Marylebone Road

“ If, instead of the Strand and Piccadilly route, or the Holborn and Oxford Street route, a visitor takes the northernmost main route, he will find less to interest him. The New Road, in its several parts of City Road, Pentonville Road, Euston Road, and Marylebone Road, forms a broad line of communication from the city to Paddington, four miles in length. Though very important as one of the arteries of the metropolis, it is singularly deficient in public buildings. ”

“ There are hospitals for special diseases everywhere, besides large institutions which have acquired more than Metropolitan fame.
The ancient Tyburn stream ran right through this district. It rose not far from Swiss Cottage, and ran for a few hundred yards through Regent's Park, across the road at Sussex Place, between Gloucester Place and Baker Street, across the Marylebone Road, then, turning westward under Madame Tussaud's, by South Street to the foot of High Street, passing along close to Mandeville Place, it crossed Wigmore Street and so reached Oxford Street. ”

“ The Western Ophthalmic Hospital, a gloomy-looking stuccoed building, is near at hand. This was founded in 1856.
The small streets leading from the Marylebone Road into York and Crawford Streets are poor in character. In the north of Seymour Place is a small Primitive Methodist chapel, erected in 1875. York Street, in spite of being a little wider, is not much better than its neighbours. In Wyndham Place is the Church of St. Mary's, Bryanston Square, in the style of Grecian architecture so much affected in this parish. The architect was R. Smirke. ”

“ John, Tyburn, that had stood from time immemorial beside the banks of the Tye Bourne, between the Oxford Street end of what are now Marylebone Lane and Stratford Place, was situated [Pg 160] in a very lonely, yet exposed situation, on the great road from the City of London to the west. The village centred about where High Street, Marylebone, is now to be found, and the church and the village pound stood apart. So often was this original place of worship broken into and desecrated by thieves and vagabonds that it became at last necessary to remove it altogether. ”

“ This part of Marylebone, to the north of Regent's Park, has a High Street of its own—a wide street with comparatively low buildings. The vista, on looking back from the top to the trees of the burial-ground and Regent's Park, is not unattractive. The shops which line either side of the road, though small, are clean and bright. St. John's Wood Terrace is a very wide thoroughfare. In it stands St. John's Wood Church, chiefly distinguished by a very heavy portico. The church is at present used by the Congregationalists, and was formerly known as Connaught Chapel. ”

“ They pass through Bayswater or South Kensington on the way to Mayfair, Belgravia, and Marylebone; they are already well-to-do, and intend to be better-to-do; in those places they associate with the people who, once upon a time, were very well-to-do and are now less so; those districts are social junctions. But everywhere the boarding-house is gaining ground, and nowhere does one see this so well as in Cromwell Road. Cromwell Road is a remarkable street; its length has, on a warm and hazy day, a quality of eternity. It seems to have no beginning, no end ”

“ A stream somewhat similar in course was the Tyburn, which also rose at Hampstead, but flowed through the parish of Marylebone, the ancient Tyburnia. This was considerably to the east of Paddington, and has been treated in the Marylebone section. Oxford Street was the ancient Tyburn Road, and the gallows stood opposite the Marble Arch. [Pg 89]
In Rocque's map (1748) only the Westbourne is marked, but we see Tyburn Turnpike at the junction of the Edgware Road, and near by "the stone where soldiers are shot." ”

“ The Regent's Park was close by, it is true, and thither she was accustomed to go for a walk on Sundays, except when one or other of her new acquaintances in the shop, living with her own people, invited her to dinner or tea. But on weekdays, especially in winter, when the streets were sloppy, and the atmosphere grey and damp, there was no inducement to take her out. In such conditions Marylebone is as depressing a district as any in London. The streets have a dull monotonous appearance, and the ancient unvenerable houses are grimy to blackness with the accumulation of soot on them. ”

“ The Irish industrial exhibition of 1853 by J. Sproule (1854) ix-xiv, portrait; Irish tourist’s illustrated handbook (1853) pp. 12, 41, 148, portrait.
DARK, James Henry. b. Edgware road, London 24 May 1795; professional at Lord’s cricket ground, Marylebone 1809–36; umpire in many great matches; purchased remainder of lease of the ground from Wm. Ward 1836, proprietor and manager of the ground 1836 to 1864 when he sold the 291⁄2 years remainder of the lease to Marylebone club for £12,500; built a house 31 St. ”

“ At this time houses in High Street, Marylebone, particularly on the western side, continued to be inhabited by families who kept their coaches, and who considered themselves as living in the country, and perhaps their family affairs were as well known as they could have been had they resided at Kilburn. [70] In Marylebone, great and [40] wealthy people of former days could hardly stir an inch without being noticed; indeed, so lately as the year 1728, the Daily Journal assured the public that “many persons arrived in London from their country-houses in Marylebone” ”

“ The river Fleet rose by Highgate Ponds, and meandered through St. Pancras to11 King’s Cross, where is “Battle Bridge;” thence its course skirted the western side of Clerkenwell, and, flowing at the foot of Saffron Hill, Snow Hill, Holborn Hill, and Ludgate Hill, reached the Thames at Blackfriars.
Farther west was Tybourne, which rose at Hampstead and flowed through what is now the ornamental water in the Regent’s Park. Then becoming locally known as the Marybourne, its name was associated with the village of Marylebone ”

“ You are beginning to hear something of what Miss Hill has done in Marylebone, and of the change brought about by her energy and good sense in the centre of one of the worst districts of London. It is difficult enough, I admit, to find a woman of average sense and tenderness enough to be able for such work ”

“ As we got outside Maryborough into the open country, its appearance struck me very much. It was the first time I had been amongst the gum-trees, which grow so freely in all the southern parts of Australia.
For a short distance out of the town the road was a made one, passing through some old workings, shown by the big holes and heaps of gravel that lay about. Further on, it became a mere hardened track, through amongst trees and bushes, each driver choosing his own track. As soon as one becomes the worse for wear, and the ruts in it are worn too deep, a new one is [Pg 83] selected. ”

“ When the spring stirs my blood
⁠With the instinct to travel,
⁠I can get enough gravel
On the Old Marlborough Road.
⁠Nobody repairs it,
⁠For nobody wears it;
⁠It is a living way,
⁠As the Christians say. ”

“ At length the order came to move, and the head of our column started for the street that led to Marye’s Hill. Turning into it we advanced rapidly. My recollection is, that as the road leaves the city, it makes a slight curve, and as we came to that spot the whole view was opened up to us. I know the road was littered with some dead, and cast off blankets and knapsacks. For a ways the road slightly descends, and then you come to a considerable stream of some sort, it may be a waste weir, from the Falmouth dam. ”

“ The gardens were originally those belonging to the old Marylebone Manor House, [92] and were detached from it in 1650. There were several bowling-greens in the immediate vicinity, the principal of which was a green appurtenant to the Rose, and situated in the gardens [94] behind this tavern. In 1659 the gardens of the Rose, the nucleus of the later Marylebone Gardens, consisted of gravel walks, a circular walk, and the bowling-green which formed the central square. ”

“ For a number of years the Baltimore and Ohio Railway—the heir and assign of Braddock’s Road and the famed Cumberland Road—was the great avenue of western movement and progress. But brain and muscle, even genius, cannot make two miles one mile. The shortest route across the continent was, inevitably, to become the important highway. It must be remembered that in the early days Philadelphia was the metropolis of America, and Baltimore its chief rival. ”

“ The tavern (still bearing the old name) was subsequently taken by Sam Collins (Samuel Vagg) , the popular Irish vocalist, who converted its concert-room into a regular music hall, The Marylebone, which he carried on till 1861, when he parted with his interest to Mr. W. Botting. The present Marylebone Music Hall (with the public bar attached to it) fronts the High Street, and standing on the site of the old Rose of Normandy, from which the Marybone Gardens were entered, may claim, in a measure, to be evolved from that once famous pleasure resort. ”

“ Though certain famous people inhabit Marloes Road, no street could well be less fashionable than this thoroughfare, which is very arid and very long, and a very long way off the centre of the universe.
"The Azure Society, you know!" Edward Henry added, when he had given the exact address to the chauffeur of the taxi. ”

“ An old city, growing by the coalescence of numerous ancestor villages, the irregular and discontinuous street plan of Baltimore is the despair of the stranger and the daily inconvenience of its own citizens. The city lies in the path of one of the heaviest highway-traffic streams in the country, and by millions of travelers who have moved with that stream the difficulties of the Baltimore passage are well remembered.
The close block plan and narrow streets of the older sections of the city are chiefly an inheritance from the early nineteenth century. ”

“ In the neighbourhood of the Marylebone Gardens were a few much humbler places of entertainment, standing in what in the last century was a rural district; the Queen’s Head and Artichoke, the Jew’s Harp house and, farther west, the Yorkshire Stingo. ”

“ Yes, our roads are pretty straight but you'll like that when you get used to it, because then you can't get lost. There's a road every mile and each road goes just the way it by rights ought to go because there aren't any hills to get in the way." And all the while Grandfather was talking, he was driving the car along the straight road just as fast as could be.
"And aren't there any hills before we get to your house?" asked Mary Jane after a while. ”

“ From every narrow lane opening out on Marlborough Street came up a low distant roar, as of myriads of fierce indignant voices. The inhabitants of each poor squalid dwelling were gathered round the doors and windows, if indeed they were not actually standing in the middle of the narrow ways—all with looks intent towards one point. Marlborough Street itself was the focus of all those human eyes, that betrayed intensest interest of various kinds; some fierce with anger, some lowering with relentless threats! ”

“ THE FOUR ROADS PART I: TOM 1 FOUR roads in Sussex mark out a patch of country that from the wooded, sea-viewing hills behind Dallington slips down over fields and ponds and spinneys to the marshes of Hailsham and Horse Eye. The North Road, slatting the heights with its pale, hard streak, runs from far Rye to further Lewes, a road of adventures and distances, passing Woods Corner and Three Cups Corner, Punnetts Town and Cade Street, till it joins the London Road at Cross-in-Hand. ”

“ All the hill tops, especially the Hakpen, are adorn’d with barrows as we go along. When the avenue comes to the inclosures aforementioned of West-Kennet, it passes through three of them, crosses a little field lane, and the common road from Marlborough to Bath, just after the road makes a right angle descending from Overton-hill. We must note that we have been a good while ascending again. In this angle the Roman-road from Marlborough coming down the hill, enters the common road. ”

“ In this state, full of unseen obstacles, it is absolutely a matter of danger for a person unacquainted with the road to attempt to drive a carriage along it. The bridges over the creeks, covered with loose boards, are as bad as the causeways, and totter as a carriage passes over. 48That the legislature of Maryland can be so inactive, and not take some steps to repair this, which is one of the principal roads in the state, the great road from north to south, and the high road to the City of Washington, is most wonderful! ”

“ It is, however, with his share in London architectural improvements that his name will be inseparably connected. When the crown in January 1811 re-entered into possession of the land known as Marylebone Park, an act of parliament was obtained to form a public park there and to build on the ground adjoining it. ”

“ I should not have spoken of it as "made," for, when it is most characteristic, an English lane has no suggestion of ever having been man-made like other roads. It seems as much a natural feature as the woods or meadows through which it passes; and sometimes, as in Surrey, when it runs between high banks, tunnelling its way under green boughs, it seems more like an old river-bed than a road, whose sides nature has tapestried with ferns and flowers. ”

“ Even more intimate knowledge of individual families is secured in Marylebone than we have any evidence of in the case of Elberfeld, because here in their own small districts the visitors undertake duties for other bodies as well as for the Guardians. ”

“ You know that Longstreet and Hill are in advance of us, and I will inform you that Rhodes has left Carlisle, and Early is at York. Well, from York there is a turnpike to Baltimore, as you are aware. Early will take that road and operate upon the line of the Northern Central Railroad. There are two fine turnpikes also from Gettysburg (whither we are going, as this road can lead us nowhere else,) to Baltimore, the one passing through Littlestown, Westminster, &c., the other by the way of Hanover and Manchester to Reisterstown, sixteen miles from the city, where the two meet. ”