The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-29 00:00:00

length is about 92 feet ; its average width 40, and
height 30. It is divided into five compartments in
length by means of broad enriched piers on each side ;
these compartments answering to the same number of
windows, which derive light from the upper part of the
merchants' court. Each corner of the room is a qua-
drant, in the centre of which stands an lonic column,
elevated on a pedestal, and giving support to an ad-
vancing angle of the entablature, which is continued
round the room considerably enriched. From this
springs a cove to meet the plafond of the ceiling,
across which all the prevailing lines of the vertical
architecture are continued, and from which, by the
five principal compartments, light is liberally intro-
duced through elegant horizontal glazing. But the
principal of Lloyd's apartments, for size and symme-
try, is the subscribers'- room, which looks into the
quadrangle at its eastern end, and is an oblong of
98 feet in length by 40 in width. It is divided in
length into six compartments, by members very simi-
lar in effect to those in the room last described, though
their detail is totally different. Like that, it has its
ceiling commenced with a cove-like arrangement, but
pierced in each compartment into a half-groin,
through the top of which light is introduced by an
ornamentally glazed hexagon. The chief supply of
light, however, is obtained reflectively, down the centre
of the room, each of the six compartments of the ceiling
being there elevated into a dome, with a window be-
neath it, springing on each side. The effect of this
mode of lighting is less brilliant, perhaps, than of that in
the commercial-room, but it is beautifully diffusive
and gentle, while abundant in its supply. The de-
corative detail in this room is very considerable, but
far from overpowering : we observe in it the frequent
repetition of the heraldic bearings adopted by the
establishment of Lloyd's.
Leaving this room by an archway on the south-
east, we enter the reading-room, an apartment 40
feet long by 25 wide, lighted by a lantern and fitted
at mid-height with a gallery on each long side, ap-
proached by a double staircase on the east. The de-
corations of this room are not so elaborate as to detain
us for a description : and we turn, therefore, by the
north, successively through the secretary's-room, its
anti-chamber under the tower, a clerk's office, and the
kitchen of Lloyd's, which suite completes the circuit
of the eastern court, and brings us to the captains'-
room. More need not be said of this apartment than
that it is a cheerful combination of three rooms in
one, connected by wide archways, and occupying the
north-east angle of the building ; from this we are
led out again upon the great lobby first noticed, and
from which we retreat without thinking it necessary
to carry the reader through a series of various other
and less accessible apartments of no public interest.
Here, then, we conclude our review of this impor-
tant structure, and in doing so we shall nut pay the
architect or his co-operators the adulation with which
the crowd are too apt to laud every new building of
magnitude when clean from the mason's hands, as a
superb edifice, magnificent pile, and whatever else the
use of equally discriminative terms can make it. Be
it enough that we offer the expression of our opinion
that the building has merit sufficient to secure for it
the approbation of futurity, which is the highest ob-
ject a true artist aims to secure.
That we may not leave our account incomplete, we
subjoin the names of those gentlemen who have been
immediately and statedly engaged in superintending
the building, or conducting its decorative departments,
not omitting to recognise at the outset the services of
Mr. Richard Lambert Jones, as the Chairman of the
controlling Gresham Committee :
Mr. William Tite, architect.
Mr. Ebenezer Trotman, assistant.
Messrs. G. and R. Webb, builders of the founda-
tions.

Mr. Thomas Jackson, builder of the superstruc-
ture.

Messrs. Westmacott, Behnes, Carew, Joseph,
Lough, and Watson, sculptors.

Mr. C. H. Smith, architectural carver.
M. Frederick Sang, decorator in fresco and encaus-
tic painting.
Mr. A. Singer, maker of tessellated pavement.
Mr. E. J. Dent, clockmaker.
Messrs. Mears and Son, bellfounders.
In conclusion, we derive satisfaction from a belief
that the general state of professional and even of pub-
lic taste, as well as the recently increased facilities for
building, are in favour of great advances in architec-
tural excellence. Within less than an interval of 20
years, we find that an edifice, not far differing in size
from the General Post-office, and displaying incom-
parably more studied composition and elaborated de-
tail, can be raised at about half the cost which that
structure demanded. We wish all success to art and
its professors, and hope that, for the national credit,
its interests may never be dissociated from the favour
of those influential men who shall hereafter assemble
in the new Royal Exchange, the centre of the com-
merce of the world.