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THE SITE AS IT IS
Two Temple Place is separated today
from the Thames on the south by the Victoria Embankment and the
Embankment Gardens, which are adorned with Woolner's statue of
John Stuart Mill. It is an interesting coincidence that this great
English Economist and Feminist is commemorated within view of
the Hall, for, at a comparatively early date, the Society added
Economics to its Examination Curriculum and admitted women to
membership.
On the west is Electra House, which
was erected in 1929, on the site previously occupied by Bodley
and Garner's London School Board Building. Electra House is the
Head Office of Cables and Wireless Ltd., and has a pleasing facade,
for which Sir Herbert Baker, R.A., was responsible. A good view
of the exterior of Two Temple Place is obtained when approaching
from the west side, Electra House having been set back some distance
from the edge of the pavement. At the north-east corner there
still exist the Essex Stairs, which at onetime leaf from the River
into the garden of Queen Elizabeth's ill-fated favourite, the
Earl of Essex. His house was finally pulled down in 1777, and
the pilasters, which stood on each side of his front door, now
form part of the north side of the arch which has been built over
the steps.
To the east of the Hall there are
the Temple Gardens and the Library and Common Room of the Honourable
Society of the Middle Temple. This building was opened in 1861,
and was designed by H. R. Abrahams. Its exterior is regarded by
some as an example of 'Nineteenth Century Cockney Gothic'. Shakespeare
has it that it was in the Temple Gardens, with their velvety lawns,
their multitude of plane trees and their well tended flower beds,
that the red and white roses of Lancaster and York were plucked
in the longest civil conflict ever waged in this country. It is
in these tranquil precincts that the home of Incorporated Accountants
is set, 'a structure so unobtrusive that its eclectic loveliness
is apt to escape the undiscerning eye'.
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