As Town Halls, Assembly Rooms?
The idea was unthinkable.

It would be like a performance of Barnum's Circus in the Coliseum at Rome.

Yes, they would disappear.
Though not, she was glad to think, in her time.

In towns, the space would be required for other buildings.

Here and there some gradually decaying specimen would be allowed to survive, taking its place with the feudal castles and walled cities of the Continent: the joy of the American tourist, the text-book of the antiquary.