Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/323

 10 s. XL APRIL 3, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

under whose directions everything above the foundations has been done. The number of officials to be provided for has now reached the enormous total of 1,500, and something has been heard of an insufficiency of room for their requirements ; but, upon the whole, no public offices are better designed for the work done in them.

Londoners will rejoice that the Office of Works is presided over by a gentleman so public-spirited as the Right Hon. Lewis Harcourt, who lets no- opportunity pass of declaring that he wishes to make London " beautiful " a wish in which all will share. Rumour is busy concerning most of the pro- perty in this locality, but it is known that the Government now owns a considerable portion of it, contemplating an early improve- ment. It was stated in Parliament on Wednesday, 13 May, that it was proposed to purchase the premises of the Civil En- gineers for 40,OOOZ., as one of the measures that were " desirable and necessary " ; and Mr. Harcourt' s Public Offices Sites (Exten- sion) Bill was read a second time by a majority of 225. These new offices are joined to the Home Office by a bridge crossing Charles Street, which was finished about the middle of the year. The orna- mentation of this bridge was carried out by Mr. Paul Mountford and Mr. W. S. Frith, and altogether it may be justly looked upon as the " most important piece of decorative architecture which has been executed in London for many years." The leading idea has been to represent the special activities of the three departments housed in the three connected buildings the Local Government Board, the Board of Education, and the Home Office. On the Local Government Board side Mr. Frith has carved a female figure with a mural crown, holding in one hand a municipal mace, and in the other a charter with a pendent seal. Education is figured in two forms elementary teaching on one side of the central arch, and ad- vanced instruction on the other. Justice, blindfolded, and holding the scales, and factory inspection, with symbolic distaffs, pickaxes, and engineering tools, are set forth as showing some of the varied duties of the Home Office. There has been a little talk about a similar archway being thrown across Downing Street, but so far it is only talk.

The extensive works converting the old Whitehall Club to other uses, after having been twelve months or more in hand, were completed last year, and the building will in future be known as 47, Parliament Street.

It is now devoted to the offices of Messrs.. S. Pearson & Son, the contractors, and the Whitehall Securities Corporation. It may also be well to record that the cele- brated Rubens ceiling in the United Service Museum, which had been in course of renovation for a lengthened period, was finished and inspected by the King on Friday, 20 Dec., 1907, and with the com- mencement of 1908 was to be seen by the public. This restoration is the fifth that the ceiling has undergone.

The old " Green Man " in Little George Street was closed in 1906, and in its place rose a building called Abbey Chambers^ but still unoccupied ; in the early days of February last year, however, this leasehold block of offices was sold by Messrs. Trollope "at a satisfactory price." The buildings are numbered 5, Little George Street. In Palmer Street it is proposed to build two shops with rooms over, above the railway ; but no start had been made as the year closed.

The alteration of the ground-floor flats in. Victoria Street into shops has been nearly accomplished, few remaining to be converted. Only one was altered in 1908, No. 118. The^ building destined to become the official home of the Wesleyan Methodist body has been proceeded with, the foundations having been got in satisfactorily, but after some delay. Sir Robert W. Perks, M.P., stated at the Conference that the purchase of the property at Westminster cost 335,OOOZ., and that they had been able to sell 200,000^. worth of land, and had still 85,000 feet of land for sale, beyond that required for their own purposes. At the close of the year a start was being made with the erection of the building proper. It is to be called Victoria House, which seems a pity, for- there is already one building so called in Victoria Street.

In Princes Street a new building is being erected, No. 7, consisting of two shops, having been demolished, and the north side of Lewisham Street, excepting No. 26,. has gone with it. At No. 7, Princes Street Mr. John Hockridge for many years carried on business as a boot and shoe maker. He was churchwarden of St. Margaret's from 1879 to 1882, and noted as being " very painstaking, energetic, and popular with the parishioners."

The huge block of buildings in Tothill Street known as Caxton House is now outwardly complete, and tenants seem to be forthcoming with fair rapidity. It is. certainly a fine building, chiefly of stone.