3-100-693 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Water Gate of York House, prior to 1882. View of the York Watergate, Westminster, London. 'It is hardly necessary to say that the Gate at the bottom of Buckingham Street, Strand, which is now far enough away from the Thames, was, as is implied by its other more usual name, York Stairs, one of the numerous landing places which were thronged with watermen in the days when small boats plied for hire, and offered a much-used way of getting from place to place...The Water Gate is all that remains of the Palace of the Dukes of Buckingham, which extended from the Strand to the river...The earliest authority on the subject of the Water-Gate is Colin Campbell, who, in the text referring to an elevation, says "This gate was erected for the first Duke of Buckingham when Lord High Admiral of England, Anno 1626"...Since the making of the embankment the Water Gate has remained in a hollow, so it would not be practicable to get a satisfactory photograph of it. Under the circumstances recourse was had to Mr Strudwick, of West Dulwich, who most obligingly supplied a reduction of his view of the Water Gate, taken by him some years ago - one of the many records he has secured of objects since altered or destroyed'. Description by Alfred Marks.