with the approaches to the
Viaduct. In the centre there is an equestrian statue of the Prince
Consort in bronze, by C. Bacon. This was presented by an anonymous
donor, and the Corporation voted L2,000 for erecting a suitable pedestal
for it. The whole was put up in 1874, two years after the completion of
the Circus. On the north and south sides are bas-reliefs, and on the
east and west statues of draped female figures seated.
Holborn Viaduct was finished in 1869. It is 1,400 feet in length, and is
carried by a series of arches over the streets in the valleys below. The
main arch is over Farringdon Road, the bed of the Fleet or Holbourne
Stream, and is supported by polished granite columns of immense
solidity. At the four corners of this there are four buildings enclosing
staircases communicating with the lower level, and in niches are
respectively statues of Sir William Walworth, Sir Hugh Myddleton, Sir
Thomas Gresham, and Sir Henry Fitz-Alwyn, with dates of birth and death.
On the parapets of the Viaduct are four erect draped female figures,
representative of Fine Art, Science, Agriculture, and Commerce. Holborn
Viaduct is a favourite locality for bicycle shops.
The City Temple (Congregational) and St. Andrew's Church are near
neighbours, and conspicuous objects on the Viaduct just above Shoe Lane.
The City Temple is a very solid mass of masonry with a cupola and a
frontage of two stories in two orders of columns.
The parish of St. Andrew was formerly of much greater extent than at
present, embracing not only Hatton Garden, Saffron Hill, but also St.
George the Martyr, these are now separate parishes.
The original Church of St. Andrew was of great antiquity. Malcolm, who
gives a very full account of it in "Londinium Redivivum," says that it
was given "very many centuries past" to the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul's, and the Abbot and Convent of St. Saviour, Bermondsey, by
Gladerinus, a priest, on condition that the Abbot and Convent paid the
Dean and the Chapter 12s. per annum. We also hear that there was a
grammar-school attached to it, one of Henry VI.'s foundations, and that
there had been previously an alien priory, a cell to the House of Cluny,
suppressed by Henry V. The church continued in a flourishing condition.
Various chantries were bestowed upon it from time to time, and in the
will of the Rector, date 1447, it is stated that there were four altars
within the church. In Henry VIII.'s time the principa
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