Auction Mart

View of the Grand Saloon at the Auction Mart

Ackermann’s Repository August 1811 at 93-96.

Nothing, perhaps, can place in a clearer point of view, the spirit and opulence of the British nation in general, and of the inhabitants of the metropolis in particular, than the multiplicity of institutions conducive to the alleviation and comfort of indigence and affliction, or to the purposes of public utility. While such institutions in other countries almost invariably emanate from the government, and are dependent on it for support, we have reason to boast, that ours owe their existence solely to the benevolence or enterprize of individuals.

Among the numerous establishments of the second class which have, within these few years, sprung up in London, the Auction Mart is not the least conspicuous. Its object is to facilitate the sale by auction of every species of property, and to promote the circulation of intelligence relative to that subject. The project of this useful undertaking originated with Mr. Shuttleworth, one of its present directors. The fund requisite for carrying this plan into execution, was raised by subscription. The first stone of the structure appropriated to the objects which it embraces, was laid by the lord mayor, on the 20^th of September, 1808, and it was completed in January, 1810. The building and its appendages occupy a space of ground at the north end of Bartholomew-lane, in the very center of the city, 72 feet in length, and 53 in breadth; and the general execution reflects great credit on the talents of Mr. Walters, the architect employed in its erection. The whole is, indeed, worthy of a national edifice, combining the simplicity of the Grecian style with the massive grandeur of the Roman.

In the distribution of the building, convenience and utility have been more studied than shew and effect. The basement consists of a sub-hall, communicating with offices for merchants, brokers, and others, and arched vaults and ceilings. The principal floor, to which there is an ascent of three steps from the street, contains the vestibule or grand entrance, a spacious saloon, the secretary’s and other offices, the coffee-room and great double staircase leading off to the right and left to the sale rooms. Four Doric columns in the center of the building separate the three doors opening into the great saloon, and are surmounted by four Ionic columns, which support a simple pediment, unencumbered with extraneous ornaments, calculated only to destroy the harmony or effect of the elevation. Above the principal floor is the mezzana, entresol, or middle story, which, however familiar on the continent, is, we believe in the present instance, introduced for the first time into a public building in this country. It contains ten offices for merchants, brokers, or others, communicating by open galleries, which overlook the great saloon. The first story above the mezzana consists of three spacious and elegant sale-rooms, with convenient apartments attached for consultations. The upper story, likewise, comprehends three large and lofty rooms, elegantly fitted up with drapery, and having turret or lantern lights, which render them admirably adopted for the sale of pictures, books, prints, jeweler, articles of natural history, shells, minerals, and various kinds of personal effects.

But, however we may be pleased with the exterior of this structure, we cannot admire still more the internal arrangements, and their perfect adaptation in the objects in view. The disposition of the grand saloon, the situation of the respective offices, the accommodations of the different sale-rooms, and of the double staircase conducting to them, altogether present such a specimen of elegance, taste, convenience, and facility for the dispatch of business, as cannot be surpassed in this or any other country.

On entering the saloon, a representation of which is given in the annexed engraving, the notices of articles on view, and the sales of the day, appear on both sides. Distinct compartments are here allotted for advertisements of every kind of landed property; for the sale of annuities, tontines, reversions; shares in canals, docks, public institutions; farming stock, buildings; fixtures, manufacturing utensils, merchandize; household furniture, plate; wines, spirits, liquors; pictures, books, paintings, curiosities; objects of natural history, &c. Such a variety of all the objects connected with the commerce of civil society, was never before collected into one focus; and buyers or sellers, speculators, or loungers, may all find information or entertainment without incurring the smallest expence. On the south and north side of the saloon are seen the light open galleries which communicate with the offices on the mezzanine story; and two Ionic columns support the ceiling on the east and west side. In the center is placed an air-stove, which, in cold weather, diffuses a genial warmth throughout the whole building. On this stove is placed a hexagonal frame, containing a register of all the sales that are to take place in the Auction Mart during every day of the ensuing week, and surmounted with a time-piece. In the rear of the great staircase, on the east side of the saloon, is an elegant coffee-room, the principal entrance to which is by a small portico, with niches and Doric columns on the north side, in Throgmorton-street. The coffee-room forms a distinct side wing to the building, extending its whole length, and receiving all its light from lanterns supported by Ionic columns, in imitation of the verd antique. Here, as in the other parts of the edifice, simple elegance and utility are conspicuous.

Conformably with the intention to concentrate within the Auction Mart every kind of information connected with landed or personal property, the saloon is provided with the principal London newspapers, and one or more from the different cities and counties in the united kingdom. To facilitate, as much as possible, the researches of every class of purchasers, a register is also opened for each county; in which every advertisement and particular of property offered for sale by the subscribers to this institution, through the medium of public journals, is also entered as to obviate the trouble attending a reference to a multitude of newspapers. As a suitable accompaniment to this department, a particular of every sale which takes place in the kingdom, if transmitted to the Auction Mart, is preserved for the purpose of public reference. All acts of parliament, charters, and other instruments of incorporation relative to inclosures, canals, docks, roads, railways, bridges, harbours, piers, tunnels, mines, water-works, theatres, insurance-offices, literary societies, and joint-stock companies, are assiduously collected, and so disposed that strangers to property of this speculative description, may be supplied with such information as shall suffice to develop the means of remuneration for the capitals employed.

The accommodations presented by this institution are not only open to mercantile brokers, auctioneers, and other agents, but the public indiscriminately may avail itself of the advantages connected with them, by an exposition in the saloon of advertisements of every kind of property, or by entries upon the registers either of public or private sale; and notwithstanding this extensive publicity, proprietors or purchasers incur no more expence than if the sales had taken place in the private rooms of an auctioneer. It is but justice to add, that a system of order, regularity, and propriety prevails throughout this whole establishment; and the utmost attention and civility is paid to every individual; that the most minute information on all subject connected with trade or sale, is frankly communicated; and that such admirable arrangements for the dispatch of business may every where be discovered, as induce us to hail the Auction Mart as contributing essentially to the facility of trade and the extension of commercial intercourse.