This edifice was originally erected in 1411, but so damaged by the fire in 1666, as to make it necessary to rebuild it, which was completed in 1669. The front has a Gothic appearance. It is appropriated to the chief public offices of the corporation of London. The principal hall is 153 feet long, 48 broad, and 55 feet high. Here the large city feasts are held, public meetings assembled, and the lord mayor, and members of parliament for the city, elected. In this room are erected marble monuments in honour of Mr. Beckford, the Earl of Chatham, Lord Viscount Nelson, and the late Mr. Pitt. Besides the hall, the following offices are included in this building :—the chamberlain office; the court of king's bench, in which the lord mayor's court, and sessions of the peace for the city, are held; a court of common pleas; a court of exchequer; a court called the common Council chamber, for the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council.—The hall has undergone an extensive cleaning and alteration. The whole has been white-washed and repaired; the figures of Gog and Magog have been removed to the end of the hail, re-painted and regilt; and the doorway leading to the courts of law, and those of the aldermen and common council, now most judiciously faces the grand entrance. More improvement might be made with great advantage to the general building—but what has been done has much advanced to the appearance of this memorable city structure. The entertainment given in this ball to the Emperor Alexander, which cost the city of London many thousand pounds, was most magnificent.
Source: Leigh's New Picture of London. Printed for Samuel Leigh, 18, Strand;
by W. Clowes, Northumberland Court. 1819
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