Various attempts were made from time to time to enclose parts of Moorfields and build on the space, and these were resisted by the citizens with much ardour; but the spreading tide heeds not resistance, and gradually the whole area was built over—even in the seventeenth century the fields were enclosed and surrounded by shops.
Moor Gate was rebuilt in 1672, and the central gateway made higher than usual that the City Trained Bands might march through with pikes erect.
From end to end Moorgate Street is composed of comparatively uniform stucco-fronted houses in a hideous Victorian style, with little projecting pediments and cornices over the windows. To this there is one exception, at the south-east corner, in the British and Fire Insurance Office, a stone and grey granite building of imposing size.
Great Swan Alley is a narrow entry which comes out just beside Ye Old Swan’s Nest public-house, which is a new stone-faced building. At the north-east corner are Swan Chambers, designed by Basil Champneys in 1891.
Moorgate Court (late Coleman Street Buildings) contains the Institute of Chartered Accountants, a very fine building of stone, with panels of female figures in relief; on each panel is a shield, and the words Arts, Sciences, Crafts, Education, Commerce, Agriculture, Manufacture, Mining, Railways, Shipping, India, Colonies, Building are inscribed on these shields. This frieze extends across the whole frontage, but is cut up by intersecting columns. It is the work of Hamo Thorneycroft. The angle at the corner has the merit of being thoroughly unconventional. The figure of Justice surmounts the balcony. The building was designed by John Belcher, 1892. Facing south is a red brick and stone building known as Moorgate Court. This is in a picturesque style of Perpendicular Gothic, and the building over the projecting porch is carried up to the roof, giving relief to the frontage. Altogether this is an unexpectedly picturesque Court. In the covered entry leading to it from Moorgate Street are two old doorways, the northern one fascinating, with grotesque faces on the keystone of the lintel, and vertical Wrenian ornaments on either side. Looking back at the entry from the street we see that these doorways belong to a very old plaster house, with tiled roof, which stands back from the street line, overlooking two shops, one on either side the entry, which are finished with parapets. The windows in the tiled roof also peep over a parapet. This is the only picturesque bit in that very ugly but useful thoroughfare—Moorgate Street.
Close at hand the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation have fitted up their ground-floor with pink terra-cotta which jars with the yellow plaster above. Altogether, to the east of Moorgate Street lie an amazing number of quiet courts, without beauty, but lined by respectable solid brick-and-plaster houses.
Between Moorgate and Old Broad Streets east and west, and London Wall and Throgmorton Street north and south, lies a typical business quarter.
In Copthall Buildings we see great modern houses. The Chambers here are filled by stock-jobbers and stockbrokers. Copthall Avenue is made up of fine well-built houses and little old ones. Lanthorn, Moorgate, Throgmorton, Copthall Houses are all in a sensible but not displeasing style. Some are of the lighter red brick and light stone which shows up well in a London Street, others in grey stone and granite. Copthall House, which runs round the corner along the south part of Sun Court, has windows bayed in imitation of an old style. Basil Champneys was the architect. For the old houses, Nos. 4 and 6 on the east side date from the seventeenth century. Nos. 10 and 12 are of about the same date. Nos. 22, 24, and 26 farther northward are also old, and are perhaps early eighteenth century; their discoloured bricks and the bent lines of the windows and doorway bear testimony to their years.
Of Lothbury there is not much to say; it contains the Bank of Scotland, and the chief office of the London and Westminster Bank, and numerous companies are promoted and worked from this address.
The building at the corner of Tokenhouse Yard is in the style known as Venetian Gothic. It is harmoniously carried out. There is a somewhat deeply recessed doorway. The building bears a frieze or panel on it which divides an upper window into two parts. It was designed by G. Somers Clarke and built in 1866. No. 19, the Auction Mart in Tokenhouse Yard, owns the same architect, and is characterised by the same air of neatness and finish.