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plan of a new city, free from all the defor-
mities and inconveniences of the old one;
by enlarging the streets and lanes, and
rendering them as nearly parallel to each
other as possible; by seating all the parish
churches in a conspicuous manner; by
forming the most public places into large
piazzas, the centers of eight ways; by
uniting the halls of the twelve Compa-
nies into one regular square annexed to
Guildhall; by making a spacious and
commodious key along the whole bank
of the river, without any interruptions,
from Black Friars to the Tower, with
some large docks for barges deep laden.
The streets were to be of three magni-
tudes; the three principal leading straight
through the city, and one or two cross
streets to be at least ninety feet wide;
others sixty feet, and the lanes about
thirty feet, excluding all narrow dark al-
leys, thoroughfairs, and courts.
The Exchange to stand free in the
middle of a piazza, and to be the center
of the town, from whence the streets
should proceed to all the principal parts
of the city; the building to be after the
form of a Roman forum, with double por-
ticos.
Many streets were also to radiate upon
the bridge. Those of the first and second
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magnitude to be carried on as straight as
possible, and to center in four or five
areas surrounded with piazzas.
The churches were to be designed ac-
cording to the best forms for capacity and
hearing; and those of the larger parishes
adorned with porticos and lofty ornamen-
tal towers and steeples: but all church
yards, gardens, and unnecessary vacuities,
and all trades that use great fires, or yield
noisome smells, were to be placed out of
the town.
This plan, which that great architect
laid before the King and the House of
Commons, is thus explained: from that
part of Fleet street which remained un-
burned, a straight street of 90 feet wide
was to extend, and, passing by the south
side of Ludgate, was to end gracefully in
a piazza on Tower hill.
In the middle of Fleet street was to be
a circular area surrounded with a piazza,
the center of eight ways, where, at
one station, were to meet the following
streets.
The first, straight forward, quite thro'
the city: the second, obliquely towards
the right hand, to the beginning of the
key that was to be run from Bridewell
dock to the Tower: the third, obliquely
on the left, to Smithfield: the fourth
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