York Water Gate
Victoria Embankment Gardens
Villiers Street, Charing Cross
London, January 2003
“The mansions facing in the Strand were built there partly because they had direct access from their rear gardens to the River Thames, then a much-used transport artery. The surviving York Watergate (also known as Buckingham Watergate), built by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham in about 1626 as a ceremonial landing stage on the river, is now marooned 150 yards (137 m) from the river, within the Embankment Gardens, due to substantial riverside land reclamation following the construction of the Thames Embankment. With the Banqueting House it is one of the few surviving reminders in London of the Italianate court style of King Charles I. Its rusticated design in a Serlian manner has been attributed to Sir Balthazar Gerbier, to Inigo Jones himself and to the sculptor and master-mason Nicholas Stone. The design is modelled closely on that of the Medici Fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. It was restored in the 1950s.” (York House, Wikipedia)
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