“Upon the rebuilding of London, after the Great Fire, it was the proposal of Sir Christopher Wren to form a grand quay, or esplanade, from the foot of London Bridge to the Temple; of which scheme there is the fullest information, from an original manuscript, in Mr. Elmes’s ‘_Memoirs_,’ pages 270 to 284, _Notes_. It was proposed that the Quay should be 40 feet in width, between the Thames and the houses on its banks; and, in the year 1670, a petition from the inhabitants of this part of London was presented to the Privy Council, stating that it would be of great detriment to them if such way or wharf should not be carried into effect, from London Bridge to Bridewell Dock, the petitioners having commenced their several houses near the Bridge, as well as the pipes and engines of the Water-House. Of the ancient Water-House at this place, I have already given you some idea; but I may observe, from the authority last cited, that its supplies were constantly defiled by the public drains, and other offensive buildings erected upon this spot. Notwithstanding that the Commissioners of Sewers had ordered their removal, and the King’s Surveyor General had directed that no such contagious places should be constructed here, even so late as 1670 they had been again renewed, polluting both the water and the passage across the Thames. In consequence of the petition, Sir Christopher Wren, assisted by the City Surveyors, inspected the whole line of the intended wharf; and his report was:--That the houses then begun to be built fronting the Thames, which were not a third in number of what the range would contain, were, in general, conformable to the act, as to their being 40 feet distant from the River, and that some of them towards the Bridge were not ungraceful; but that others were unequally low, and, as well as the warehouses, irregularly built; whilst some habitations were constructed only of board. The Quay between the row of houses and the River, which should have been left open for passage, was every where enclosed either with pales or brick walls; and covered with stacks of timber, faggots, and coals. The cranes erected West of the Bridge, he states to be unhandsome, and larger than were required, boarded down to the ground, and having warehouses beneath them. The old towers of Baynard’s Castle, he observes, were also still standing upon the wharf; the walls, wharfings, and landing-stairs, were, for the most part, unrepaired; and, in some places, the Quay was likely to be broken by bridges and docks. Sir Christopher’s report also mentions numerous other obstacles, in consequence of which, their immediate removal was ordered, and the construction of the Quay directed, by an Act of Parliament, in the 22nd of Charles II., 1670, chapter 11, Sections xliv.-xlix.; as well as by a Patent passed in the year following.