Albemarle Street, CLERKEnwell. Named after Albemarle House. Samuel Ware, the architect, lived in this street, as did James Carr, the architect of St. James's Church, Clerkenwell, built 1788-1792.

Albemarle Street, PICCADILLY, begun (circ. 1684) by Sir Thomas Bond, Bart., on the site of Clarendon House.

Which said House and Gardens being sold by the Duke of Albemarle [Christopher, the second Duke], was by the undertakers laid out into streets, who, not being in a condition to finish so great a work, made mortgages and so entangled the title, that it is not to this day finished, and God knows when it will. So that it lieth like the ruins of Troy, some having only the foundations begun, others carried up to the roofs, and others covered, but none of the inside work done. Yet those houses that are finished, which are towards Piccadilly, meet with tenants.-R. B., in Strype, 1720, B. vi. p. 78.

In the New View of London, 1708, it is described as "a street of excellent new building, inhabited by persons of quality, between the fields and Portugal Street (Piccadilly), right against the north-west end of St. James's Street."

Eminent Inhabitants.—Sir William Wyndham; his house was burnt in March 1712, and he and his family escaped without clothes. He had given £7000 for the house, and many valuable pictures were destroyed. Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., in (1717) the house of the Earl of Grantham, the Princess's Chamberlain. The next year the prince bought "that pouting place for our princes," as Pennant calls it, Leicester House. Dr. Berkeley, the celebrated Bishop of Cloyne, in 1724-1726.

I lodge at Mr. Fox's, an Apothecary in Albemarle Street, near St. James's.— Berkeley's Literary Relics, p. 99.

Dr. Richard Mead (d. 1754) here kept (1720) his celebrated collection of drawings by Italian masters, purchased by George III., and now in the Royal Library, Windsor. The Marquis of Hartington, on his marriage, April 1, 1748, to the only daughter of the Earl of Burlington, "hired the large house in Albemarle Street that the Earl Poulet lived in." Duc de Nivernois, 1763.

January 12, 1763.-I went with Maty to visit the Duke in Albemarle Street. (19th) The Duke received me very civilly, but (perhaps through Maty's fault) treated me more as a man of letters than as a man of fashion.-Gibbon's Journal.

...

This last touch reminds one of Congreve, Voltaire, and Walpole. Earl Waldegrave, K.G., died here, April 8, 1763, the day of Lord Bute's resignation (Walpole, vol. iv. p. 62). Lord Bute was living here in 1764. In the House of Commons, March 7, 1764, Mr. Calvert, an opposition member, exclaimed, "Where is Athens? What is become of Lacedæmon?" on which Sir John Glynn entertained the house by answering that "they had gone to Albemarle Street."1 Whilst Bute lived here there was in the street a noted opposition Club that gave the Ministry much annoyance. It was founded in 1763, at a tavern kept by a man named Wildman, and named the Coterie.

1 Mrs. Harris to her Son.-Letters of the first Earl of Malmesbury, vol. i. p. 104.

The new Club, at the house that was the late Lord Waldegrave's in Albemarle Street, makes the Ministry very uneasy.-Walpole to Lord Hervey, January 1764. To this Croker appends the note- -The opposition Club was in Albemarle Street; the Ministerial at the Cocoa Tree; and the papers of the day had several political letters addressed to and from these clubs.”—Walpole, Letters, vol. iv. P. 173.

Zoffany lived here in 1780. Here Walpole came to see his picture of the Tribune of Florence, and a "delightful piece of Wilkes lookingno, squinting at his daughter. It is a caricature of the Devil acknowledging Miss Sin in Milton."-Letters, vol. vii. p. 270. Glover, author of Leonidas, died here in 1785. Robert Adam, the architect, died here in 1792; and his brother James in 1794, at No. 13. C. J. Fox (the minister), on the left hand, a little way up as you go from St. James's Street; here he was living when Rogers first knew him. Louis XVIII., expelled from France in 1814, remained for some days at Grillion's Hotel before his return to Paris, April 1814. Here the Prince Regent, the Duke of York, and various distinguished persons waited upon him, and he invested the Prince with the Order of the Saint Esprit. The King held a formal levee here, and the Duchesse d'Angoulême a drawing-room; Grattan was a spectator, and Madame d'Arblay was introduced.

Grillion's Club was founded in 1805. The members dined together every Wednesday during the parliamentary session.

Sir James Mackintosh, on his return from India, 1811, at No. 26. Byron dated from Dorant's Hotel in this street in January 1807 and February 1808, at the time of the publication of the Hours of

Idleness.

The Royal Institution and several excellent hotels (the Clarendon, the most famous of them, was closed a few years ago) are in this street. No. 50 is Mr. Murray's, the publisher, the son of the friend and publisher of Lord Byron, and the originator of the Quarterly Review. Here is Hogarth's picture from the Beggars' Opera (in the original frame); and the following portraits of authors :-Byron, Scott, Southey, Crabbe, Campbell, Hallam, and Mrs. Somerville, all by T. Phillips, R.A.; Moore, by Sir T. Lawrence; Gifford, by Hoppner; Right Hon. J. Wilson Croker, after Lawrence; Lockhart, and John Murray (1), by Pickersgill; Washington Irving, by Wilkie. The dining-room is hung with portraits, by Jackson, R.A., of Parry, Franklin, Denham, Clapperton, Richardson, Barrow; Sir A. Burnes, by Maclise, and other celebrated voyagers and travellers. From 1812 to 1824, when clubs were less numerous, and none established expressly devoted to literature, Mr. Murray's literary friends were in the habit of repairing, in the afternoon, to his drawing-room. Here Byron and Scott were first made known to each other by him, and afterwards used to meet here. Hence the allusion to "Murray's four o'clock visitors" in Byron's letters.

Mr. Murray removed here in 1812 from Fleet Street. The office, warehouse, and place of business is at No. 50A.

18 Albert Bridge (The) crosses the Thames from the Chelsea Embankment (Cheyne Walk) to the west end of Battersea Park. It is the longest suspension bridge on the Thames, being 790 feet long and 40 feet wide, and has a central span of 453 feet, and two side spans of 152 feet each. The towers which carry the suspension chains rise to a height of 130 feet above the high-water level. Auxiliary chains and vertical rods give rigidity to the structure. The bridge was designed by Mr. R. M. Ordish, and opened in September 1873. It was purchased in 1879 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, and opened to the public toll free.

Albert Embankment, the southern embankment of the Thames,. extends from Westminster Bridge to Vauxhall, about 4300 feet. general character it is similar to the northern embankment, is faced like it with granite, but has a concrete instead of a brick basis, is unbroken by recesses for landing-places, and altogether somewhat less ornamental in appearance, though an equally noble piece of work. cost £1,020,000. The long range of buildings forming St. Thomas's Hospital borders the Westminster end, parallel with the Houses of Parliament on the opposite side of the river. [See Thames Embankment.]

It

Albert Gate, HYDE PARK, situated on ground purchased by government from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster and others, was made, 1844-1846, at a cost of £20,844:10:9, and so called after H.R.H. Prince Albert. The iron gates were fixed August 9, 1845, and the stags (from the Ranger's Lodge in the Green Park) set up about the same time. The lofty house (on the east side of the gate) was bought by Mr. Hudson, the then popular Railway King, of Mr. Thomas Cubitt, for £15,000. It is now the residence of the French Ambassador.

Albert Hall, the Royal, KENSINGTON, stands between the conservatory at the north end of the Horticultural Society's Garden and the Kensington Road, on the site of the Gore House of the Countess of Blessington and Count D'Orsay. It is designed for great musical performances, exhibitions of art and science, and important assemblies, as at the opening of the International Exhibition, 1871, and the Installation of the Prince of Wales as Grand Master of the Freemasons, April 28, 1874. The design originated in a suggestion of the Prince Consort, but was carried out by a private company in commemoration of his services to the arts. The building is a vast amphitheatrean ellipse in plan, 200 feet by 160-covered with a hemispherical dome 140 feet high. The walls are of a deep red brick, with dressings and decorations of terra cotta, and a frieze of monochrome inlay representing the peaceful triumphs of Art and Science, designed by the Academicians H. W. Pickersgill, Armitage, Marks, and Poynter. Between the double walls are the staircases and corridors. The auditorium comprises the arena, for 1000 persons, with stalls ranged

18

in ascending steps for 1366 persons; three tiers of boxes for 1000 persons; a balcony for 1800; and a gallery (the primary purpose of which was to serve as a picture gallery), which will accommodate 2000 more. The orchestra affords room for a band of 200 and a choir of 1000 performers. The organ, by Willis, one of the largest in existence, is 60 feet wide, 70 feet high, has nearly 9000 pipes, and two steamengines for working the bellows. Beneath the dome an immense velarium of calico (three quarters of a ton in weight) is suspended for tempering the light, and lessening reverberation. Her Majesty laid the foundation stone May 20, 1868, and formally opened the building March 29, 1871. The entire cost was about £200,000. The building was designed by Capt. Fowke, who, dying, was succeeded as architect by Major-General H. Y. D. Scott, C.B. The iron roof, a masterpiece of construction, was designed by the late Mr. R. M. Ordish.

Albert Memorial, KENSINGTON. The NATIONAL MEMORIAL MONUMENT to the PRINCE CONSORT stands a little west of the site of the Great Exhibition building of 1851, and opposite the Royal Albert Hall. It originated in a public meeting held at the Mansion House, January 14, 1862. The monument consists of a colossal statue of the Prince enshrined within a sumptuous Gothic tabernacle. The cost, over £120,000 was defrayed by public contributions, supplemented by a Parliamentary grant of £50,000, the Queen, as is understood, supplying the sum required to carry out the architect's intention in the completest manner. The design, selected in a limited competition, was that of Mr. G. G. Scott, R.A., who was knighted on its completion. "The idea" of the Memorial, as described by the architect, is that of “a colossal statue of the Prince placed beneath a vast and magnificent shrine or tabernacle, and surrounded by works of sculpture illustrating those arts and sciences which he fostered, and the great undertakings which he originated."

I have, in the first place, elevated the monument upon a lofty and wide-spreading pyramid of steps. From the upper platform rises a podium, or continuous pedestal, surrounded by sculptures in alto-rilievo, representing historical groups or series of the most eminent artists of all ages of the world; the four sides being devoted severally to Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Poetry, and Music. The figures are about six feet high, and are treated somewhat after the manner of Delaroche's Hémicycle des Beaux Arts. This forms, as it were, the foundation of the Monument, and upon it is placed the shrine or tabernacle already mentioned. This is supported at each of its angles by groups of pillars of polished granite, bearing the four main arches of the shrine. Each side is terminated by a gable, the tympanum of which contains a large picture in mosaic, and its mouldings are decorated with carving, and inlaid with mosaic-work, enamel, and polished gem-like stones: thus carrying out the characteristics of a shrine. The intersecting roofs are covered with scales of metal richly enamelled and gilded, and their crestings are of gilt beaten metal in rich leafwork. The whole structure is crowned by a lofty spire of rich tabernacle-work in partially gilt and enamelled metal, terminated in a cross, which reaches to a height of 180 feet above the surrounding ground. Beneath this vast canopy and raised upon a lofty pedestal is the statue of the Prince.-Sir G. Gilbert Scott.

At the outer angles of the pyramid of steps are groups of figures in

VOL. I

C

marble, representing allegorically the quarters of the globe-Europe, by P. Macdowell, R.A.; Asia, by J. H. Foley, R.A.; Africa, by W. Theed; and America, by John Bell. On the upper pedestals, which form the angles of the podium, are marble groups of-Agriculture, by W. Calder Marshall, R.A.; Manufactures, by H. Weekes, R.A.; Commerce, by T. Thorneycroft; and Engineering, by J. Lawlor. On the podium or stylobate, which forms the base of the great canopy, is a series of 178 life-sized figures in high relief, being portraits of the most eminent poets, painters, sculptors, architects and musicians; the poets and musicians on the south front and the painters on the east front executed by H. H. Armstead; the architects on the north front and sculptors on the west front by J. B. Philip. From the angles of the podium rise the groups of clustered columns of the richest polished red and gray granites, which support the lofty canopy, beneath which is the colossal gilded statue of the Prince, by Foley, seated and raised on a lofty pedestal-"the central feature around which all other works of art group themselves." The great groups of pillars bear on their outer faces, on pedestals of polished granite and gilt bronze, statues in bronze representing Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, and Geometry; and in niches immediately over the capitals, bronze statues representing Rhetoric, Medicine, Philosophy, and Physiology—both ranges executed by Armstead and Philip. The tympana, spandrels, and vaulting of the canopy are filled with mosaics designed by Clayton and Bell, and executed by Salviati. The flèche, or spire, which surmounts the stonework, is wholly of metal, and is supported by two enormous box girders of wrought iron, carried diagonally from corner to corner of the structure. The flèche, like the body of the monument, is richly decorated. In niches are figures of the four greater Christian virtues-Faith, Hope, Charity, and Humility; at the angles are statues of the moral virtues-Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, and Temperance; above are angels, and surmounting all a tall and richly decorated cross. The monument was completed in 1872, with the exception of the statue of the Prince, which, owing to the illness of the sculptor, was only placed on its pedestal in 1876.

Albion Mills, SOUTHWARK, were situated on the banks of the river at the south-east end of Blackfriars Bridge. They were established for the purpose of grinding flour on a large scale by means of Watt's steam-engines. The scheme was started by Boulton in 1783, and a sufficient number of shareholders having been got together application was made for a charter of incorporation in 1784, but in consequence of the violent opposition of the millers and meal-men this was refused, and the Albion Mill Company was constituted on the ordinary principles of partnership.1 The building was designed by Mr. Samuel Wyatt, the architect, and John Rennie (then a young man) designed and fitted up the flour-grinding and dressing machinery. In 1786 the mill was ready to

1 Smiles's Lives of Boulton and Watt, p. 354.