THE ROYAL AQUARIUM.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 562, 6 April 1876, Page 3

THE ROYAL AQUARIUM.

The Royal Aquarium was opened on the 22nd January. It is not so much an aquarium as a palace, using the word in the sense in which it is used at Sydenham and Muswell-hill, in which, among many other things, an aquarium will in time have place. There arc rooms for reading and writing in, rooms for dining and rooms for dressing in, rooms, too, in which it will be allowed to play billiards and to smoke ; there are picture galleries and galleries of sculpture ; an orchestra capable of containing nearly 400 performers, and a theatre wherein over 2000 persons may sit at ease. There are to be shows during the season of fruit and flowers, and on the stalls, which, as in the Crystal Palace aud the palace at Alexandra Park, are scattered here and there throughout the building, there are to be shows of many other pretty things less perishable than fruit or flowers, aud which may be not only admired, but bought. Lastly, and of course, there is to he a skating rink, without which it is probable that no such place could at the present time hope to find a continuance of public favor. The building stands on the north side of old Tothill street, opposite the Westminster Palace Hotel, with a frontage from Prince’s street to Dartmouth street, about 600 ft in length. Entering through either of the two principal entrances, which are in Tothill street, the visitor finds himself in a large hall 340 ft long, 160 ft broad, and 78ft high up to the ventilating louvres. Through the centre, with flower beds and little shops, or rather stalls, on either side, as in the Crystal Palace, in an open space 80ft wide, and on either side of this, again, beneath the galleries, are the tanks of large proportions, well contrived both for the comfort of the tenants that are to be and for the convenience of inquiring visitors, but at present empty. Above these are the gallerries, the north, south, aud west being set apart for pictures and sculpture, the east to more material refreshment. These galleries, or rather the first three, are under the management of a Fine Art Committee, containing many good names, Redgrave, Millais, Marshal], Weekes, Cooke, Leslie, and Marks among the number, and are very fairly filled—-better, we should be inclined io say, than the generality of such galleries. From the south gallery am reached the two billiard rooms, containing each two billiard tables, placed over the two principal entrances. The theatre, which is not yet finished, is at the western end of the building, and is to be so constructed as to be available for concerts as well as for dramatic performances. When finished, it will be placed by day under the care of Mr Hollingshead ; by night under the care of Mr Morton. The scientific department generally, including the tanks, has been placed in the hands of Mr W. A. Lloyd, Over the orchestra, which is in the centre and on the north side, and all appertaining thereto, Mr Arthur Sullivan will preside. It is at present intended that two performances shall be given daily, in the afternoon and evening, and concerts at various fixed dates. Thereof is of wrought iron, supported on columns of the same substance furnished with capitals characteristically embellished as we have described the exterior. Such, so far as it is possible to put into writing the design of the architect and the work of the builder, is the Royal Aquarium, which was opened by his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.