LoNDoN numovEmENTs: STREET ARCM- TEcT u RE.

THE Metropolis Improvements Committee, in their two Reports made to the Douse of Commons in June and .Tun Iv last, recominetal the adoption of several plans for enlarging and continuing old

thoroughthres and making new ones : to accomplishing ‘thich,

a sum of 510,00w., to .used on the pr,Kluce of the Wine and Coal Duties, levied by the pert el' Load,m, is prOtIOSed to be applied ; the City revmmes ftwnishing 2t1.0t101. additional. Nor is this sum of 533,0001, ttll that is ;vailable to the purpose for the parishes petitioniag for a share of this fund leWardS SULII 'movements as they think desirable, are prepared to expend largely themselyes : so it is probable the total outlay roatemplated would amount to sentething like a million of money, la order to raise the required mon, the Wine and Coal Duties will have to be continued for tints years beyond 1858, tile time limited by the Acts I0th and 11th George IV. passed for the purpose of providing funds for making the London Bridge approadies. The, various iscis-oyeinents chalked out are most desirable on the score of the health cct' the 31:efropolis, and the public convenience, to say nothing of th.,;ir cifect on the appearance of the neighbour- hoods which they are intended to benefit. Public money could not well be more advantag:misly expended than in etfecting them, ml the odice of Wwwls and Forests, acting up tin tlte suggestion of the Committee, take ete:e "to secure for the public the full accomplish. win of each of these undertakings by the respective parties." So far as regards the preservation of the ditii,rent tink wmilbe done, no doubt ; and the parties theinselve,: are interested in secil the work done properly.: but the matter of taste appears to be left to the mercy of the architects who may be lbrtunate enough to get the several jobs. The plans rccommendul by the Committee in their First port, are of two !dints—those that facilitate the communication between the two ends of the town by the great leading thorough- fares; and such as are of' more local. convenience. I o the, firs belong the continuation of Oxford Street to Holborn, in a straight line cutting through the " rookery"—which will scare away the thieving and quarrelsome tenants of those foul nests; the exten- sion of the line of Piccadilly to Long Acre, making a earriage-waY through the alleys leading to Luice:4er Square ; and the ()petting° a cross-line from Bow Street to Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury, connecting Waterloo Bridge with Bedford Square and its map- bourhood. These improvements, and the more local one of a wale street from Spitafflelds Church to the London Docks, which sweeps away the dens of filth and misery at the back of Whitechapel, have been planned by Messrs. CHAWNER and PENNETHORNE, the sur- veyors employed by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests

the parties intere.dted advancing st.

55,000/., E0111C 11C1Weell the 11011.,t . lt

alt the very

VASON dill III l'( II;S 1..st ground : but. it la have defeated t lie 1 it

ho estimated the cost of the whole at :399,000/. in round numbers; i The Great Fire happily swept away the mass of gabled houses, houses, of ‘vhieli ;foxes and AVIIEN set the tittilli011: in some the best specimens (.1' street architecture are the rid brick substantial

The Second lteport, a sort of supplene.ot t,, the iirst, almost mouldingg and cm-dikes are carved out of brick, and others are primed tut au appendix, arc ha.) reittall.ttltle to be overl.iie.'et the etlees of 'iv:-.11s. and the NVilltitAVS. COM:lulled till ward by Mr. '■'!.tsoN ; \vim, baying too:to-rained that tie. greater ; or show of support. Up to this time, the wooden sash-frames, and portiou—altuost threc-fourths of the 1:Ie.—doh:du be ex. iluted at 1 the gat-Hittite of red brick, imeserved some semblance 1architee- a comparatively small cost, tutreletscd roe ground ill cottrunction • tural character in the openings; but thenceibnyard, dingy brick with Mr. ASHTON VAres and 1\114, it, it. pate:Toe, and etred to \vans with siinare holes cut in them became universal— as form the Hoe of street from Strutton to Ilrewer Street, for may he seen in nearly :d1 the streets running northward out 25,000/. 'clic Trettsury referred the matter to the \Viiiels and of Oxford Strec•t into the New ttoatt, tee,„ the ornamental Forests; telto reperted striate-1y in litvour of the elle:times.' antl titi- mansions built. by the An.‘aisIds, in the .:1delphi and Portland hits, of thehopreveloont ; and a plan ard cs:imates \S (t( accordingly " Phiee, exhibit litis architectural barbarism. The dreary look of

prepared. 'Poe matter remained in !l s:' IlOWeVt'1', till the these grim perspectives of bare black-brovyn brick walls, at last

Committee of is•„„ was app,,,,,.:,;(1: Ni; at t began to disgaist people with this worlchouse style of building, and laid before them the plan :mil all the perticulars ;o,o, by some (some of the nee,- " Unions," by the by, are settim.,, up claims to I nterference, the plan -was tile picturesqueness ;) and the dirty bricl....s were plastered over with knowledge of the Chairman, under the idea that it was withdraW11 ; stuct.o, or decked out with architraves, columns, and. pilasters— the Only evidence to that efieet being the gratuitous and untbunded in he "tirea.k. style" as it is complacently termed, or as we assertion of a Ale 1 1 mows. who his:tight forword a plan of hi,: own. should call it, the Gin-shop style. Any cliallfe was for

31r. WAsoN, r, with much difficulty, succeeded in getting a t lie !n'tter, however; and the tawdry taste of Itegent Stretet and

bearing of the present (.'onlinittee ; and tfte plan is inserted i ii tlw the Park, together Nvith its sublimation in tlw gin-palaces, have in &woad lleport, ‘vitli his evidetwe, to the etilet that the whole of their turn provoked improvement. The neighbourhoods of ltel- the proposed ;MI: CI 111)111 the to the. Chelsea Itoad. coul(1 be grave and Tit\ Hock Squares, and the 110W iloO,us ill the Strand, completed flit. ;O,( '0/. 'llitt Committed. recomeeend this plan, as thinigh too much in the toy-box flishion, are aitterether in better "the most deserving Of early att,otioo," :dud siiegest the appro- taste ; While Pide;tdilly and (..)xfordl Street exItibit some handsome priation of bait. sutplus of 71/,01a1/. rem:lining fiver examples of street architecture : King Street, anti espe. from the avail:aide imis, to carrying it into (Arco t the other halt' till \l ourgate Street, in the (.it, have also claims to admiration— being assigndd to the completion of the Ifoeal Exulettigo ;apnea:hes. though columns and pilasters are still employed nee/oesiv, and TItis is a specidnen of the loose way in which public tmeiness then:titre with little effect of IlVallt1', NViliell ill architecture has its is got through, An interested NY:toe:4s makes a grotindless assertion, origin in utility.

which is taken for granted ; anti on the it zissuniption of its The lleform Club-house in Pall I\Tall is a nit idol of siinplieity and

correctnisss, piall I. :; Pvt. vions Continittt.e. uI ap- eloganceconthitn:d—of beauty resulting from title o.s; and proportion. proved of hy the Lord,: of the Tr, ioatry and the C'otimii,..sionert: of orl'inient,; are so.ittdieiously introduced, that they only attract Woods and is suppre.....:',1, t l lanevs byVthow. Mr. t!ti COnnt.....11/11 ‘Vitli the parts to which thee belong--as the COrniee ‘ViliCh supports the rind.. the string-cotirses that brace the could have been tilionst inTiossible i'or any. i1,10 [OA \V■iik tC•getiler, he eOinnini+, niOn11■111P,^, ttirl',11111(111,,, \vhich enrich

Parliana titary experienee, as Well is pttIltrnerve rtil:aCit■*, lincl door ; even the chi:lodes, instead of being made to.ro.„ neinteuvre of a intsitilig rival. cyd sores 0101 deformities, as it' stuck on by on afterthought or

Every ere of the pions selemitted to the Condiiit 1 nuly bejilt( ll■kti hit to he Seel!, are Iliflhlt an essential part of the design. taken as the ...tere.stion of ise.:ies it:test-dd.(' iii their success. The result is, tin air of tmostentatious grandeur and richness, to be

There is no be; ei in this t! sitetistry, the existence tif a titdonly in the Italian paleces: from one of which, we :ire told,

motive implies t. tilittibts to the faeottks ‘‘itinitit 'eye e ie.eat the idea of this design -was taken by :Mr. 1 I.vitidy. Lk large house improvement co. ti!: ••. t!;,! 1)u:4:less of a Ceieteittee latelv erected in Oxford Street, neitrIv opposite 1 lanoyer Square, to scrutinize eeel, stegget-tion.—. 1 tit ..detiretto,:al only- the Lots: ell- may. be instanceIl es one of the most successful examples ottmodern gible. A Vote 1%f the I loose t liditMee rittiiies till' ithlt t: r. street architecture. both in style and proportion : the (.1feet of red But suppose the .,yloide of these phut; approved by the Govern- bricks anti stone is Iwitatifully exemplified; and we hope it will have meat, and money voted for commeneine the works: IA Ira security some intluence in spreading the revived fashion of building with have the public, from dyhose pot-kt ts the million must (-owe in one red brick. 'Ile superiorily. of the red over the drab and yellow