Tudor surprise in Treasury office work . 30 ft long wall and turret . reconstruction work on the Treasury offices in Whitehall , which has been going on for some months behind masses of scaffolding on the street side and high wooden fences on Horse Guards Parade , has surprised the ministry of works by the amount of Tudor brickwork it has revealed . the most impressive discovery is a length of wall , 30 ft by 16 ft , roughly parallel with Whitehall , which includes a great stone window 20 ft high and 8 ft broad . this is part of the west wall of the great hall , later converted into a tennis court , which Henry 8 built as an adjunct to Whitehall Palace for the recreation of his court . the north-west turret of the building , standing to a height of at least 40 ft , has also been uncovered , its upper part faced with a decorative pattern of flint and stone . iron reinforcement . the east front of the hall , abutting on to Whitehall , was demolished by Sir Charles Barry when he rebuilt the Treasury offices in 1847 , but he is credited now with unsuspected forbearance in having left so much of the west front on the park side . indeed , the way in which Barry reinforced the floors with iron albeit at the expense of thrusting the iron into Tudor window arches - is assumed by some experts to indicate that he was deliberately striving to preserve the west wall of Henry 8&apos;s hall . another , but smaller , tennis court which stood near the great hall was destroyed in the eighteenth century except for its north end wall . this wall has now been freed from the plaster that has covered it through the centuries . today it stands to almost its full height , with its original windows , of which one , on the ground floor , retains its Tudor ironwork . a two-storeyed gallery , connecting the great hall and the smaller tennis court , was known to have survived all rebuilding operations in this part of Whitehall . but the stripping of its wall coverings has now revealed most of the original window openings and , incidentally , proved that some of the so-called Tudor windows incorporated in rebuilding operations were fakes . in the upper part of the gallery this is clearly demonstrated by a stone Tudor fireplace now uncovered being considerably out of the line of these sham Tudor windows . Cockpit Passage . the lower part of the gallery - it was known in former times as Cockpit Passage by reason of its leading to the long vanished Tudor cockpit - has remained in fair shape though cluttered inordinately with pipes , cabling and all the modern apparatus of a basement given over to heating and lighting . eventually it will be cleared of these things and tidied up to become once more a decent historical passage . when the present reconstruction is completed - probably by August , 1962 - there will be incorporated in the new Treasury offices part of the wall of the Tudor hall and one of its great windows at the end of a series of corridors . the end wall of the small tennis court overlooks Treasury Green , in the middle of which stands a noble plane tree . when once again people are allowed to walk from Downing Street to Horse Guards Parade through Treasury Passage they will see the wall of the small tennis court and the exterior of Cockpit Passage . the original estimate for the reconstruction of the Treasury offices was &amp;pound;750,000 but it is expected that that figure may be considerably exceeded . bench reject plea over handcuffs . four men accused of bank robbery . Cardiff magistrates yesterday rejected an application that two of four men in the dock should be allowed to have their hands free and not handcuffed to one another . the four men were charged jointly with breaking and entering Lloyds Bank in Cardiff between January 14 and January 16 and stealing &amp;pound;9,465 and other property including watches and jewelry . before the court were : Colin David Baldwin , aged 26 , of Braunton Avenue , Llanrumney , Cardiff ; Albert Augustus King , aged 32 , of Southmead , Bristol ; Maurice Charles Harry , aged 32 , of Northam Avenue , Llanrumney , Cardiff ; and James Bernard Powell , aged 32 , of Penarth Road , Cardiff . court heavily guarded . they were also jointly charged with stealing a car belonging to Herbert Arthur Peel at Bristol between January 1 and January 2 . King and Baldwin were handcuffed together , with Harry on one side and Powell the other side . Mr C Stuart Hallinan , defending King , asked that the handcuffs should be removed . this court is very heavily guarded and King is prepared to give an undertaking that he will make no attempt to escape , he said . Mr K Rees , for Baldwin , made a similar application . Mr D A Roberts Thomas , for the prosecution , opposing the application , said that when arrested King had stated that he would not be in custody for long . the two men ought to be held in restraint because of the danger of escape . Mr Thomas said that entry to the strong room was gained by blowing a hole through the 18 in thick side wall . more than &amp;pound;3,000 had not been recovered . a fifth man , whose identity was known , was involved but not before the court . the hearing was adjourned until today . the City &apos;s shops cut by half since 1939 . firm stand being taken with developers . there has been a decrease of 53 per cent in the number of shops in the City of London since 1939 and 18 per cent in the number of restaurants , it was stated by counsel for the corporation of London at an inquiry yesterday into an appeal heard by a ministry of housing and local government inspector . Winmor properties Ltd appealed against a condition imposed by the corporation that provision must be made for the incorporation of shops in at least two-thirds of the frontage in a project for rebuilding Nos 35 , 37 and 39 , Moorgate as offices . Mr S M Haines , architect for the developers , said the building proposed would be of seven storeys with provision for a car park . if shops were incorporated in the development they would be small and spoil the building both architecturally and economically . the building was intended as an office block . Mr W J Glover , for the corporation , said it was the policy of the town planning committee that existing shops and restaurants should be replaced in new development . Mr H A Meeland , planning officer to the corporation , said there had been a great tendency by developers to omit shops from their plans and the corporation were having to take a firm stand in the matter . the inquiry was concluded . former hospital sold for &amp;pound;7,600 . Tring &apos;s campaign over property fails . from our estates correspondent . Tring Feb 21 . more than 100 local residents crowded into Church House here today to attend an auction sale at which the former Tring isolation Hospital was finally knocked down to a London financial firm for &amp;pound;7,600 . it went to Mr A J Cruickshank , an estate agent of Berkhamsted , acting for Bland and company ( investments ) Ltd , of Wimpole Street , London . the final figure compares with a price of &amp;pound;5,000 at which the buildings were originally offered to the council by the ministry of health , the present vendors , when the hospital became redundant and which was refused by the council . the sale marks the apparent end of a lengthy campaign for the hospital buildings to be returned to the town for at the most a nominal sum . originally a gift to the townspeople by Lord Rothschild in 1901 , the hospital was taken over under the national health act in 1948 but soon afterwards was closed as a hospital and has since been used partly for storage purposes and also to accommodate a hospital board official . when the ministry decided to dispose of the buildings they were first offered to the council at the district valuer &apos;s figure of &amp;pound;5,000 . it was stated that the ministry had no power to return the property to the council at no cost . heavy attendance . at the sale , conducted by Knight , Frank and Rutley , local feelings were shown by the heavy attendance rather than by indecorous behaviour , and bidding which started at &amp;pound;2,000 , rose rapidly to &amp;pound;6,000 , mainly by &amp;pound;25 and &amp;pound;50 advances , changing to &amp;pound;100 advances in the final stages . the buyer declined to give any indication of the future of the buildings , which lie on a site of just over two acres and include a five-bedroomed detached house , two small hospital blocks and various outbuildings . planning permission has been given in the past for the conversion of the two ward blocks into residential accommodation , but the site lies in an area of high landscape value , which would make extensive development unlikely . Mr F J Bly , chairman of Tring urban district council , who with a number of other councillors attended the sale , said afterwards that the whole procedure which had culminated in the sale had been grossly unjust . it was given to the town as a gift , he said , and should have been returned . press council member resigns . clash on Chatterley case . from our correspondent . Bolton , Feb 21 . Mr Frank Singleton , editor of the Bolton evening news , and president of the guild of British newspaper editors , has resigned from the press council . at its last meeting the council expressed disapproval of the handling of the Lady Chatterley &apos;s lover case by the guardian , the observer , and the spectator . Mr Singleton wrote a letter to the guardian dissociating himself from this action . Mr Singleton said tonight that Mr George Murray , the chairman of the press council , had written to him , saying that the council would almost certainly regard him as responsible for a breach of confidence , and that since he had made his views known without informing the council , he ( Mr Murray ) intended to mention the matter in a letter to the guardian . in his letter of resignation Mr Singleton wrote to Mr Murray : rightly or wrongly I felt justified in correcting the impression in the statement issued to the press that the opinion of the council was unanimous &amp;hellip; . it is with sincere regret that I sever my association with the council on which I have always thought it a great honour to serve . Eton rate relief . town not affected , says Mr Brooke . the rating of public schools was a matter on which the Commons as a whole should express an opinion , Mr Mitchison ( Kettering , Lab ) said yesterday when the standing committee on the rating and valuation bill continued its discussion on an opposition amendment to rate public schools fully rather than give them 50 per cent relief . Mr Mitchison said that a large public school in an urban district was anomalous . he hoped to raise the matter at a later stage . the amendment was withdrawn . in a general discussion on clause 8 , which concerns the reduction and remission of rates payable by charitable and other organizations , Mr Brooke , Minister of housing and local government , said that boarding schools - though there were exceptions - tended to be in the country in rating areas which were not wealthy . therefore in many cases any effect of loss of rates due to the mandatory 50 per cent derating would be made up by rate deficiency grant . made up by grant . in the case of Eton , which had attracted some attention , though there might be some marginal effect on the county rate , so far as he could ascertain there would be no effect on the urban district council rate , because any loss of rate through mandatory relief would be fully made up by deficiency grant . Mr Brooke said that there was a weakness in the case for assisting such bodies as learned societies by rate relief because it meant that local people would have to put their hands deeper into their pockets . if any such bodies could establish their claim for relief by means of further contribution from the exchequer , that would lie outside the scope of the bill . the clause was approved and the committee adjourned until tomorrow . charges against London vicar . to face consistory court . a consistory court will sit in London next month to hear charges against Dr W Bryn Thomas , Vicar of the Church of the ascension Balham Hill , S.W 