In No. 514 of _The Mirror_ we explained the situation of the Lowther
Arcade. We may here observe that this covered way or arcade intersects the
insulated triangle of buildings lately completed in the Strand, the
principal façade of which is designated _West Strand_.
The Engraving represents the interior of the Arcade, similar in its use to
the Burlington Arcade, and, although wider and more lofty, including three
stories in height, it is not so long. The passage forms an acute angle
with the Strand, running to the back of St. Martin's Church, and is
divided by large pilasters into a succession of compartments; the
pilasters are joined by an arch; and the compartments are domed over, and
lighted in the centre by large domical lights, which illuminate the whole
passage in a perfect manner. "All the shop-fronts are decorated in a
similar manner, and the whole has been designed and executed with great
care by the builder, Mr. Herbert. The shops on the exterior are designed
to have the appearance of one great whole. The style of architecture is
Grecian, and the order employed Corinthian: the angles are finished in a
novel manner, with double circular buildings, having the roof domed in
brick, with an ornament as a finish to the top of the dome. The effect of
the whole would be agreeable if it had the appearance of a solid basement
to stand upon; but as tradesmen find it necessary to have as much open
space as possible to exhibit their goods, the mass of architecture above
must appear to be supported by the window-frames of the shops, although in
reality they are based upon small iron columns of four and six inches
diameter, which are scarcely seen, and which offer the slightest possible
impediment to the exhibition of goods."
We may add that the Arcade at night is lit with gas within elegant
vase-shaped shades of ground glass, branching from each side. The
ornaments of the domes, especially that of the Caduceus, are introduced
with good effect.
We take the introduction of this and similar passages in the British
metropolis to have been originally from the French capital. Thus, in Paris
are the _Passage des Panoramas_; _the Passage Delorme_; the _Passage
d'Artois_; the _Passage Feydeau_; the _Passage de Caire_; and the _Passage
Montesquieu_. A more grandiloquent name applied by the French to some of
their passages is _galerie_: we remember the _Galerie Vivienne_ as one of
the most splendid specimens, with its _marchands_ of artificial luxuries.
The _Galerie Vero Dodat_, (we think shorter than the Lowther Arcade,) is
in the extreme of shop-front magnificence: the floor is of alternate
squares of black and white marble, and the fronts are of plate-glass with
highly-polished brass frames, and we doubt whether that common material,
wood, is to be seen in the doors. This _Galerie_ is named after its
proprietor, M. Vero Dodat, an opulent _charcutier_, (a pork-butcher) in
the neighbouring street; but we are unable to inform the reader by how
many horse power his sausage-chopping machine is worked.
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