Westminster | Page 5

the
pesthouses came into full use, for we read in the parish records July 14,
1665, "that the Churchwardens doe forthwith proceed to the making of
an additional Provision for the reception of the Poore visited of the
Plague, at the Pesthouse in Tuttle ffieldes." The first two cases of this
terrible visitation occurred in Westminster, and during the sorrowful
months that followed, in place of feasting and pageantry, the fields
were the theatre for scenes of horror and death. The pesthouses were
still standing in 1832.
There was formerly a "maze" in Tothill Fields, which is shown in a

print from an engraving by Hollar taken about 1650.
Vauxhall Bridge Road was cut through part of the site belonging to the
old Millbank Penitentiary. The traffic to the famous Vauxhall Gardens
on the other side of the river once made this a very crowded
thoroughfare; at present it is extremely dreary. The Scots Guards
Hospital is on the west side.
Turning to the left at the end in the Grosvenor Road, we soon come to
the Tate Gallery of British Art, the magnificent gift of Sir Henry Tate
to the nation. Besides the building, the founder gave sixty-five pictures
to form the nucleus of a collection. This is said to be the first
picture-gallery erected in England complete in itself; the architect is
Sydney Smith, F.R.I.B.A., and the style adopted is a Free Classic,
Roman with Greek feeling in the mouldings and decorations. There is a
fine portico of six Corinthian columns terminating in a pediment, with
the figure of Britannia at the central apex, and the lion and unicorn at
each end. The basement, of rusticated stone, ten feet high, runs round
the principal elevation. A broad flight of steps leads to the central
entrance. The front elevation is about 290 feet in length. The vestibule
immediately within the principal door leads into an octagonal sculpture
hall, top-lighted by a glass dome. There are besides five
picture-galleries, also top-lighted. The pictures, which include the work
of the most famous British artists, are nearly all labelled with the titles
and artists' names, so a catalogue is superfluous. The collection
includes the pictures purchased by the Chantrey Bequest, also a gift
from G. F. Watts, R.A., of twenty-three of his own works. The gallery
is open from ten to six, and on Sundays in summer after two o'clock.
Thursdays and Fridays are students' days.
The gallery stands on the site of the old Millbank Penitentiary, for the
scheme of which Howard the reformer was originally responsible. He
was annoyed by the rejection of the site he advocated, however, and
afterwards withdrew from the project altogether. Wandsworth Fields
and Battersea Rise were both discussed as possible sites, but were
eventually abandoned in favour of Millbank. Jeremy Bentham, who
advocated new methods in the treatment of prisoners, gained a contract

from the Government for the erection and management of the new
prison. He, however, greatly exceeded the terms of his contract, and
finally withdrew, and supervisors were appointed. The prison was a
six-rayed building with a chapel in the centre. Each ray was pentagonal
in shape, and had three towers on its exterior angles. The whole was
surrounded by an octagonal wall overlooking a moat. At the closing of
the prison in Tothill Fields it became the sole Metropolitan prison for
females, "just as," says Major Griffiths, "it was the sole reformatory for
promising criminals, the first receptacle for military prisoners, the great
depot for convicts en route for the antipodes."
In 1843 it was called a penitentiary instead of a prison. Gradually, as
new methods of prison architecture were evolved, Millbank was
recognised as cumbersome and inadequate. It was doomed for many
years before its demolition, and now, like the prison of Tothill Fields,
has vanished. Even the convicts' burial-ground at the back of the Tate
Gallery is nearly covered with County Council industrial dwellings.
Further northward in the Grosvenor Road, Peterborough House once
stood, facing the river, and this was at one time called "the last house in
Westminster." It was built by the first Earl of Peterborough, and
retained his name until 1735, when it passed to Alexander Davis of
Ebury, whose only daughter and heiress had married Sir Thomas
Grosvenor. It was by this marriage that the great London property came
into the possession of the Grosvenor (Westminster) family. The house
was rebuilt, and renamed Grosvenor House. Strype says: "The Earl of
Peterborough's house with a large courtyard before it, and a fine garden
behind, but its situation is but bleak in winter and not over healthful, as
being too near the low meadows on the south and west parts." The
house was finally demolished in 1809.
Beyond, in the direction of the Houses of Parliament, there are several
interesting