2-798-855 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

London improvements - New Coventry Street, 1845. 'New Coventry-street...consists, on one side, of a pile of highly embellished houses, from the designs of Mr. Charles Mayhew. The upper portion is profusely embellished in a sort of cinque-cento taste, and the effect is certainly imposing. The width of the street is 60 feet...We understand that the Improvement Commissioners intend to continue this line...thus opening a noble avenue long wanted from the north to the south side of London...The plans will be carried out by Mr. Barry, the celebrated architect, and, combined with the new streets, north and south, east and west...will indeed be a boon to the public, as well as a vast advantage to the metropolis in a healthful as well as a moral point of view'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.