The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-28 00:00:00

able to the genius and liberality of the sculptor. The
t zbleau which he has formed, pleases by its masterly
grouping and telligible representation. In the centre,
the principal rure, the key-note of the whole, is a to-
-I,ssal impersonation of Commerce, ten feet in height,
being, of course, the prominent point of reference for all
the others. Commerce, in this classical personification,
wears a mural crown, and is accompanied by accesso-
ries allusive to wealth and enterprize—as a cornucopia,
beehive, &c. ; in her left hand she holds the charter
el the Exchange, while her right is connected with
part of a ship ; and the supporting pedestal consists
of two dolphins and a shell. On the right hand of the
figure of Commerce stands a group of three British
merchants, habitod in civic robes, as Lord Mayor,
Alderman, and Common Councilman. Next to them
are two Asiatics, natives of our Indian possessions, the
one a libido°, the other a Mahomedan, each readily
distinguishable in person as well as costume. Next is a
Greek, carrying a jar; he is associated with the others
by seeming to move towards them, while he is also in
relation with the remaining figures, by his attention
being turned towards them. The two remaining im-
personations on this side are an Armenian and a Turk ;
the former, the banker and the scholar of the East. is
occupied with a scroll; and the latter, the Osmanli mer-
chant, may he supposed to be busied with his daily ac-
counts. He closes the series of figures on the right, the
extreme angle of the tympanum being filled with an
anchor and other nautical emblems.
" The first group presented on the left of Commerce
shows two British merchants, robed similarly to those on
the right; and to whom a Persian is showing some woven
fabric. To him immediately succeed a Chinese, a sailor
of the Levant, and a negro, felle*.ved by an unmistakable
British sailor, cording a bale of cotton. The remaining
figure is a supercargo or factory agent, or some other
commercial functionary; and this angle of the tympanum
is filled with jars, packages, &c.
" flaying described the external appearance of the
new Exchange, it only rernans to notice the interior.
Here we find an open court, something like the cortili
of the Italian palaces. The ground floor consists of Doric
columns and rusticated arches ; over them is a series of
lonic columns, with arches and windows surmounted by
a highly ornamented pierced parapet, The effect of
this court is very light, magnificent, and ornamental,
but still consistent with its uses and purposes. The
key-stones of the arches of the superior story are
decorated with the arms of all the nations of
the world, in the order determined at the Con-
gress of Vienna. The arms of England are in the
centre of the eastern side. This area is open, which is
the result of the determination, not of the architect, nor
of the Gresham Committee, but of the merchants of Lon-
don. In the first instance, and before any steps were
taken, the leading members of that body were applied to
on this subject, and the decision of a very large majority
was in favour of an uncovered area.
" The ambulatory, or merchants' walk, is very spacious
and well sheltered. The ceiling is divided by beams and
panelling, highly painted and decorated in encaustic. In
the centre of each panel, on the four sides, the arms of
the nations are repeated, emblazoned in their proper
colours; and in the four angles are the arms of Edward
the Confessor, Edward 111., Elizabeth, and Charles
In the south-east angle is a statue of Queen Elizabeth,
by Watson; and in the south-west a marble statue of
Charles IL, which formerly stood in the centre of the
Old Exchange, and which escaped the fire unscathed.
" In explanation of the above, it will not be unim-
portant here to mention, that Edward the Confessor
granted the first and most important charters to the
City, and in Edward M.'s time the City of Lond
began to assume its commercial importance. The arms
of both these kinds occur constantly in the ancient de-
corations of Guildhall. Those of Elizabeth and Charles
11. are introduced with their statues, for reasons too
obvious to need explanation.
" In eight small circular panels in the ambulatory are
introduced the arms of the three Mayors, viz., Pirie,
Humphery, and Magnay ; and also the three Masters of
the Mercers' Company—Poole, Sutton, and Watney,
who have respectively held office during the erection of
the building. The arms of the Chairman of the Gresham
Committee, Mr. B. L. Jones ; and of the architect, Mr.
Tito, complete the heraldic embellishments. The ambu-
latory is paved with Yorkshire stone, marked out into
panels by margins and lines of black stone called Castle-
hill, with squares of red Aberdeen granite at the inter-
aectii ars.
" The open area is paved with a tesselated pavement
of the most elegant and varied patterns, after the best
Roman examples. The tessera, of which this pave-
ment is composed, are burnt to a great hardness, and
Having cast iron channels to carry off the water, will
always yield a dry and clean surface.
" Such is the edifice now raised on the ruins of the
lateßoyal Exchange. As already mentioned, a buildingof
such magnitude was never carried up in stone within a
period
so ; a building which, whether consi-
dered in reference to its obvious utility, or its beauty as
a piece of architecture, reflects infinite honour on the
talent and unwearing diligence which could begin and
carry to completion so worthy an ornament to the
greatest city in the world."

THE NEW ROYAL EXCHANGE.
(From the Times.)
The visit of her Majesty, to open the New Royal
Exchange, renders it incumbent upon us to take the
present opportunity of offering a few descriptive and
critical remarks upon that building ; more especially
as the subject has never been anticipated by us in any
previous examination of the structure from its com-
mencement. A notice of the progress of such a work,
from time to time, is all that can be expected from the
press until its completion ; it is then only that the in-
telligent observer can, in most instances, form a just
opinion of the merits of a public building, either on
the ground of its adaptation to its avowed purposes,
or of its vigour and coherency as a production of de-
corative art. Exceptions there are to this remark, it
is true; and we should find no difficulty in naming
some living architect, eminent, it may be, for the
extent of his practice, whose mode of procedure is
so unvarying that a critical opinion may as safely be
pronounced upon the first day of one of his under-
' takings as upon the last. But this facility of decision
on the part of the spectator must necessarily be in
the inverse ratio to the possession of genius on the
side of the architect, who, if animated by any feeling
higher than the talent of the mechanic, will be soli-
citous that his design shall, if possible, be undergoing
improvement up to the very day of completion. On
the opposite principle of judgment, we should have
been led to entertain a very erroneous notion of the
character of Mr. Tite's Exchange, had we de-
rived our impressions solely from the first hints of the
design which found circulation, and from which we con-
tinue a to find engravings everywhere offered for sale to
discerning public, as exhibiting the very image of a
structure essentially differing from and superior to
such q representation.
We pceneed, therefore, to the proper authority fer
information---the building as it stands ; and shall best
illustrate its comliarities by noticing, in succession,
its site, its accommodation, and its decoration.
The site is remarkable for its commanding im-
portance in one aspect, the western, and for its irregu-
larity on the other three sides, having, as is well
known, a wedge-like form, produced by the con-
vergseice of Cornhill and Threadneedle-street towards
the Mansion-house The munificence of Parliament
having facilitated the purchase of the isolated pro-
perty to the west of the late Exchange, an oppor-
tunity was obtained for turning the most important
façade of the new structure in that direction, instead
of placing it to the south, as formerly. Fly th;s
means the space unintercepted by buildings ill al.
y-ance from the centre of the present portico beeenes
extended to the unusual length of between 500 and
600 feet. On the other hand, the large and still in-
creased amount of accommodation required in the new
Exchange, together with the necessity for keeping
that accommodation within an easily accessible elevl-
tion from the great thoroughfares, rendered it impe-
rative that all the available ground on the north and
swath boundary lines should be occupied with build.
ing, in spite of the irregularity and.want of paral-
lelism to which we have just referred.
We pass on, then, to examine what is the nature of
that accommodation which principally governs the
extent and distribution of the building under our no-
tice. In the structure first raised by Sir Thomas
Gresham only two objects seemed to have been pro-
vided for—the daily meeting of the merchants, an I
the reception of the shopkeepers ; the upper part of
the building having been, as it seems, arranged very
much after the manner of a bazaar. Its successor,
the late Royal Exchange, rebuilt after the great fire,
ultimately received some new and important bodies of
otcapants, in lieu of the upstairs shopkeepers of the
former establishment. F irst in order of time, came
the association that originatedin Lloyd's Coffee-bouif';
their introduction was followed by that of the Royal
Exchange Assurance Corporation, and this again by
the provision for the Gresham
ov
G College,
ment for on the pure
-
chase of its establishment by ern th
use of the Excise. In rebuilding the Exchange once
snore, the Gresham Committee have made provisiee,
not only for an increase in the extent of accommoda-
tion to the shops, but for the reception of an additional
company, that of the London Assurance ; while they
have assigned the Gresham College to a separate en-
tice, and provided a suite'of rooms, hitherto unallotted,
Ai the situation at first devoted to that body. Tine
principal departments of the present building consist,
therefore, of the following portions, as to number and
order :

- -
The Merchants' Quadrangle.
Lloyxj.
The Royal Exchange Assurance.
The London Assurance.
The unappropriated offices.
The offices and shops r
But, before we can makeprivate parties.
situation and extent of
these portions clear to the reader,
to give him an outline of the general plan of the struc-
ture.ill Setting the portico outcd
notice for the ma-
g inent, the remaining mass of bud produces a
figure about 272 feet in length from ea
with a frontage of 118 feet at the west esttuit° and of
west,
176 feet at the opposite extremity, the northana
south siJes being equabland connected with theleastern
face, by Liege quadrant corners. The portico gives
a further extensio to the west of about 28 feet in
depth;ky_a length or frontage of 90 feet. Nearly in
the centre of this eptire mass is the Merchants' Quad-
rangle, occupying a'space of 167 feet from east to

west by 111 feet across, these dimensions being in- '
elusive of the covered arcade or ambulatory all round,
which is about 26 feet wide, leaving an open centre
in the proportion of a double square. In the interval
remaining to the east of the Merchants' Quadrangle
occurs another little court, some 60 feet in length
from north to south, and 19 feet in width. It is only
necessary to add to this general description of what is
technically " the plan," that there is an entrance to
the quadrangle from the centre of each of the four
fronts of the building; that the centre of the portico
is recessed to a depth equal to its projection ;and that
the entrance from the east front occupies the base of
the tower. We may, however, mention further, by
anticipation, that the height of the building embraces
a basement story, ground floor, mezzanine, one pair or
principal floor, and, in many cases, a two-pair story.
Returning, then, to the distribution of the ground
floor, we have all its western portion, between the
quadrangle and the portico, occupied by the Royal
Exchange Assurance, with an entrance within the
portico on each side. The London Assurance en-
gages a small portion or space on the south or Corn-
hill side for an entrance; while the establishment of
Lloyd's has its approach by the small eastern court,
before referred to, between the quadrangle and the
tower. Almost the whole remaining space on the
ground story, both in the three street frontages and
in the eastern court, is devoted to the shops and pri-
vate offices, some thirty-seven in number, which,
accordingly, form the characteristic external features
of the lower portion of the building. It is on the
one-pair or principal floor, that the three great public
establishments have their chief accommodation. Two-
thirds of the space to the north and east of the qua-
drangle are occupied by Lloyd's rooms. Thence,
from the south-east corner, past the centre of the
Cornhill front westward, extend the rooms of the
London Assurance. The Royal Exchange Assur-
ance continues the range to the south-west extremity,
and then northward past the centre of the west front,
where the unappropriated offices complete the circuit
by the occupation of the north-west corner. It would
be tedious and unnecessary to particularise the rooms
in each department ; a sufficient notion of their ex-
tent may be gathered from the following comparison
of surface. We believe that we shall not be found
far from the truth, if we estimate the whole covered
superficies upon this story at 31,000 feet. Out of
this total a rough allotment will give to
Lloyd's
London Assurance

Royal Exchange Asssurance 5,700
Unappropriated offices 3,900

32,000
The only rooms that appear to demand a more de-
tailed notice are the important suite devoted to the
business of Lloyd's, which, however, will more pro-
perly engage the attention in the course of the exa-
mination which we proceed to institute into the
architectural composition and decoration of the
structure. _

To consider the Royal Exchange, then, a 3 a work
of art, we presume that the west front, the principal,
though smallest of the four—furnishes the governing
lines to the rest of the external design from the pro-
portions of its portico. The order employed is
Corinthian, fifty feet in height, that is, forty-one feet
for the column, and the remainder for its superin-
cumbent entablature. This order is continuous round
the entire building, being elevated upon a granite
stylobate or pedestal, varying in height from four to
eight feet, according to the fall of the ground ; and
it is also surrounded generally by an attic and balus-
trade about ten feet in height. To this mention of
the order and its proportions we will just add, that
in all matters of detail preference appears to have
been given to the Italian school of design, that reigned
universally in this country at the beginning of the
last century.
But, to return to the west facade, we have a portico
of eight columns in width, and two in projection,
leaving a narrow blank wing in the back ground on
each side. The front rank of eight columns is backed
by a line of four, so placed as to give an internal space
to the centre and sides in the proportion of three to
two ; the centre, a; we have before intimated, is also
deeply recessed. To avoid a multiplicity of small
windows for lighting the various apartments behind
the portico, that object is attained by means of two
large and boldly arched Venetian windows of lonic
detail ; and between them, in the central division, is
an archway of corresponding outline, which gives ac-
cess to an inner vestibule communicating at once with
the quadrangle. These three arches are finished with
well-executed keystone shields and foliage, exhibiting
in the centre the merchant's mark of Sir Thomas
Gresham, and, over the windows, the bearings of the
old Merchant Adventurers, and the Merchants of the
Staple of Calais. The distribution of space in the
portico affords an opportunity for carrying over it a
vaulted ceiling in three compartments, enriched with
panelling and flowers. Of the pediment, which con-
tains a display of' sculpture by Mr. Westmacott, we
shall speak hereafter, in noticing the accessories to
the general design : and shall only add to this des-
cription of the portico that, as it occupies the lowest
position in the declivity of the site, it is approached
with effect by a flight of nine steps, well flanked by
the advancing stylobate at each end.
The abuse of such an architectural appliance as that
of the Greco-Roman portico is so much more common
than its felicitous use, that we do not wonder that
professional men of high genius forego its application
altogether, rather than have recourse to it in an un-
favourable position and aspect, or under circumstances
where it would be unsuited to internal arrangements.
Wren's porticoes of this descriptions are extremely
rare, and so are those of the late Sir John Soane.
We have already in London porticoes usque ad
nauseam, crammed with little openings at the back,
telling all the same story of a house built within the
shell of a temple. On the other hand, those architects
whose taste has led them to avoid this incongruity
and trifling have produced by the reverse an effect
that may be classical, if that be any recommendation,
but which is too frequently sombre and destitute of
animation, manifestly unsuited to the dull atmosphere
of Britain, and especially so to the genius of commer-
cial London. It is a great relief, therefore, to meet
with a specimen that does not excite our indignation
at the repetition of the " everlasting portico;"
and that relief we certainly enjoy in the inspection of
the west front of the Royal Exchange. The situation
it occupies is one so temptingly commanding that though
we might have recommended the trial of some more
novel combination, we can excuse the architect's pre-
ference for a portico, since his choice has been con-
ducted to so happy a result. The composition under
notice has the merit of character; it is manifestly the
portico to an important secular building, and not to a
church, much less to a pagan temple. It has, in an
eminent degree, the advantage of artistical " breadth,"
and possesses a play of outline and force of shadow
unequalled in any other example in the metropolis,
the west front of St. Paul's excepted. The arrange-
ment of its plan bears some resemblance to that of the
Inman Pantheon ; while the niches or reces,es in the

latter offer, to the sticklers fur precedent, some lines
of authority for the introduction of the Venetian
windows of the Exchang,,. As to these windows, we
may just observe, that while their outlines eminently
help the effect of liveliness in this portico, they are so
designed as distinctly to express their multiform duty,
though combined in such a way as to preserve per-
fect unity. The management of the portico ceilings,
which in the Pantheon are of bald timber, is here so
conducted, by the vaulting we have described, as to
complete the expression of the internal design, to en-
hance the effect of loftiness and general magnitude,
and to meet the eye of the passer-by with a succes-
sion of pleasing forms that would have been lCkst
under any of the older modes of arrangement. It is
not superfluous to add, that the slope of the pediment,
or roof-line of the portico, approaches more nearly to
the outline of beauty for such subjects than in most
cases to which we can refer. This may be felt by
any one who looks at the two extreme instances in
Trafalgar-square; the one pediment gaping for more
than its allowance of the royal arms—the other in -
capable, from its flatness, of receiving any sculptured
device worthy of attention.
Resuming our description, it only remains to be
stated, respecting the west front, that the narrow
compartments beyond the portico on the north and
south are occupied by solid rustication in the lower
part, above which, in each case, is a parcel containing
a flowered wreath and mantle, charged with the royal
cypher; this again is surmounted by a festoon, and
the crowning attic exhibits a device formed with the
proctorial insignia.
But it is time that we look at the other fronts of
the building. Throughout the south façade the main
order is continued by pilastres, divided the whole
length into thirteen equal portions, the pilastres being
doubled at the extremities of the front. In each of
these thirteen divisions is a rusticated arch of due
proportions, the rustic arrangement, with its sur-
mounting mouldings, occupying about two-thirds of
the available height beneath the general entablature.
The arch we speak of contains ordinarily a shop, with
its mezzanine story above; in addition to which, each
shop has a room in the basement, furnished with all
appropriate accommodation. Above the rusticated
shop arches appear the windows of the principal story,
deeply sunk, and surrounded by enriched architraves,
with boldly-carved keystones and panelings. Of the
thirteen compartments into which this front is divi-
ded, the central one, as the entrance, and that on
each side of it, are deeply recessed within the main
order ; in each is a.sereen arch carried upon corbels,
and decorated with a bold shield having rich fes-
toons of flowers attached. These shields are
charged,Te respectively with the arms of Sir Thomas
the dheaxmt e 1.1,7 tahnedceonftrteh,ethloiserocfertpse
Company
ofLondnonon
o the
sinister. In the spaces above are are three windows,
taining each a window, 'whooseed
boldly composed with sca
in a very prominent relief, piers, carrying en-
and finished above standing
an elaborateearvea
stanrlsnsings
IT advanced
in a
stone balcony,