The history and antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and other parts adjacent ... Continued to the present time / by Thomas Wright.
- Thomas Allen
- Date:
- 1839
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The history and antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and other parts adjacent ... Continued to the present time / by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.
457/504 page 441
![houses were to be placed amongst them, but so constroOed as to ] reserve the most peri’ect luiiformity. The halls for the city companies were to be placed between the piazzas, market-places, and churches, and to be fronted with stone ; among these was to be the Guildhall, distinguished from the rest by its being more pompous and magnificent; and, adjoin- ing to this edifice, a magnificent house for the lord mayor, and two others for the sheriffs. The Royal Exchange to front the Thames about the Steel-'' yard, in ah area bounded on three sides with piazzas, with vaults for warehouses beneath; and for such merchandize as could not be here preserved, might be erected buildings fronting the Thames on the other side che river, with wharfs before, and yards behind, for the placing of cranes, tlie laying of timber, coals, &c. and other gross commodities, while the quay over against it should be built for the owners, and the dwellings of the principal merchants ; but if the warehouses must be on this side, they were to front Thames-street rather than the river, because of the dull and heavy appearance of those buildings. The little bay at Queenhithe was to have the Quay continued round it, and cloistered about for market people and fruiterers; and wdmre the wharf then was, a stately avenue was to extend to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Four great streets were to extend along the city; the first from Fleet-ditch to the Tower; the second, from the Strand to the most eastern part of the city, where was to be a noble triuo^iphal arch, in honour of the king; the third, from Newgate to Aldgate ; and the fourth and shortest, from Aldersgate to Bishopsgate. Besides these, five principal cross streets were to extend from Blackfriars into West Smithfield; from the Thames, east of St. Paul’s, to Aldersgate; from Queenhithe to Cripplegate; and from the Royal Exchang’e to Moorgate. The street from the bridg’e was to extend to Bishopsgate, and another from the Custom-house to Aldgate. Inftead of houses on the bridge, the sides were to be adorned with a substantial iron balustrade, ornamented at conve- nient distances, with statues on their pedestals, and a footway on each side for the convenience of passengers. The hospitals, workhouses, and prisons w^ere to be situated in convenient quarters of the city ; the hospitals to form one of the principal streets ; but the prisons, and court for the trial of cri- minals, to be built near the entrance. The gates of the city were to be in the form of triumphal arches, adorned with statues,; elievos, and apposite [inscriptions, neither to be obstructed by sheds, nor to have mean houses joined to them. Along the wall, between Cripplegate and Aldgate, were to be the church-yards of the several parishes ; the houses opposite to them were to form a large street for the common inns, with sta- tions for the carriages, &c. which, being on the north of the city, and nearest the confines of th.e fields and roads, would least en-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29310775_0457.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
