Old London.

OLD LONDON .

ON Monday evening , December llth , Mr . G . H . Birch , A . R . I . B . A ., read by request , before the Royal Institute of British Architects—Mr . Henry Currey , V . P ., in the chair—a paper , profusely illustrated , on the Domestic Architecture of London in the Seventeenth Century . He took a

retrospective glance at old London under two Avidely different aspects . On the one band , Ave had the mediaBval city , Avith the accumulated historic glories of several centuries crowded Avithin its Avails , the stupendous cathedral toAvering above the

narroAV and tortuous streets ancl gabled roofs of private bouses . In the London of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson , the long roofs of several of the monastic churches Avere still to be seen in spite of Avantou spoliation and destruction . What things

had that Li . mdon seen "done at the Mermaid ! " What words had it heaid " so nimble and so full of subtle flame !'' But its sun set for ever in the red gloAv of the Great Fire . Then the curtain rose on the London of the latter half of the 17 th century . Amid tho smoking embers Wren

and Evelyn Avere elaborating , and the city AA'as slov / ly rising again from its ruins . The building Act ( 19 Car . II . ) ordered that symmetry should take the place of irregularity , and thus was ushered in the London of the last four Stuart Sovereigns ,

Avhich is now so surely and swiftly being elbowed out . Attention Avas then called to the Avaifs and strays yet left us of the Avreck . The districts of the City richest in relics of Elizabethan , Jacobean , and Caroline times are , of course , those wards

which either Avholly or in great part escaped the Great Fire of 1666—viz . , Bishopsgate , Portsoken , Aldgate , ToAA'er , Lime Street , and Broad Street . Before the Fire the London houses Avere half timbered and covered Avith rough cast and

plaster . Brick did not become universal until the reign of James I . The Avard of Bishopsgate was especially rich iu such remains , which had been exhaustively described in the Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archasological Association by the Rev . Thomas Hugo . The best preserved and most characteristic example Avas the Avell-kuoAvn house of Sir Paul

Pinder ( + 1650 ) in Bishopsgate Street . It had been sadly mutilated , but enough Avas left to give us no bad idea of a Avealth y citizen ' s house at this period , a man rich enough to give £ 10 , 000 toAvards the restoration of Old St . Paul ' s , and to leave

notAvithstauding his vast sacrifices for the Royal cause , princely benefactions to Christ ' s Hospital and to those of St . BartholomeAV , St . Thomas , BrideAvell , and Bethlehem . On account of alterations , additionsand partial demolitionsit Avas

, , impossible to give a plan of the house but Mr . Birch had very little doubt that the houses in Half Moon Street Avere portions of the mansion . The ceilings are exceedingly rich , one representing in flat relief the Sacrifice of Isaac ; others being

divided into geometrical patterns by projecting ribs , with foliage and pendants . In Great St . Helen ' s , he said , immediatel y opposite the old priory , are some very beautiful mansions of cut red brickwork , Avith pilasterscornicesand rustications

, , , all in brick . A date , 1646 , is on one of the pilasters . There is little doubt that it is from the band of Inigo Jones . He is known to have been employed on the

priory church , Avbere some screenAvork ancl dooi'Avays are still left , bearing Avituess to his exquisite taste in design and proportion ; ancl on comparing this Avork with the Avoudwork and general design of the houses in Great St . Helen ' s , and again

Avith those on the west side of Lincoln ' sinu-fields , Mr . Birch thought there could be very little room for doubt . In No . 9 on the first floor is a good fireplace , which is reproduced by Mr . Hugo , and there is another in No . 12 of the same style . Here

again , the house front is adorned Avith red brick pilasters , but of rather bolder proportions and closer together , and instead of supporting a cornice brick pins are carried up from the caps , ancl a plain Avail masking the roof and dormers . ThishoAvever ,

, is probably an alteration . Over one of the Avindows is a very graceful tablet Avith pediment and side scrolls in moulded brick , Crosby Square , built immediately after a fire Avhich partiall y destroyed Crosby Hall in 1676 occupies the great quadrangle of

, that magnificent specimen of mediasval art . The square still retains its old houses , one of Avhich has a very fine projecting canopy over the door , delicately