We will now proceed to THE NEW CORN EXCHANGE, MARK LANE, a new building recently erected by a joint stock company, as a market for the use of the corn factors, &c. of the metropolis. It is from the designs of George Smith, Esq. and is one of the most agreeable compositions in the city. See plate of the New Corn Exchange, Mark Lane. It is composed of a centre, formed of a receding hexastyle portico of the genuine Doric order, but robbed of its triglyphs, a la mode de Mr. Nash, which are provided with hired substitutes of laurel wreaths. The echinus is embellished with a lion's head over each column, which among the Greeks were used for the outpouring of the rain water from the roof, but which would be a libation, upon the heads of His Majesty's lieges frequenting the Corn Exchange, that Mr. Edward Tyrrell, the district surveyor, would not allow. The cornice is crowned by a magnificent blocking course of extraordinary height and boldness, which supports a stylobate bearing the imperial arms of the united kingdoms, with agricultural trophies, and the following inscription: CORN EXCHANGE, ERECTED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT, ANNO DOMINI M.DCCC.XXVII. From this eastern part of the metropolis, we must now, to complete our desultory chapter of the Metropolitan Improvements, by an effort of the imagination, transfer ourselves to the west, and survey the as yet unaccomplished glories of THE NEW TREASURY, WHITEHALL, a building of legitimate art, by Professor Soane, and which comprises, besides the Treasury, the Privy Council Office, the Board of Trade and other government offices. Several designs were made by Mr. Soane for the Board of Trade and New Council Office. The original directions of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, says Mr. Soane in his recent publication, were to prepare designs of a building for the suitable accommodation of the Privy Council and Board of Trade, confining the extent of the front to the space between Downing Street and the Treasury Passage. For this purpose Mr. Soane prepared a design, which being too plain, he composed another in a more enriched character, with an order of architecture the same in all its parts and dimensions as in the little temple at Tivoli. The effect of this beautiful composition, which has been for ages the admiration of the lovers of classical architecture, may be seen in our before-mentioned views of the exterior of the Bank of England, executed in every respect, by Mr. Soane, according to the original. In this design of Mr. Soane's, which I have seen, the columns were sufficiently detached from the walls, like those in the Stoa at Athens, to produce that fine effect of light and shade so well understood by the Greeks and Romans, and which, as Mr. Soane well observes and practices, constitutes one of the great beauties of architecture. This design having been approved by the first Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the works were began; but, during their progress, the entire insulated columns were pared down by high authority into three-quarter columns, and the light order of the temple at Tivoli was replaced by the more elaborately ornamented Corinthian order of the three columns in the Campo Vaccino at Rome, supposed to be the remains of the temple of Jupiter Stator. In these designs the architect was confined for the extent of his front to the above-mentioned space between Downing Street and the Treasury Passage. He was afterwards directed* to continue the front of the Privy Council Office and Board of Trade to the extremity of the official residence of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in Downing Street. This extension of the front in an unbroken line produced, as the professor well observes, a monotonous effect. See designs for public and private buildings, by John Soane, Professor of Architecture in the Royal Academy, one of the Architect's attached to His Majesty's Office of Works, Architect to the Bank of England, F.R.S. R.A. F.S.A. Member of the Academies of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Parma and Florence. London, 1829, p. 6. |