The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 19, No. 541, April 7, 1832 by Various
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page 2 of 47 (04%)
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to have the appearance of one great whole. The style of architecture is
Grecian, and the order employed Corinthian: the angles are finished in a novel manner, with double circular buildings, having the roof domed in brick, with an ornament as a finish to the top of the dome. The effect of the whole would be agreeable if it had the appearance of a solid basement to stand upon; but as tradesmen find it necessary to have as much open space as possible to exhibit their goods, the mass of architecture above must appear to be supported by the window-frames of the shops, although in reality they are based upon small iron columns of four and six inches diameter, which are scarcely seen, and which offer the slightest possible impediment to the exhibition of goods." We may add that the Arcade at night is lit with gas within elegant vase-shaped shades of ground glass, branching from each side. The ornaments of the domes, especially that of the Caduceus, are introduced with good effect. We take the introduction of this and similar passages in the British metropolis to have been originally from the French capital. Thus, in Paris are the _Passage des Panoramas_; _the Passage Delorme_; the _Passage d'Artois_; the _Passage Feydeau_; the _Passage de Caire_; and the _Passage Montesquieu_. A more grandiloquent name applied by the French to some of their passages is _galerie_: we remember the _Galerie Vivienne_ as one of the most splendid specimens, with its _marchands_ of artificial luxuries. The _Galerie Vero Dodat_, (we think shorter than the Lowther Arcade,) is in the extreme of shop-front magnificence: the floor is of alternate squares of black and white marble, and the fronts are of plate-glass with highly-polished brass frames, and we doubt whether that common material, wood, is to be seen in the doors. This _Galerie_ is named after its proprietor, M. Vero Dodat, an opulent _charcutier_, (a pork-butcher) in |
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