Mansion House

Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, was built on the site of the Old Stocks Market in 1739, at a cost of £42,638. It is an oblong building, and at its farthest end is the Egyptian Hall. Four hundred guests can dine in this grand banqueting-room, which was designed by the Earl of Burlington from the description of an Egyptian chamber given by Vitruvius. All the great banquets, public and private, given by the Lord Mayor take place here, and there are also fine ball and reception rooms. At the close of the exhibition of 1851 the Corporation of London voted £10,000 to be expended on statutory for the adornment of the Mansion House; and there is also a fine gallery of portraits and other pictures. Among its curiosities may be mentioned a state bed, which cost 3000 guineas, and a kitchen and culinary utensils extraordinary for their vast size. The Lord Mayor's jewelled collar of gold and diamonds, his silver-gilt mace, his sword, and his seal are described, together with his coach and ancient barge, in Thornbury's Old and New London, vol. i. pp. 436, 443. The establishment and expenses connected with the office cost an annual sum of £25,000; and it is said that only one Lord Mayor ever saved anything out of his salary. The Mansion House is too modern to possess much historical interest; but the Wilkes riots frequently took place in its neighbourhood during the mayoralty of Wilkes' friend, Brass Crosby. The Mansion House is often a centre of benevolent enterprise in the collection of money for sufferers by war, famine, flood, pestilence, and earthquake abroad, or by colliery explosions, shipwrecks, and lack of employment at home; and Mansion House Funds are also raised for memorials to heroic worth.