BEST TIME FOR VISITING THE METROPOLIS; PLACES BEST ADAPTED FOR TEMPORARY RESIDENCE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE OBJECT OF THE VISITOR'S PURSUIT.
THE visitor whom fortune has left to the freedom of choice, should select, above all others, the season of the year when "merry larks are ploughmen's clocks "-in other words, the smiling month of May-for his sojourn in the Metropolis. The reasons for this preference will, it is presumed, in the following remarks be rendered sufficiently apparent.- 1. The length of days at the period above mentioned are decidedly in favour of accomplishing objects, which at other times would be altogether unattainable; indeed, such is the magnitude of this vast metropolis, that in an excursion to its extremities, to say nothing of its environs, parties will not unfrequently find it necessary to call a carriage to their aid, unless possessed of more than ordinary powers of locomotion.- 2. The Queen holds on Wednesdays her levees, and her drawing- rooms on Thursdays, throughout this month: they generally, however, commence in April, and are not unusually continued through June. Upon these occasions the Palace of the British Sovereign presents an appearance that, for beauty, brilliancy, rank, wealth, and respectability, may safely challenge a comparison with every court in Europe. The admission to the presence being strictly limited to those only who have previously experienced the honour of presentation, it follows as a matter of course the multitude must be excluded. This magnificent display is, nevertheless, not entirely confined to the interior; the approaches to the Palace from the vast concourse of spectators being considerably thronged, the progress of the visitors is thereby rendered necessarily slow, and in consequence becomes to the assembled multitude a great source of attraction; the company all superbly dressed - the ladies literally loaded with diamonds, attending in carriages of the most costly description; a strong muster of the military, necessary for the preservation of order, gives dignity to the whole; and the performance of the most beautiful music by their several attendant bands contributes to the completion of a coup d'oeil of a most interesting and imposing character. - 3. The high court of Parliament, the courts of Law and Equity, hold their sittings at this season; the Royal Academy, the British Museum, the scientific and literary institutions are all now open; the Italian Opera offers the fascination of music and dancing in its own peculiar style; the theatres actually abound; public concerts are of perpetual occurrence, and from the masterly manner in which they are performed afford to the musical amateur an abundant source of gratification. To these may be added assemblies, at the head of which stands Almack's, unquestionably the first in the world, which, on Wednesdays, the only evenings of meeting, may literally be said to exhibit "the glass of fashion," and the mould of form. Public dinners and fancy fairs prove also at this season an agreeable relaxation, and, at the same time, a fruitful source of revenue to the numerous charities on whose behalf they are held. Horticultural and floricultural fetes, aquatic sports, and a host of amusements now put forth their attractions; and combined with the excitements of Epsom and Ascot races, each attended by admiring thousands, close the long catalogue of May's allurements.
CHOICE OF SITUATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE OBJECT OF THE VISITOR'S PURSUIT.
The selection of a situation must mainly depend upon the motives that have drawn the stranger to the metropolis. If pleasure be his pursuit, the western extremity will afford abundance of accommodation in any of the numerous hotels with which the vicinity of the fashionable squares abounds; if parliamentary proceedings or attendance on the courts of law have called him hence, the central situations of Covent Garden and Charing Cross may with great propriety be pointed out, as, from their proximity to both, with the additional advantage of contiguity to the public offices, the parks and theatres, no situation in London can be named at all comparable with either in regard to general convenience: from both points the remotest parts of the metropolis are placed within easy reach, by means of any of the numerous carriages that, under the name of omnibuses, from the hour of nine in the morning till eleven in the evening are continually traversing the town. The medical student will be placed almost at the portals of all the great schools of medicine, the Borough hospitals alone excepted; and even they are but a remove of two miles from the above-named advantageous sites; if, however, a rigid attendance on these justly celebrated anatomical theatres be his object, he will find no difficulty, if so disposed, in domiciling in their vicinity. If mercantile pursuits have attracted him to the grand mart of commerce, the City will not be found wanting in accommodation to the stranger who may be desirous of residing within its walls; metaphorically speaking, however, it falls to a great discount when put in competition with either of the above-named sites, and sustains the additional drawback of a nuisance, intolerable to strangers, in the noise occasioned by the incessant transit of carriages through the streets. In pursuance of his object, however, it is by no means necessary that the commercial man submit to such a sacrifice of his comfort and convenience; in proof of which it needs only to remark, that by far the largest portion of the monied and mercantile classes have long since relinquished the City as a place of residence, and removed either to the western extremity or the environs of the metropolis.
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PLAN FOR VIEWING LONDON IN EIGHT DAYS..
The late
Sir John Sinclair, about the year 1796, made the tour of Europe in three months,
during which he visited all the capitals, and, as the reader will readily
imagine, returned not much the wiser; seeing, that to have become thoroughly
acquainted with any one of them, would have occupied little less than the whole
of that period. The visiter to the metropolis, who employs no longer than eight
days in its inspection, will return, like the baronet, very ill-informed upon
the subject of its contents. To obtain a thorough knowledge of' London, six
months may well be devoted but as all have not the leisure to employ that time
in its exploration, we subjoin a list of such as may be exteriorly viewed in the
very short period of eight days; the evenings of which may in addition, be
devoted to an inspection of any of the theatres. To avoid the inconvenience of
taxing his friend to an attendance upon him in his peregrinations, it it
indispensable that he provide himself with a good plan of London, among a
variety of which those published under the titles of London in Miniature, and
Mogg's Plan of London, sold by the proprietor at 14, Great Russell
Street, Covent Garden, may be-pointed out as the clearest and best works upon
this subject; like the clue of Ariadne, they will conduct him through the
labyrinth, and, occasionally consulted, will enable him, unattended, to thread
with ease the mazes of this vast metropolis. Thus provided, and starting from
Charing Cross, he will visit, on the
First Day, Nelson Column and Statues of Charles I.,
George III., and George IV., at Charing Cross, Admiralty, Horse Guards,
Whitehall Chapel, Council Office, Richmond Terrace, Board of Control,
Westminster Hall, House of Commons, House of Lords, St. Margaret's Church,
Statue of Canning, Westminster Abbey, New Houses of Parliament, St. John time
Evangelist, Penitentiary, Vauxhall Bridge, Vauxhall Gardens, Lambeth church,
Lambeth Palace, Westminster Bridge, Charing Cross.
Second Day.- St. James's Park, Terraces on time site
of Canton Palace, York Column, Marlborough House, Stafford house, Queen's
Palace, Royal Mews at Pimlico, Chelsea Hospital, Royal Military Asylum; return
by Eaton Square, Belgrave Square, Pantechnicon, St. George's Hospital, Hyde Park
Corner, Triumphal Arches at the entrance to Hyde Park and Green Park, Duke of
Sutherland's, Spencer House, St. James's Palace, Oxford and Cambridge Club,
British Institution, St. James's Square, Travellers' Club, Reform Club,
Athenaeum Club, United Service Club, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Charing
Cross.
Third Day. - Union Club, College of Physicians, Water
Colour Exhibition, United University Club, Society of British Artists, Suffolk
Street, Italian Opera House, Haymarket Theatre, Junior United Service Club, St.
Philip's Chapel, County Fire Office, St. James's Church, Burlington House,
Burlington Arcade, Devonshire House, Duke of Wellington's, Chinese Collection,
Hyde Park, Statue of Achilles, Serpentine River, Kensington Palace and Gardens;
return by Bayswater and Park Lane, Marquis of Westminster's Gallery,
Chesterfield House, Piccadilly, Model of St. Peter's at Rome in Pall Mall,
Charing Cross.
Fourth Day.- Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science,
Leicester Square, Miss Linwood's Exhibition, Panorama, Piccadilly, Bond Street,
Western Exchange, Berkeley Square, Lansdowne House, Grosvenor Square, Portman
Square, Bryanstone Square, Montague Square, Baker Street Bazaar, Madame
Tussaud's Exhibition, Marylebone Church, round the Regent's Park, Zoological
Gardens, St. Katherine's Hospital, Colosseum, Diorama, Park Square and Crescent,
Statue of the Duke of Kent, Portland Place, All Souls' Church, Cavendish Square,
Hanover Square, St. George's Church, Regent Street, Hanover Chapel, Regent's
Quadrant Charing Cross.
Fifth Day.- St. Martin's Church, Apollonicon, St.
Martin's Lane, St. Giles's Church, Soho Square Bazaar, Pantheon Bazaar, Bedford
Square, London University, Euston Square, Birmingham Railway, St. Pancras
Church, Tavistock Square, Russell Square, Bloomsbury Square, British Museum,
Covent Garden Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Covent Garden Market, Charing
Cross
Sixth Day.-Northumberland house, Hungerford
Market, Lowther Arcade, Exeter Hall, Somerset House, King's College, St. Mary's
Church, St. Clement's Church, Temple Bar, St Dunstan's New Church, Temple Church
and Gardens, St Bride's Church, Blackfriar's Bridge, splendid Shops on Ludgate
lull, St. Paul's Cathedral, New Post-Office, Goldsmiths Hall, Bow Church,
Guildhall, Mansion House, St. Stephen's Walbrook, Bank, Stock Exchange, Auction
Mart, Hall of Commerce, Excise Office, Crosby House; Roman Catholic Chapel,
Moorfields, London Institution, Finsbury Square, St. Luke's Hospital Charter
House, West Smithfield; St. Sepulchre's, Newgate; St Andrew's, Holborn Hill;
Lincoln's Inn, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Soane's Museum, Surgeons' Hall, thence to
Charing Cross.
Seventh Day.-Proceed as in sixth day to Bow Church,
Cheapside; thence to Southwark Bridge, London Bridge, New Fishmongers' Hall,
Monument, Billingsgate Fish Market, Custom House, Tower, Mint, St. Katherine's
Docks, London Docks, cross the river, and visit the Thames Tunnel; recross the
river to West India Docks, East India Docks; return by the Commercial Road to
Leadenhall Street, Commercial Sale Rooms, Corn Exchange, East India House, St.
Michael's, Cornhill, Cheapside, Ludgate Hill, and Strand.
Eighth Day.-- Westminster Bridge, Astley's
Amphitheatre, Orphan Asylum, Bethlehem Hospital, Philanthropic Institution,
Obelisk, New School for the Blind, Surrey Theatre, Magdalen Asylum, Deaf and
Dumb Asylum, King's Bench Prison, Guys Hospital, St. Thomas's hospital, St.
Saviour's Church, Greenwich Railway; return by Union Street, across Blackfriar's
Road, Victoria Theatre, St. John's Church, Waterloo Road, Waterloo Bridge.
Mogg's New Picture of London and Visitor's Guide to it Sights, 1844
PLACES WHICH A STRANGER IN LONDON MUST SEE
The Tower.
Westminster Abbey.
St. Paul's.
British Museum.
National Gallery.
Houses of Parliament.
Westminster Hall.
St. James's Park.
St. James's Palace.
Buckingham Palace.
Hyde Park, between ? past 5 and ? past 6 p.m. in May and June.
Kensington Gardens.
Lambeth Palace.
Whitehall.
Apsley House.
Thames between Chelsea and Greenwich.
Fleet-street.
Strand.
Charing Cross and Charles I's Statue.
Cheapside.
London Bridge.
Waterloo Bridge.
Thames Tunnel.
Piccadilly.
Pall Mall.
Regent-street.
Regent's Park.
East and West India Docks.
London Docks.
St. Katherine's Docks.
Commercial Docks.
Smithfield.
Covent-garden Market.
London Stone.
Temple Bar.
The Monument.
The Mint.
Temple Church.
Row Church.
St. Stephen's, Walbrook.
Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park.
Surrey Zoological Gardens.
Goldsmiths' Hall.
Soane Museum.
Royal Exchange.
Bank of England.
Christ's Hospital.
College of Surgeons.
Times Newspaper Office.
Barclay's Brewhouse.
Clewes's Printing Office, [see Stamford Street, Blackfriars]
Permanent Public Exhibitions (not already mentioned).
Museum of Practical Geology.
United Service Museum.
East India House Museum.
Museum of the Asiatic Society.
Polytechnic Institution.
PRINCIPAL PLACES OF AMUSEMENT IN THE LONDON SEASON.
The Italian Opera, in the Haymarket.
Covent-garden Theatre, (now an Italian Opera).
Drury-lane Theatre.
Haymarket Theatre.
Adelphi Theatre.
Lyceum Theatre.
St. James's Theatre.
Sadlers Wells Theatre.
Astley's Amphitheatre.
Princess's Theatre.
Exeter Hall Concerts.
Vauxhall Gardens.
Cremorne Gardens.
EXHIBITIONS OF THE LONDON SEASON- PLACES OF EXHIBITION, &c.
Royal Academy Exhibition opens first Monday in May-closes about middle of July.
Old Water-Colour Exhibition.
New Water-Colour Exhibition.
British Institution Exhibition of Modern Masters, (open February to May).
British Institution Exhibition of Ancient Masters, (open in July).
Society of British Artists, Suffolk-street.
The Exhibition at Hyde Park Corner.
Horticultural Fetes at Chiswick, (May, June, and July). Chiswick is 5 miles from Hyde Park Corner.
Horticultural Fetes at the Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park.
Colosseum, Panorama, Diorama, and Egyptian Hall.
THE PAINTER AND CONNOISSEUR SHOULD ENDEAVOUR TO SEE:
National Gallery.
Queen's collection at Buckingham Palace.
Bridgewater Gallery - (shown every Wednesday, when Lord Ellesmere is not in town).
Grosvenor Gallery.
Duke of Sutherland's Murillos; Earl of Arundel, by Van Dyck.
The Correggio, (Christ in lhe Garden), and other pictures, at Apsley house.
The Van Dyck Portraits and Sketches, (en grisaille), fine Canaletti, (View of Whitehall), at Montague House.
Lady Garvagh's Raphael, No. 26, Portman-square.
Duke of Grafton's duplicate or original of the Louvre picture, by Van Dyck, of Charles I. standing by his Horse.
The Holbein, at Barber-Surgeons' hall.
The Holbein, at Bridewell.
Titian's Cornaro Family, at Northumberland House.
Rubens's Ceiling, at Whitehall.
The old masters and Diploma Pictures, at the Royal Academy.
The Van Dycks, at Earl de Grey's, in St. James's-square.
Sir Robert Peel's Dutch Pictures, at Whitehall.
Mr. Hope's Dutch pictures, Piccadilly, (corner of Down-street).
Mr. Neeld's collection, No. 6, Grosvenor-square.
Mr. Rogers's collection, No. 22, St. James's-place.
Lord Ashburton's collection, at Bath house, Piccadilly.
Lord Ward's collection.
Marquis of Hertford's collection.
Lord Normanton's collection.
Baron Rothschild's collection.
Mr. R.S. Hoelford's collection, (at present, 1850, at No. 65, Russell-square).
Mr. Morrison's collection.
Mr. Tomline's Pool of Bethesda, by Murillo, at No. 1, Carlton-House-terrace.
The Hogarths and Canaletti, at the Soane Museum
The Hogarths, at the Foundling Hospital, Lincolns Inn Hall, and St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
The three fine Sir Joshua Reynolds', at the Dilettanti Society, Thatched House Tavern, St. James's-street.
The English collections of Mr. Sheepshanks, at Rutland Gate; of Mr. Munro, in Hamilton-place, Piccadilly; of Mr. Gibbons, No. 17, Hanover-terrace, Regent's Park; of Mr. Bicknell, at Herne-hill; and Mr. Windus's Turner drawings, at Tottettham, (shown on every Tuesday).
The Dulwich Gallery.
Raphael's Cartoons, &c., at Hampton Court.
The Van Dyck pictures, &c., at Windsor.
THE ARCHITECT SHOULD SEE:
GOTHIC.
The Norman Chapel, in the Tower.
The Norman Crypt, under the church of St. Mary-le-Bow.
St. Bartholomew the Great.
St. Mary Overy.
Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Stall.
Temple Church.
Dutch Church, Austin Friars.
Ely Chapel.
The Crypt at Guildhall.
The Crypt at St. John's, Clerkenwell.
Allhallows Barking.
St. Olave's, Hart-street.
Crosby Hall.
Savoy Chapel.
The Crypt at Gerard's Hall.
St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell.
Lambeth Palace - (the Chapel and Hall).RENAISSANCE.
Holland House, Kensington.
The following works, by INIGO JONES:
Banqueting House, Whitehall.
St. Paul's. Covent-garden.
York Water-gate.
Shaftesbury House, Aldersgate-street.
Lindsey house, Lincoln's-Inn-fields.
Ashburnham House, Westminster.
Lincoln's Inn Chapel.
St. Catherine Cree-(part only).
Piazza, Covent-garden.The following works, by Sir CHRISTOPHER WREN:
St. Paul's.
St. Stephen's, Watbrook.
St. Mary-le-Bow.
St. Bride's, Fleet-street.
St. Magnus, London Bridge.
St. James's, Piccadilly.
Spire of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East.
St. Mary Aldermary.
St. Michael's, Cornhill.
Towers of St. Vedast, St. Antholin, and St. Margaret Pattens.The following works, by GIBBS:
St. Martins-in-the-Fields.
St. Mary-le-Strand.The following works, by N. HAWKSMOOR, (a pupil of Wren's):
St. Mary Woolnoth.
Christ Church, Spitalfields.
St. George's, Bloomsbury.The following works, by Lord BURLINGTON:
Colonnade, at Burlington House.
Duke of Devonshire's Villa at Chiswick.By Sir WILLIAM CHAMBERS:
Somerset House.By KENT:
Lady Isabella Finch's, in Berkeley-square.By DANCE:
The Mansion House.
Newgate.By MYLNE:
Blackfriars Bridge.By RENNIE:
Waterloo Bridge.By Sir JOHN SOANE:
Bank of England.By NASH:
Regent-street.
Buckingham Palace (east front excepted, which is by BLORE).By DECIMUS BURTON:
Athenaeum Club.
Colosseum.
Screen at Hyde Park Corner.By PHILIP HARDWICK (and Son):
Goldsmiths' Hall.
Lincoln's Inn Hall.
Euston-square Railway Terminus.By Sir R. SMIRKE:
British Museum.
Post Office.By BARRY:
New houses of Parliament.
Reform Club.
Travellers' Club.
Treasury, Whitehall.
Bridgewater House.
THE SCULPTOR SHOULD SEE:
The Elgin, Phigalian, Townley, and other marbles, in the British Museum.
The marbles at Lansdowne House.
The bas-relief, by Michael Angelo, at the Royal Academy.
The sculpture in St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey.
Statue of Charles I., at Charing-cross.
Statue of James II., behind Whitehall.
The several statues in the squares and public places - Pitt, in Hanover-squarc; Fox, in Bloomsbury-square; George III., in Cockspur-street; George IV., in Trafalgar-square; the Duke of Wellington, before the Royal Exchange and at Hyde Park Corner.
The two statues of Madness and Melancholy, by Cibber, at Bethlehem Hospital.
Flaxman's models at University College, in Gower-street.
THE ARCHAEOLOGIST AND ANTIQUARY SHOULD SEE:
The British Museum.
The Tower.
Westminster Abbey, &c.
The Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, at Somerset House.
The remains of London Wall.
London Stone.
The collection at the City of London Library.
The Roman Bath under the Coal Exchange.
The collections of Mr. Gwilt, Union-street, Borough, and of Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S.A., Liverpool-street, City.
The Gothic churches ...
Painted window in St. Margaret's, Westminster.
Monument of Camden, in Westminster Abbey.
Monument of Stow, in St. Andrew's Undershaft.
CELEBRATED PLACES NEAR LONDON WHICH A STRANGER SHOULD SEE:
Windsor Castle.
Hampton Court.
Greenwich Hospital.
Woolwich Arsenal.
The Thames at Richmond and Twickenham.
Dulwich Gallery.
Holland House.
Hampstead and Highgate-pleasant places in themselves, and affording the best views of London from a distance.
The Botanic Gardens at Kew.
Lord's Cricket Ground, near the Eyre Arms, St. John's-wood, (when a match is played).
PALACES AND CHIEF HOUSES OP THE NOBILITY AND GENTRY AT THE PRESENT DAY:
Buckingham Palace
St. James's Palace / Kensington Palace ... Palaces of the Sovereign
Marlborough House .. The Prince of Wales.
Cambridge House . . Duke of Cambridge.
Gloucester House . . Duchess of Gloucester.
Lambeth Palace . . Archbp. of Canterbury.
Apsley House . . . Duke of Wellington.
Northumberland House - Duke of Northumberland.
Devonshire House ... Duke of Devonshire.
Stafford House ... Duke of Sutherland.
Norfolk House . . - Duke of Norfolk.
Montague House . . Duke of Buccleugh.
Harcourt House... Duke of Portland.
Grosvenor House . . Marquis of Westminster -
Lansdowne House . . Marquis of Lansdowne.
Burlington House . . Hon. C. C. Cavendish.
Chesterfield House . . Earl of Chesterfield.
Holdernesse house . Marquis of Londonderry
Holland House . . . Lord Holland.
Uxbridge House . . Marquis of Anglesey.
Bridgewater house .. Earl of Ellesmere.
Spencer House . . Earl Spencer.
London House, St. James's-square - . Bishop of London.
Bath House . . . Lord Ashburton.
Berkeley House, Spring-gardens . . . Earl Fitzhardinge.
Mansion House . . The Lord Mayor.
Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850
ROUTE 1.- From London Bridge to Charing Cross.
Length, 2?miles; Omnibus-fare, 3d. and 4d..; Cab-fare for two persons, 1s. 6d.
On crossing the Bridge, the traveller should pause, for a
moment, to note the animated scene presented by the River
"above" and "below Bridge." The silent highway, as it is
most inappropriately called, is crowded with restless
little steam-boats, wherries, lumbering barges, and steam-tugs. From the Bridge, eastwards, extends "the Pool,"
thronged with a thousand masts, and gay with flags and
streamers of every nation. Here is placed the great fish-
market of Billingsgate, and yonder rises the stately façade
of the Custom House; while, in the distance, soars conspicuous the turreted keep of the famous "Tower.2 Looking up the River (westward), we catch sight of Southwark
and Blackfriars Bridges - of banks lined with enormous
warehouses - and of a far-reaching vista of roofs, above
which dominates, in misty grandeur, the glorious dome of
St. Paul's. Nor is the Bridge itself, with its double tides
of traffic,- on-rushing, never-ceasing, appallingly regular
in their continual motion,- less worthy of observation: it is the busiest traject in the civilised world, and groans beneath the products of every clime. At its foot, on the one
hand, stands Adelaide Place - a conglomeration of City
offices; on the other, the stately pile of Fishmongers'
Hall, the meeting-place of the members of a wealthy civic
guild. Beneath us, through a dry arch, runs an apparently
endless line of stores, warehouses, and wharfs. The steps
on the right lead to the quay for the Hull, Rotterdam, and
Scotch steamers; at the corner is St. Magnus Church, built
by Sir Christopher Wren; on the left, to the place of
embarkation and disembarkation of the cheap steam-boats
which ply between London Bridge, Westminster, and Battersea.
Proceeding from the Bridge, we observe a turning on
the right, whose descent is occupied by the graceful column of the Monument, which no longer,
"Like a tall bully, lifts its head and lies" (Pope),
but still commemorates the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Nearly opposite, the broad thoroughfare of Cannon Street
turns off abruptly from the equally busy highway of King William Street-named after the popular sovereign who
opened London Bridge in 1831, and gave his assent to the
Reform Bill in 1832. His statue, in granite, will here
attract our notice. In this vicinity stood the Old Boar
Tavern, East Cheap, the hostelry patronised by Prince Hal
and Sir John Falstaff, as commemorated in Shakespeare's
Henry IV.
We may now proceed to St. Paul's by two routes: by
Cannon Street, which is entirely devoted to business purposes, and is much the shorter; or by King William Street,
which is the more interesting, and leads us, through a
forest of Assurance offices, to the Bank. The narrow lanes
on our right connect us with the Change of the London
bankers - Lombard Street, deriving its name from the
Lombard merchants, who here, in the old times, hung out
the "three golden balls," symbolical of their lucrative
"mystery." Before we reach the Bank we cross Cornhill - the site of the ancient
corn-market - to Mr. Tite's admirable building, the Royal Exchange. In the open area before
it - an area much frequented by country cousins, street-
vendors, and shoe-blacks - stands an equestrian bronze
statue of the Duke of Wellington, modelled by the late Sir
Francis Chantrey, and a drinking fountain of elegant design. Yonder
imposing-looking pile, sombre and heavy, is
the Mansion House,--the palace, so to speak, of the Lord
Mayor of London, where he entertains "her Majesty's
Ministers," and, with his brother aldermen, sits in judgment upon pickpockets, riotous strollers, and peripatetic
orange-merchants. Avoiding the temptation of turning down Threadneedle Street (which skirts one side of the low
range of buildings, famous, all round the world, as "the
Bank of England" ), we plunge into historic Cheapside, a
celebrated "chepe" or mart in the stirring times of the Plantagenets. Observe, on the right, King Street, which
leads to the picturesque structure of the Guildhall. Cheap
side was the favourite arena of the spectacles and pageants
in which Old London delighted, and is also associated with
recollections of Thomas a Becket, who was born in a house
in the rear of Mercers' Hall (right), Sir Thomas More,
born in Milk Street (right), and Milton, born in Bread
Street (left). Bucklersbury, a noted place of old for drugs and simples, leads to Sir Christopher Wren's beautiful
church (beautiful, indeed, in the interior) of St. Stephen's,
Walbrook. Queen Street, on the left, conducts us to
Soutliwark Bridge. The admirable spire of St. Mary-le-Bow church, within the sound of whose bells the veritable
Cockney must be born, now calls for observation; and pass
ing various busy and excessively narrow thoroughfares, we
next debouch upon an open space between St. Martin's-le-Grand, Newgate Street, Paternoster Row, and St. Paul's
Churchyard.
Turning our backs on the handsome edifice of the
General Post-Office, we enter St. Paul's Churchyard, and
winding round the glorious masterpiece of Wren - the great
Protestant Cathedral, - and passing the low entrance of
Doctors' Commons, commence the abrupt descent of Ludgate Street. Here, opposite the Belle
Sauvage, was put
down Sir Thomas Wyat's revolt, in the first year of the
reign of heretic-burning Queen Mary. Crossing Farring
don Street - in the open space on the right, soon to be occupied by the City terminus of the
London, Chatham,
and Dover Railway, formerly stood the Fleet Prison for
debtors, immortalised by Dickens in the Pickwick Papers - crossing Farringdon Street and New Bridge Street,
which leads to the Times office and Blackfriars bridge, we
enter Fleet Street, perhaps the busiest thoroughfare in
London, and one of the most interesting. It derives its
name from a streamlet called the Fleet, now converted into
a sewer, but anciently of most odorous memory, as Pope
duly records in his Dunciad. Bride Lane (left) led to
the old Bridewell, and St. Bride's Church, built by Sir
Christopher Wren. The next turning penetrates into
Salisbury Square, where Richardson, the author of Pamela, resided; at the corner, No. 81 Fleet Street, is Mr.
Cruchley's, Mapseller and Globe Manufacturer, and the
Publisher of this Guide. In Bolt Court, on the right,
died Dr. Johnson. Bouverie Street (left) leads to White
friars, the "Alsatia" of the "good old times," the city
of refuge for roystering blades and bilking vagabonds,
into whose purlieus the law seldom cared to thrust its majesty. Its aspects are vigorously sketched by Sir Walter
Scott in the Fortunes of Nigel. Sergeants' Inn we may pass
without particular notice. On the opposite side, however, we must remark Crane Court, leading to the Scottish Hospital, the house where the Royal Society held its meetings,
under the presidency of Sir Isaac Newton. Fetter Lane
(right) leads to Holborn. At Peele's Coffee Rouse the
daily and weekly papers are regularly filed, and may be
inspected for a small payment. The Mitre Tavern was a
favourite resort of Dr. Johnson and his biographer Boswell. St. Dunstan's-in-the-West was built by Shaw, the
architect. On the left, the Inner Temple and Middle
Temple Lanes lead to the Temple Church, the Temple
Gardens, and the approved arena where lawyers most do
congregate. The Rainbow Tavern is celebrated for its
"stout," and the Cock Tavern has been immortalised by
Tennyson. No. 1 Fleet Street is Child's Banking House,
the oldest banking house in London; and here is Temple
Bar, marking the boundary of civic jurisdiction - the lawful
limina of the domain of London's Lord Mayor.
We now pass into the Strand, for such is now the
general appellation of this great line of thoroughfare from
Temple Bar to Charing Cross, though from Temple Bar to
Essex Street is properly called Temple Bar Without. The.
Strand was formerly a row of noble mansions, or inns, surrounded by pleasant gardens, which communicated by
"water-gates" with the river Thames, and was not paved.
until 1532. The site of Essex House is commemorated by
Essex Street and Devereux Court. St. Clement Danes Church was designed by Wren. Arundel Street (left)
marks the site of Arundel House, and Holywell Street
(right), an unsavoury thoroughfare, once boasted of a running conduit - whence its name. The Maypole formerly
stood where now stands the church of St. Mary-le-Strand. Somerset House, on the site of the palace, built by the
Lord Protector Somerset, is parcelled out into Government
offices; the architect was Sir William Chambers. Catherine Street leads to Drury Lane Theatre, and Drury Lane
to New Oxford Street, Bloomsbury, and the British Museum. Wellington Street (left)
is the app roach to Waterloo Bridge. On the other hand is the L yceum Theatre
and Bow Street, leading to the Bow-Street Police Office,
and Covent Garden Theatre and Market.
Descending Savoy Steps, we may visit the ancient fane
of the Savoy Chapel, formerly attached to the Palace of the Savoy, built by Peter, Earl of Savoy and Richmond,
in. 1245. Burleigh Street. and Exeter Street (right) commemorate the mansion of the noble family of Exeter,
Southampton Street (right) was the site of Bedford House;
Beaufort Buildings (left) of Worcester House.; and Cecil
Street (right) of the house of the Cecils, Earls of Salisbury.
Observe the New Adelphi Theatre, named from the Adelphi, the Greek pseudonym of the brothers Adam, the
speculative architects who built Adam Street and Adelphi Terrace. In the centre house of the latter died
Garrick the actor. Coutts and Co.'s is an old-established banking house. The
late Mr. Coutts married Miss Mellon, the comedienne,
who, at his death, conferred her hand and wealth upon
the Duke of St. Alban's. She bequeathed, at her own
decease, the bulk of her property to the present Miss Burdett Coutts. Remark the Electric Telegraph Office; the
ball on the roof drops daily at 1 p.m. From hence King
William Street, Strand, turns off to St. Martin's Church. Buckingham, Villiers, and York Streets denote the site of
York House, the palace of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
James I.'s "Steenie." The water-gate, built by Inigo
Jones, is still extant at the foot of Buckingham Street. A turning on the left leads to
Hungerford Market, the
future site of the terminus of the Charing Cross Railway
(in connexion with the South-Eastern and South-Western
railways), and Hungerford Suspension Bridge, now being
transformed into a railway viaduct. Northumberland House
is the only one of the great mansions of the Strand which
has survived the changes of fashion and braved the necessities of the times. It may fitly be regarded as the termination of
the Strand, and the traveller now finds himself at
Charing Cross, gazing on the mean façade of the National Gallery - on the meaner fountains, or "squirts," as they
have irreverently been called - on the statues of George
IV., Jenner the physician, Sir Henry Havelock, and Sir
Charles Napier-on the still unfinished Nelson Column,
and the equestrian statue of Charles I.
ROUTE II - London Bridge to New Oxford Street
Length, 2?miles. Cab-fare 1s. 6d.; Omnibus-fare, 2d., 3d., 4d.
As far as St. Paul's Churchyard the traveller will pass
over ground already described in the previous route. But
instead of turning into the Churchyard (left), or by St.
Martin's-le-Grand into Aldersgate Street (right), we now
go boldly forward into Newgate Street. Observe Panyer
Alley (left) and its ancient sculpture; and Queen's Head
Passage, the locale of the famous "Dolly's Chop House."
Yonder reeking, odorous, and squalid alley leads into Newgate Market, the great
depôt of carcass-meat for all Loudon. The passage on the opposite side of the way affords
an entrance to Edward VI.'s foundation, Christ's Hospital - the "Blue-coat School," whose great
hall may now
be seen through the interstices of a formidable range of
iron railing. In Warwick Lane (left) stands the old College of Physicians, built by Wren. You grim-looking
sombre pile of stone is Newgate; and across the street
formerly stood another, but inferior prison, the Giltspur-Street Compter, pulled down in 1855. The street on the
left lathe Old Bailey (Ballium), and is the scene of the
executions (for murder) authorised by the law. Giltspur
Street, on the right, leads to Cock Lane, the locale of the
Cock-Lane Ghost, and Pye Corner, where the Great Fire
of London ceased its desolating ravages, in 1666. Entering
Skinner Street (Snow Hill), we observe St. Sepulchre's
Church, whose bell tolls on the morning of each public execution; a sum of 50l.,
to insure the perpetuation of this
custom, having been bequeathed by a Mr. Robert Dowe.
Crossing between Farringdon and (new) Victoria Streets (
the terminus of the underground railway), we plunge into Holborn, ascending "Holborn Hill" to Fetter Lane, and
p
assing through "Holborn" proper, from Fetter Lane to B
rook Street, and "High Holborn," from Brook Street to
Drury Lane. Holborn derives its name from the "Old Bourne," or "Hill Bourne," a stream which rose near Holborn Bars (a gate at Brook Street, denoting the limit of
the liberties of the City of London), and flowed through
Holborn into Fleet Ditch. It was the usual highway for
condemned criminals from Newgate and the Tower to the
gibbet at Tyburn. A bridge which crossed the Fleet in the
valley at Farringdon Street was called Holborn Bridge.
The Blue Boar Inn (No. 270) is said to have been the place
where Cromwell and Ireton, disguised as troopers, intercepted the letter of Charles I., which exposed his utter
faithlessness, and determined them to show him no further
mercy. At St. Andrew's Church, Dr. Sacheverel, in the
reign of Queen Anne, fulminated his political discourses.
The principal streets on our right hand are - Ely Place,
the site of the palace of the Bishops of Ely; Hatton Garden; Leather Lane; Furnival's Inn; Gray's Inn Lane,
leading to King's Cross and the terminus of the Great
Northern Railway; Fulwood's Rents; Red Lion Street,
leading to Lamb's Conduit Street, the Foundling Hospital,
and the once fashionable neighbourhood of Russell Square;
Kingsgate Street, King Street, and Southampton Street;
and Museum Street, terminating at the British Museum.
On the left are - Shoe Lane; Fetter Lane, communicating
with Fleet Street; Castle Street; Chancery Lane, sacred
to the magnates and myrmidons of the law; Great, Little,
and New Turnstiles, all connected with Lincoln's Inn
Fields; and Little Queen Street, leading to Great Queen
Street, Drury Lane, and Long Acre.
Now we have reached New Oxford Street, occupying
the site of the ill-famed "Rookery" of St. Giles, and constructed
(1845-1850) at a cost of 290,227l. 4s. 10d. New
Oxford Street terminates at Tottenham Court Road, where
Oxford Street proper commences.
ROUTE III - London Bridge to Shoreditch Church
Length, 2 miles. Cab fare 1s.; Omnibus 2d.
Crossing the Bridge into King William Street, we enter
Gracechurch Street, formerly Gracious Street, from a statue
of the gracious Virgin Mary. In White Hart Court, on
the left, died Fox, the founder of the Sect of Quakers
or "Friends." The church on the right is St. Bennet's,
where Fenchurch Street turns off, for the terminus of the
London and Blackwall, and London, Tilbury, and Southend Railways; on the left, Lombard Street, for
centuries
the peculiar thoroughfare of bankers and money-changers.
Soon afterwards, we cross - between Leadenhall Street, where formerly stood the East India House, and
Cornhill,
leading to the Royal Exchange and Bank of England -
into Bishopsgate Street Within. Here, on the right, are the London Tavern, of gastronomic celebrity;
Threadneedle Street, one of the approaches to the Bank; the
South-Sea House, memorial of an era of disastrous speculation; and the Bull Inn, where Dick
Burbage and Tarlton
donned sock and buskin in the days before theatres existed.
On the left are - the Wesleyan Centenary Hall ; Crosby
Hall, dating from the time of Henry VIII.; and St. Helen's
Church, founded, in 1210-20, by William Basing, Dean of
St. Paul's. The Bishop's Gate was one of the gates in
London Wall. Houndsditch has been, from time immemorial, the site of a Jewish colony. The Jews' Market,
held here every Sunday morning, is a spectacle at which
no visitor to London should omit to assist.
Shoreditch commences at, or near, the terminus of the
Eastern Counties Railway, and terminates at Shoreditch
Church, where Hackney Road begins.
ROUTE IV - London Bridge to Kennington Gate
Length 2?miles. Cab-fare 1s. 6d.; Omnibus-fare, 4d.
The first object of interest in the High Street of Southwark is the church of the Priory of St. Mary Overy
(over-rie, over the river), now known as St. Saviour's, having
been erected into a parish-church by Henry VIII. in 1540.
The Bishop of Winchester's palace occupied a site near this
ancient church, and in the rear stood the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare acted, and where many of his immortal
dramas were first produced. On the left, we pass in succession St. Thomas's Hospital, about to give place to the
works of the Charing Cross Railway; Guy's hospital;
and St. Thomas's Church. Down a small yard on the left
stands the Talbot Inn - the "Tabard" of the Canterbury
Pilgrims, immortalised by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales.
Union Street turns off on the right, near King Street, the
site of the old Marshalsea Prison, on the left. Opposite
St. George's Church was "the Mint," the ancient "Alsatia" of
Southwark. Bishop Banner, of sanguinary fame, and Rushworth, the historian, are buried in St. George's.
We continue our course through Blackman Street, from
whence we may turn off on the right to visit Queen's
Bench (Debtors') Prison, or No. 1 Belvedere Place, as it
is termed by "fashionable collegians;" and on the left to
inspect Horsemonger Lane Gaol, the county prison of Surrey, and the place of execution for all criminals convicted of
capital crimes within the county.
The Elephant and Castle is a famous hostelry, where omnibuses
may be obtained for almost every part of London and its suburbs. The
pretentious-looking building
nearly opposite - a sort of compromise between a music-hall and a classical
monster-barn - is called "The Tabernacle," and was raised by the unceasing efforts of its
pastor, the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. It is capable of accommodating 4000 persons.
We might now either turn off on the right, through
Lower and Upper Kennington Lane, to Vauxhall Bridge,
or, on the left, by way of Walworth Road, to Camberwell
but, continuing our prescribed route, we follow up Kennington Road (notice on the left Penton Street, leading to
the defunct Royal Surrey Gardens) to Kennington Park and Kennington Gate. Here two busy trajects branch off,
right and left, to Clapham, Balham, Tooting, and Merton; to Brixton, Streatham, and Croydon; lined on either side
by well-looking villas, girded with pleasant belts of garden, the rura-in-urbe of London citizens and the
magnates of the Stock Exchange.
ROUTE V - Charing Cross to Regent's Park
Length, 2 miles. Cab-fare 1s.; Omnibus, 4d.
The thoroughfare connecting Charing Cross with the Haymarket is known as Cockspur Street, and is principally occupied by hotels, banks, assurance companies, and print-shops. Crossing Pall Mall, we now find ourselves opposite the Haymarket Theatre, so pleasantly conducted by Mr. Buckstone, on the right, and her Majesty's Theatre, the once splendid home of Italian Opera, on the left. The Caf? de l'Europe, right, may be commended with confidence to the gastronomic amateur; and on both sides of the street the lover of crustacean delicacies will find shellfish shops and oyster supper-rooms in embarrassing plenty.*
* "You may sup in the Haymarket as your taste would lead, or as the state of your finances would counsel - if people followed such counsel - you to sup. You may cut your coat according to your cloth. Are you rich?-there is Dubourg's, the Hotel de Paris, and the upstairs' department of the Caf? de l'Europe. There so no lack of cunning cooks there, I warrant, to send you up pheasants and partridges en papillote; filets, with mushrooms or truffles, culinary gewgaws that shall cost 5s. the dish. Yea, and cellarers will not be wanting to convey to you the Roederer's champagne, the fragrant Clos Vougeot, the refreshing Lafitte, and the enlivening Chambertin with yellow seal; smooth waiters to attend to your minutest wishes, and bring you the handsome reckoning on an electro-silver plateau, and, with many bows, return you what odd change there may be out of a five-pound note."- G. A.Sala.
Addison lived in a house in Panton Street. Coventry Court
occupies the site of the house of Secretary Coventry, a
minister of some repute in the reign of Charles II.
You will not turn, at present, either eastward, into
Coventry Street and Leicester Square, or westward, into
Piccadilly, for Hyde Park. You will rather cross Piccadilly, and turn sharply into Regent Street, created by
architect Nash under the auspices of George, Prince Regent, and, despite of jealous criticism, as noble a
promenade as any European city can boast of. The stuccoed
fronts of the houses, a novelty at the time of their erection,
suggested a clever epigram, preserved in the Quarterly Review for June 1826:
"Augustus at Rome was for building renowned,
And of marble he left what of brick he had found;
But is not our Nash, too, a very good
master?
He finds us all brick, and he leaves us all plaster."
The lower or southern portion of Regent Street, as far as
Vigo Street, was called, from its shape, the Quadrant, and
was formerly adorned with a covered colonnade, of the
width of the pavement.
Regent Street is the street of fashionable shops: Swan
and Edgar, the world-famous drapers and mercers; St.
James's Music Hall; Mechi, the genius of razors; Nicolls,
the great inventors of paletots; Houbigant, purveyor of
dainty gloves and rare perfumes; Lewis and Allonby, celebrated for silks and shawls; Cramer, Beale, and Wood,
the autocrats of the musical world. Regent Street, on an
afternoon in "the season," exhibits a spectacle which, for
wealth, splendour, and bravery, no other city in the world can equal. Observe, on the right, Archbishop Tenison's
Chapel; and on the left, near Oxford Street, Hanover Chapel, designed by
Cockerell, the architect.
Crossing Oxford Street, we pass, on our right, the
National Institute of Fine Arts and the German Bazaar;
on the left, the Royal Polytechnic Institution, the headquarters of "science made easy." Yonder church, with the
peculiar tower and spire, is All Souls'; it was built by
Nash. Here widens before us the noble thoroughfare of
Portland Place, and, bounded by the statue of the Duke of
Kent, the father of her most gracious Majesty, agreeably terminates with a vista of the green trees of the Regent's
Park, where it is intersected by the long line of houses, which, under the different
appellations of Marylebone Road, New Road, Euston Road, and Pentonville, connects Paddington with the City.
ROUTE VI - Charing Cross to Vauxhall Bridge
Length 1? miles. Cab-fare, 1s.
Leaving behind the National Gallery and the tawdry
Fountains which disgrace "the finest site in Europe;" leaving behind us the equestrian statue of Charles I., and the
scene of the barbarous execution of Charles I.'s judges;
we turn down Parliament Street, and pass, in succession,
on the right hand, -
Drummond's Bank.
The Admiralty.
The Paymaster-General's Offices.
The Horse Guards, and the Offices of the Commander-in-chief of the British Army.
The handsome façade of the Treasury, and the Office of
the Prime Minister.
The site of the old Cockpit, where Oliver Cromwell held
his state.
Downing Street - the world-famous locale of the Foreign
Office (now temporarily removed to Whitehall Gardens),
the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Office, and the Colonial
Office.
On the left hand:
Scotland Yard, the head-quarters of the Metropolitan
Police.
Whitehall Banqueting House, a fine specimen of the genius of Inigo Jones: from a window at the back (?) Charles I-
stepped onto his scaffold.
Privy Gardens, where Sir Robert Peel lived; and
Richmond Terrace, where resided La Belle Queroaille,
the Duchess of Portsmouth, and Charles II.'s latest mistress.
At this point branches off the narrow thoroughfare of
King Street, leading to Westminster Abbey, Victoria Street,
and by way of Great George Street and the Birdcage Walk
into Pimlico. Continuing our onward route by Parliament
Street, we reach the point of intersection of Great George
Street and Bridge Street (for Westminster new Bridge), and
stand in the shadow of two of England's most glorious
architectural achievements: the New Palace of Sir Charles
Barry, and Westminster Abbey. As of these we shall speak en détail hereafter, we may now press forward through an
intricacy of mean houses and squalid stores to Millbank, an
open promenade by the river-side - commanding a fine view
of Lambeth Palace, which brings us - past the dull, heavy
mass of the Penitentiary - to the foot of Vauxhall Bridge.
ROUTE VII - Charing Cross, via Pall Mall, to Buckingham Palace
Length ? mile. Cab-fare, 6d.
From the foot of the Haymarket to the foot of St. James's
Street extends a wide and airy thoroughfare, widely known
and esteemed under the historic appellation of Pall Mall,
deriving its name from a pastime introduced into England
temp. James I., which, in its turn, derived its name from
the weapons used in it - palla, a ball, and maglia a mallet.
Pepys refers to it in his Diary, date 1660, July 26: " We
went to Wood's at the Pell Mell (our old house for clubbing), and there we spent till ten at night."
Gas was introduced into London in Pall Mall, which,
under the direction of F. A. Winsor, a German, was lighted
up for the first time on the 28th of January 1807.
Pall Mall is the street of Clubs: these palatial mansions
are principally ranged on the Park-side of the street, and
should be noted in the following order :-the United Service
Club, corner of Pall Mall East, looking out upon the Duke
of York's Column; the Athenaeum, at the opposite angle;
the Travellers' Club, built by Sir Charles Barry; the
Reform Club, by the same architect; the Canton Club,
by Sydney Smirke [here intervene the War Office and Schomberg House, formerly the-residence of William Duke
of Cumberland the Culloden hero, and Gainsborough the painter]; Oxford and
Cambridge Club; the Guards' Club [here intervenes Marlborough House, the residence of the
Prince of Wales, and formerly of the great Duke of Marlborough.]
On the right hand, at the corner of St. James's Square,
-the Army and Navy Club. Remark also the galleries of
the British Institution, and the New Water-Colour Society. Opposite St. James's Street (leading to Piccadilly) is
the entrance to the Colour Yard of St. James's Palace, now
only used for levees and drawing-rooms; and passing under the next archway, we cross the Palace Yard (observe on
the left the Chapel Royal), and turn into St. James's Park, having on our right Stafford
House - the noble mansion of the Duke of Sutherland - and the Green Park. Above
is the busy thoroughfare of Piccadilly. Up Constitution
Hill we may proceed, if we please, to Hyde Park Corner, or, keeping the even tenor of our way, pass Buckingham
Palace, the town residence of Queen Victoria (when in town the Royal Standard is hoisted) and, through the
Park gates, penetrate into the broad streets and open squares
of Belgravia.
ROUTE VIII - Charing Cross to Hyde Park Corner
Length 1? miles. Cab-fare, 1s; Omnibus 3d.
Up the Haymarket into
Piccadilly; so named, it is said, from "one Higgins, a
tailor, who built it temp. James I., and who got most of his estate by
pickadilles, a kind of stiff collar, much worn in England from 1605 to 1620 (Cunningham).
It formerly ran only far as Sackville Street; was afterwards (in 1720) extended to Albemarle Street; but now includes the whole
extent of thoroughfare from the top of the Haymarket to Hyde Park Corner. We shall speak of its historical
associations hereafter, and must now content ourselves with indicating a. few of
its special points of interest.
These are, on the right - St. James's Music Hall; the Albany,
a sequestered cul-de-sac, appropriated to bachelors' lodgings; Burlington
House, built by the Lord Burlington whom Pope praised and Hogarth satirised, -
now the property of the nation, and appropriated (in part) to the use
of the Royal Academy; Burlington Arcade, a paradise of knick-knackery and superfluous
agreeabilities; Bond Street;
Albemarle Street; Devonshire House, the mansion of the
Duke of Devonshire; Cambridge House (No. 94), the
whilom residence of the late Duke of Cambridge, and now
of Viscount Palmerston; Miss Burdett Coutts's house, corner of Stratton Street; Mr. Hope's mansion, at the corner
of Down Street; Park Lane, - at No. 1 resides the Rt, Hon.
Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, the accomplished orator, novelist,
and statesman; No. 139, where Lord Byron once resided
the house at the corner of Hamilton Place, where Lord
Eldon, the ex-Lord-Chancellor, died in 1838; and Apsley
House, named after its original founder, Apsley, Earl of Bathurst, for many years the residence of the great Duke of
Wellington, and now inhabited by his son, the present Duke.
On the left observe - the Geological Museum (entrance
in Jermyn Street); St. James's Church; the Egyptian Hall;
the Wellington, a fashionable restaurant; No. 5, the residence of witty Horace Walpole; the Green Park, a delightful breadth of fresh greensward; the entrance Archway,
designed by Decimus Burton, and overweighted by the well-abused equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington; Grosvenor Place, leading to the aristocratic "squares" of Belgrave, Chester, and Eaton; and St. George's Hospital.
The first turning on the right in Grosvenor Place leads,
under a low archway, to Tattersall's - "the Corner" - the
established head-quarters of the patrons of "the Turf."
ROUTE IX - New Oxford Street to Edgeware Road
Length, 1? miles. Cab-fare, 1s.; Omnibus, 2d. and 3d.
After escaping from New Oxford Street, from the
pretentious and many-windowed "West-end Emporium" of
Moses and Son, and the monster library of Mr. C. E. Mudie,
we enter Oxford Street proper, deriving its name from its
position on the high road from London to Oxford. It was
formerly known as Tyburn Road, and is now one of the very
busiest of the aristocratic business thoroughfares of London.
At the Regent Circus it intersects Regent Street, and its
continuation Portland Place. Then, on the right, it connects itself with various thoroughfares leading to Cavendish
Square, Portman Square, Baker Street, and Marylebone;
while on the left it affords an outlet to New Bond Street,
and other of the Piccadilly offshoots. After passing the top
of Park Lane it runs along the northern side of Hyde Park
and Kensington Gardens into Bayswater.
The Edgeware Road turns off on the right nearly opposite the top of Park Lane.
ROUTE X - The "Angel" Islington, to the "Yorkshire Stingo" Marylebone Road
Length 2? miles. Cab-fare, 1s. 6d.; Omnibus 4d.
The Angel, Islington (is it in Islington?), a well-known hostelry in
connexion with omnibuses and cabs, for whose drivers it forms a sort of
permanent
landmark, stands at the corner of Pentonville Road and High Street, Islington,
facing the top of St. John's Street (Smithfield) and City Road.
From Pentonville, its dull houses, dusty gardens, and
stunted trees, its sombre Penitentiary, and the syphon-like
tubes of its waterworks, - the traveller will doubtlessly be glad to escape. At King's Cross, where formerly stood a statue of George IV., is the spacious and magnificent Terminus of the Great Northern Railway.
We now enter the New Road, - the houses still fronted by
small, bleak, end decayed gardens, - reach St. Pancras Church, a handsome classical structure, pass Euston Square.
On the right are the Euston Hotel, and the immense Terminus of the London and North-Western Railway, and
gain, in due time, and after examining, with some amazement, an open-air show of dilapidated statuary, the church
of the Holy Trinity, at the corner of Osnaburgh Street.
The next turning, Albany Street, leads to the Royal Colosseum. Now we skirt the gardens of Park Crescent, with
a bronze statue of the Duke of Kent, - Regent's Park lies
away to the right, - pass Brunswick House (right) and the
top of Upper Harley Street (left), and reach Marylebone
New Church. From this point to the Yorkshire Stingo,
a well-known place of call for omnibuses, the Marylebone Road exhibits no special features of interest.
ROUTE XI - From the Post-Office to the "Angel" Islington
Length 1? miles. Cab-fare, 1s. ; Omnibus, 4d.
The block of buildings appropriated to the General
Post-Office stands in St. Martin's-le-Grand, occupies the site of the ancient collegiate church of that name, and was built in
1825-9, from the designs of Sir Robert Smirke, R.A. On
the other side of the way is the head Money-Order Office.
The church in the rear is St. Botolph's, Aldersgate. Near this
point stood Aldersgate, one of the gates in London Wall.
Westmoreland Buildings (left) indicate the site of the
ancient mansion of the Nevilles, Earls of Westmoreland.
Shaftesbury House stood on the right-hand side, nearly
facing it. Inigo Jones was its architect, and Lord Chancellor
Shaftesbury resided in it temp. Charles II. London House
was one of the palaces of the Bishops of London; and Lauderdale House, - the residence of the Duke of
Lauderdale, - the "L" of Charles II's C.A.B.A.L.,-stood where now
stand Lauderdale Buildings. Long Lane leads to Smithfield,
the scene of Queen Mary's auto-da-fè's, and, until recently,
the great cattle-market of London. Near the termination
of Aldersgate Street stands the old Charter house, "the
hospital, chapel, and school-house," founded in 1611 by
Thomas Sutton, from whose academic shades English literature has received a
Crashaw, a Barrow, Sir William Blackstone, Addison, Steele, Grote, Thirlwall, and Thackeray.
Opposite is the site of "the manor of Picthatch," with which
Shakespeare endows the redoubtable Pistol.
Passing Wilderness Row (left) and Old Street Road
(right), we now ascend Goswell Road - a not peculiarly
agreeable or savoury neighbourhood - to the "Angel" of
Islington.
Cruchley's London in 1865 : A Handbook for Strangers, 1865
After having glanced at the west-end
streets, a couple of hours' walk through the City will bring the visitor into
acquaintance with its principal features; then the Docks and Warehouses in the
eastern districts may be visited; after which the principal public buildings may
be more minutely examined, and the best of the exhibitions seen. In the evenings
the Theatres, Concert-rooms, Lecture- halls, and other places of amusement may
be visited; and, if time permit, flying trips may be made to the outlying
districts, or short excursions made into the country around the metropolis. For
it must be remembered that London is a vast city in a garden-not as some
suppose, a mere confused collection of bricks and mortar, without trees and
flowers, and wide open spaces. Beside the squares, and terraces, and rows, and
crescents, which, in different parts of the town, look fresh and green, in due
season, with full-leaved trees and many-hued flowers, the visitor has only to
mount the roof of any omnibus going towards the suburbs, and in less than an
hour he will not only have got away from the crowded streets, but he will have
entered upon wide roads bordered with elms, and limes, and chestnuts, and
planes, and various kinds of trees, behind which lie the villas, mansions, and
pretty houses. in which reside the wealthy among London's middle classes, and he
will presently find himself in the midst of as pure an atmosphere and as rural
and pleasant a scene as can be found in any town of England. Strangers,
especially foreigners, come to London, and expect to find all gloomy, and close,
and wretched - a perpetual fog in the streets in the winter, and a mass of smoky
clouds hanging over the houses in summer. Of course this is a great
exaggeration. If, when the visitor has arrived at the end of his omnibus
journey, he choose to walk out into the green lanes and fields, he will find as
lovely spots as can well be imagined near a great city. It is simply the immense
size of London that prevents people properly appreciating its wonderful variety.
Indeed, there are in the metropolis hundreds and thousands of people who know
less of its attractions and general aspect than the visitor of a week. How many
busy people may you meet who confess to never having been inside St. Paul's the
National Gallery, or the British Museum, much less having looked at the city
from the top of the Monument, or gazed at the beautiful panorama of park and
garden, and palace, and square, and street from the summit of the Duke of York's
Column in Waterloo-place.
The most picturesque suburbs, either west, east, north, or
south, may be reached by rail, omnibus, or tramway car from any part of the City
in an hour. Of course we do not pretend that London has not its squalid quarters
- its dens of poverty and its sinks of iniquity, its horrible lanes and
fever-haunted courts, its close, unhealthy streets, and its dark, wretched
bye-ways, its misery-filled alleys and its sinful slums, where the ginshop and
the pawnbroker's stand side by side; its Whitechapel and its St. Giles, where
thieves and costermongers herd with debased women, whose most familiar word is
an oath, and children whose earliest education has been picked up in the streets
; and its hundreds of squalid lurking-places, known only to their wretched,
degraded inhabitants, and to city missionaries, Scripture-readers, parish
doctors, hardly-worked clergymen, policemen, and a very few energetic
philanthropists. Of course, it is not pretended that London is all fair to look
upon and bright with cleanliness and godliness; but it is fairer and cleaner
than it was even a quarter of a century ago, and it is becoming fairer and
cleaner every day! Philanthropy, and active business influence, and bold public
writing have not been idle during a long period. Striving in like directions,
legislators and the press have awakened inquiry; inquiry has elicited many
important facts, the publication of which has encouraged discussion and
stimulated effort, and the result has been that the aspect of the streets has
been improved, that new buildings have not been allowed to be erected without
proper supervision, that foul and crowded neighbourhoods have been cleared of
their ruin and rottenness, that light and ventilation and drainage have been
introduced into poor quarters, that model lodging-houses and reforrnatories and
soup-kitchens and refuges for the destitute have sprung up in neglected corners
of moral wildernesses, and that Drinking fountains, and Parks, and Gardens, and
pleasant places have been placed within reach of the labourer and the sempstress.
Why, even the densest neighbourhoods of Spitalfields and Bethnal-green have been
opened and improved, and brought within the cognizance of educated sympathy and
active help. Victoria-park is scarcely a mile from the poverty of Whitechapel
and Waterloo-town; Kennington-park is almost within sight of the vice of
Walworth's back-slums, and Battersea-park is only an easy walk from the crowded
potteries and close streets of Lambeth.
But should the stranger ask, "Where do the people
live?" he has only to glance at his map and run his finger along the
outskirts of the city, and within two or three miles of its ancient walls; on
the east, north, and south, he will find the suburbs of Mile End and Stepney,
Ratcliff and Limehouse, Hoxton, Hackney, and Islington; Bermondsey, Newington,
and Walworth, Lambeth, Kennington and Battersea; while close to the airy quarter
of St. John's-Wood, on the north-west, he will find Camden, Kentish, Somers, and
Agar-towns - the Regent's. park between ; and beyond, but farther west, he will
come upon Paddington. In all these districts there are enough large, good,
substantial houses, with gardens in front and behind, to give a character of
well-to-do respectability to the neighbourhoods; while if he goes still farther,
in either direction he wi1l discover noble roomy dwellings, which in Italy would
be called "palaces," and in France "hotels". Here, however,
they are simply known as "villas," detached. or semi-detached, as the
case may be, but always with trees and gardens about them, and generally having
porticoes and Venetian windows towards the road, and stables and conservatories
in the rear. Houses of this description will be found in Stratford, Woodford,
and Leytonstone on the east; Greenwich, Lewisham, Sydenham, Norwood, Brixton,
Clapham, Dulwich, Croydon, Tooting, and Mitcham on the south; Richmond,
Twickenham, Hampton, Hounslow, Brentford, Eating, Acton, and Sun- bury on the
west; and Finchley, Hornsey, Tottenham, Edmonton, and Enfield on the north.
The purely manufacturing
parts of London lie between the city and the suburbs - a sort of debateable
land that is neither city nor suburb. Clerkenwell is the chief seat of the
watchmaking and jewellery trades; Spitalfields and Bethnal-green are the
long-established homes of the silk and velvet weavers; most of the
cabinet-makers and carvers are located about St. Luke's, Old Street-road, and
Aldersgate-street; thee iron-founders and anchor-smiths, together with the
shipwrights, riggers, and boiler-makers, are to be found in Millwall, Poplar,
Millwall, and the Isle of Dogs; the sugar bakers and refiners, most of them,
carry on their businesses in the neighbourhoods of Whitechapel and
Commercial-road; the tanners, parchment makers, and skin dressers in Bermondsey;
the potters and glass makers in Lambeth; the tailors principally about
Golden-square and Burlington-Gardens; the working boot and shoemakers in and
about Shoreditch, and also in the courts and narrow streets near Drury-lane ;
the producers of plaster casts and images in Leather-lane, Holborn, and the
surrounding courts ; the hatters principally in Southwark; the paper-makers
chiefly in Surrey, on the banks of the Wandle ; the chemical manufacturers at
Stratford, on the banks of the Lea; the carriage builders in and about Long-acre
; the boat-builders at Lambeth and Chelsea the toymakers and doll-dressers at
Hoxton, and the brewers everywhere! Among the non-manufacturing classes: authors,
journalists, publishers, &c., mostly incline to the new suburbs; artists and
engravers to Kensington and Camden-town; musicians, singers, actors, and dancers
to Old Brompton and Pentonville; physicians and surgeons to Savile-row,
Brook-street, and Finsbury; lawyers to Bedford-row, Guilford-street, and the
" Inns of Court;" printers to Fleet-street and the Strand; medical
students to Southwark; costermongers to Whitechapel, the New Cut, Lambeth, and
Somers-town; members of Parliament and diplomatists to Westminster and
Belgravia. "City men," such as stockbrokers, merchants, and commercial
agents, affect Tyburnia, Bayswater, Haverstock-hill, Brixton, and Clapham;
commercial clerks seem fond of Islington, Highgate, Notting-hill, Hackney, and
Kingsland; bill discounters favour the Adelphi and the streets running from the
Strand to the river; professional thieves throng the small streets between
Walworth and the Old Kent-road; and "pretty horsebreakers" have taken
up their abodes in large numbers in the rural parts of Lower Brompton and the
nice houses between Sloane-street and the Horticultural Gardens at South
Kensington.
The contrast between the rich and fashionable West End and
the poor and unknown East, is very well made by a late writer "One of the
most extraordinary and rapid changes of condition is that experienced by the
traveller who journeys from the western to the eastern extremity of the
metropolis in the height of the brilliant London season. He starts from South
Kensington. He passes rows and rows of palaces. The open windows are full of
flowers. There is such store of perfume in them that they are reckless, and,
besides making the rooms within delicious, scatter largesse of rich scent to the
passer-by; sun-blinds gaily striped are drawn down, but still through the laced
curtains glimpses may be seen of splendid decoration in the interior of the
house ; something may be observed, too, through the open door, for the servants
have discovered that it is of no use shutting it, the callers being so frequent.
So they stand in groups in the hall and on the threshold. The small broughams
drawn by ponies, the barouches in which ladies recline at their ease, and all
sorts of other equipages, flash about this wonderful neighbourhood with a swift
precision which does equal credit to the hand and the eye of the driver. The
diplomatist jogs by on a quiet ugly horse, which costs far less than the fiery
animal bestridden by the groom behind. The diplomatist sits very far back in his
saddle, does not rise in his stirrups, rides with a loose rein and a scat to
match, and would certainly tumble off if his horse were to shy. From the great
high-mounted chariot with the armorial panels, with the two footmen behind, and
the inevitable old lady with a wig inside, to the buggy drawn by a highs-stepper
and driven by a minor wit expectations, all is brilliant and imposing. Even the
Hansom cabs that frequent these regions have a brighter look than other Hansom
cabs, and affect tartan panels and varnish, after a singular and vainglorious
sort. Nor heave we done with the different kinds of vehicles even yet, for,
about this neighbourhood, ladies will drive themselves in little basket
carriages ; while the curricle and the fogy are not unknown. Is it a fashionable
watering-place or a brilliant capital? Are care, illness, sorrow, death, known
in such a place? Who are all these people, and how are all these palaces
maintained? Where do the inhabitants-where does the money-come from?
Bright awnings quivering in the summer breeze, echoes of gay
voices, rollings of light wheels, quick stepping of untamed horses, distant
echoings of military bands - pleasure, luxury, extravagance, have it all their
own way here, and a jovial way it is.
But the sun which brings out the perfumes of Belgravian
flower vases, glances on the striped awnings, twinkles on the silvered harness,
casts bright gleams here, and broad and luminous shadows there-this same sun has
en another neighbourhood other and dirtier work to do. In a certain other region
of this town it has to illuminate streets and lanes so narrow and so tortuous,
that it is a wonder its straight beams can ever get to the ground.
Of a certainty he who passes swiftly from the one
neighbourhood to the other may fairly ask himself whether he be still in the
same world, instead of the same town.
How terrible the change. The sights and sounds how cruelly
different. The awnings here are represented by some streaming scrap of rag
drying at a window, or by the patched umbrella at the street stall. The flowers
arc the morsels of vegetables cast out as too bad for even Shoreditch nutriment.
The carriages are costermongers' trucks; for music here are the cries of
suffering children, or curses and vituperation - with which the echoes are
charged night and day. Are these slouching, sulky, distorted creatures, who lurk
and lour along the sordid thoroughfares, the same animals as the gallants of the
other part of the town, the men of upright carriage and free and open looks,
cantering in Rotten-row, or lounging in faultless clothes at the entrance to
that luxurious place? Are the ladies who lie back in their open carriages, as if
their sofas were put upon wheels, or who rein with powerful curb their hardly
restrained horses, flesh and blood like to the masculine and bony hags who
scream at their children as they drag them from the gutter, and provoke their
husbands to increased wrath as they stagger from the public-houses?
Yet it does not take an hour to get from the sight of the
first condition to the sight of the second. At one o clock in the afternoon you
may be listening to pleasant and prosperous sounds, inhaling sweet odours, and
seeing around you only suggestions of wealth and happiness; and at two you may
plant yourself before a rag and bone shop, with a print in the window of Justice
tightly bandaged, weighing a pound of dripping in her scales, and giving the
highest price for it compatible with a reasonable profit. In less than one short
hour, you can pass into the regions of intensest squalor, where every sense is
offended, just as in the other neighbourhood every one of the five senses was
comforted and pleased.
Is this great contrast one to which many persons subject
themselves? Are there those who, of their own free will, pass from the first
scene to the second? Nay, are there those whose lot is cast in the pleasant
land, and who leave it to go into the land of pain and horror ? There are those
who make the pilgrimage - who make it from choice, who cannot enjoy their own
comforts while they know of such unutterable misery - who start on a great
mission from the west to the east, and who come back, leaving behind them goodly
work accomplished.
And then the writer goes on to describe some of the
improvements we have mentioned as having been effected in neighbourhoods where
poverty most does congregate. In this particular case he adduces
Columbia-square, a block of houses in Bethnal-green, founded and erected at the
expense of that most benevolent and philanthropic lady, Miss Burdett Coutts.
The ranges of dwelling houses for the poor, which have been
built by the trustees of the Peabody Fund, the princely gift of an eminent
American merchant in London, are, in the main, of similar design to the block in
Columbia-square. Mr. Peabody died in November, 1869. The stranger who would
really see London as it is, must not content himself with gazing on its fairer
aspects. He must go into the districts where the poor reside before he can
obtain an adequate notion of the variety and immensity of the metropolis.
Routledge's Popular Guide to London, [c.1873]
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Sight-Seeing,?Sight-seeing in the opinion of many experienced travellers, is best avoided altogether. It may well be, however, that this will be held to be a matter of opinion, and that sight-seeing will continue to flourish until the arrival of that traveller of Lord Macaulay?s, who has found his way into so many books and newspapers, but whose nationality shall not be hinted at here. One piece of advice to the intending sight-seer is at all events sound. Never go to see anything by yourself. If the show be a good one, you will enjoy yourself all the more in company; and the solitary contemplation of anything that is dull and tedious is one of the most depressing experiences of human life. Furthermore, an excellent principle?said to be of American origin?is never to enquire how far you may go, but to go straight on until you are told to stop. The enterprising sight-seer who proceeds on this plan, and who understands the virtues of ?palm oil,? is sure to see everything he cares to see.
Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879
GREAT INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENTS.
STRANGERS interested in industrial operations would, if properly introduced,
have no difficulty in obtaining permission to inspect some of the great
engineering works, such as Maudsley and Field's in Westminster Road, Lambeth, or
some of those at Millwall. The manufacture of gas on a large scale, as conducted
by some of the great companies, is also an interesting sight. The great drainage
works, lately completed by the Metropolitan Board of Works, may be seen by
application to the chief clerk, at the office in Spring Gardens, who should be
asked which, for the time being, is the most available point to visit. The
printing establishment of the Times newspaper, in Printing-House Square,
Blackfriars, is highly deserving of a visit, and may be seen by ticket obtained
from the printer. Messrs. Clowes' printing office in Stamford Street,
Blackfriars, is one of the largest in London, and may be inspected by an order
obtained from the proprietors. Then there are the great BREWERIES, so remarkable
for the vast amount of their operations. Taking the twelve largest concerns, the
annual consumption of malt ranges from 15,000 quarters to 200,000. The
establishments of Messrs. Barclay, Perkins, & Co., Park Street, Southwark,
and Messrs. Hanbury, Buxton, & Co., Bricklane, Spitalfields, are larger than
the others. By procuring a letter of introduction to either firm, there will be
no difficulty in obtaining permission to view the brewery. Barclay's covers
about 12 acres of ground. Steam-engines are employed to work the machinery. The
water is obtained from an artesian welt 367 feet in depth. The brewhouses, the
cooling-floors, the fermenting "squares," the storehouses with their
tuns, are on a gigantic scale. One vat holds about 3500 barrels, the value of
the porter being about ?9000. The homes, of which there are upwards of 200
employed, are large and handsome, and will be often noticed in the streets
pulling drays. They are chiefly Flemish, and cost from ?50 to ?80 each. This
brewery, in a much less developed state than at present, belonged to Thrale, Dr.
Johnson's Streatham friend. On his death, it was sold to t descendant of
Barclay, the author of the well-known "Apology for the Quakers."
Perkins, his partner, was a clerk in the establishment, and the descendants of
these two gentlemen are at this day possessed of the property. The brewery is
thought to cover the site of the Globe Theatre, Bankside, with which Shakspere
was connected.
In Haydon Square, Minories, is the ale depot of Messrs
Allsopp of Burton, covering 20,000 square feet. Another vast manufacture is that
of candles, as conducted by Price's Patent Candle Company. These are amongst the
most interesting manufacturing establishments in the metropolis. The company has
works both at Belmont, Vauxhall, and at Battersea. At the latter place the works
cover 11 acres; the capital invested in apparatus and machinery is ?200,000,
and 800 persons are employed, although machinery is used as much as possible.
For permission to inspect the works apply by letter to the managing director.
The stranger in London will also do well to see Byrant and
May's match works at Bow; the railway works at Stratford; the cabinetmakers'
shops in and about Shoreditch; the sugar brokers' in Commercial Road,
Whitechapel; the Sunday clothes market in Petticoat Lane, Aldgate; the Saturday
night market in the New Cut; the pianoforte rnanufactory of Messrs. Broadwood,
in Soho; the billiard-table factory of Messrs. Thurstons, in Catherine Street,
Strand; the hatters' shops in Lambeth; the tanneries in Bermondsey; the
shipwrights in the Isle of Dogs; the silk- weavers in Spitalfields ; the
jewellers' workshops in Clerkenwell; the plaster image works in Saffron Hill;
the potters in Lambeth; the carriage-builders in Long Acre; the toy and doll
makers at Hoxton; the chemical works on the banks of the Lea ; the paper-makers
on the Wandle ; the iron-founders and anchor-smiths at Millwall; and the
boat-builders at Chelsea.
Black's Guide to London and Its Environs, (8th ed.) 1882