Office, the Privy Council Office, and the Treasury, all under one roof, and the little narrow street forming a cul de sac, which terminates it, is the world-famous Downing-street, containing the official residences of the Prime Minister, and the Secretaries of State for Foreign and Colonial Affairs. On the opposite side of the way is the Banqueting-house of the Old Palace of Whitehall, the masterpiece of Inigo Jones; in front of which King Charles I. was beheaded. The fifth great architectural centre of the Metropolis is at the end of Parliament-street. Here the Church, the Law, and the Legislature, are represented. The first in the noble old Abbey, the second in the Courts off Westminster Hall, and the third in the New Parliament Houses, whose towers, rising to a gigantic height, break in from point to point upon the sight. This spot, indeed, might be considered the intellectual centre of the Metropolis. Within so small a space, the earth perhaps holds not so many distinguished men amongst the living and the dead. Retracing our steps down Parliament-street we come to Waterloo-place, our sixth architectural centre, not inaptly called the centre of social and political life. Here we are in the heart of Club-land. Looking towards the Duke of York's Column, which terminates the view, we have on our right hand the Athenæum, chiefly frequented by literary men; on the left, and exactly opposite it, the United Service Club, whose members are naval and military veterans. Next to the Athenæum, which stands at the commencement of Pall-mall west, is the Travellers'. The Reform, which is observable from its great size and from its Italian architecture, stands next in order. To the Reform succeeds the Carlton, the head-quarters of the Conservatives, a stately building, and the last erected. The Oxford and Cambridge and the Guards' Club houses complete this side of Club-land. On the north, or opposite side, at the corner turning into St. James's-square, is the Army and Navy Club. At the bottom of St. James's-street stands St. James's Palace, a dingy but picturesque old building full of historical associations. Ascending the street, on the left hand side are seen the Conservative Club, Arthur's, and Brooks's (the Whig head-quarters), whilst near the top is the once famous or infamous Crockford's, now a tavern, and called "The Well ington." "White's" and "Boodle's," once fashionable political Clubs, but now principally resorted to by elderly country gentlemen, stand on the opposite side near the top. The stranger should endeavour to procure orders (given by members) to see some of these Clubs, especially the Reform, famous for its central hall, and its kitchen planned by M. Soyer. The staircases and apartments of the Carlton, Reform, Conservative, and Army and Navy Clubs, are very beautiful. Returning to Waterloo-place, after noticing for a few moments the noble park front of Carlton-terrace which stands upon the site of Carlton House, the visitor should ascend Regent-street. This street was built by Nash during the regency of George IV., and was the first great improvement of the Metropolis since the days of Wren. A few years since, a piazza covered in the footways on both sides of that part of it called the Quadrant; and the double curve of columns thus formed had a noble effect. The lath and plaster style of Nash's architecture in Regent-street has given rise to the reproach that it cannot stand either wind or weather. Nevertheless, it is the brightest and most cheerful street in the Metropolis; and its sunny side, with its shops (many of which are French) filled with elegancies of all kinds, especially those pertaining to the female toilet, is one of the liveliest promenades in the Metropolis between the hours of 3 and 6 o'clock in the afternoon. Portlandplace, a wide monotonous street, forms the continuation of Regent-street, and terminates in Park-crescent, a fine sweep of houses on either side forming the entrance to the Regent's Park, and called by its architect, Nash, the key to Marylebone. When the visitor has well surveyed the routes pointed out, presenting an irregular pattern-card of almost every style, he will have made himself master of the entire street architecture of London. To comprehend at a glance the immense amount of business done in London as a Port, I would suggest a walk along Thames-street and Tooley-street, whose gigantic warehouses keep the thoroughfare in a perpetual gloom, and whose cranes hold in mid air during the day the varied produce of the world. The Custom-house quay, with its long room; Billingsgate-market, the Coal-market close at hand, St. Katherine's and the London Docks; might all be taken in the walk. § 13. The Parks of the Metropolis, not inaptly called the lungs of London, are six in number, and chiefly in the West End. St. James's Park, the Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens, lie so close to each other, that one may walk from Charing-cross, the very heart of the Metropolis, to Bayswater, a distance of three miles, scarcely taking one's feet off the sod. These three parks enclose London on its W. side; whilst Regent's Park lies to the N.W., Victoria Park to the N.E.; and Battersea Park, now in course of formation, to the S.W. Besides these open spaces, which are beautifully laid out, the ventilation of the Great Babylon is in some degree provided for by its numerous squares, some of them of large extent, and planted with trees; and by its Botanic Gardens, Cemeteries, and Nurseries; which, taken together, occupy many hundred acres of ground. § 14. Having traversed the principal streets, both architectural and commercial, let us take boat with our visitor and show him the river Thames thoroughfare of the Metropolis, which displays, in a more complete manner perhaps than any other, what London really is, both in extent and character. Taking one of the twopenny steamers at Westminster Bridge, he sees before him several specimens of that bridge architecture which has made London so famous. Westminster Bridge, under whose shadow he for a moment rests, was built in the middle of the last century. It has long been in a dangerous condition, and is about to make way for a new one, in keeping with the adjacent Houses of Parliament. The banks of the river on either side of Westminster Bridge are, for some distance, occupied by coal barges, mudbanks, a few good houses, some mean wharfs, and many still meaner buildings. As we descend the stream, Hungerford Suspension Bridge, starting on the Middlesex shore from the Italian-looking Hungerford-market, close to Inigo Jones's Gate of York-house, next hangs its thread-like chains across the widest portion of the Thames. Then is seen the Adelphi-terrace, built by the brothers Adam-in the centre house of which lived and died David Garrick. Then is seen in contrast, Waterloo Bridge, with its nine arches, the centre one having a span of 120 feet. This bridge, which is perfectly level, and built of the finest granite, is certainly a noble structure, and well becomes the fine façade of Somerset House, which rises from a terrace immediately beyond it, on its right hand, and extends 400 feet along the river. Still farther down, on the same shore, the pleasant Temple Gardens are seen on the left, green and flourishing, amid the surrounding blackness of the city. Blackfriars Bridge, over which rises the stately dome of St. Paul's, is next passed under ; then comes "the thick" of the City, on the left bank, and the sky is penetrated by the spires of numerous churches, indicating by their numbers, now quite disproportioned to the spiritual wants of the very limited resident population, the ancestral piety of London. Southwark Bridge, built of iron, is remarkable for its central arch, of 240 feet span, the widest in the world. London Bridge, the last or most sea-ward of the metropolitan bridges, with its five granite arches crossing the Thames, divides London into "above" and "below" bridge. "Above bridge," the traffic of the river consists of coal barges,bright-coloured and picturesque Thames hoys, laden with straw,—and the crowded penny and twopenny steam-boats, darting along with almost railway rapidity. Immediately the arches of London Bridge are shot, the scene is at once changed. The visitor finds himself in a vast estuary, crowded with ships as far as the eye can reach. All the great commercial buildings of London lie on the left bank of the Thames, "below" bridge. The Fish-market (Billingsgate), a new structure, and then the Coal Exchange, are rapidly passed one after the other. The Tower, square and massive, with its irregular out-buildings, and its famous Traitor's-gate, may be said to terminate the boundary of the City. § 15. The Pool commences just below London Bridge, where the river is divided into two channels by the treble range of colliers anchored in it to discharge their cargoes-the city of London deriving its chief income from a tax of 1s. 1d. per ton, levied on coals consumed in the metropolis and its vicinity. Only a certain number of these dingy-looking colliers are admitted into the "pool" at once, the remainder waiting in "the lower pool," until the flag which denotes that it is full is lowered, when those enter that are THE POOL first in rank. The greatest order and regularity in marshalling these coal fleets is absolutely necessary to avoid choking the water-way; and as it is, so much inconvenience is experienced, that it is in contemplation to excavate docks for them in the tongue of land opposite Greenwich, called the Isle of Dogs. A little below the Tower of London are the St. Katherine's-docks, inclosed by warehouses, over which the masts of the larger shipping are observable. The London Docks succeed, and in connection with them are the famous wine vaults, in which as many as 65,000 pipes of wine can be stowed. Just past the first entrance to these docks, the steamer passes over the last land connection between the two banks of the river. The famous Thames Tunnel lies under the voyager's feet, and it is more than probable that at the very moment he passes, light and life, music and laughter, are going on below these waters which look so calm, so dirty, and so deep; for fairs and fêtes, and even balls, are matters of constant occurrence in the Tunnel, in the line of arches not used as a public thoroughfare. On the opposite shore is the Grand Surrey Dock, covering a large area, and devoted, together with the Commercial and Greenland Docks, to the timber and corn trades. A little below the Pool, where the river takes an abrupt bend in its course at Limehouse-reach, is one of the entrances to the West India Docks. These docks run right across the base of the tongue of land called the Isle of Dogs, and open into Blackwall-reach; and the crowd of masts seen across the pasturage looks like a grove of leafless trees. Deptford (on the right-hand as you pass down Limehousereach) is a government dockyard and the seat of the victualling department, which every stranger should see. There are always several ships of war, steamers and others, lying off the wharf; and underneath its vast building sheds, the ribs of some future merchant vessel are generally to be seen growing up under the busy hammers of the shipwrights. The steamer has scarce passed Deptford when the "Dreadnought" hospital-ship, the hulk of a 120-gun ship, rears itself out of the water, affording a noble example of the size and power of a first-rate man-of-war, in the days of Nelson. This old ship stands as a kind of outwork to Greenwich Hospital, whose noble cupolas and double range of columniated buildings rise just beyond, a worthy dwelling |