The eastern side of the vast quadrangle formed by this noble group of buildings was occupied by the Home and Colonial Offices, with some of the minor departments enumerated above; the northwest by the Foreign Office; and the south-west by the India Office. The old India Office part is perhaps the most remarkable portion of the whole structure, and is the work of two of our greatest architects, the exterior having been designed, as part of the whole block of buildings, by Sir Gilbert Scott, and the interior by the late Sir Digby Wyatt.
The exterior, with its bold tower, its long range of stately buildings, and statues in niches of Indian statesmen, is worthy of its site, one of the most beautiful in London, overlooking the lake in St. James's Park, which once formed a creek of the Thames, and still presents almost as calm and secluded an appearance as in the days when a narrow neck of land connected what is now called Whitehall with the ancient Isle of Thorns.