Anonymous

“ The Midland Railway has a magnificent terminus in the Euston Road, and a junction with the Metropolitan line. It has already more than 800 miles open.
Great Northern Railway has its terminus at King’s Cross—a building more remarkable for novelty than for beauty. This company, a severe competitor to some of older date, has few stations near London; but the directness of the line of railway renders it important as an outlet to the north. A good hotel is contiguous to the terminus. The goods’ depôt has become famous for the vast quantity of coal brought to the metropolis. ”

“ City Companies.—In nothing is the past history of the metropolis, the memory of Old London, kept alive in a more remarkable way than by the City Companies, or Trading Guilds, which are still very numerous. All were established with a good purpose, and all rendered service in their day; but at the present time few have any important duties to fulfil. The age for such things is nearly past; but the companies have revenues which none but themselves can touch; and out of these revenues many excellent charities are supported. ”

“ Within this paved space rows of shops are conveniently arranged for the display of the choicest fruits of the season: the productions of the forcing-house, and the results of horticultural skill, appear in all their beauty. There are also conservatories, in which every beauty of the flower-garden may be obtained, from the rare exotic to the simplest native flower. The Floral Hall, close to Covent Garden Opera House, has an entrance from the north-east corner of the market, to which it is a sort of appendage as a Flower Market. ”

“ The London and Westminster, the London Joint-Stock, the Union, the City, the Australian, and numerous other Companies, have two or more establishments each, some as many as half-a-dozen—the head bank always being in the busy centre of trade, the ‘City.’ Some of these are elegant structures; and all are planned with great skill in reference to interior arrangements. The private bankers, such as Glyn, Barclays, Lubbocks, Coutts, &c., rival the companies in the architectural character of their banks; and some of their establishments, such as Child’s, near Temple Bar, are curious old places. ”

“ The almost universal defect of the older class of hotels in London is, that they are too often private dwellings extemporized for purposes of public accommodation—not buildings erected with the distinct object for which they are used. Hence the London hotels, generally, are confined and awkward in their arrangements—a huddle of apartments on different levels, narrow passages, and the offensive odour of cookery being common. Rarely is there anything to parallel the larger hotels of New York, or the Hotel du Louvre at Paris. ”

“ It is obviously out of our power, in our limited space, to do anything more than give the reader a mere rough notion of the good to be done and the difficulties to be overcome. The plan was to construct some 70 odd miles of gigantic sewers on either side of the Thames. The north side of the river has three different lines of sewers, which meet at the river Lea, and thereafter go along, in one huge embankment, to Barking Creek, on the Thames, 14 miles below London Bridge. With certain differences, the sewage of the south side of the Thames is amenable to the same kind of treatment. ”

“ North and South-Western Junction Railway is, perhaps, valuable rather as a link between the greater railways, than as an independent line. It joins the North London at Camden Town, and the South-Western at Kew; and has stations at Kentish Town, Hampstead, Finchley New Road, Edgeware Road, Kensal Green, Acton, and Hammersmith. It establishes through trains with other companies; and although it has no actual London terminus of its own, it is a great convenience to the western margin of the metropolis, for the fares are low. ”

“ The terraces, stone balustrades, wide steps, and sculptures, are all on a very grand scale. The fountains are perhaps the finest in the world, some of them sending up magnificent streams of water to a great height, and some displaying thousands of minute glittering jets interlacing in the most graceful manner. ”

“ The growth of London to its present enormous size may readily be accounted for, when we reflect that for ages it has been the capital of England, and the seat of her court and legislature; that since the union with Scotland and Ireland, it has become a centre for those two countries; and that, being the resort of the nobility, landed gentry, and other families of opulence, it has drawn a vast increase of population to minister to the tastes and wants of those classes ”

“ West London Railway (now better known as the West London Extension Railway) can hardly be said to have an independent commercial existence. It was an old and unsuccessful affair, till taken up by four of the great companies, and enlarged in an important way. It now includes a railway bridge over the Thames at Battersea; it is connected with the London and North-Western, the Great Western, and the Metropolitan, on the north, and with the South-Western, the Brighton, and the Chatham and Dover, on the south. There are stations at Kensington, Chelsea, and Battersea. ”

“ If the stranger pleases to pay the required fees, he may mount, by means of stairs and ladders, to the top of the dome; and he will be amply repaid by the extensive view from the balcony or gallery, which comprehends the whole of London, with the country beyond its outskirts, and the Thames rolling placidly in its winding course between dense masses of houses. The Whispering Gallery, at the bottom of the inner dome, renders audible the slightest whisper from side to side. The Library contains chiefly ecclesiastical works for the use of the Chapter. ”

“ Outside the sub-way are ordinary house vaults of two or three storeys high, according to the height of the Viaduct. These are divided by transverse walls; and, when houses are built against it, the Holborn Valley Viaduct will be shut out from sight, except in the case of the simple iron girder bridge over Shoe Lane, and the London, Chatham, and Dover bridge, with its sub-ways for gas and water pipes, and the fine bridge over Farringdon Street. You will, we trust, now see how marvellously every yard of space has been utilized by the engineer, from the roadway down to the very foundations. ”

“ Cardinal Wiseman lies interred in the Catholic Cemetery adjacent to Kensal Green. The Great Northern Cemetery, near Colney Hatch, lately opened, has special railway facilities from the King’s Cross Station. The Woking Necropolis, in Surrey, is too far distant to be included within London; nevertheless, the admirable railway arrangements, from a station of the South-Western, in the Westminster Road, make it, in effect, one of the metropolitan cemeteries. If the old burial-grounds are no longer attended to for funerals, many of them are deeply interesting for their memorials of the past. ”

“ As he enters this new line of route, he will perceive that the buildings assume a more important aspect. They are for the most part stucco-fronted, and being frequently re-painted, they have a light and cheerful appearance. In the Haymarket are Her Majesty’s Theatre and the Haymarket Theatre; and near at hand are many club-houses and Exhibition-rooms. Pall Mall displays a range of stone-fronted club-houses of great magnificence. At the foot of Regent Street is the short broad thoroughfare of Waterloo Place, lined with noble houses, and leading southwards to St. James’s Park. ”

“ The south side is occupied by a row of brick dwellings. Within the square thus enclosed fruit and vegetables of the best quality are exposed for sale. A large paved space surrounding the interior square is occupied by the market-gardeners, who, as early as four or five in the morning, have carted the produce of their grounds, and wait to dispose of it to dealers in fruit and vegetables residing in different parts of London; any remainder is sold to persons who have standings in the market, and they retail it to such individuals as choose to attend to purchase in smaller quantities. ”

“ One attractive part of the establishment is the Painted Hall, in the west wing. It consists of a great room and one smaller, a vestibule, and a flight of steps. The appearance of the whole interior, on entering, is very imposing, the ceiling and one end being covered with paintings; and although these paintings, exhibiting a mixture of fantastic heathen gods and goddesses with royal and other portraits, are not in judicious taste, they serve to give a good general effect to the noble apartment. ”

“ Sergeant’s Inn, Chancery Lane, is what its name denotes—the Inn of the sergeants-at-law. Sergeants Inn, Fleet Street, is let out in chambers to barristers, solicitors, and the general public. The last remark applies to the other small Inns of Chancery in and about Holborn and Fleet Street.
Till the new Law Courts are erected in Central Strand, London has no Courts of Law well built or convenient. The Westminster Courts are little better than wooden sheds. So are the Lincoln’s Inn Courts. But they still are worth a visit. ”

“ A route stretching somewhat north-east—Whitechapel and Mile End Roads—connects the metropolis with Essex. It is a matter of general complaint that there are so few great channels of communication through London both lengthwise and crosswise; for the inferior streets, independently of their complex bearings, are much too narrow for regular traffic. ”

“ The carriage-way, for the present, has only been gravelled and macadamized. The reason is, that in newly-made rotten earth its sinking down must be allowed for, for some time, ere it can all be paved, like London Bridge, with “granite pitching.” Four regular approaches into the Strand—by way of Villiers, Norfolk, Surrey, and Arundel Streets—have been made; and there are three other ways which go from Westminster, Whitehall, and Blackfriars; another is in progress from Charing Cross. ”

“ The chief place of interest at Chelsea is the Hospital for retired invalid soldiers, an institution similar to the asylum for old seamen at Greenwich. The hospital, which is situated on a flat stretch of ground bordering the Thames, and was p. 144planned by Sir Christopher Wren, consists chiefly of one large edifice of red brick, several stories in height, forming a centre and two wings, or three sides of a square, with the open side towards the bank of the Thames. On the north, in which is the main entrance, the style of architecture is simple, being ornamented with only a plain portico. ”

“ As the Post Office London Directory says, new trades are being added to the list every year. Thus, we are told, 57 new trades were so added in the year 1870. But to specify a few, there are, say, about 130,000 shopkeepers, or owners of commercial establishments, who carry on more than 2,500 different trades. Loss of much of London’s shipping trade, &c., has indeed driven hundreds of emigrants of late from our east-end waterside neighbourhoods. But London has gone on growing all the same, and trade with it. ”

“ In asking for information, apply to shopkeepers, or to policemen, rather than to passers-by.
The London police are, for the most part, reliable men; and strangers in any doubt or difficulty can generally obtain useful aid from them.
Be on your guard against pickpockets in crowds, street exhibitions, and omnibuses.
Beware of strangers who endeavour to force their acquaintance on you, and affect to be unacquainted with London; they are often low sharpers. ”

“ Many of the courts, about a dozen in number, branching out of Fleet Street on the north and south, are so narrow that a stranger would miss them unless on the alert. Child’s Banking House, the oldest in London, is at the western extremity of Fleet Street, on the south side, and also occupies the room over the arch of Temple Bar. ”

“ The houses belonging to these clubs respectively are among the finest at the West-end of London, and may easily be distinguished in and about Pall Mall, St. James’s Street, and Waterloo Place. No member sleeps at his club; the accommodation extends to furnishing all kinds of refreshments, the use of a library, and an ample supply of newspapers and periodicals in the reading-room. The real object of these institutions is to furnish a place of resort for a select number of gentlemen, on what are really moderate terms. ”

“ Railways.—If omnibuses and cabs are more important than railways to strangers while in London, railways are obviously the most important of the three when coming to or departing from London. The following are a few particulars concerning such railways as enter the metropolis.
London and North-Western Railway has its terminus just behind Euston Square. The noble portico in front—by far the finest thing of the kind connected with railway architecture—has been rendered ridiculous by the alterations in the buildings behind it ”

“ More than 1000 vehicles per hour pass through this street in the business period of an average day, besides foot-passengers! To ease the traffic in Cheapside, a spacious new thoroughfare, New Cannon Street, has been opened, from near London Bridge westward to St. Paul’s Churchyard. The third main line of route is not so much thronged, nor so interesting to strangers. It may be considered as beginning at the Bank, and passing through the City Road and the New Road to Paddington and Westbourne. ”

“ It is the finest live stock market in the kingdom. The present Smithfield Market, near the Holborn Viaduct, for dead meat and poultry, is a splendid building, 625 feet p. 111long, 240 feet wide, and 30 feet high. Wide roads on its north, east, and west sides, accommodate its special traffic. A carriage road runs right through it from north to south, with spacious and well ventilating avenues radiating from it. There are in this market no less than 100,000 feet of available space. ”

“ Westminster Abbey is a collegiate church, with a dean and chapter, who possess a considerable authority over the adjoining district, and a revenue of about £30,000 per annum. The abbey may be considered as sub-divided into chapels; but in the present day divine service (at 7.45,10, and 3) is performed only in a large enclosed space near the eastern extremity of the building—except on Sunday evenings during a portion of the year, when service is performed in the nave, in a similar way to the Sunday evening services under the dome of St. Paul’s. ”

“ At a point a short way up we cross Piccadilly, and enter a curve in the thoroughfare, called the Quadrant; at the corners of which, and also in Upper Regent Street, are some of the p. 31most splendid shops in London, several being decorated in a style of great magnificence. Regent Street, during the busy season in May and June, and during the day from one till six o’clock, exhibits an extraordinary concourse of fashionable vehicles and foot-passengers; while groups of carriages are drawn up at the doors of the more elegant shops. Towards its upper extremity Regent Street crosses Oxford Street. ”

“ A screen, surmounted by a noble organ, divides the nave from the choir; while beyond the eye soars, amid graceful columns, tracery, and decorated windows, to the summit of the eastern arch that overlooks the adjacent chapels. The walls on both sides display a great profusion of sepulchral monuments, among which are some finely executed pieces of sculpture, and touching memorials of those whose exploits or exertions have deserved the notice of posterity; but too many, unfortunately, are in very bad taste. Above the line of tombs are chambers and galleries, once occupied by ecclesiastics ”