LONDON’S ADELPHI

Evening Star, Issue 22144, 26 September 1935, Page 14

LONDON’S ADELPHI

TO BE DEMOLISHED Adelphi, famous eighteenth century Thames-side estate that has for 170 years kept its historic literary and artistic associations unbroken, is now to be demolished. In its place will rise a great new 10story building, comprising modern offices, flats, and , garages. A new company has been formed to finance the building. Practically the whole of. the estate built by Robert and James Adam is scheduled for rebuilding. The area to be demolished is' bounded by Adam street, John street, and Robert street. This block is fronted by Adelphi Terrace,' most famous street of the, estate and present home of the Christian Science Publishing Society in London. The Adelphi arches beneath the terrace will also be involved.

Much of what-is now termed Adelphi will remain, including Buckingham street,, Villiers street, and George street. But this part was not developed by the Adams brothers who conceived the Adelphi Estate; and after whose architectural pen name the latter was called.

Nevertheless, the whole area, Adam and non-Adam, to-day appears to Londoners as a. homogeneous whole. It is a backwater off the tearing flood of London. To the west stands the great vibrating mass of Charing Cross railway terminus. To the east rises, white and imposing, the cubed Shell-Mex Building. To the north roars the traffic in the thoroughfare of the Strand. South, in fyont of the arches, lies the Embankment, almost hidden by the green trees ol the thin little gardens beneath Adelphi Terrace /

Inside that area lies this complete entity—Adelphi. It is unique in London, not only through its architecture, but - through its artistic . associations, continuous since the day when David Garrick, actor of genius, moved into one of the new houses of the terrace. Over all is the reflected glory of Charles Dickens. The author is said to have found his first job near Adelphi, working for small wages in a dingy blacking factory. But he loved Adejphia, with its twusted subterranean pasand its arches, and it is often mentioned and described in his books. David Copperfield took his first chambers in Buckingham street^/’ln ‘Little Dorrit ’ there is a description of the Thames from Adelphi t'ppace. Mr Mieawber and his family stayed in a little tavern under the grebes on the eve of their departure for the colonies. When the two Scottish architects, Robert and James Adam, came to Adelphi in the middle of the eighteenth century it was already a liistpric • site. The pnee-famous Durham House had stood there—the thirteenth century palace which later became the home of Anno Bnleyn’s father.

The Adam brothers found a variety

of small houses, standing by the river beneath the hill of the Strand, halfderelict sheds to whose sides clung the mud of the Thames as the waters of the' river dropped at low tide. The brothers decided to build a fine estate. They imagined a series of buildings, vising high above the Thames. To build their imaginugs' in stone the brothers had to accomplish the feat of standing their houses and the roads that led to them upon tall arches. From the mud of the river’s edge they had to build a great system of vaults and ' supporting arches.

_ Above they built th'eir estate. They disregarded conventional methods of decoration. They used stucco for facing the brickwork. They freely adapted classical styles for their own purposes. But they made a fine series of. buildings with graciously decorated windows, pillars, and doorsways. In interior decoration they are held to have excelled, and their ceilings and fireplaces are still unrivalled. David Garrick was one of the first to take a house in the Terrace. Dr Johnson often came there to talk to the actor, whom he held in high esteem. At No. 8 once lived Dr Thomas Munro where he gave commissions and enthusiasm to young artists such ns Turner and Peter De Wint. Later to the Terrace came Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Sir James Barrie, to carry on the tradition of Adelphi’s shelter to literatmp, '

For 30 years there has been talk of, and protests against, pulling down the Adelphi. It has been threatened many times. Famous persons have headed protests against removing “ such a landmark.” The view now appears to be that while it seems a great pity to lose so historic a district, portions will remain, and with the new building the Thames waterfront will obtain a unity of architectural feeling which it has previously lacked. At present the Adelphi still retains its literary associations, not merely in the writers living there, and not merely in the presence of the Savage Club, but also in its capacity of Little Fleet Street.” In Adam street there are four publishers’ offices, a school of journalism, several journalists, and two publicity experts.