The Custom-House, which is a prominent feature in this View, was first erected in 1559--very shortly after the accession of Queen Elizabeth; but, having shared the fate of the other public buildings in the great fire of London, it was rebuilt, two years after by Charles the Second. By a similar calamity, however, this was also burnt to the ground in 1718, and a third erected, which--strange to say--was also consumed in 1814. The fourth, which is the present magnificent structure, was opened for business in May, 1817. It was erected from the designs of David Laing, Esq.; but, in consequence of certain defects, which threatened destruction to a considerable portion of the building, the Long Room, as it is called, was _shored_ up, the front next to the river taken down, and the present front as shown in the Engraving, was substituted by Mr. Smirke. The whole is erected on an extensive and magnificent scale. The London and St. Katherine's Docks are seen a little to the right, and afford accommodation to a vast number of shipping. The London Dock covers twenty acres: fourteen tobacco-warehouses cover an acre each; the cellars occupy three acres, and can accommodate twenty-two thousand pipes of wine. The St. Katherine's Dock covers the extensive area of ground which a few years ago was occupied by the parish of St. Katherine; the whole of which, comprising above twelve hundred houses, was bought and pulled down, at an outlay of two millions sterling, for the construction of these magnificent basins and warehouses, with which nothing that mercantile enterprise has hitherto effected can bear a comparison. The old parish church of St. Katherine was built on the site of an ancient monastery founded in the twelfth century by Matilda of Boulogne. A rich hospital and various benefactions have belonged to this parish ever since its original endowment; for the perpetuation of which a handsome church and several dwelling-houses were erected near Gloucester Gate, Regent's Park, the emoluments connected with which were bestowed by the late Queen Adelaide, in whose gift they were, upon persons belonging to the royal household, or otherwise recommended to her Majesty. In front of these docks is a spacious steam-packet wharf; and from this point to Rotherhithe the river--here called the Middle Pool--is generally so crowded with shipping at anchor, or rapidly passing up and down, that it requires both skill and caution on the part of the helmsman to avoid collision. It is here that strangers can form an exact idea of the vast traffic by which the Thames is continually animated, and to which there is no parallel in the cities of commercial Europe.