Putney, on the right bank, rather more than 7 miles from London, is a considerable suburb grafted on to an old-fashioned High-street and water frontage. It is the head-quarters of London rowing, and during the fortnight before the University Boat-race and the period of the Volunteer encampment at Wimbledon is a very lively and bustling place. At other times there is little to attract any but rowing men. A most inconvenient, and even dangerous, bridge connects Putney with Fulham, and a little above is an aqueduct of singularly unprepossessing exterior. Putney is a station on the London and South Western Railway, about twenty minutes from London, and is a stopping place for steamers in the summer. Omnibuses run from the City, via the Strand and Piccadilly, to the Fulham end of Putney Bridge.
    FARES: 1st, -/9, 1/-; 2nd, /7, -/10; 3rd, -/5, -/8.

Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of the Thames, 1881