Tottenham Court Road

“ If she had been pleased with Tottenham Court Road, and delighted with the essentially commonplace Oxford Street, she exulted in that alluring curve which will always make Regent Street a fascination for the visitor to London and even a satisfaction to the Londoner himself. ”

“ And the trousers of half of the children of Pallas are
dirty with grease,
And the other half ardently brush them and keep them
in crease.
Then pray, O London, my city, when you are dead,
That none know the place where you reared your mad proud head;
That there be not a mound nor a stone nor even a tree,
But only the ignorant river or the desert sea!
DOWN TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD Down Tottenham Court Road they ululate,
The droning choruses of Fate.
They walk the length of every wind,
The women who sin, the women who have sinned. ”

“ Down the deserted court they followed the gleaming, gracious presence, and through a tangle of low streets, and so out into the crowded rush of Tottenham Court Road. Once or twice amid all that blind torrent of humanity, some man or woman, blessed with the precious gift of discernment, would start and stare as they were aware of an angel presence and of two little white-faced children who followed behind, the{195} boy with fixed, absorbed gaze, the girl glancing ever in terror over her shoulder. ”

“ The fish-wives are no longer seen in our great city of London thoroughfares. In Tottenham Court-road, Hoxton, Shoreditch, [Pg 34] Kingsland, Whitechapel, Hackney-road, and many other suburban districts, which still retain the character of a street-market, they stand in long rows as the evening draws in, with paper-lanterns stuck in their baskets on dark nights; and there they vociferate as loudly as in the olden time.
The “costard-monger” whom Morose dreaded, still lives amongst us, and is still noisy. ”

“ One day, after a scene with the publisher similar to that which I have described above, I found myself about noon at the bottom of Oxford Street, where it forms a right angle with the road which leads or did lead to Tottenham Court. Happening to cast my eyes around, it suddenly occurred to me that something uncommon was expected; people were standing in groups on the pavement—the upstair windows of the houses were thronged with faces, especially those of women, and many of the shops were partly, and not a few entirely closed. ”

“ Ah, but thinking became morbid, sentimental, directly one began conjuring up doctors, dead bodies; a little glow of pleasure, a sort of lust, too, over the visual impression warned one not to go on with that sort of thing any more—fatal to art, fatal to friendship. True. And yet, thought Peter Walsh, as the ambulance turned the corner, though the light high bell could be heard down the next street and still farther as it crossed the Tottenham Court Road, chiming constantly, it is the privilege of loneliness; in privacy one may do as one chooses. One might weep if no one saw. ”

“ At the far end of Tottenham Court Road, by which broad thoroughfare he approached, as he had escaped from, the town, the King deliberately varied the route which he had followed the night before. Heading the car straight on down Charing Cross Road, through Trafalgar Square, and so into Whitehall, he turned, at last, into Victoria Street. It was by the side streets, in the vicinity of Victoria Station, that he ultimately approached the palace, and ran out into Lower Grosvenor Place. ”

“ He does not know, or does not stop to [Pg 176] consider, that New Oxford Street really is new, as newness in streets goes. It is, in fact, not older than 1847. Before it was made, there was no good through-route between the City and Tyburn, and the line of road went by a circuitous course, still easily traced—by High Holborn, Broad Street, and High Street, Bloomsbury. Passing under the very shadow of the Church of St. Giles—anciently "St. Giles-in-the-Fields"—the road again fell into the straight line opposite Tottenham Court Road. ”

“ Saxon, or Norman, surrounded by country woods and pastures,—dotted with the gardens of merchants and magnates, as well as with frequent convent closes, orchards, and leafy precincts,—had small need of such vast pleasure-grounds. For London, even in Elizabeth's day, consisted (as shown in Aggas's map) , of only two tiny townlets, "London" and "Westminster"; beyond, all was open fields. Tottenham Court Road, that dreary thoroughfare of ugly modernity, was the solitary manor of "Toten Court," a sylvan resort for "cakes and creame": Chelsea was a pretty, distant riverside hamlet ”

“ The following, however, being obtained from an official source, may be fully relied upon as correct: The whole space between Charles Street and Tottenham Court Road is occupied by 12 different specimens, which are completed in the following order, commencing at Charles Street: viz.—40 feet of Robinson’s Parisian bitumen—24 feet laid in straight courses, and 16 feet diagonally; 74 feet of parish stone paving, 54 feet of which is laid in straight courses, the stones 9 inches deep, and the interstices filled up with Claridge’s asphalte ”

“ Tottenham Court Road!"
I started. "Of course," I said. "That never struck me. There's the Horse-shoe Hotel, with the sign outside, there's the large toy and fancy shop half-way up, where they have a captive balloon moored to the roof as an advertisement, and there's the tobacco and snuff shop on the left, toward the other end, where they have a life-size wooden Highlander at the door—an uncommon thing, indeed, nowadays." ”

“ Tottenham court road, London 1834 where he produced his first burlesque Glaucus and Scylla; edited The Wag 1837, and The Squib 1842, comic weekly papers; one of the original staff of Punch or the London Charivari, which appeared 17 July 1841, wrote in it from number 4 to his death; wrote leading articles in The Times one year, and in Morning Herald; wrote humorous articles in Pictorial Times; barrister G.I. 27 Jany 1841; poor Law comr. to inquire into iniquities practised in Andover union, March 1846; magistrate at Greenwich and Woolwich police court, Feb. 1849, and at Southwark, Dec. ”

“ Court, 279 Tillotson, Dr., 266 Titian, 326 Tobacco, 195, 242, 296, 297 Tokens, 200, 317 Toleration, 133, 152 Tomarton, 359 Tonnage, 199 Tothill Fields, 68, 220 Tottenham, 6 Tottenham Court Road, 315 Tower, the, 13, 85, 107, 112, 144, 151, 250, 262, 264, 269, 277, 278 Tower Hill, 81, 104, 188 Tower Stairs, 281 Tower Street, 275 Tower Wharf, 113 Town ditch, 12, 13, Trade—ruined by Civil War, 44; state of, after Plague and Fire, 88; and Country Gentry, 174; and gentility, 175–176; English and Dutch, 190, 192; decay of, 193; extent of, 194, 195; increase of, 198 ”

“ Old Londoners assert that they are not blinded or confused by Pears' Soap in letters two feet high, scarlet on a gold ground, but can see below in fine print, and with the naked eye, such legends as Tottenham Court Road, Westbourne Grove, St. ”

“ CHAPTER VI MR. MAITLAND GOES SHOPPING ELDOR STREET, Tottenham, was one of thousands of drab and ugly thoroughfares that make up the central suburbs of London. Imagine two rows of houses set on either side of a straight street, lighted at economic intervals by yellow lamps. Each house has a protuberance, called a bay window; each house is separated from the road by iron railings pierced by an iron gate. There is a tiny forecourt in which the hardiest of shrubs battle desperately for existence ”

“ The church of All Hallows, Tottenham, was given by David, king of Scotland, probably when he visited Henry in 1126, to the canons of the church of Holy Trinity, London. It has frequently been restored and altered. The older parts are the tower, nave, and south aisle of the Perpendicular period and the south porch of the 16th century. There are a large number of monuments and brasses. Tottenham consists chiefly of an irregular line of houses for about two miles along the high road, with short side streets at intervals. ”

“ But would we recreate ourselves with some of the finest specimens of old brick, we must go yet further afield. Let us repair to Tottenham, that is, beyond the town, at the point where the road turns off to Enfield. There the country is charmingly old-fashioned, the air delicious, the route has the look of a coach road, with its great flourishing trees. Here are the fine Anne or Georgian houses, plum-coloured almost, untouched and sound as on the day they were built. The doorways are well carved. ”

“ There are so many last houses, and they always begin again; so that little romantic mental picture does not exist in plain fact. The ending of London is a gradual and almost insensible process. You may note it when, leaving Stoke Newington's continuous streets behind, you rise Stamford Hill and perceive its detached and semi-detached residences; and, pressing on, see the streets begin again at Tottenham High Cross, continuing to Lower Edmonton. ”

“ Coming back to the High-road, where the offices of the Gas Company now stand was one of the many ponds for which Tottenham was noted; then a large house called “The Ferns.” My mother well remembered p. 65the mansion which stood next; for many years her father dined there, every other Sunday, with his friend William Salte. This was one of the most conspicuous residences in the parish. In 1730 Philip De La Haize lived there; he was a wealthy London merchant. At his death he bequeated the interest of £100 to the poor of the parish. Mr. ”

“ TOTTENHAM, or Tottenham High Cross, a suburb of London, in the county of Middlesex, is situated on the old "Great Northern" road, about 41/2 miles north from Shoreditch. The cross at Tottenham is not a market-cross, and its origin is doubtful. ”

“ The tenant of one house kept a horse and chaise with a hood to it, and as there was no side entrance or accommodation for either, the horse was always led through the hall into the garden, where a temporary shed was erected, and the chaise was kept in the front garden, opposite the drawing-room window. Then came two large detached houses, only one of which now stands. The other, with the two white houses just mentioned, also Eaton House, were recently purchased by the Tottenham Urban District Council, and the Municipal Buildings erected. Lastly came a pretty white house, the residence of Mr. ”

“ Why should not the court, which does them so much harm, also endeavour to do to its poor suitors a little good? Ever since I have known London, certain houses on the northern side of Snow Hill have been shut up; so have certain others in Stamford Street, just where it abuts upon the Blackfriars Road. The houses are in Chancery; so are many other houses, and blocks of houses, which are scattered about the great town. Until a man has carefully examined them externally, and visited them internally, he has no idea of what urban desolation means. ”

“ This inn was a favourite resort of Izaak Walton, the famous angler. He often came to Tottenham to enjoy fishing in the River Lea, and rested, as one may read in “The Compleat Angler,” “in the sweet shady arbour which Nature herself has woven with her own fingers; ’tis such a contexture of woodbines, sweet briar, jessamine and myrtle.”
Adjoining were a lot of small, old-fashioned houses; a narrow entrance called High Cross Court, with cottages in the rear. There was a large carriage factory next, with a yard and more cottages, and the builder’s house in the front ”

“ Then the Police Station at the High Cross was built, and the whole of the site taken for the Middle Class School.
A great many of the old cottages are now standing on Scotland Green. They used to have strange names to identify them then, such as “Ward’s Alley,” “Tubby’s Alley,” “Stack Yard,” etc., by which names they are still known. The Moselle crosses the road there from High-road and empties itself into the Carbuncle Ditch.
p. 30There used to be an old-fashioned house and large pleasure and kitchen garden, occupied by Mrs. John Holt. ”

“ Katharine’s College was built the ground was used for allotment gardens; there is so little alteration in the cottages and houses that follow that no description is needed. Dr. Robinson, who wrote the History of Tottenham, in 1818, lived in the house now known as Trafalgar House. There was a large field opposite, the path through which formed a quick cut to the bend of the lane. On one side was a quick set p. 68hedge, and bank; in about the middle the path widened into what looked like a little room, and here, under the shelter of the hedge, poor old Blind Charlie lived for many years. ”

“ In this project he was not successful, p. 37and in due time Lady Elizabeth’s husband became Duke of Northumberland, assuming the surname of Percy. Their married life was a very happy one; he was devoted to her, and she returned the devotion, calling him “my dearest angel” and “joy of my soul.” The house in which they lived in Tottenham was taken down and a row of houses erected, called “Northumberland Row,” the middle one being named “Percy House.” In some of these houses is some very curious carved work. Part of the old house and part of the garden wall still remains next the road. ”

“ We need not stop to consider how far that overrated statesman, in consulting maps too large, was the victim of his own cynical advice; but we may apply it, frankly and without any cynical meaning, here. Thus, referring to a large map of London and its environs, 33you will soon perceive this restricted choice of roads between London and Essex. The Lea and the broad marshes of West Ham, Stratford, Hackney, Leyton, Walthamstow, and Tottenham have always offered great obstacles to road-makers, and have stemmed the tide of London’s expansion in this direction until quite recent years. ”