Street. Since that time the Church has been taken down, and the spot on which it stood is now a part of the site of the Bank itself. Another Act to enable the Company to purchase contiguous houses and ground, was passed in the year 1793; and in 1800, (39th and 40th Geo. III. chap. 89,) they were further empowered to purchase houses, &c. and to improve the surrounding Under the successive operation of these statutes, the Bank has been completely insulated; and the buildings progressively extended as the greatly increased, and still accumulating business made it necessary.

avenues.

The names of the architects under whom, in succession, the Bank buildings have been erected, are Mr. George Sampson, Sir Robert Taylor, and John Soane, Esq. R. A. and Professor in Architecture. The centre of the principal or south front, with some of the apartments on the same side, are by Sampson; the lateral wings, and the returns on the east and west sides, with the several offices immediately attached, were built by Sir Robert Taylor, between the years 1770 and 1786; all the ether and far more extensive buildings, have been designed and erected by Mr. Soane, between the year 1788, and the present time.

The exterior walls of this edifice measure 365 feet on the south side, 440 on the west side, 410 on the north side, and 245 on the east side. Within this circuit, are nine open courts, a spacious rotunda, court, and committee rooms, numerous public offices, an armoury, a printing office, library, &c. besides various private apartments for the chief officers and servants. The marshy soil on which a part of the buildings is raised, (the ancient stream of Walbrook having taken its course in this direction) rendered it necessary to pile the foundations, and to construct counter arches beneath the walls.*

The

When the foundations of the principal front were laid in 1732, Oyster shells were dug up in a moorish soil at the depth of thirty feet below the burface of the ground. Mait. Lond. p. 623, Ed. 1739.

The centre of the principal front, which extends about eighty feet, is composed in the Ionic order; it consists of two stories on a rusticated basement, and has a bold entablature. In this design, simplicity and grandeur are combined into a dignified elevation of character that perfectly accords with the intention of the building, but which is singularly foiled by the wings attached by Sir Robert Taylor; who, instead of making his work harmonize with the original and admirable plan of Mr. Sampson, in which external propriety was united to internal convenience, has deviated into a more sumptuous yet meretricious style, whose prevailing characteristics are gaiety and flutter. In the façade of the wings, (which he has copied from a small ornamental building by Bramante, in the Belvidere Gardens, at Rome,) Corinthian columns, fluted, and gutherooned, are arranged in pairs along the whole front, supporting a pediment at each extremity, and a balustraded entablature between; the intercolumnniations have arched recesses in place of windows, and in the tympanum of each pediment is a bust within a circular niche: the returns at each end are in the same style.

It would be very difficult, and perhaps, impossible, to give a complete idea of the interior of the Bank, without the aid of a ground plan. The principal entrance from Threadneedle-street opens by a large arched gateway (having a smaller entrance on each side,) into a quadrangular paved court, with which all the leading communications are connected.

Before the late alterations, many of the offices which should have been approximate to each other were widely separated, and the approaches to them irregular and difficult to be found, so that the public business was very materially delayed. To remedy this great defect, which had resulted from the buildings having been erected at various periods, and with different degrees of accommodation, the Governor and Directors consulted Mr. Soane, who recommended that the whole should be simplified in accordance with one general plan, and every future addition and alteration made subservient to the same grand system; by which

means

means the inconveniencies complained of, would be gradually diminished.

Under this arrangement, one main line of connection has been opened through the interior from south to north; namely, from Threadneedle Street through the Paved Court, Pay Hall, and Bullion Court into Lothbury; and affording easy communications with the Court and Committee Rooms; the Governor's, Deputy, Governor's, and Waiting Rooms, the Discount Office, the Treasury, the Bullion Office, the General Cash-Book Office, the Chief Cashier's Office, the Chancery Office, the Secretary's Office, &c. At the entrance to the Secretary's Office, the main passage turns westward, and leads to the Land-Tax Redemption Office, the Loan, or Property Office, the Bank Note Office and the Stamping Office, the Drawing Office in the Aecomptant's department, the Accomptant's Office for the New Specie, and various other Offices dependent upon them. Be tween the Land-Tax Redemption and the Loan, or Property, Offices, is a passage leading to the Accomptant's Office for the Old Specie. On the west side of the Paved Court is the Divi, dend Pay-Office; adjoining to which is the Green Court, (formerly St. Christopher's Church-Yard,) which gives communication to the Cheque Office, the Reduced Annuity Office, the Armoury, the Barracks, and the Bauk Note Printing-Office.

The east side of the Paved-Court leads to the Rotunda, the 3 per cent. Office, the 4 per cent. Office, the Bank-Stock Office, the 3 per cent. Consols. Dividend Office, the 3 per cent. Consol. and Unclaimed Dividend Office; and, through the latter, communicates with the new entrance from Lothbury. Through this disposition of the avenues, the inconveniencies that formerly arose to persons who had business to transact in the 3 per cent. Consol Office, and were therefore obliged to pass through the crowded Rotunda, have been entirely obviated.

The principal suite of apartments is on the ground floor; and there are no rooms over the chief offices, which are lighted from above. Beneath this floor, however, and even below the surface

of