Guilds -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
There are dreary rows of old brick houses on either side of the part of
New Broad Street which runs east and west. Towards the west end of the
street are one or two well-built business houses. The site of the Jews’
Synagogue is occupied by Blomfield House, largely inhabited by
secretaries of companies and syndicates. When we turn the corner into
the part of New Broad Street running north and south, we find some large
modern buildings. On the east the building is uniform for a considerable
way. Broad Street House occupies all the frontage between the two
passages of St. Botolph’s Churchyard. It is stone fronted and is in an
Italian style. Dashwood House behind it covers a very large area of
ground. It is of ugly design in red brick with each line of windows in a
different style. Both of these are largely occupied by agents,
engineers, secretaries of companies, etc. Dashwood House looks out on
the churchyard. This is an uninviting strip of ground surrounded on the
south by the backs of warehouses. A small house at the east end is
called “The Old Watchhouse,” and bears an inscription to the effect that
it was rebuilt in 1771 by an alderman named James Townsend.
In Blomfield Street was formerly the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital,
now removed to the City Road. The Hospital had its origin in 1804 when
some gentlemen founded a free dispensary for eye diseases.
There are some large buildings on the east known as Blomfield Buildings,
also the London Provident Institution Savings Bank, and the headquarters
of the London Missionary Society. The bank bears an inscription to the
effect that it was erected 1835 and enlarged 1875. This Society was
first formed a hundred years ago (January 15, 1795) in the Castle and
Falcon Inn, Aldersgate Street, and it now sends missionaries to every
quarter of the world. Close by is St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Chapel,
stucco-covered, and a Roman Catholic School. At the corner of =East
Street= is a fine building called Finsbury House, with grey granite
columns of considerable strength running from the ground-floor upwards.
It is well proportioned and has a well-finished angle.
Finsbury Circus is surrounded by a uniform line of dull brick houses
having their ground-floors covered with yellow stucco. At one point only
do the area railings give way, and that is at the London Institution,
built of Portland stone, with a heavy portico and fluted columns. The
Institution was established in 1806 in Old Jewry and afterwards removed
to King’s Arms Yard, Coleman Street. It was incorporated a year after
its establishment. The present building was founded in 1815 and opened
four years later.
A great many solicitors have their offices in the Circus, and there is
also a sprinkling of surgeons, accountants, and secretaries of
companies. The centre of the Circus is occupied by a wide space of grass
surrounded by a thick shrubbery of trees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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