[Illustration]
The architectural splendour which has lately developed itself in and
about the precincts of the parish of St. Mary-le-Bonne, exhibits a most
surprising and curious contrast with the former state of this part of
London; and more particularly when compared with accounts extracted from
newspapers of an early date.
Mary-le-Bonne parish is estimated to contain more than ten thousand
houses, and one hundred thousand inhabitants. In the plans of London, in
1707, it was a small village one mile distant from the Metropolis,
separated by fields--the scenes of robbery and murder. The following
from a newspaper of 1716:--"On Wednesday last, four gentlemen were
robbed and stripped in the fields between Mary-le-Bonne and London." The
"Weekly Medley," of 1718, says, "Round about the New Square which is
building near Tyburn road, there are so many other edifices, that a
whole magnificent city seems to be risen out of the ground in a way
which makes one wonder how it should find a new set of inhabitants. It
is said it is to be called by the name of _Hanover Square!_ On the other
side is to be built another square, called Oxford Square." From the same
article I have also extracted the dates of many of the different
erections, which may prove of benefit to your architectural readers, as
tending to show the progressive improvement made in the private
buildings of London, and showing also the style of building adopted at
later periods. Indeed, I would wish that some of your correspondents--
_F.R.Y._, or _P.T.W._, for instance, would favour us with a _list of
dates_ answering this purpose. Rathbone-place and John-street (from
Captain Rathbone) began 1729. Oxford market opened 1732. Newman-street
and Berners-street, named from the builders, between 1723 and 1775.
Portland-place and street, 1770. Portman-square, 1764. Portman-place,
1770. Stratford-place, five years later, on the site of Conduit Mead,
built by Robert Stratford, Esq. This had been the place whereon stood
the banquetting house for the lord mayor and aldermen, when they visited
the neighbouring nine conduits which then supplied the city with water.
Cumberland-place, 1769. Manchester-square the year after.
Previous to entering upon an architectural description of the superb
buildings recently erected in the vicinity of Regency Park, I shall
confine myself at present to that object that first arrests the
attention at the entrance, which is the church; it has been erected
under the commissioners for building new churches. The architect is J.
Soane, Esq. There is a pleasing originality in this gentleman's
productions; the result of extensive research among the architectural
beauties of the ancients, together with a peculiar happy mode of
distributing his lights and shadows; producing in the greatest degree
picturesque effect: these are peculiarities essentially his own, and
forming in no part a copy of the works of any other architect in the
present day. The church in question by no means detracts from his merit
in these particulars. The principal front consists of a portico of four
columns of the Ionic order, approached by a small flight of steps; on
each side is a long window, divided into two heights by a stone transum
(panelled). Under the lower window is a raised panel also; and in the
flank of the building the plinth is furnished with openings; each of the
windows is filled with ornamental iron-work, for the purpose of
ventilating the vaults or catacombs. The flank of the church has a
central projection, occupied by antae, and six insulated Ionic columns;
the windows in the inter-columns are in the same style as those in
front; the whole is surmounted by a balustrade. The tower is in two
heights; the lower part has eight columns of the Corinthian order.
Example taken from the temple of Vesta, at Tivoli; these columns, with
their stylobatæ and entablature, project, and give a very extraordinary
relief in the perspective view of the building. The upper part consists
of a circular peristyle of six columns; the example apparently taken
from the portico of the octagon tower of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, or tower
of the winds, from the summit of which rises a conical dome, surmounted
by the Vane. The more minute detail may be seen by the annexed drawing.
The prevailing ornament is the Grecian fret.
Mr. Soane, during his long practice in the profession, has erected very
few churches, and it appears that he is endeavouring to rectify failings
that seem insurmountable in the present style of architecture,--that of
preventing the tower from having the appearance of rising out of the
roof, by designing his porticos without pediments; if this is the case,
he certainly is indebted to a great share of praise, as a pediment will
always conceal (particularly at a near view) the major part of a tower.
But again, we find ourselves in another difficulty, and it makes the
remedy as bad as the disease,--that of taking away the principal
characteristic of a portico, (namely, the pediment), and destroying at
once the august appearance which it gives to the building; we find in
all the churches of Sir Christopher Wren the campanile to form a
distinct projection from the ground upwards; thus assimilating nearer to
the ancient form of building them entirely apart from the main body of
the church. I should conceive, that if this idea was followed by
introducing the beautiful detail of Grecian architecture, according to
Wren's _models_ it would raise our church architecture to a very
superior pitch of excellence.
In my next I shall notice the interior, and also the elevation towards
the altar.