THE MANSION HOUSE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19666, 9 July 1929, Page 14

THE MANSION HOUSE.

INADEQUATE FOR REQUIREMENTS.

REMOVAL PROPOSED. (racjt otm ows corbes?ckde>it.) LONDON, May 28. For Many years past it has been apparent that the internal arrangements of the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, in the heart of the City, are inadequate for present-day requirements. It is reported that at the next meeting of the Corporation the question of the removal of the Mansion House to another site within the City boundary will be brought up. The present site of the Lord Mayor's official residence is regarded by many as an ideal one, and they would favour demolition and reconstruction the erection of a larger, more convenient, and more artistic building than the present one—rather than its removal. The price of the site of the Mansion House is obviously a fabulous one, and those who favour removal argue that the money obtained would a long way towards the cost of rebuilding a new structure.

Those who are opposed to removal, however, urge that public sentiment would support the Corporation in any expense it might be put to to retain the historic building in its present position. The Mansion House was erected from designs by George Dance. Although it has stood" for nearly two centuries the building has not been fortunate. Close by the site the old Walbrook stream flowed to the Thames. In digging for foundations the soil was found to be full of springs and was of so unstable a character that it became necessary to assure safety to stand part of the heavy structure upon piles. Bad Foundations. Such delay was occasioned that although the ground was opened in 1739 and the first stone then laid, it was not till 1753 that the building was completed. Sir Crisp Gascoigr.e, being Lord Mavor that year, was its nrst occupant. intervals the stability of the structure has engaged attention, and about half a century ago an elaborate scheme of underpinning foundations was carried OJ'.. The building has been relieved of the weigh*- of ac unsightly attic storey upon "its facade, movingly known as "the Mare's Nest." This was taken down in 1842. Lord Burlington, the fashionable patron or architecture, sent in a design for the Mansion House by Palladio, but the City preferred to employ its own surveyor. Tae original j building cost £■' • i