river he did 

 not so much approve of, but the new portion in Wellington 

 Street he considered as most successful. En route to the City, 

 Temple Bar he thought inferior to the Porte St. Denis, but at 

 the same time clever and picturesque. Fleet Street displeased 

 him, and he asked us to compare a pretentious example of 

 the fashionable Victoria style, exhibited in the Crown Insur- 

 ance Office, next to St. Dunstan's Church, and a little archi- 

 tectural gem, the London and Provincial Law Assurance 

 Office, on the opposite side — the one protruding in boldness of 

 deformity,* the other retiring in delicacy and beauty worthy 

 of a Peruzzi. Turning into Chancery Lane, young Mansard 

 was quite charmed with the exquisite fagade of the Law Fire 

 Office, which, in his opinion, had more of the refinement of 

 Vignola than any building he had seen in London. The Law 

 Institution did not produce any favourable criticism, but the 



* Our Critic 'will find many who dissent from his strictures on the Crown. 

 Life Office ; but, having long made Architecture a profound study, and being 

 the Author of one of our most beautiful recent buildings he is well entitled to be 

 heard. — Ed. 



