The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 30, 1866.

Something Like a City Dining Hall.

On Saturday evening there was inaugurated
one of the
handsomest, yet at the same time, we beneve,
one of the most reasonable places of public
entertainment anywhere to be found within the
boundaries of the city of London. The origi-
nator of the whole scheme, and head of the new
establishment—Mr. John Perrett, known until very
recently, we understand, as a man of enterprise
down at Manchester—may be already congratulated
upon having started his project under the hap-
pest auspices. Scy far as one may judge from
appearances in a matter of this kind, it is an
undertaking that deserves to prove successful. Mr.
Perrett has manifestly spared no expense in setting
it on foot. Externally and internally, the building
itself is not merely attractive : it is at one and the
same time both elegant and comfortable—com-
fortable, that is to say in its arrangements and ele-
gant in its decorations. Constructed originally for
the purposes of a City warehouse, the edifice has
in the process of its transformation into a City
Restaurant into " The City ".Restaurant," for
such it is to be its title henceforth—has certainly in
a very remarkable way afforded its archi-
tect, Mr. Robert W. Edis, an opportunity for
the display of both his artistic taste and his:pro-
fessional skill. Designed by him originally in
the Lombardo-Gothic style of architecture,
the building has been adapted, with admirable in-
genuity, under his direction, to all its present re-
quirements. Several thousand pounds sterling
must evidently have been expended in the carry-
ing out of the requisite alterations, and in
the adornment and furnishing upon the
costliest scale of the entire structure. The
kitchen department, which is very properly
relegated to the top floor, is fitted up as a matter
of course with all the best and latest improve-
ments. Upon the second floor is the chop-room—
the room for the broiling, in the presence of the city
clerks frequenting it, the chops, steaks, kidneys, and
so forth, that will be be supplied to them hissing
hot direct from the gridiron ! That same noble
gridiron, by the way, being made not only of huge
dimensions, but the bars of it of solid silver and the
front of it of solid gold ! 'The principal floor of all,
namely, the first floor immediately below the chop-
room, is, as a matter of course, the handsomest room
in the whole building—being, in fact, as fine and
spacious a dining-room as City merchant could
wish to see—and to frequent 1 The furniture or fit-
tings of this room are throughout of polished oak
inlaid with ebony, the stuffed backs and seats of
the chairs being covered with scarlet morocco,
emblazoned in gilding with the interwoven letters
"J. P."—the monogram of the proprietor. The
smoking-room and the apartment adjoining it upstairs
are furnished with chairs cushioned respectively with
green and maroon, instead of like those of the chief
dining hall with scarlet, morocco. Upon the ground
floor there is a luncheon bar especially noticeable as
about the largest in all London ! The gigantic
mirrors decorating it have been especially imported
from Belgium—the " Spirit Temple," as well as the
plate and plated goods generally, having been sup-
plied by the Messrs. Elkington. Altogether—
as may very readily be credited after what has been
here already remarked— the establishment has been
constructed and fitted up throughout upon a scale
entitling the proprietor of it to the favourable con-
sideration cf all city men who are on the look out
good
erdyi dinner,ureasonable
dinner
r of
(as which among them all is not ?) for a thoroughly
efxoucerolluectnolatulyry.seswell served, and at
a
,Tsehreveid)rianscdipinalnedrisnnareer
—a
served at club-houses rather than at restaurants—
being set down in Mr. Perrett's tariff at three-and-
sixpence. The establishment can hardly, by possi-
bility, fail to secure to itself a brilliant success, and
that immediately.

THE llEilo-SCENE.—This is the name given by
the' Messrs. Lowther and Co., of Regent-street, to
their new sun-shade. It is applicable to all kinds of win-
dows. The great point of excellence is that it has the
effect of arresting the sun's rays before they have pene-
trated the glass, thereby keeping out the heat as well as
the glare. Thu helio-scene is a great improvement on the
old-fashioned sun-shade, both in form and appearance.
The old blinds were unsightly to a degree, whereas those
of Mr. Lowther are decidedly of an ornamental character
so mach so that the Prenlie): hay ilia his maximitna M
paeLici fitted with them.