The height of the order used in this edifice is 50 feet, and the height of the tower, to the top of the vane, is 170 feet. From the point of view prescribed by the instructions. the tower is not seen. Had I been at liberty to have removed the station further to the westward, as to Alansion-llousett street, or the Poultry, the tower would have been seen over the portico, and the efiect of the composition thereby greatly and view show the exact character of the interior of the Exchange, the lower story is a colon nade of the Doric order. the columns are :34 inches in dia nleter; the upper order is Ludo.
S'pecificution of the suture of the wor•.—The exami natitm of the fundations, which I ventured to has proved that the nature of the subsoil is of-the best kind fOr supporting a large building,. At an average of fifteen feet from the surffiee, a very compact gravel is found. For the sake of perfect unift trinity, I should excavate sufficiently for a few feet below this; and by a unifitrin bell of concrete, of the thickness of six feet over the whole surface, a most certain and safe foundation would be made. The gravel is full of' water, and therefore the drainage ionst be carefully considered.
Your conditions require a general specification, bid, with out going into technicalities, I am at a loss to furnish a specification of any value. I intend everything to be exe cuted in the best manner. All external work to be faced with Portland stone ; all the horizontal divisions that require it, for the purpose of security from fire, to lie constructed with iron beams and brick arches; and the ceiling and floor over the colonnade eonstrucfed in the same The timber used to be all Baltic timber, oak, or African teak. Everything to be sufficiently and completely finished in all respects.
Sculpt ure.—I have not introduced much sculpture into this design, because the estimate would not 11110W Of it ; and I have, therell tre. aimed at a style which did not require it to any extent. The sculpture introduced as essential to the architecture, embraces t he five panels in the at tie of the south front. and the t I) figures at the west end. The panels in the south Inuit are intended to represent Britannia, supported by the principal cities of the empire receiving the represen tatives and productions of the four quarters of the world ; the two seated figures in the west front, are emblematical of Peace null Abundance. There are several shields of anus,
which though not billing exactly under the head of sculpture, I think it desirable to mention, and they are as follows :—the on the key-stones of the three g=reat arches of the west front, arc the arms of Queen Elizabeth, Charles the II., and Queen Victoria. These arms are repeated in the panels of the attic at the cast end. In the north and south fronts, on the keystones of the centre arches, the arras are those of the City, the Mercers' CAfinpany, and Sir Thomas Gresham.
Es tint ate.
estimate the cost of this edifice, as thus described, inclu ding the sculpture, at the sum of £113,800.
Income.
I have estimated with great care the income to be derived from the various shops, offices, and public establishments, pro posed in the several floors of the building, by comparing dimensions and other circumstances, with the previous lettings, and by the actual value derived front my own expe rience ; and I ant of opinion that the total net annual value, if' let on lease, would amount to the sum of £8,718 per annum. In addition to this, it the space allotted to Lloyd's commercial room on the north side, and that to the London Assurance on the south side, were arranged as offices, each set having two rooms, one over the other, as suggested in an early part of this statement, though the estimate would be increased £3,000, I have no doubt this annual income might he raised to the extent of £S00 per annum, making a total income of £9,500 per annum.
In the drawings themselves, 1 have carefully laboured to follow out the instructions under which 1 undertook this com petition. The views are strictly confined to the points of view prescribed: in the colouring of the views themselves. and in the drawings of the adjoining buildings. I have laboured to be accurate, and to give as nearly as I could, the actual effect of this edifice, if it were constructed. I can not but feel that a more elaborate style of architecture would have been productive of more picturesque effects. and it would have been easy to have produced them ; but 1 have ventured to come to the conclusion, that nothing hut plain grandeur and elegant simplicity is consistent, either with the means at the disposal of the committee, the purposes and uses of this building, or its situation in the very heart of the City of London.