London and Its Environs Described, vol. 4 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round ItAnonymous
History
London and Its Environs Described, vol. 4 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round It
Anonymous
London (England) -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; London (England) -- Gazetteers -- Early works to 1800
This noble scheme was demonstrated to be practicable, without the
infringement of any man’s property; for, by leaving out the
church-yards, &c. which were to be removed out of town, there would have
been sufficient room both for the augmentation of the streets, the
disposition of the churches, halls, and all public buildings, and to
have given every proprietor full satisfaction: for though few of them
would have been seated upon exactly the very same ground they possessed
before the fire, yet none would have been thrust at any considerable
distance from it: but the obstinacy of great part of the citizens, in
refusing to recede from the right, of rebuilding their houses on the old
foundations, was an unsurmountable obstacle to the execution of this
noble scheme. _Parentalia._
Soon after this, Sir John Evelyn produced another plan, in which he
proposed that some of the deepest vallies should be filled up, or at
least made with less sudden declivities. That a new and spacious key
should run from the Tower to the Temple, and extend itself as far as the
low water mark; by which means the channel of the river would be kept
constantly full; the irregularity and deformity of the stairs, and the
dirt and nastiness left at every ebb would also be prevented.
To create variety in the streets, he also proposed, that there should be
breaks and enlargements, by spacious openings at proper distances,
surrounded with piazzas, and uniformly built with beautiful fronts; and
that some of these openings should be square, some circular, and others
oval. He would have none of the principal streets less than an hundred
feet in breadth, nor any of the narrowest less than thirty. He would
have three or four large streets between the Thames and London Wall,
reckoning that of Cheapside for the chief, which might extend from
Temple Bar to the upper part of Tower hill, or to Crutched Friars,
bearing the cathedral of St. Paul’s upon a noble eminence.
Among these he would have the parochial churches, which he thought might
be reduced to half the number, as some of the parishes were then no less
than two hundred times larger than others: and these he would have so
interspersed as to adorn the profile of the city at all its avenues.
Most of them he would have in the center of spacious areas, adorned with
piazzas, &c. so as to be seen from several streets, and others at the
abutments and extremities of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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