The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-04 00:00:00

1111 E TH4 kl US EMBANKMENT,

li patient and, long-suffering public will pro-
b'.bly not be disr. Teased to learn that a real, actual,
beginning hail at length been made in the
great
practical
metropo r I tan work of embanking the northern
side of the Thames. A very long time since, a
sort of feint was made by the sinking of a few
miserable-looking piles in groups of three, along
a portion of the route, bat these were merely very
early preliminaries, and hed so long remained
stationary and desolate that the promenaders on the
bridges had at length ceased even to bestow a
passing glance on them. Yesterday's proceedings
were, however, of a very different character, and
although they were, only a beginning, and
a small one, they firmstituted a movement of the
right sort. The ay.st of the great caissons which
are to stud the r',ver on its northern side between
-Westminster and. "Waterloo bridges, and within
which the sea -wall is to be made, was shipped yes-
terday morning in pieces from the factory at Dept-
ford, on baard several barges, and carried up to the
immedia`..e neighbourhood of the railway bridge
at Charing-cross, where it is to be sunk, and
within it the actual work of the embankment will
forthwith be commenced.

It was only very recently that the contract for
the first portion o f the works, namely those of the
embankment be .ween Westminster and Waterloo
bridges, was " let oat" to Mr- Furness, but it
would appear that since then there has not been
much to coraplain of on the score of loss of time.
About five of these great caissons, the first of whieh
arrived P,t its destination yesterday, will have to be
let down into the river, over the whole length of this
portion of the work, and within each the building
of the sea wall will be executed. The mode of pro.
ceeding will be something as follows :—The faun,
dation (within the caisson) will be scooped out by
machines technically called " misers," connected by
a long shaft with steam power working above the
surface of the water. The diving-bell will then be
brought into requisition to lay the concrete and put
in the masonry, and when the caisson is full of solid
work it will be taken off piecemeal, and again sunk a
little further on on the line. The same process will
be carried on in the five caissons simultaneously,
and in this manner a solid aea wall will be gradually'
erected throughout the whole distance. When this
has been done, and the water has been permanently
excluded, the work of excavation within the wall
will commence; and it will be heavy work, for room
has to be I.nade for two erections, both of great im-
portance, and involving an immense amount of
labour irl their construction. Down deep in the
concrete the great sewer which is to receive all the
drain.ege of the north side of London is to be im-
bedded, and above it will be the subway" of the
embrAnkment, for the reception of the gas and
water pipes of the district. Within this space
and towards the shore there will be a very large
Space still unappropriated, but the general impres-
sion is that it will ultimately be made available
for a subterranean railway. The commence-
ment of the works at this period of the year, al-
though attended as it must be by short days and
broken weather, may on the whole be considered as
being rather fortunate than otherwise, as it must
give a great deal of employment to the labouring
classes at a season when the other sources of out-
door metropolitan employment are apt to be very
mrich diminished.

A long period has intervened between the time
when 3lartin, the painter of "Belshazzar's Feast,"
first sketched out his wondrous design for
an embankment of the Thames, and the day
when the first caisson was brought up the
river from Deptford. During the interval
artists of note and engineers of skill devised plan
after plan, but without producing any practical
result, until at last the Metropolitan Board of
Works discovered that they could not carry out
their great scheme of drainage without seriously
disturbing the traffic of the Strand and its neigh-
bourhood, and they determined upon embanking
the Themes, in order that within the new work
they night build their great main sewer, and thus
avoid disturbing and suspending a great portion of
the trade of Western London for an indefinite period.
The work, which may be said practically to have
commenced yesterday, will extend only from West-
minster to Waterloo Bridge; the second portion
of the embankment—namely, that laying between
the latter bridge and Blackfriars—not having as yet
been contracted for. It will, in fact, be a continua-
tion of the embankment which already runs along
the river front of the Houses of Parliament, and the
reader will, by recollecting that terrace, be able to
form an adequate idea as to the elevation and gene-
ral appearance of the future esplanade.
At Westminster there will be a new steamboat
pier, harmonising in general design with the bridge,
but the approach to the embankment (which at this
point will be 100 feet wide, and four feet above
high water) will be from the east side of Bridge-
street. The embankment will thence run along the
river, striking the first brick pier of the Charing-
cross Railway bridge and on to 'Waterloo, passing
in its course at the rear of Montague House, of
which the public will have a lively recollection in
consequence of the preposterous claim set up by
its noble owner to " stop the way " of the entire
Public to suit his own ideas of aristocratic seclu-
tiou, and the animated discussion, which the said
claim gave rise to in Parliament. It was rumoured
„..` the time that the matter was to be compromised
the purchase of the house for Government
Purb
stilr Z. but such is not the fact. His grace
ha_ Ins his noble town mansion, and, as we
are
„Jabal:lZ to add, improved, not injured, by the
garde,
s't4tet; Montague House has at present a
water, and t° this a hundred feet down to the
dred feet of this will be added another hun-
present garde reclaimed land, lying between the
This pace his giv.iauzll and the proposed roadway.
so
as
proposes to plant with quick
growing trees,
a sufficient screen ila 'eery few years to interpose
passing public. prowee)). his premises and the
embankment will Charing-cross-bridge the
preserve itstottriginal breadth until
it reaches Waterloo-bridge,
with which we at presente of the work
done,
deal. Within
this limit there is plenty to be
ue, provided the
provisions of the Act of Paella
descent
.3eet. approach
afbaeffurtolhlmye
There is to be a
carried out.
is
Westminster-bridge, which is
rom which th
embankment,
and
fe
foot in 80. eTh-"eellt is to be
at a gradient
onsite the Horse Guearredia to
be an
approach from° f a at-White-
-80 feet wide, and a
big 4 level
hall, by a roadwopaypo
gitnottle;:tet,
p lace
approaches
oo a
elhVeesl 1
ati n
street from Whitehall
from which there will be
eachto
gradient the embankment roadway,
tine. feature of the design
1 in 42. A very interesting
will be the laying out of the. reclaimed land in
front of the Whitehall and Charloo
g-ck as well whenross approaches
in gardens, which, if they only
finished as they now do in the coloured plans, will
prove a very great metropolitan attraction. These
gardens will be raised 16 feet above the river-
side roadway, in order to keep them on a level
the
with
the ground at the back, and, under them, facing
river, will be a handsome row of shops °P"ing:
on
the terrace. Independently, however, of the t
re-
claimed land thus disposed of, there will be a great
number of pet corners and nooks of large pecuniary
value, and it will require great vigilance on the
part of the public, whose money has paid for them,
and to Whom they properly belong, to prevent them
being lobbed away or otherwise appropriated by
private hseieideels.

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