new London University in Burlington-
gardens. If any argument were wanting
to show how little ground there is for the
grumblings of those dissatisfied Talkers,
about whom we have had so much to say,
it might be furnished by a comparison of
the new London University in Burlington-
gardens with the old building of University
College in Gower-street. What a ghastly
edifice is that last-named seat of learning!
With the remembrance of its long
monotonous front, with the inevitable portico
and cupola of the period, still fresh in one's
mind, it is quite a wonderful sensation to
stand before the bright and highly ornate
structure in which the University has taken
up its abode. The new building is good in
every respect, and the only thing to be
regretted in connexion with it is, that it is
not placed on a different site, where there
could have been an open space before the
façade.

Yet another exceedingly hopeful
indication as to the architecture of the
present and the future is surely furnished
by the completed portions of the South
Kensington Museum. The central division
of this structure is finished, and the
western wing in a sufficiently advanced
state to enable the passer-by to judge with
considerable certainty of what it will be
when completed. The design of both these
sections of the building is picturesque and
new in its general appearance, and coloured
bricks and terra-cotta ornaments have
been employed with particularly good
effect. There are certain expedients in
architecture which may always be resorted to
with perfect security, and open galleries
and arcades are among them. These have
been introduced freely in this design, and
are entirely pleasant to the eye. The only
objection that can be raised against the
employment of red bricks and terra-cotta
for London buildings is, that their rough
dry surfaces catch, and (alas!) retain,
the London smoke to a very distressing
extent, as we can see by a mere glance at
any red brick building which has stood
for some time in London or its vicinity.

Hitherto, in this defence of the
architectural Doer against the architectural
Talker, we have occupied ourselves
exclusively with such specimens of modern
building as we have found standing before
us in a state of completeness. But there
is an architecture on paper, as well as an
architecture in brick and stone; and at
this particular time of year, especially, it is
possible to get a fair notion of what our
designers of buildings are about without
the necessity of personally inspecting all
the public and private edifices which are
in course of erection. In the Architectural
Room of the Royal Academy, and in the
Gallery of the Architectural Exhibition,
in Conduit-street, all persons wishing to
form a true opinion as to how we stand
just now in relation to this particular
form of art, may gratify their desire for
information without being obliged to make
a succession of expeditions to all parts of
the country, in search of newly-erected
buildings.

In both these collections there are plenty
of indications of the existence of a strong
wish to improve the general aspect of our
towns. In the architectural exhibition,
especially, such indications are particularly
abundant. Drawings of warehouses and
city offices simply, but picturesquely
constructed, and decorated really well, meet
the eye continually. The old monotonous
screens, pierced at regular intervals with
certain square apertures, are giving place in
all directions to light, tastefully-decorated
structures, which the eye rests upon with
pleasure. There is, to take an example,
among the works exhibited at the architectural
collection in Conduit-street, a photograph
of a house in Throgmorton-street,
which furnishes an instance of this improvement
in what may be called our commercial
architecture. The house has simply a light
arcade on the ground-floor with pointed
arches, and over that rows of windows, one
above the other, with arches of various
shapes and proportions, round, pointed, and
trefoiled. Nor is this, by any means, a
solitary example. Among the specimens
of architecture on paper are some designs
for a certain warehouse in a city thoroughfare,
which goes by the euphonious name
of Budge-row, which are especially remarkable.
Remembering what a warehouse
used to be, with its yawning door-ways on
the different floors, its huge, cumbrous
timbers, and its groaning cranes, it is
wonderful to look upon this symmetrical and
airy edifice, with its fine proportions, its
rows of elegant windows, its pilasters and
capitals, and just when the conviction is
forcing itself on one's mind that the building
in question must be some luxurious place
of abode to be erected as the residence of
a millionaire, or a nobleman, to find that it
is nothing more nor less than a warehouse
front in Budge-row, E.C.

But it is not only in the E.C. district
that these improvements in our street