new gardens and a new enclosure railing. After much discussion and receiving various assurances from Wyld that he would restore the gardens when the building was removed, the residents' committee approved his plan. On 24 February, Wyld asked Welch to retire from the project, promising that he would be paid for the work he had done so far. Wyld then contracted Abraham to produce new plans. Abraham's designs included a new supporting wall for the globe itself (correcting what he saw as Welch's error of leaving the trusses unsupported), as well as buildings to cover the whole area of the gardens which Wyld would be able to rent out to recoup some of his costs. Despite what he had told the residents' committee, Wyld had set a budget of £2,000 for the entire building work and so could not afford the outlying buildings. Abraham's designs – minus the additional buildings, but with a circular Moorish corridor designed by G.A. Jermyn – got the final go-ahead on 15 March 1851, even though the new bids for the contract were substantially higher than they had been for Welch's original plans. George Myers' firm was again the cheapest at £2,755 and he was contracted to continue with the work. Both Welch and Abraham were eventually forced to sue to get their fees. Building work Though the design of the building was not finalized until mid-March, building work had commenced immediately upon the conclusion of the agreement with the Tulks (Wyld did not actually complete the purchase of the land from Moxhay until April). Before the globe could be erected it was necessary to remove the equestrian statue of George I by C. Burchard that had been erected in the centre of the gardens by Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1747 (perhaps to annoy his father George II, who had in turn been on poor terms with his father). Details of the statue's treatment are unclear; for the most part it was reported that it was lowered into a specially constructed pit that was located beneath the building when it was erected, but there were also stories that it was sawn up and buried or that Irish workers had dismantled it and taken pieces for themselves. A question was raised in Parliament as to the fate of the statue (mistakenly identified as George II) and, when questioned, Wyld – who by his own admission