rally given to open balustrades in bridges, the truth is, there is but little natural accordance between pigmy pillars and gigantic piers, or small peep-holes and lofty wide spreading arches. This parapet is only four feet high, so that passengers, though they cannot look through, can look over with ease.

The line of the roadway, or upper surface of the bridge, is a segment of a very large circle; the rise being only about one in one hundred and thirty-two; the two inches of additional height which were given to the abutment arches, by the advice of the present Mr. John Rennie, have helped to flatten this line considerably.

The abutments are each seventy-three feet wide at the base, and radiate backwards, so as to meet the thrust of the bridge with the best advantage. Alongside of them are two straight flights of stairs, twenty-two feet wide, which lead to and from the water.

So just have been the calculations on which the relative bearings of every part of the bridge have been adjusted, and with such exactness has every stone been shaped and placed, according to the working drawings and plans, that the sinking which takes place in all such structures, has been, in the present instance, unusually small. The centre arch has only sunk two inches; those next to it two and a quarter, and the abutment arches two inches. The sinking of Waterloo Bridge was five inches, and this was thought a very trifling sinking. The total width of the water-way between the arches is six hundred and ninety feet, at all times of the tide; which is sixty-six feet more than the old bridge afforded at highwater mark.

The length of the bridge, from the extremities of the abutments, is nine hundred and twenty-eight feet; within the abutments, seven hundred and eighty-two feet. The roadway is fifty-three feet between the parapets, being eight feet wider than the old bridge, and eleven feet wider than any other bridge on the Thames. Of this width the footways occupy nine feet each, and the carriageway thirty-five feet. The whole of this bridge, including the dry arches over Thames and Tooley Street, is constructed of the finest granite, selected from the quarries of Aberdeen, Heytor, and Penryn. The arches over which the approaches on each side are carried, with the exception of the two above mentioned, are built of brick. The total quantity of stone employed in the structure was about one hundred and twenty thousand tons. The raising and blasting at the quarries, the loading, removing, preparing and setting the stones, together with other operations connected with the bridge, gave daily employment to upwards of eight hundred men, during the whole time the work was in progress. Magnificent candelabra of brass support the lamps, the bridge being lighted with gas; and the ends of the parapets are finished with four of the largest blocks of granite, which it is believed were ever brought to this country.

The building expenditure of the bridge itself was £506,000,* and though in all undertakings of this kind there are some claims for extra work, yet they were not in this case, such as to increase the amount considerably. No toll has been imposed on the bridge; it is like the old one, perfectly free. All the money required, either for the bridge itself, or its approaches, has been furnished partly by the corporation, and partly by the country at large, in the shape of treasury grants, and of a duty of tenpence per chaldron, which the corporation have been authorized to levy for twenty-six years on all coals entering the port of London. The approaches to the bridge have been made to form handsome and convenient streets, generally seventy feet wide, which is about double the width of the old streets, and the ascent of the two principal approaches, not more than one in thirty, which is also less by nearly one half, than the former rise of Fish Street Hill.

The line of fronts and masses of building lying on the northern or city approach, has been named King William the Fourth's Street, which is continued in a line with Old Fish Street Hill.

These buildings are generally finished as shops or warehouses, in a handsome style of architecture, and a part of the northern side of Eastcheap, forms the boundary of the opening in that direction, and terminates the view offered to the spectator on entering the City of London by this magnificent bridge. Perhaps the greatest improvement in this quarter, after the bridge itself, and the raised level of the roadway, which does away with the hill from the foot of the bridge, northward, is the completion of the new line of street, from King William the Fourth's at Eastcheap, to the south-east corner of the Mansion House, and to the junction of Lombard Street and Cornhill, with the Poultry; continued along the west side of the Bank through Princes Street, and the mass of buildings beyond, in nearly a straight line to what is called the Pavement, in Moorfields. The taking down the old houses in Princes Street, and between Mansion House Street and Grocer's Hall, independent of the convenience of the open thoroughfare forms a part of, and adds greatly to the architectural effect of the exterior of the Bank of England opened to a more extensive range of view, whilst the further continuation of the line from Lothbury to London Wall, completes the grand junction. of the City Road, and the great northern outlet from London, by the Angel at Islington, with the confluence of the great roads from the opposite parts of the kingdom at the Elephant and Castle, beyond London Bridge. In the course of these works, the old houses have been taken down quite through from Fish Street Hill to the end of Tower Street, to form a new and commodious street falling into the immediate approach to the bridge, and the western part of the city, by the eastern arm of King William Street, to which

Se vol ii. p. 481.

it forms an important tributary. In Lombard Street, the massive building of the church of St. Mary Woolnoth, has become nearly insulated.

A Dissenters' Chapel has been erected on what was formerly Fish Street Hill; its flanks are of plain appearance, but its front elevation consists of a porch with two Ionic columns in antis between two plain compartments, upon the angles of which are characteristic antee; the whole being surmounted by a pediment, is handsome and effective as a street front. The Monument, which is left open to the street, forms an interesting object.

On the south side of the bridge, a range of new buildings have been erected, or old ones altered, to suit the improved appearance of the new, forming the great line of houses from St. Saviour's church, to the Town Hall, and the street has received the name of "Wellington," whilst the arm of it which runs into Tooley Street is called Duke Street.

Fishmongers' Hall.

This building occupies one of the finest situations in the city, standing at the south-west angle of the north approach to the New London Bridge, towards which it presents an elevation upwards of one hundred and sixty feet in length.

Owing to the great height of the bridge roadway above Thames Street a substructure of more than thirty feet was necessary, which is cased with Haytor granite, and harmonizes with the architecture of the bridge. An arcade, supporting a spacious terrace, being formed towards the river, conceals the principal entrance to the fire-proof warehouses which extend under the whole of the building, and yield a considerable rental.

On this granite platform is raised an edifice of the Grecian Ionic order, simple in its character, and adapted to the peculiarities of the situation, amongst which it may be remarked, that the water steps and gigantic piers at the commencement of the bridge so far interfere with the eastern front of the building as to have rendered impracticable a central entrance approachable for carriages. This difficulty has however been met without any perceptible sacrifice of uniformity, although the entrance is unavoidably placed out of the centre of the building. The south front above the terrace presents an attached hexastyle supporting a pediment. The east front is enriched with pilasters and columns in the centre, having an attic above, in the front of which are placed the arms of the company, and two emblematical basso-relievo of sea-horses are introduced on each side. The north front has simply a continuation of the same entablature which is carried round the other fronts of the building supported by pilasters.

The principal entrance is from Adelaide Place, through a spacious hall (in connection with which are the business offices of the