The spectator may here suppose himself to be standing near the site of Paul's Wharf, which Stow describes as "a large landing place with a common stair upon the river Thames, at the end of a street called Paul's Wharf Hill, which runneth down from Paul's Chain." The bridge in the middle distance is Southwark Bridge. In the immediate foreground is a curious riverside dwelling, squeezed in between two great warehouses; its quaint bay window projecting over a wide doorway for the passage of goods, which opens on to the Thames. The house, containing nineteen rooms and two staircases, was, in 1891, still occupied as a private residence, being let in apartments, and was one of the last of its kind on the Thames bank in London. It was popularly supposed to be 300 years old, and to have been occupied by James I., an adjoining wharf being used as a barrack for his soldiers, but, from the architectural point of view, there was nothing to indicate that it dated from before the end of the seventeenth, or beginning of the eighteenth century. East Paul's Wharf, immediately beyond, had been rebuilt in 1890, but the large warehouse adjoining it on the west, known as Paul's Wharf, and sometimes called the "barracks," looked as if it had been built about a hundred years. It ran back some distance, having twelve gables alongside the way to Paul's Pier. Shortly after the completion of this drawing, a subterranean brick tunnel (partly under the old house) was discovered. It began at a distance of about 50 feet from the Thames, and extended in a northerly direction for about 110 feet. It was 14 feet wide with a clear way of some 8 feet, after allowing for a deep deposit of mud along the floor. The arch within was covered with stalactites, in some cases a yard long; the two ends had been bricked up. The writer of an article in the "Builder" for August 2, 1891, suggests that "this tunnel may possibly have been made to carry off some of the torrents that used to run down the steep inclines in this part of the town after great and sudden rains, sometimes to the peril of human life, as witness the story told by Stow apropos of Dowgate (1574)." The old house, the "barracks," and the tunnel were all destroyed in 1898. During the work of reconstruction, ancient timber piling came to light, which had been used for the embankment of the river. Paul's Pier has of late years been abolished. A seventeenth century trade token, issued from Paul's Wharf, reads as follows:- O.—AT . YE . NEXT . BOAT . BY PAVLS = A boat containing three men; over it, NEXT BOAT. R.—WHARFE . AT . PETERS . HILL . FOOT = M. M. B. (10-5/8 × 8-1/4) D. 46-1896. 52. Back of the Green Dragon Inn, St. Andrew's Hill, 1890 (Black and white).