Collins' Illustrated Guide to London and Neighbourhood
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Title: Collins' Illustrated Guide to London and Neighbourhood
Author: Anonymous
Release date: April 5, 2012 [eBook #39379]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39379
Credits: Transcribed from the 1873 William Collins, Sons and Company edition by David Price
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COLLINS' ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO LONDON AND NEIGHBOURHOOD ***
Transcribed from the 1873 William Collins, Sons and Company edition by
David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
[Picture: Cover of book]
[Picture: Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall,
Crimean and Canning Monuments. Penitentiary, Vauxhall Bridge, Lambeth
Suspension Bridge, Lambeth Place, and Bethlehem Hospital in the distance]
COLLINS’
ILLUSTRATED
GUIDE TO LONDON
AND
NEIGHBOURHOOD:
BEING A
CONCISE DESCRIPTION OF THE CHIEF PLACES OF INTEREST IN THE
METROPOLIS, AND THE BEST MODES OF OBTAINING ACCESS
TO THEM: WITH INFORMATION RELATING TO
RAILWAYS, OMNIBUSES, STEAMERS, &c.
* * * * *
With fifty-eight Illustrations by Sargent and others,
AND
A CLUE-MAP BY BARTHOLOMEW.
* * * * *
LONDON:
WILLIAM COLLINS, SONS, AND COMPANY,
17 WARWICK SQUARE, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1873.
PREFACE.
IN this work an attempt is made to furnish Strangers with a handy and
useful Guide to the chief objects of interest in the Metropolis and its
Environs: comprising also much that will be interesting to permanent
Residents. After a few pages of General Description, the various
Buildings and other places of attraction are treated in convenient groups
or sections, according to their nature. Short Excursions from the
Metropolis are then noticed. Tables, lists, and serviceable information
concerning railways, tramways, omnibuses, cabs, telegraphs, postal rules,
and other special matters, follow these sections. An ALPHABETICAL INDEX
at the end furnishes the means of easy reference.
The information is brought down to the latest date, either in the Text or
in the Appendix at the end. And the Clue-map has, in like manner, been
filled in with the recently opened lines of Railway, &c., as well as with
indications of the Railways sanctioned, but not yet completed.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
HOTEL CHARGES viii
GENERAL DESCRIPTION 9
A FIRST GLANCE AT THE CITY 15
A FIRST GLANCE AT THE WEST-END 27
PALACES AND MANSIONS, ROYAL AND NOBLE 33
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT; WESTMINSTER HALL; GOVERNMENT OFFICES 40
ST. PAUL’S; WESTMINSTER ABBEY; CHURCHES; CHAPELS; 47
CEMETERIES
BRITISH AND SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUMS; SCIENTIFIC 62
ESTABLISHMENTS
NATIONAL GALLERY; ROYAL ACADEMY; ART EXHIBITIONS 68
COLLEGES; SCHOOLS; HOSPITALS; CHARITIES 70
THE TOWER; THE MINT; THE CUSTOM HOUSE; THE GENERAL 77
POST-OFFICE
THE CORPORATION; MANSION HOUSE; GUILDHALL; MONUMENT; ROYAL 84
EXCHANGE
THE TEMPLE; INNS OF COURT; COURTS OF JUSTICE; PRISONS 90
BANKS; INSURANCE OFFICES; STOCK EXCHANGE; CITY COMPANIES 93
THE RIVER; DOCKS; THAMES TUNNEL; BRIDGES; PIERS 97
FOOD SUPPLY; MARKETS; BAZAARS; SHOPS 109
CLUBS; HOTELS; INNS; CHOP-HOUSES; TAVERNS; COFFEE-HOUSES; 116
COFFEE-SHOPS
THEATRES, CONCERTS, AND OTHER PLACES OF AMUSEMENT 121
PARKS AND PUBLIC GROUNDS; ZOOLOGICAL, BOTANICAL, AND 125
HORTICULTURAL GARDENS
ALBERT HALL AND INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION 129
OMNIBUSES; CABS; RAILWAYS; STEAMERS 136
SHORT EXCURSIONS—
UP THE RIVER 143
DOWN THE RIVER 154
CRYSTAL PALACE, &C. 162
APPENDIX.
TABLES, LISTS, AND USEFUL HINTS—
Suburban Towns and Villages, within Twelve Miles’ 169
Railway-Distance
Chief Omnibus Routes 171
Tramways 173
Clubs and Club-Houses 173
The London Parcels’ Delivery Company 174
Money-Order Offices, and Post-Office Savings-Banks 175
London Letters, Postal and Telegraph System 175
Reading and News-Rooms 176
Chess-Rooms 177
Theatres 177
Concert Rooms 178
Music Halls 178
Modes of Admission to Various Interesting Places 179
Principal, Public, and Turkish Baths 180
Medicated Baths 181
Cabs 182
Hints to Strangers 183
Commissionaires or Messengers 183
THE GREAT INTERCEPTIVE MAIN DRAINAGE SYSTEM OF LONDON 184
INDEX 185
HOTEL CHARGES.
THERE is only one class of hotels in and near London of which the charges
can be stated with any degree of precision. The _old_ hotels, both at
the West-End and in the City, keep no printed tariff; they are not
accustomed even to be asked beforehand what are their charges. Most of
the visitors are more or less _recommended_ by guests who have already
sojourned at these establishments, and who can give information as to
what _they_ have paid. Some of the hotels decline to receive guests
except by previous written application, or by direct introduction, and
would rather be without those who would regard the bill with economical
scrutiny. The _dining_ hotels, such as the _London_ and the _Freemasons’
Tavern_, in London, the _Artichoke_ and various whitebait taverns at
Blackwall, the _Trafalgar_ and _Crown and Sceptre_ taverns at Greenwich,
and the _Castle_ and _Star and Garter_ taverns at Richmond, are costly
taverns for dining, rather than hotels at which visitors sojourn; and the
charges vary with every different degree of luxury in the viands served,
and the mode of serving. The hotels which can be more easily tested, in
reference to their charges, are the _joint-stock_ undertakings. These
are of two kinds: one, the hotels connected with the great railway
termini, such as the _Victoria_, the _Euston_, the _Great Northern_, the
_Great Western_, the _Grosvenor_, the _Charing Cross_, the _Midland_ and
_Cannon Street_; while the other group are unconnected with railways,
such as the _Westminster Palace_, the _Langham_, the _Salisbury_, the
_Inns of Court_, _Alexandra_, _&c._
COLLINS’
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO LONDON.
Whether we consider London as the metropolis of a great and mighty
empire, upon the dominions of whose sovereign the sun never sets, or as
the home of more than three millions of people, and the richest city in
the world to boot, it must ever be a place which strangers wish to visit.
In these days of railways and steamers, the toil and cost of reaching it
are, comparatively speaking, small; and, such being the case, the supply
of visitors has very naturally been adjusted to the everyday increasing
opportunities of gratifying so very sensible a desire. To such persons,
on their arrival at this vast City of the Islands, we here, if they will
accept us as their guides, beg to offer, ere going into more minute
details, a
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
Without cumbering our narrative with the fables of dim legendary lore,
with regard to the origin of London—or _Llyn-Din_, “the town on the
lake,”—we may mention, that the Romans, after conquering its ancient
British inhabitants, about A.D. 61, finally rebuilt and walled it in
about A.D. 301; from which time it became, in such excellent hands, a
place of not a little importance. Roman remains, such as fine tesselated
pavements, bronzes, weapons, pottery, and coins, are not seldom turned up
by the spade of our sturdy excavators while digging below the foundations
of houses; and a few scanty fragments of the old Roman Wall, which was
rather more than three miles round, are still to be seen. London, in the
Anglo-Norman times, though confined originally by the said wall, grew up
a dense mass of brick and wooden houses, ill arranged, unclean, close,
and for the most part terribly insalubrious. Pestilence was the natural
consequence. Up to the great plague of 1664–5, which destroyed 68,596,
some say 100,000 persons—there were, dating from the pestilence of 1348,
no fewer than some nine visitations of widely-spreading epidemics in Old
London. When, in 1666, the great fire, which burnt 13,200 houses, spread
its ruins over 436 acres, and laid waste 400 streets, came to force the
Cockneys to mend their ways somewhat, and open out their over-cramped
habitations, some good was effected. But, unfortunately, during the
rebuilding of the City, Sir Christopher Wren’s plans for laying its
streets out on a more regular plan, were poorly attended to: hence the
still incongruous condition of older London when compared, in many
instances, with the results of modern architecture, with reference to
air, light, and sanitary arrangements. On account of the rubbish left by
the fire and other casualties, the City stands from twelve to sixteen
feet higher than it did in the early part of its history—the roadways of
Roman London, for example, being found on, or even below, the level of
the cellars of the present houses.
From being a city hemmed within a wall, London expanded in all
directions, and thus gradually formed a connection with various clusters
of dwellings in the neighbourhood. It has, in fact, absorbed towns and
villages to a considerable distance around: the chief of these once
detached seats of population being the city of Westminster. By means of
bridges, it has also absorbed Southwark and Bermondsey, Lambeth and
Vauxhall, on the south side of the Thames, besides many hamlets and
villages beyond the river.
By these extensions London proper, by which we mean the _City_, has
gradually assumed, if we may so speak, the conditions of an existence
like that of a kernel in a thickly surrounding and ever-growing mass. By
the census of 1861, the population of the _City_ was only 112,247; while
including that with the entire metropolis, the number was 2,803,034—or
_twenty-five times_ as great as the former! It may here be remarked,
that the population of the _City_ is becoming smaller every year, on
account of the substitution of public buildings, railway stations and
viaducts, and large warehouses, in place of ordinary dwelling-houses.
Fewer and fewer people _live_ in the City. In 1851, the number was
127,869; it lessened by more than 15,000 between that year and 1861;
while the population of the _whole_ metropolis increased by as many as
440,000 in the same space of time.
If we follow the Registrar-General, London, as defined by him, extends
north and south between Norwood and Hampstead, and east and west between
Hammersmith and Woolwich. Its area is stated as 122 square miles. From
the census returns of 1861, we find that its population then was
2,803,921 souls. It was, in 1871, 3,251,804. The real _city_ population
was 74,732.
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; while its fine natural
position, lying as it does on the banks of a great navigable river, some
sixty miles from the sea, and its generally salubrious site and soil—the
greater part of London is built on gravel, or on a species of clay
resting on sand—alike plead in its favour.
At one time London, like ancient Babylon, might fairly have been called a
brick-built city. It is so, of course, still, in some sense. But we are
greatly improving: within the last few years a large number of
stucco-fronted houses, of ornamental character, have been erected; and
quite recently, many wholly of stone, apart altogether from the more
important public buildings, which of course are of stone. Of distinct
houses, there are now the prodigious number of 500,000, having, on an
average, about 7.8 dwellers to a house. For our own part we are somewhat
sceptical as to this average. But we quote it as given by a professedly
good authority.
The Post-Office officials ascertained that there was built in one year
alone, as long ago as 1864, no fewer than 9,000 new houses. Though, by
comparison with the houses of Edinburgh and some other parts of the
kingdom, many of these are small structures, with but two rooms, often
communicating, on a floor, a visitor to London will find no difficulty in
seeing acres of substantial residences around him as he strolls along
through the wide, quiet squares of Bloomsbury, the stuccoed and more
aristocratic quarters of Belgravia and South Kensington, or by the old
family mansions of the nobility and gentry in, say, Cavendish, Grosvenor,
or Portman Squares, and the large and more modern houses of many of our
wealthy citizens in Tyburnia and Westburnia, farther westward of the
Marble Arch. But of this more anon.
We have often heard foreigners laughingly remark of sundry London
houses—apropos of the deep, open, sunk areas, bordered by iron railings,
of many of them—that they illustrate, in some sense, our English reserve,
and love of carrying out our island proverb—viz., that “every
Englishman’s house is his castle,”—in its entirety, by each man
barricading himself off from his neighbours advances by a fortified
_fosse_!
Without particular reference to municipal distinctions, London may (to
convey a general idea to strangers) be divided into four principal
portions—the _City_, which is the centre of corporate influence, and
where the greatest part of the business is conducted; the _East End_, in
which are the docks, and various commercial arrangements for shipping;
the _West End_, in which are the palaces of the Queen and Royal family,
the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the residences of most
of the nobility and gentry; and the _Southwark and Lambeth_ division,
lying on the south side of the Thames, containing many manufacturing
establishments, but few public buildings of interest. Besides these, the
northern suburbs, which include the once detached villages of Hampstead,
Highgate, Stoke Newington, Islington, Kingsland, Hackney, Hornsey,
Holloway, &c., and consist chiefly of private dwellings for the
mercantile and middle classes, may be considered a peculiar and distinct
division. It is, however, nowhere possible to say (except when separated
by the river) exactly where any one division begins or ends; throughout
the vast compass of the city and suburbs, there is a blending of one
division with that contiguous to it. The outskirts, on all sides,
comprise long rows or groups of villas, some detached or semi-detached,
with small lawns or gardens.
The poet Cowper, in his _Task_, more than a hundred years ago,
appreciatively spoke of
“The villas with which London stands begirt,
Like a swarth Indian with his belt of beads.”
We wonder what he would think now of the many houses of this kind which
extend, in some directions, so far out of town, that there seems to be no
getting beyond them into the country.
From the Surrey division there extends southward and westward a great
number of those ranges of neat private dwellings, as, for instance,
towards Camberwell, Kennington, Clapham, Brixton, Dulwich, Norwood,
Sydenham, &c.; and in these directions lie some of the most pleasant
spots in the environs of the metropolis.
The flowing of the Thames from west to east through the metropolis has
given a general direction to the lines of street; the principal
thoroughfares being, in some measure, parallel to the river, with the
inferior, or at least shorter, streets branching from them. Intersecting
the town lengthwise, or from east to west, are three great leading
thoroughfares at a short distance from each other, but gradually
diverging at their western extremity. One of these routes begins in the
eastern environs, near Blackwall, and extends along Whitechapel,
Leadenhall Street, Cornhill, the Poultry, Cheapside, Newgate Street,
Holborn, and Oxford Street. The other may be considered as starting at
London Bridge, and passing up King William Street into Cheapside, at the
western end of which it makes a bend round St. Paul’s Churchyard; thence
proceeds down Ludgate Hill, along Fleet Street and the Strand to Charing
Cross, where it sends a branch off to the left to Whitehall, and another
diagonally to the right, up Cockspur Street; this leads forward into Pall
Mall, and sends an offshoot up Waterloo Place into Piccadilly, which
proceeds westward to Hyde Park Corner. These two are the main lines in
the metropolis, and are among the first traversed by strangers. It will
be observed that they unite in Cheapside, which therefore becomes an
excessively crowded thoroughfare, particularly at the busy hours of the
day. 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. The
New Road here mentioned has been re-named in three sections—Pentonville
Road, from Islington to King’s Cross; Euston Road, from King’s Cross to
Regent’s Park; and Marylebone Road, from Regent’s Park to Paddington.
The main cross branches in the metropolis are—Farringdon Street, leading
from Blackfriars Bridge to Holborn, and thence by Victoria Street to the
King’s Cross Station; the Haymarket, leading from Cockspur Street; and
Regent Street, already mentioned. There are several important streets
leading northward from the Holborn and Oxford Street line—such as
Portland Place, Tottenham Court Road, King Street, and Gray’s Inn Lane.
The principal one in the east is St. Martin’s-le-Grand and Aldersgate
Street, which, by Goswell Street, lead to Islington; others
are—Bishopsgate Street, leading to Shoreditch and Hackney; and Moorgate
Street, leading northwards. 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. But this grievance, let us hope, is
in a fair way of abatement, thanks to sundry fine new streets, and to the
Thames Embankment, which, proceeding along the northern shore of the
river, now furnishes a splendid thoroughfare right away from Westminster
Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge, by means of which the public are now
enabled to arrive at the Mansion House by a wide street—called Queen
Victoria Street, and, by the Metropolitan District Railway, to save time
on this route from the west.
We shall have occasion again to allude to the Thames Embankment some
pages on, and therefore, for the present, we will take
A FIRST GLANCE AT THE CITY.
London is too vast a place to be traversed in the limited time which
strangers usually have at their disposal. Nevertheless, we may rapidly
survey the main lines of route from east to west, with some of the
branching offshoots. All the more important buildings, and places of
public interest, will be found specially described under the headings to
which they properly belong.
The most striking view in the interior of the city is at the open central
space whence Threadneedle Street, Cornhill, Lombard Street, King William
Street, Walbrook, Cheapside, and Princes Street, radiate in seven
different directions. (See illustration.) While the corner of the Bank
of England abuts on this space on the north, it is flanked on the south
by the Mansion House, and on the east by the Royal Exchange. It would be
a curious speculation to inquire how much money has been spent in
constructions and reconstructions in and around this spot during half a
century. The sum must be stupendous. Before new London Bridge was
opened, the present King William Street did not exist; to construct it,
houses by the score, perhaps by the hundred, had to be pulled down. Many
years earlier, when the Bank of England was rebuilt, and a few years
later, when the Royal Exchange was rebuilt, vast destructions of property
took place, to make room for structures larger than those which had
previously existed for the same purposes. For some distance up all the
radii of which we have spoken, the arteries which lead from this heart of
the commercial world, a similar process has been going on to a greater or
less extent. Banking-houses, insurance-offices, and commercial
buildings, have been built or rebuilt at an immense cost, the outlay
depending rather on the rapidly increasing value of the ground than on
the actual charge for building. If this particular portion of the city,
this busy centre of wealth, should ever be invaded by such railway
schemes as 1864, 1865, and 1866 produced, it is difficult to imagine what
amounts would have to be paid for the purchase and removal of property.
Time was when a hundred thousand pounds per mile was a frightful sum for
railways; but railway directors (in London at least) do not now look
aghast at a million sterling per mile—as witness the South-Eastern and
the Chatham and Dover Companies, concerning which we shall have to say
more in a future page.
[Picture: Bank of England, Royal Exchange, Mansion House, &c. (Cornhill,
Lombard, Threadneedle Streets.)] {16}
The seven radii of which we have spoken may be thus briefly described, as
a preliminary guide to visitors: 1. Leaving this wonderfully-busy centre
by the north, with the Poultry on one hand and the Bank of England on the
other, we pass in front of many fine new commercial buildings in Princes
and Moorgate Streets; indeed, there is not an old house here, for both
are entirely modern streets, penetrating through what used to be a close
mass of small streets and alleys. Other fine banking and commercial
buildings may be seen stretching along either side in Lothbury and
Gresham Streets. Farther towards the north, a visitor would reach the
Finsbury Square region, beyond which the establishments are of less
important character. 2. If, instead of leaving this centre by the north,
he turns north-east, he will pass through Threadneedle Street between the
Bank and the Royal Exchange; [Picture: King William Street, Gracechurch
Street, &c. (Bank and Royal Exchange in the distance.)] next will be
found the Stock Exchange, on the left hand; then the Sun Fire Office, and
the Bank of London (formerly the Hall of Commerce); on the opposite side
the City Bank, Merchant Taylor’s School, and the building that was once
the South Sea House; beyond these is the great centre for foreign
merchants in Broad Street, Winchester Street, Austin Friars, and the
vicinity. 3. If, again, the route be selected due east, there will come
into view the famous Cornhill, with its Royal Exchange, its well-stored
shops, and its alleys on either side crowded with merchants, brokers,
bankers, coffee-houses, and chop-houses; beyond this, Bishopsgate Street
branches out on the left, and Gracechurch Street on the right, both full
of memorials of commercial London; and farther east still, Leadenhall
Street, with new buildings on the site of the late East India House,
leads to the Jews’ Quarter around Aldgate and Houndsditch—a strange
region, which few visitors to London think of exploring. “Petticoat
Lane,” perhaps one of the most extraordinary marts for old clothes, &c.,
is on the left of Aldgate High Street. It is well worth a visit by
connoisseurs of queer life and character, who are able to take care of
themselves, and remember to leave their valuables at home. 4. The fourth
route from the great city centre leads through Lombard Street and
Fenchurch Street—the one the head-quarters of the great banking firms of
London; the other exhibiting many commercial buildings of late erection:
while Mincing Lane and Mark Lane are the head-quarters for many branches
of the foreign, colonial, and corn trades. 5. The fifth route takes the
visitor through King William Street to the Monument, Fish Street Hill,
Billingsgate, the Corn Exchange, the Custom House, the Thames Subway, the
Tower, the Docks, the Thames Tunnel, London Bridge, and a host of
interesting places, the proper examination of which would require
something more than merely a brief visit to London. Opposite this
quarter, on the Surrey side of the river, are numerous shipping wharfs,
warehouses, porter breweries, and granaries. The fire that occurred at
Cotton’s wharf and depôt and other wharfs near Tooley Street, in June,
1861, illustrated the vast scale on which merchandise is collected in the
warehouses and wharfs hereabout. {18} Of the dense mass of streets lying
away from the river, and eastward of the city proper, comprising
Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Stepney, &c., little need be
said here; the population is immense, but, excepting the Bethnal Green
Museum and Victoria Park, there are few objects interesting; nevertheless
the observers of social life in its humbler phases would find much to
learn here. 6. The southern route from the great city centre takes the
visitor, by the side of the Mansion House, through the new thoroughfare,
Queen Victoria Street—referred to at a previous page—to the river-side.
It will therefore be useful for a stranger to bear in mind, that the best
centre of observation in the city is the open spot between the Bank, the
Mansion House, and the Royal Exchange; where more omnibuses assemble than
at any other spot in the world; and whence he can ramble in any one of
seven different directions, sure of meeting with something illustrative
of city life. The 7th route, not yet noticed, we will now follow, as it
proceeds towards the West End.
The great central thoroughfare of Cheapside, which is closely lined with
the shops of silversmiths and other wealthy tradesmen, is one of the
oldest and most famous streets in the city—intimately associated with the
municipal glories of London for centuries past. Many of the houses in
Cheapside and Cornhill have lately been rebuilt on a scale of much
grandeur. Some small plots of ground in this vicinity have been sold at
the rate of nearly _one million sterling_ per acre! On each side of
Cheapside, narrow streets diverge into the dense mass behind—Ironmonger
Lane, King Street, Milk Street, and Wood Street, on the north; and among
others, Queen Street, Bread Street, where Milton was born, and where
stood the famous Mermaid Tavern, where Shakespeare and Raleigh, Ben
Jonson and his young friends, Beaumont and Fletcher, those
twin-dramatists, loved to meet, to enjoy “the feast of reason and the
flow of soul,” to say nothing of a few flagons of good Canary wine, Bow
Lane, and Old ’Change, on the south. The greater part of these back
streets, with the lanes adjoining, are occupied by the offices or
warehouses of wholesale dealers in cloth, silk, hosiery, lace, &c., and
are resorted to by London and country shopkeepers for supplies. Across
the north end of King Street stands the Guildhall; and a little west, the
City of London School and Goldsmiths’ Hall. At the western end of
Cheapside is a statue of the late Sir Robert Peel, by Behnes. Northward
of this point, in St. Martin’s-le-Grand, are the buildings of the Post
and Telegraph Offices; beyond this the curious old Charter House; and
then a line of business streets leading towards Islington. Westward are
two streets, parallel with each other, and both too narrow for the trade
to be accommodated in them—Newgate Street, celebrated for its Blue Coat
Boys and, till the recent removal of the market to Smithfield, for its
carcass butchers; and Paternoster Row, still more celebrated for its
publishers and booksellers. In Panyer Alley, leading out of Newgate
Street, is an old stone bearing the inscription:
When ye have sovght the citty rovnd,
Yet stil this is the highst grovnd.
Avgvst the 27, 1688. {20}
[Picture: Old stone]
At the west end of Newgate Street a turning to the right gives access to
the once celebrated Smithfield and St. John’s Gate. South-west of
Cheapside stands St. Paul’s Cathedral, that first and greatest of all the
landmarks of London. In the immediate vicinity of St. Paul’s, the names
of many streets and lanes (Paternoster Row, Amen Corner, Ave Maria Lane,
Creed Lane, Godliman Street, &c.) give token of their former connection
with the religious structure and its clerical attendants. The enclosed
churchyard is surrounded by a street closely hemmed in with houses, now
chiefly dedicated to trade: those on the south side being mostly
wholesale, those on the north retail. An open arched passage on the
south side of the churchyard leads to Doctors’ Commons, once the
headquarters of the ecclesiastical lawyers.
[Picture: St. Paul’s, West End of Cheapside, Paternoster Row, &c.
(Newgate Street and Fleet Street in the distance.)]
Starting from St. Paul’s Churchyard westward, we proceed down Ludgate
Street and Ludgate Hill, places named from the old Lud-gate, which once
formed one of the entrances to the city ‘within the walls.’ The Old
Bailey, on the right, contains the Central Criminal Court and Newgate
Prison, noted places in connection with the trial and punishment of
criminals. On the left of Ludgate Hill is a maze of narrow streets;
among which the chief buildings are the new Ludgate Hill Railway Station,
Apothecaries’ Hall, and the printing office of the all-powerful _Times_
newspaper, in Printing-House Square. The printer of the _Times_, Mr.
Goodlake, if applied to by letter, enclosing card of any respectable
person, will grant an order to go over it, at 11 o’clock only, when the
second edition of “the Thunderer” is going to press. At the bottom of
Ludgate Hill we come to the valley in which the once celebrated Fleet
River, now only a covered sewer, ran north and south from St. Pancras to
Blackfriars, where it entered the Thames. A new street, called Victoria
Street, formed by pulling down many poor and dilapidated houses, marks
part of this valley; while Farringdon Street, where a market, mostly for
green stuff, is held, occupies another part. Newgate Street and Ludgate
Hill are on the east of the Fleet Valley; Holborn and Fleet Street on the
west. The Holborn Valley Viaduct crosses at this spot. And of this
wonderful triumph of engineering skill we have now to speak.
[Picture: Holborn Valley Viaduct]
It was an eventful day in the annals of the Corporation of the City of
London, when Queen Victoria, on November 6, 1869, declared Blackfriars
Bridge—about which more hereafter—and Holborn Valley Viaduct formally
open. The Holborn Valley improvements, it should be remembered, were
nothing short of the actual demolition and reconstruction of a whole
district, formerly either squalid, over-blocked, and dilapidated in some
parts, or over-steep and dangerous to traffic in others. But a short
time ago that same Holborn Valley was one of the most heart-breaking
impediments to horse-traffic in London. Imagine Holborn Hill sloping at
a gradient of 1 in 18, while the opposite rising ground of Skinner
Street—now happily done away—rose at about 1 in 20. Figure to yourself
the fact, that everything on wheels, and every foot passenger entering
the City by the Holborn route, had to descend 26 feet to the Valley of
the Fleet, and then ascend a like number to Newgate, and you will at once
see the grand utility of levelling up so objectionable a hollow. To
attempt to give a stranger to London even a faint idea of what has been
accomplished by Mr. Haywood’s engineering skill, by a necessarily brief
description here, is an invidious task. Nevertheless, we must essay it;
premising, by-the-by, that if our readers while in London do not go to
see the Viaduct for themselves, our trouble will be three parte thrown
away. The whole structure is cellular, to begin with. To strip the
subject of crabbed technicalities, imagine for a moment a long succession
of—let us call them—railway-like arches supporting the carriage-way:
these large vaults being available for other purposes. Outside this
carriage-way, and under the edge of the foot-paths on either side, is a
subway, some 7 feet wide and 11 feet or so high. Against the walls of
this sub-way are fixed, readily connectable, gas mains and water mains
and telegraph tubes. This was the first time all these important pipes
had been so cleverly arranged in one easily accessible place. They are
ventilated and partially lighted through the pavement, and by gas. Under
each sub-way goes a sewer, with a path beside it for the sewer men when
at work. 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. A few words must now be said
about the splendid bridge over Farringdon Street. This has public
staircases running up inside handsome stone buildings—the upper parts of
which have been let for business purposes. It is a handsome skew bridge
of iron, toned to a deep bronze green by enamel paint, and richly
ornamented; its plinths above ground, its moulded bases, and its shafts,
are respectively of grey, black, and exquisitely polished red granite.
Its capitals are of grey granite, also polished, and set off by bronze
foliage. Bronze lions, and four statues of Fine Art, Science, Commerce,
and Agriculture, stand on the parapet-line on handsome plinths. These,
and the projecting balconies and dormer window of the stone buildings
just named, with their four statues of bygone civic worthies,—Fitz
Aylwin, Sir William Walworth, Sir Thomas Gresham, and Sir Hugh
Myddleton,—enhance the effect of the whole.
Poor Chatterton, “the marvellous boy, the sleepless soul that perished in
his pride,” after poisoning himself, in 1770, ere he was eighteen years
of age, in Brooke Street, on the north side of Holborn, was laid in a
pauper’s grave, in what was then the burying-ground of Shoe Lane
Workhouse, and is now converted to very different purposes.
Let us now come to Fleet Street. This thoroughfare—the main artery from
St. Paul’s to the west—for many years has been emphatically one of
literary associations, full as it is of newspaper and printing-offices.
The late Angus B. Reach used humorously to call it, “The march of
intellect.” Wynkyn de Worde, the early printer, lived here, and two of
his books were “fynysshed and emprynted in Flete Streete, in ye syne of
ye Sonne.” The _Devil_ tavern, which stood near Temple Bar, on the south
side, was a favourite hostelrie of Ben Jonson. At the _Mitre_, near
Mitre Court, Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, and Boswell, held frequent
rendezvous. The _Cock_ was one of the oldest and least altered taverns
in Fleet Street. The present poet-laureate, in one of his early poems,
“A Monologue of Will Waterproof,” has immortalized it, in the lines
beginning—
“Thou plump head waiter at the _Cock_,
To which I most resort,
How goes the time? Is ’t nine o’clock?
Then fetch a pint of port!”
[Picture: Fleet Street from Mitre Court to Temple Bar. (The Temple, the
River, Lambeth, and Houses of Parliament in the distance.)]
Dr. Johnson lived many years either in Fleet Street, in Gough Square, in
the Temple, in Johnson’s Court, in Bolt Court, &c., &c.; and in Bolt
Court he died. William Cobbett, and Ferguson the astronomer, were also
among the dwellers in that court. John Murray (the elder) began the
publishing business in Falcon Court. Some of the early meetings of the
Royal Society and of the Society of Arts took place in Crane Court.
Dryden and Richardson both lived in Salisbury Court. Shire Lane (now
Lower Serle’s Place), close to Temple Bar on the north, can count the
names of Steele and Ashmole among its former inhabitants. Izaak Walton
lived a little way up Chancery Lane. At the confectioner’s shop, nearly
opposite that lane, Pope and Warburton first met. Sir Symonds D’Ewes,
‘Praise-God Barebones,’ Michael Drayton, and Cowley the poet, all lived
in this street. 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. St.
Bride’s Church exhibits one of Wren’s best steeples. St. Dunstan’s
Church, before it was modernized, had two wooden giants in front, that
struck the hours with clubs on two bells—a duty which they still fulfil
in the gardens belonging to the mansion of the Marquis of Hertford in the
Regent’s Park. North of Fleet Street are several of the _Inns of Court_,
where lawyers congregate; and southward is the most famous of all such
Inns, the large group of buildings constituting the _Temple_. In the
cluster of buildings lying east from the Temple once existed the
sanctuary of Whitefriars, or _Alsatia_, as it was sometimes called, a
description of which is given by Scott in the _Fortunes of Nigel_. The
streets here are still narrow and of an inferior order, but all
appearance of Alsatians and their pranks is gone. The boundary of the
city, at the western termination of Fleet Street, is marked by Temple
Bar, consisting of a wide central archway, and a smaller archway at each
side for foot-passengers. There are doors in the main avenue which can
be shut at pleasure; but, practically, they are never closed, except on
the occasion of some state ceremonial, when the lord mayor affects an act
of grace in opening them to royalty. The structure was designed by Sir
Christopher Wren, and erected in 1672. The heads of decapitated
criminals, after being boiled in pitch to preserve them, were exposed on
iron spikes on the top of the Bar. Horace Walpole, in his _Letters_ to
Montague, mentions the fact of a man in Fleet Street letting out
“spy-glasses,” at a penny a peep, to passers-by, when the heads of some
of the hapless Jacobites were so exposed. The last heads exhibited there
were those of two Jacobite gentlemen who took part in the rebellion of
1745, and were executed in that year. Their heads remained a ghastly
spectacle to the citizens till 1772, when they were blown down one night
in a gale of wind.
Having thus noticed some of the interesting objects east of Temple Bar,
we will now take
A FIRST GLANCE AT THE WEST END.
The Strand—so called because it lies along the bank of the river, now
hidden by houses—is a long, somewhat irregularly built street, in
continuation westward from Temple Bar; the thoroughfare being incommoded
by two churches—St. Clement Dane’s and St. Mary’s—in the middle of the
road. On the site of the latter church once stood the old Strand
Maypole. The new _Palace of Justice_, about whose site there have been
so many Parliamentary discussions, will stand on what is at present a
huge unsightly space of boarded-in waste ground, formerly occupied by a
few good houses, between Temple Bar and Clement’s Inn, and many wretched
back-slums. Not having the gift of prophecy as to its future, and warned
by so many long delays in its case, we hazard no conjecture as to the
time when it will gladden our eyes. In the seventeenth century the
Strand was a species of country road, connecting the city with
Westminster; and on its southern side stood a number of noblemen’s
residences, with gardens towards the river. The pleasant days are long
since past when mansions and personages, political events and holiday
festivities, marked the spots now denoted by Essex, Norfolk, Howard,
Arundel, Surrey, Cecil, Salisbury, Buckingham, Villiers, Craven, and
Northumberland Streets—a very galaxy of aristocratic names. The most
conspicuous building on the left-hand side is Somerset House, a vast
range of government offices. Adjoining this on the east (occupying the
site once intended for an east wing to that structure), and entering by a
passage from the Strand, is a range of rather plain, but massive brick
buildings, erected about thirty years ago for the accommodation of King’s
College; and adjoining it on the west, abutting on the street leading to
Waterloo Bridge, is a still newer range of buildings appropriated to
government offices—forming a west wing to the whole mass. The Strand
contains no other public structure of architectural importance, except
the spacious new Charing Cross Railway Station and Hotel on the south
side. The eastern half of the Strand, however, is thickly surrounded by
theatres—Drury Lane, Covent Garden, the Olympic, the Charing Cross, the
Adelphi, the Vaudeville, the Lyceum, the Gaiety (built on the site of
Exeter ’Change and the late Strand Music Hall, as is the Queen’s on that
of St. Martin’s Hall in Long Acre), the Globe, and the Strand Theatres,
are all situated hereabouts. Exeter Hall is close by, and—pardon the
contrast of ideas—so is Evans’s Hotel and Supper Rooms, long famous for
old English glees, madrigals, chops and steaks, and as a place for
friendly re-unions, without the objectionable features of many musical
halls.
Northumberland House, the large mansion with the lion on the summit,
overlooking Charing Cross, is the ancestral town residence of the
Percies, Dukes of Northumberland. Over the way is St. Martin’s Church,
where lie the bones of many famous London watermen—the churchyard used to
be called “The Waterman’s Churchyard”—and those of that too celebrated
scoundrel and housebreaker, Jack Sheppard, hanged in 1724. There also
lies the once famous sculptor, Roubilac, several monuments from whose
chisel you can see in Westminster Abbey. Here, too, are interred the
witty, but somewhat licentious dramatist, Farquhar, author of _The Beau’s
Stratagem_; the illustrious Robert Boyle, a philosopher not altogether
unworthy to be named in the same category with Lord Bacon and Sir Isaac
Newton; and John Hunter, the distinguished anatomist.
The open space is called Charing Cross, from the old village of Charing,
where stood a cross erected by Edward the First, in memory of his Queen
Eleanor. Wherever her bier rested, there her sorrowful husband erected a
cross, or, as Hood whimsically said, in his usual punning vein, apropos
of the cross at Tottenham,
“A Royal game of Fox and Goose
To play for such a loss;
Wherever she put down her orts,
There he—set up a _cross_!”
At the time of the Reformation you could have walked with fields all the
way on the north side of you from the city to Charing Cross. The history
of the fine statue of Charles the First, by Le Sœur, is curious. It was
made in Charles the First’s reign, but, on the civil war breaking out ere
it could be erected, was sold by the Parliament to a brazier, who was
ordered to demolish it. He, however, buried it, and it remained
underground till after the Restoration, when it was erected in 1674. It
marks a central point for the West End.
[Picture: Trafalgar Square]
Southward are Whitehall and the Palace of Westminster; to the west,
Spring Gardens, leading into St. James’s Park; north-west lie Pall Mall
and Regent Street. By-the-way, it just occurs to us that the old game
_Paille Maille_, from which Pall Mall took its name, was a sort of
antique forerunner of croquet! The former game, much beloved by Charles
the Second, was played by striking a wooden ball with a mallet through
hoops of iron, one of which stood at each end of an alley. Eastward is
the Strand. On the north, Trafalgar Square, with Nelson’s statue and
Landseer’s four noble lions couchant—which alone are worth a visit—at its
base. There are also statues to George IV., Sir Charles James Napier,
and Sir Henry Havelock. A statue of George the Third—with, we think, in
an equestrian sense, one of the best “seats” for a horseman in London—is
close by. The National Gallery bounds the northern side. Of the two
wells which supply the fountains in this square, one is no less than 400
feet deep.
Turning southward from this important western centre, the visitor will
come upon the range of national and government buildings—the Admiralty,
the Horse Guards, the Treasury, the Home Office, &c., &c.—in Whitehall,
particulars of which will be given a few pages further on under
_Government Offices_. Then there are the fine Banqueting House at
Whitehall, and some rather majestic mansions in and near Whitehall
Gardens—especially one just erected by the Duke of Buccleuch. Beyond
these, in the same general direction, are the magnificent Houses of
Parliament, Marochetti’s equestrian statue of Richard Cœur de Lion,
Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall, Mr. Page’s beautiful new Westminster
Bridge, and a number of other objects well worthy of attention.
Returning to Charing Cross, the stranger may pursue his tour through
Cockspur Street to Pall Mall, and thence proceed up Regent Street. 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. Here stands the column dedicated to the late Duke of York; not far
from which is the Guards’ Memorial, having reference to troops who fell
in the Crimea. From this point, for about a mile in a northerly
direction, is the line of Waterloo Place, Regent Street, and Portland
Place, forming the handsomest street in London. 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 most 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.
The mass of streets west from it consist almost entirely of private
residences, with the special exception of Bond Street. In this quarter
are St. James’s, Hanover, Berkeley, Grosvenor, Cavendish, Bryanstone,
Manchester, and Portman Squares—the last four being north of Oxford
Street; and in connection with these squares are long, quiet streets,
lined with houses suited for an affluent order of inhabitants. In and
north from Oxford Street, there are few public buildings deserving
particular attention; but a visitor may like to know that hereabouts are
the Soho, Baker Street, and London Crystal Palace Bazaars. The once
well-known Pantheon is now a wine merchant’s stores.
The residences of the nobility and gentry are chiefly, as has been said,
in the western part of the metropolis. In this quarter there have been
large additions of handsome streets, squares, and terraces within the
last thirty years. First may be mentioned the district around Belgrave
Square, usually called _Belgravia_, which includes the highest class
houses. North-east from this, near Hyde Park, is the older, but still
fashionable quarter, comprehending Park Lane and May Fair. Still farther
north is the modern district, sometimes called _Tyburnia_, being built on
the ground adjacent to what once was “Tyburn,” the place of public
executions. This district, including Hyde Park Square and Westbourne
Terrace, is a favourite place of residence for city merchants and other
wealthy persons. Lying north and north-east from Tyburnia are an
extensive series of suburban rows of buildings and detached villas, which
are ordinarily spoken of under the collective name St. John’s Wood:
Regent’s Park forming a kind of rural centre to the group. Standing
higher and more airy than Belgravia, and being easily accessible from
Oxford Street, this is one of the most agreeable of the suburban
districts.
[Picture: Bunyan’s Tomb, Bunhill Fields]
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. In going from the Bank to Paddington, we
pass by or near Finsbury Square and Circus, the buildings and grounds of
the Artillery Company at Moorfields, the once famous old Burial-ground at
Bunhill Fields, St. Luke’s Lunatic Asylum, the Chapel in the City Road
associated with the memory of John Wesley, the old works of the New River
Company at Pentonville, the Railway stations at King’s Cross (Great
Northern), and St. Pancras (Midland),—the vast span of this station’s
roof is noteworthy,—and Euston Square (L. and N. Western), several
stations of the Metropolitan Underground Railway, St. Pancras and
Marylebone churches, and the entrance to the beautiful Regent’s Park.
But beyond these little is presented to reward the pedestrian.
It is well for a visitor to bear in mind, however, that all the routes we
have here sketched have undergone, or are undergoing, rapid changes,
owing chiefly to the wonderful extension of railways. Cannon Street,
Finsbury, Blackfriars, Snow Hill, Ludgate Hill, Smithfield, Charing
Cross, Pimlico, &c., have been stripped of hundreds, nay, thousands of
houses.
PALACES AND MANSIONS, ROYAL AND NOBLE.
[Picture: St. James’s Palace and Park. (Green Park in the distance.)]
These two preliminary glances at the City and the West End having (as we
will suppose) given the visitor some general idea of the Metropolis, we
now proceed to describe the chief buildings and places of interest,
conveniently grouped according to their character—beginning with
_Palatial Residences_.
St. James’s Palace.—This is an inelegant brick structure, having its
front towards Pall Mall. Henry VIII. built it in 1530, on the site of
what was once an hospital for lepers. The interior consists of several
spacious levée and drawing rooms, besides other state and domestic
apartments. This palace is only used occasionally by the Queen for
levées and drawing-rooms; for which purposes, notwithstanding its
awkwardness, the building is better adapted than Buckingham Palace. The
fine bands of the Foot Guards play daily at eleven, in the Colour Court,
or in an open quadrangle on the east side. The Chapel Royal and the
German Chapel are open on Sundays—the one with an English service, and
the other with service in German.
Buckingham Palace.—This edifice stands at the west end of the Mall in St.
James’s Park, in a situation much too low in reference to the adjacent
grounds on the north. The site was occupied formerly by a brick mansion,
which was pulled down by order of George IV. The present palace (except
the front towards the park) was planned and erected by Mr. Nash. When
completed, after various capricious alterations, about 1831–2, it is said
to have cost about £700,000. The edifice is of stone, with a main
centre, and a wing of similar architecture projecting on each side,
forming originally an open court in front; but the palace being too small
for the family and retinue of the present sovereign, a new frontage has
been built, forming an eastern side to the open court. There is,
however, little harmony of style between the old and new portions. The
interior contains many magnificent apartments, both for state and
domestic purposes. Among them are the Grand Staircase, the Ball-room,
the Library, the Sculpture Gallery, the Green Drawing-room, the Throne
Room, and the Grand Saloon. The Queen has a collection of very fine
pictures in the various rooms, among which is a _Rembrandt_, for which
George IV. gave 5000 guineas. In the garden is an elegant summer-house,
adorned with frescoes by Eastlake, Maclise, Landseer, Stanfield, and
other distinguished painters. This costly palace, however, with all its
grandeur, was so badly planned, that in a number of the passages lamps
are required to be kept lighted even during the day. Strangers are not
admitted to Buckingham Palace except by special permission of the Lord
Chamberlain, which is not easily obtained. In the front was once the
_Marble Arch_, which formed an entry to the Palace, and which cost
£70,000; but it was removed to the north-east corner of Hyde Park in
1851.
[Picture: Buckingham Palace, and West End of St. James’s Park. (Queen’s
Garden and Hyde Park Corner in the distance.)]
Marlborough House.—This building, the residence of the Prince and
Princess of Wales, is immediately east of St. James’s Palace, being
separated from it only by a carriage-road. It was built by Sir
Christopher Wren, in 1709, as a residence for the great Duke of
Marlborough. The house was bought from the Marlborough family by the
Crown in 1817, as a residence for the Princess Charlotte. It was
afterwards occupied in succession by Leopold (the late king of the
Belgians) and the Dowager Queen Adelaide. More recently it was given up
to the Government School of Design; and the Vernon and Turner pictures
were for some time kept there. The building underwent various
alterations preparatory to its occupation by the Prince of Wales.
Kensington Palace.—This is a royal palace, though no longer inhabited by
royalty, occupying a pleasant situation west of Hyde Park. It was built
by Lord Chancellor Finch late in the 17th century; and soon afterwards
sold to William III. Additions were made to it from time to time.
Certain portions of the exterior are regarded as fine specimens of
brickwork; and the whole, though somewhat heavy in appearance, is not
without points of interest. During the last century Kensington Palace
was constantly occupied by members of the royal family. Many of them
were born there, and many died there also. The present Queen was born in
the palace in 1819. The Prince and Princess of Teck reside there at
present. This, like the other royal palaces, is maintained at the
expense of the nation; though not now used as a royal residence,
pensioned or favoured families occupy it.
[Picture: Lambeth Palace from the River]
Lambeth Palace.—This curious and interesting building, situated in a part
of the metropolis seldom visited by strangers, is the official residence
of the archbishops of Canterbury. It is on the south bank of the Thames,
between Westminster and Vauxhall Bridges. The structure has grown up by
degrees during the six centuries that Lambeth has been the archiepiscopal
residence; and on that account exhibits great diversities of style.
Leaving unnoticed the private and domestic apartments, the following are
the portions of the irregular cluster possessing most interest. The
_Chapel_, some say, was erected in the year 1196; it is in early English,
with lancet windows and a crypt; but the roof, stained windows, and
carved screens, are much more recent. The archbishops are always
consecrated in this chapel. The _Lollard’s Tower_, at the western end of
the chapel, was named from some Lollards or Wickliffites supposed to have
been imprisoned there. It is about 400 years old. The uppermost room,
with strong iron rings in the walls, appears to have been the actual
place of confinement; there are many names and inscriptions cut in the
thick oak wainscoting. The _Hall_, about 200 years old, is 93 feet long
by 78 feet wide; it is noticeable for the oak roof, the bay windows, and
the arms of several of the archbishops. The _Library_, 250 years old,
contains about 15,000 volumes and numerous manuscripts, many of them rare
and curious. The _Gatehouse_ is a red brick structure, with stone
dressings. The _Church_, near it, is one of the most ancient in the
neighbourhood of London; it has been recently restored in good taste.
Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered here, in 1381,
by Wat Tyler’s mob, who stormed the palace, burned its contents, and
destroyed all the registers and public papers. Lambeth Palace is not, as
a rule, shewn to strangers.
[Picture: Lambeth Palace—Lollard’s Tower]
Mansions of the Nobility.—London is not well supplied with noble mansions
of an attractive character; they possess every comfort interiorly, but
only a few of them have architectural pretensions. _Northumberland
House_, lately alluded to, at the Charing Cross extremity of the south
side of the Strand, looks more like a nobleman’s mansion than most others
in London. It was built, in about 1600, by the Earl of Northampton, and
came into the hands of the Percies in 1642. _Stafford House_ is perhaps
the most finely situated mansion in the metropolis, occupying the corner
of St. James’s and the Green Parks, and presenting four complete fronts,
each having its own architectural character. The interior, too, is said
to be the first of its kind in London. The mansion was built by the Duke
of York, with money lent by the Marquis of Stafford, afterwards Duke of
Sutherland; but the Stafford family became owners of it, and have spent
at least a quarter of a million sterling on the house and its
decorations. _Apsley House_, at the corner of Piccadilly and Hyde Park,
is the residence of the Dukes of Wellington, and is closely associated
with the memory of _the_ Duke. The shell of the house, of brick, is old;
but stone frontages, enlargements, and decorations, were afterwards made.
The principal room facing Hyde Park, with seven windows, is that in which
the Great Duke held the celebrated Waterloo Banquet, on the 18th of June
in every year, from 1816 to 1852. The windows were blocked up with
bullet-proof iron blinds from 1831 to the day of his death in 1852; a
rabble had shattered them during the Reform excitement, and he never
afterwards would trust King Mob. [Picture: Apsley House, Hyde Park
Corner, Wellington Statue. (Knightsbridge and Sloane Street in the
distance.)] _Devonshire House_, in Piccadilly, faces the Green Park, and
has a screen in front. It has no particular architectural character; but
the wealthy Dukes of Devonshire have collected within it valuable
pictures, books, gems, and treasures of various kinds. _Grosvenor
House_, the residence of the Marquis of Westminster, is situated in Upper
Grosvenor Street, and is celebrated for the magnificent collection of
pictures known as the _Grosvenor Gallery_; a set of four of these
pictures, by Rubens, cost £10,000. _Bridgewater House_, facing the Green
Park, is a costly modern structure, built by Sir Charles Barry for the
Earl of Ellesmere, and finished in 1851. It is in the Italian Palazzo
style. Its chief attraction is the magnificent _Bridgewater Gallery_ of
pictures, a most rare and choice assemblage. This gallery contains no
fewer than 320 pictures, valued at £150,000 many years ago—though they
would now, doubtless, sell for a much higher sum. {40} _Holland House_,
Kensington, is certainly the most picturesque mansion in the metropolis;
it has an old English look about it, both in the house and its grounds.
The mansion was built in 1607, and was celebrated as being the residence,
at one time of Addison, at another of the late Lord Holland. The stone
gateway on the east of the house was designed by Inigo Jones.
_Chesterfield House_, in South Audley Street, was built for that Earl of
Chesterfield whose “Advice to his Son” has run through so many editions;
the library and the garden are especially noted. _Buccleuch House_, in
Whitehall Gardens, is recently finished. _Lansdowne House_, in Berkeley
Square, the town residence of the Marquis of Lansdowne, contains some
fine sculptures and pictures, ancient and modern. Scarcely less
magnificent, either as buildings or in respect of their contents, than
the mansions of the nobility, are some of those belonging to wealthy
commoners—such as Mr. Holford’s, a splendid structure in Park Lane; Mr.
Hope’s, in Piccadilly, now the _Junior Athenæum Club_; and Baron
Rothschild’s, near Apsley House, lately rebuilt.
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT; WESTMINSTER HALL; GOVERNMENT OFFICES.
Houses of Parliament.—This is the name usually given to the _New Palace
of Westminster_, which is not only Sir Charles Barry’s greatest work, but
is in all respects one of the most remarkable structures of the age. The
building, which occupies a site close to the river, and close also to the
beautiful new Westminster Bridge, was constructed in consequence of the
burning of the old Houses of Parliament in 1834. It is perhaps the
finest modern Gothic structure in the world—at least for civil purposes;
but is unfortunately composed of a stone liable to decay; and, to be
critical, its ornaments and details generally are on too minute a scale
for the magnitude of the building. The entire structure covers nearly
eight acres. [Picture: Houses of Parliament from the River] Certain old
plain law courts on the north are intended to be removed. The chief
public entrance is by Westminster Hall, which forms a vestibule to the
Houses of Parliament and their numerous committee-rooms. The rooms and
staircases are almost inconceivably numerous; and there are said to be
two miles of passages and corridors! The river front, raised upon a fine
terrace of Aberdeen granite, is 900 feet in length, and profusely adorned
with statues, heraldic shields, and tracery, carved in stone. The other
façades are nearly as elaborate, but are not so well seen. It is a
gorgeous structure, which, so long ago as 1859, had cost over two
millions. A further cost of £107,000, for frescoes, statuary, &c., &c.,
had been incurred by the end of March, 1860; and the constant outgoings
for maintenance of the fabric, and additions thereto, must every year
represent a heavy sum. Nevertheless, the two main chambers in which
Parliament meets are ill adapted for sight and hearing. On Saturdays,
both Houses can be seen free, by order from the Lord Chamberlain, easily
obtained at a neighbouring office; and certain corridors and chambers are
open on other days of the week. Admission to the sittings of the two
Houses can only be obtained by members’ orders; as the benches
appropriated in this way are few in number, such admissions are highly
prized, especially when any important debate is expected. On the
occasion when the Queen visits the House of Lords, to open or prorogue
Parliament, visitors are only admitted by special arrangements.
Among the multitude of interesting objects in this stupendous structure,
the following may be briefly mentioned. The _House of Peers_ is 97 feet
long, 45 wide, and 45 high. It is so profusely painted and gilt, and the
windows are so darkened by deep-tinted stained glass, that the eye can
with difficulty make out the details. At the southern end is the
gorgeously gilt and canopied throne; near the centre is the woolsack, on
which the Lord Chancellor sits; at the end and sides are galleries for
peeresses, reporters, and strangers; and on the floor of the house are
the cushioned benches for the peers. At either end are three
frescoes—three behind the throne, and three over the strangers’ gallery.
The three behind the throne are—“Edward III. conferring the Order of the
Garter on the Black Prince,” by C. W. Cope; “The Baptism of Ethelbert,”
by Dyce; and “Henry Prince of Wales committed to Prison for assaulting
Judge Gascoigne,” by C. W. Cope. The three at the other end are—“The
Spirit of Justice,” by D. Maclise; “The Spirit of Chivalry,” by the same;
and “The Spirit of Religion,” by J. C. Horsley. In niches between the
windows and at the ends are eighteen statues of Barons who signed Magna
Charta. The _House of Commons_, 62 feet long, 45 broad, and 45 high, is
much less elaborate than the House of Peers. The Speaker’s Chair is at
the north end; and there are galleries along the sides and ends. In a
gallery behind the Speaker the reporters for the newspapers sit. Over
them is the Ladies’ Gallery, where the view is ungallantly obstructed by
a grating. The present ceiling is many feet below the original one: the
room having been to this extent spoiled because the former proportions
were bad for hearing.
Strangers might infer, from the name, that these two chambers, the Houses
of Peers and of Commons, constitute nearly the whole building; but, in
truth, they occupy only a small part of the area. On the side nearest to
Westminster Abbey are _St. Stephen’s Porch_, _St. Stephen’s Corridor_,
the _Chancellor’s Corridor_, the _Victoria Tower_, the _Royal Staircase_,
and numerous courts and corridors. At the south end, nearest Millbank,
are the _Guard Room_, the _Queen’s Robing Room_, the _Royal Gallery_, the
_Royal Court_, and the _Prince’s Chamber_. The river front is mostly
occupied by _Libraries_ and _Committee Rooms_. The northern or Bridge
Street end displays the _Clock Tower_ and the _Speaker’s Residence_. In
the interior of the structure are vast numbers of _lobbies_, _corridors_,
_halls_, and _courts_. The Saturday tickets, already mentioned, admit
visitors to the _Prince’s Chamber_, the _House of Peers_, the _Peers’
Lobby_, the _Peers’ Corridor_, the _Octagonal Hall_, the _Commons’
Corridor_, the _Commons’ Lobby_, the _House of Commons_, _St. Stephen’s
Hall_, and _St. Stephen’s Porch_. All these places are crowded with rich
adornments. The _Victoria Tower_, at the south-west angle of the entire
structure, is one of the finest in the world: it is 75 feet square and
340 feet high; the Queen’s state entrance is in a noble arch at the base.
The _Clock Tower_, at the north end, is 40 feet square and 320 feet high,
profusely gilt near the top. After two attempts made to supply this
tower with a bell of 14 tons weight, and after both failed, one of the
so-called ‘Big Bens,’ the weight of which is about 8 tons, (the official
name being ‘St. Stephen,’) now tells the hour in deep tones. There are,
likewise, eight smaller bells to chime the quarters. The _Clock_ is by
far the largest and finest in this country. There are four dials on the
four faces of the tower, each 22½ feet in diameter; the hour-figures are
2 feet high and 6 feet apart; the minute-marks are 14 inches apart; the
hands weigh more than 2 cwt. the pair; the minute-hand is 16 feet long,
and the hour-hand 9 feet; the pendulum is 15 feet long, and weighs 680
lbs.; the weights hang down a shaft 160 feet deep. Besides this fine
Clock Tower, there is a _Central Tower_, over the Octagonal Hall, rising
to a height of 300 feet; and there are smaller towers for ventilation and
other purposes.
Considering that there are nearly 500 carved stone statues in and about
this sumptuous building, besides stained-glass windows, and oil and
fresco paintings in great number, it is obvious that a volume would be
required to describe them all. In the _Queen’s Robing Room_ are painted
frescoes from the story of King Arthur; and in the _Peers’ Robing Room_,
subjects from Biblical history. The _Royal Gallery_ is in the course of
being filled with frescoes and stained windows illustrative of English
history. Here, among others, specially note the late D. Maclise’s
stupendous fresco, 45 feet long by 12 feet high, representing “The
Meeting of Wellington and Blucher after the Battle of Waterloo;” and the
companion fresco, “The Death of Nelson.”
Westminster Hall.—Although now made, in a most ingenious manner, to form
part of the sumptuous edifice just described, _Westminster Hall_ is
really a distinct building. It was the old hall of the original palace
of Westminster, built in the time of William Rufus, but partly
re-constructed in 1398. The carved timber roof is regarded as one of the
finest in England. The hall is 290 feet long, 68 wide, and 110 high.
There are very few buildings in the world so large as this unsupported by
pillars. The southern end, both within and without, has been admirably
brought into harmony with the general architecture of the Palace of
Parliament. Doors on the east side lead to the House of Commons; doors
on the west lead to the _Courts of Chancery_, _Queen’s Bench_, _Common
Pleas_, _Exchequer_, _Probate_, _and Divorce_, &c. No building in
England is richer in associations with events relating to kings, queens,
and princes, than Westminster Hall. _St. Stephen’s Crypt_, lately
restored with great splendour, is entered from the south end of the Hall.
Somerset House, in the Strand, was built in 1549 by the Protector
Somerset; and, on his attainder and execution, fell to the Crown. Old
Somerset House was pulled down in 1775, and the present building erected
in 1780, after the designs of Sir Wm. Chambers. The rear of the building
faces the Thames, its river frontage being 600 feet long, and an
excellent specimen of Palladian architecture. In Somerset House are
several Government offices—among the rest, a branch of the Admiralty, the
Inland Revenue, and the Registrar-General’s department. More than 900
clerks are employed in the various offices. The rooms in which Newspaper
Stamps are produced by ingenious processes, and those in which the
Registrar-General keeps his voluminous returns of births, marriages, and
deaths, are full of interest; but they are not accessible for mere
curiosity. The learned Societies are removed to Burlington House,
Piccadilly.
[Picture: Somerset House, King’s College, Waterloo Bridge, &c. (St.
Clement’s and St. Mary’s Churches in the distance.)]
Government Offices.—A few words will suffice for the other West-End
Government offices. The _Admiralty_, in Whitehall, is the head-quarters
of the Naval Department. The front of the building was constructed about
1726; and the screen, by the brothers Adam, about half-a-century later.
Most of the heads of the Admiralty have official residences connected
with the building. The _Horse Guards_, a little farther down Whitehall,
is the head-quarters of the commander-in-chief. It was built about 1753,
and has an arched entrance leading into St. James’s Park. [Picture:
Whitehall, Horse Guards, Government Offices, &c. (Westminster Abbey and
Houses of Parliament in the distance.)] The two cavalry sentries,
belonging either to the Life Guards or to the Oxford Blues, always
attract the notice of country visitors, to whom such showy horsemen are a
rarity. The _Treasury_, the _Office of the __Chancellor of the
Exchequer_, the _Home Office_, the _Privy-council Office_, and the _Board
of Trade_, together occupy the handsome range of buildings at the corner
of Whitehall and Downing Street. The interior of this building is in
great part old; after many alterations and additions, the present front,
in the Italian Palazzo style, was built by Sir Charles Barry in 1847.
The _Foreign Office_, the _India Office_, and the _Colonial Office_,
occupy the handsome new buildings southward of Downing Street. The _War
Office_ in Pall Mall is a makeshift arrangement: it occupies the old
quarters of the Ordnance Office, and some private houses converted to
public use. After many discussions as to architectural designs, &c., the
so-called “Battle of the Styles” ended in a compromise: the Gothic
architect (Mr. G. G. Scott, R.A.) was employed; but an Italian design was
adopted for the new Foreign and India Offices.
ST. PAUL’S; WESTMINSTER ABBEY; CHURCHES; CHAPELS; CEMETERIES.
St. Paul’s Cathedral.—This is the most prominent object in the
metropolis. The lofty dome, seen for miles around, stands in the centre
of an enclosed churchyard of limited dimensions, at the head of Ludgate
Hill. A church is said to have existed here four hundred years before
the Norman conquest; and, under various shapes and extensions, it
remained till destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. An entirely
new edifice was then erected in its stead, the important work being
committed to Sir Christopher Wren. It was opened for divine service in
1697, and finished in 1710—one architect and one master-mason having been
engaged on it for 35 years. {47a} The cathedral is built in the form of
a cross, 514 feet in length by 286 in breadth. {47b} Outwardly, the
walls, which have a dark sooty appearance, except where bleached by the
weather, exhibit a double range of windows. There are three porticos at
as many entrances on the north, west, and south. That on the west is the
principal, with twelve lofty Corinthian pillars below, and a second order
carrying the pediment above; the angles are crowned with handsome
bell-towers, much larger than ordinary church steeples, and 222 feet
high. [Picture: St. Paul’s Cathedral and Churchyard, from Ludgate Hill]
But this entrance, which fronts Ludgate Hill, is not much used; the
common entrance is by the north portico and flight of steps. On
entering, the impression produced by the vastness of the internal space
is great, although the walls want something in tone and relief.
(Subscriptions are being gradually raised for richly adorning the
interior.) There are two domes, an outer and an inner, having a brick
cone between them. The inner dome has six paintings relating to events
in the life of St. Paul: they were painted by Sir James Thornhill, and
have recently been renovated. In the choir is much beautiful carving, by
Grinling Gibbons. In various parts of the cathedral are statues and
monuments of John Howard, Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Bishop Heber,
Nelson, Cornwallis, Abercrombie, Sir John Moore, Lord Heathfield, Howe,
Rodney, Collingwood, St. Vincent, Picton, Ponsonby, and others. In the
_Crypt_ beneath are the tombs of Wellington, Nelson, Wren, Collingwood,
Picton, Reynolds, Lawrence, Opie, West, Fuseli, Turner, Rennie, and other
eminent men. Service is performed on Sundays at 10.30 A.M. and 3.15
P.M.; on week-days at 8.0, 10.0, and 4.0. A screen, on which the organ
stood, has lately been removed, throwing open the beautiful choir to view
from the nave. The organ has been placed on the north side of the choir.
Several times in the year service is performed under the dome on Sunday
evenings by gaslight; and an additional organ for this service has been
set up in the south transept. The appearance of the dome at these times,
with a soft light shed around it, is extremely beautiful; and the
congregation generally assembled is enormous. 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. The two _Golden Galleries_ are at the top of
the inner and outer domes. The _Ball_ and _Cross_, reached by more than
600 steps, are at the summit of the building; the ball, about 6 feet in
diameter, is reached with some difficulty. The _Clock-work_ and _Great
Bell_ always attract the notice of visitors. The pendulum measures 14
feet in length, while the mass at its extremity is one hundredweight.
The great bell, which is only tolled when a member of the royal family
dies, is placed in the southern turret above the western portico; it
weighs 4½ tons, and is 10 feet in diameter. The fine deep tones of this
mighty bell, on which the hours are struck, sweep solemnly, in a quiet
evening, across the metropolis, and are at times heard distinctly by
families at their firesides far out in the suburbs. Altogether, St.
Paul’s is a magnificent structure; and though it cost a million and
a-half of money in the erection—a great sum in the seventeenth
century—the amount was well spent on so worthy an object. St. Paul’s is
open, during the greater part of the day, free to the public, but no
place is exhibited during divine service.—Fee for admission to the
whispering gallery and the two outer galleries, 6d.; the ball, 1s. 6d.;
the clock, great bell, library, and geometrical staircase, 6d.; and the
crypt, 6d.
[Picture: Tomb of Nelson—crypt]
Westminster Abbey.—Nearly opposite the Houses of Parliament stands
Westminster Abbey, open to inspection on the north, west, and east, but
much crowded upon by private dwellings on the south. In very early times
this spot of ground was a small insular tract, surrounded by the waters
of the Thames, and called Thorney Island. Here a monastic institution
was founded on the introduction of Christianity into Britain. Under
Edward the Confessor an abbey was raised upon the site of the ruined
monastic building. The ground-plan, as usual, bore the form of the
cross. Rights and endowments were granted; and the edifice assumed a
great degree of architectural grandeur. It had become the place for the
inauguration of the English monarchs; and William the Conqueror was
crowned here with great pomp in 1066. Henry III. and Edward I. enlarged
the abbey; and the building continued nearly in the state in which they
left it, until Henry VII. added a chapel, built in the perpendicular
style, on which the greatest skill of the architect and the sculptor was
displayed; exhibiting one of the most splendid structures of the age, and
so highly esteemed, that it was enjoined that the remains of royalty
alone should be interred within its walls. During the reign of Henry
VIII., the abbey was considerably defaced; but on the surrender of its
revenues, Henry raised Westminster to the dignity of a city, and its
abbey was constituted a cathedral. It was, however, afterwards re-united
to the see of London, in 1550. (An archbishopric of Westminster, created
by the Pope a few years ago, is connected only with Roman Catholic
matters, and is not recognised by the English law.) Westminster Abbey,
during the reign of William and Mary, was thoroughly repaired, and the
towers added at the western entrance, under the direction of Sir
Christopher Wren. These towers, however, though good in outline and
general mass, are not in harmony with the rest of the building. The
length of the abbey is 416 feet; breadth at the transept, 203 feet; and
at the nave, 102 feet; height of the west towers, 225 feet. The exterior
measurement, including Henry VII.’s Chapel, is 530 feet.
[Picture: Westminster Abbey, and St. Margaret’s Church]
On entering at the great western door between the towers, the
magnificence of the abbey soon becomes apparent. The interior displays
grand masses of marble columns separating the nave from the side aisles.
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; solemn and dreary in their antiquity, though relieved by
occasional sunbeams glancing across the misty height of the nave. The
northern window is richly ornamented with stained glass.
[Picture: Westminster Abbey—Chapel of Henry VII.]
The Chapel of Edward the Confessor is at the eastern end of the choir,
and contains the shrine of St. Edward: that it was an exquisite piece of
workmanship, is evident even in its decay. Here also is the
coronation-chair, under which is placed the celebrated stone brought from
Scone, in Scotland, by Edward I. in 1297. The Chapel of Henry VII. is
also at the eastern end; and among the ashes of many royal personages
interred here are those of Mary and Elizabeth. The ascent to this
splendid work of Gothic art is by steps of black marble. The entrance
gates display workmanship of extraordinary richness in brass. The effect
produced on entering this chapel is striking: the roof is wrought in
stone into an astonishing variety of figures and devices; the stalls are
of oak, having the deep tone of age, with Gothic canopies, all
elaborately carved. Here, before the remodelling of the order, used to
be installed the knights of the Order of the Bath. In their stalls are
placed brass plates of their armorial insignia, and above are suspended
their banners, swords, and helmets; beneath the stalls are seats for the
esquires. The pavement is composed of black and white marble; beneath
which is the royal vault. The magnificent tomb of Henry VII. and his
queen stands in the body of this chapel, in a curious chantry of cast
brass, admirably executed, and interspersed with effigies, armorial
bearings, and devices relating to the union of the red and white roses.
The number of statues and monuments in Westminster Abbey is very great.
Most of them are contained in side-chapels, of which there are several:
viz., St. Benedict’s, St. Edmund’s, St. Nicholas’s, St. Paul’s, St.
Erasmus’s, John the Baptist’s, and Bishop Islip’s; besides Henry VII.’s
and Edward the Confessor’s Chapels, already mentioned. These Chapels
contain about ninety monuments and shrines, some of great beauty. The
Choir, the Transept, and the Nave, also contain a large amount of
sculpture—many specimens in wretched taste, by the side of some of the
first works of Flaxman, Chantrey, Roubiliac, Nollekins, Bacon,
Westmacott, Gibson, Behnes, and others. _Poets’ Corner_, occupying about
half of the south transept, is a famous place for the busts and monuments
of eminent men—including Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespeare, Drayton, Ben
Jonson, Milton, Butler, Davenant, Cowley, Dryden, Prior, Rowe, Gay,
Addison, Thomson, Goldsmith, Gray, Mason, Sheridan, Southey, Campbell,
&c. Lord Macaulay and Lord Palmerston were recently buried in the
Abbey—the one in January, 1860; the other in October, 1865. William
Makepeace Thackeray does not lie there, but at Kensal Green, though his
bust is placed next to the statue of Joseph Addison. On the 14th June,
1870, Charles Dickens was interred there. His grave is situated at the
foot of the coffin of Handel, and at the head of the coffin of R. B.
Sheridan, and between the coffins of Lord Macaulay and Cumberland the
dramatist. Near to England’s great humorist, towards his feet, lie Dr.
Johnson and Garrick, while near them lies Thomas Campbell. Shakespeare’s
monument is not far from the foot of the grave. Goldsmith’s is on the
left. A monumental brass, to the memory of Robert Stephenson, has
recently been inlaid in the floor of the nave. The _Cloisters_ and the
_Chapter House_ contain some curious old effigies.
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. This
evening service, at 7 o’clock, is very striking in effect. There are
usually a considerable number of strangers present at the services,
particularly at that on Sunday evenings. The entrance chiefly used is
that at Poets’ Corner, nearly opposite the royal entrance to the Houses
of Parliament; but on Sunday evenings the great western entrance is used.
There is admittance every week-day free to the chief parts of the
building, and to other parts on payment of a fee of 6d.
Parish and District Churches.—When we consider that the metropolis
contains nearly 1000 churches and chapels, it may well be conceived that
only a few of them can be noticed here. In addition to St. Paul’s and
the Abbey, the following are worth the notice of strangers. _St.
Michael’s_, Cornhill, has lately been restored and re-decorated in an
elaborate manner by Mr. Gilbert Scott. _St. Bartholomew’s_, Smithfield,
which has been lately restored, was once the choir and transepts of a
priory church; it is interesting, not only for some of its monuments, but
for the varieties of Norman and Gothic styles which it exhibits. _St.
Stephen’s_, Walbrook, close to the Mansion House, is especially worthy of
attention; as the interior is considered to be one of Wren’s happiest
conceptions. _Bow Church_, or the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, occupies a
conspicuous position on the south side of Cheapside, and has a spire of
great elegance, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The clock projects
over the street from the lower part of the tower. Standing as this
church does, in the centre of the city, those who are born within the
sound of its bells are jocularly called _Cockneys_, a name equivalent to
genuine citizens. [Picture: St. Stephen’s, Walbrook] The consecration of
the Bishop of London takes place at Bow Church. _St. Bride’s_, Fleet
Street, is adorned with one of the most beautiful of Sir Christopher
Wren’s steeples. _The Temple Church_ is described in the section
relating to the Temple and other Inns of Court. _St. Saviour’s_ is by
far the most important parish church on the Surrey side of the water. It
is near the foot of London Bridge, on the west side of High Street,
Southwark. It originally belonged to the Priory of St. Mary Overy, but
was made a parish church in 1540. The Choir and the Lady Chapel are
parts of the original structure, and are excellent examples of the early
English style; they have been restored in the present century. Many
other parts of the building deserve notice. The _Savoy Church_, between
the Strand and the Thames, near Waterloo Bridge, was once the Chapel of
the Hospital of St. John the Baptist; it was destroyed by fire in 1864,
and re-built in 1866. _St. Paul’s_, Covent Garden, built by Inigo Jones,
is noticeable for its massive Doric portico. _St. James’s_, Piccadilly,
one of the least sightly of brick churches outside, has an interior which
exhibits Wren’s skill in a striking degree. _St.
Martin’s-in-the-Fields_, at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square,
has always been admired for its elegant spire and portico, constructed by
Gibbs. _St. George’s_, Hanover Square, is chiefly celebrated for the
fashionable marriages that take place there; the exterior, is, however,
picturesque. _Whitehall Chapel_ was originally intended as part of a
royal residence. It is, in fact, the Banqueting House of the palace of
Whitehall, the only remaining portion of what was once an extensive pile.
The former brick structure is entirely gone. The present edifice, built
by Inigo Jones in the time of James I., is considered to be one of the
finest specimens of Italian architecture in England. Charles I. was
executed on a scaffold erected in front of one of the windows. The
interior of Whitehall is about 112 feet long, 56 wide, and 56 high,
forming exactly a double cube; the ceiling is painted by Rubens, with
mythological designs in honour of James I. The building, being
appropriated to no other use, was converted into a chapel in the time of
George I., and was modernized in the interior, about 30 years ago, by Sir
Robert Smirke. _Old St. Pancras Church_, in Pancras Road, a small but
venerable structure, has in recent years been altered and adapted as a
District Church. Its churchyard was remarkable for the number of artists
and other eminent persons interred in it; at one time it was the great
metropolitan burial-place for Roman Catholics, and consequently an
unusual number of foreigners of celebrity, French _emigrés_ during the
Reign of Terror, &c., were buried there. Recently, however, the old
graveyard has been sadly cut about by the pickaxes and shovels of railway
excavators, engaged by the Midland Railway, which passes thereby.
It is worthy of note, that Sir Christopher Wren built the large number of
_fifty-three_ churches in London after the Great Fire. Nearly all of
them are still standing. Among the most noted are St. Paul’s; Bow
Church; St. Stephen’s, Walbrook; St. Bride’s; St. Andrew’s, Holborn; St.
Sepulchre’s; St. Antholin’s, Watling Street; Christ Church, Newgate; St.
Clement Danes; St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East; St. James’s, Piccadilly; St.
Lawrence, Jewry; St. Magnus, London Bridge; St. Martin’s, Ludgate; and
St. Mary, Aldermanbury.
Among churches and chapels of the Establishment, of more recent date, the
following are worth looking at:—_New St. Pancras_, near the Euston
Railway Station, is the most notable example in London of an imitative
Greek temple; it was built by Messrs. Inwood, in 1822, and cost nearly
£80,000. _St. Marylebone_, in the Marylebone Road, built by Mr. Hardwick
in 1817, cost £60,000; the interior is heavy in appearance, having two
tiers of galleries; in few London churches, however, is divine service,
according to the established ritual, performed on a more impressive
scale. _St. Stephen’s_, Westminster, in Rochester Row, was built wholly
at the expense of Miss Burdett Coutts, and is a fine example of revived
Gothic; the choral service on Sundays is grand and complete. _St.
Paul’s_, at Knightsbridge, and _St. Barnabas_, at Pimlico, especially the
latter, are noticeable for the mediæval revivals, in arrangements and in
service, which belong to what is called the high-church party. _All
Saints’ Church_, Margaret Street, is, perhaps, the most sumptuous of
modern London churches. Although small, it cost £60,000. Mr.
Butterfield was the architect. The exterior is of red and black brick,
very mediæval in appearance. The interior is ornate, with polished
granite piers, alabaster capitals, coloured marble decorations,
stained-glass windows, and frescoes by Dyce. _St. James the Less_, in
Garden Street, Westminster, is a truly remarkable specimen of
coloured-brick architecture, both within and without; Mr. Street was the
architect; and the cost was defrayed by the daughters of the late Dr.
Monk, Bishop of Gloucester. A very noteworthy and costly brick church
has been constructed in Baldwin’s Gardens, Gray’s Inn Lane, from the
designs of Mr. Butterfield, and at the sole cost of Mr. J. G. Hubbard.
It is dedicated to _St. Alban_. The Rev. A. Mackonochie, whose extreme
ritualistic views have several times brought his name prominently before
the public, was the incumbent.
Catholic, Dissenting, and Jewish Places of Worship.—It is almost
impossible to give an exact enumeration of the places of worship in
London, seeing that so many new ones are in the course of building. But
the following figures, based on information supplied by the London
Post-Office Directory, and otherwise, will, it is hoped, be found to
convey a very fair approximate notion on the subject. In that Directory,
then, there will be found the names of about 100 city parishes. But of
these, some 40 have, of late years, been united to other parishes. Thus,
All Hallow’s, Honey Lane, is united with St. Mary-le-Bow; St. Mary
Magdalen, in Milk Street, is united with St. Lawrence, Jewry; and so
forth. Many of the parishes so united have their own churches now
closed, or in course of demolition, and worship is provided for them at
the churches of the particular parishes into which they have been merged.
Without counting the city proper, there are, in London, 50 parish
churches, and at least 300 district churches and chapels belonging to the
Church of England. The Roman Catholics have 41 churches and chapels,
without reckoning sundry religious houses. The Wesleyans have 152. The
recognised Dissenters from the Wesleyan body have 4; the Baptists, 109;
the Independents, 109; the United Methodist Free Church, 27; Primitive
Methodists, 16; the Unitarians, 8; Methodist New Connexion, 8; the
Quakers, 5; the Presbyterians (English) 15; the Church of Scotland, 5;
the Calvinists have 2; the Calvinistic Methodists, 3; the Welsh
Calvinistic Methodists, 4. The Jews have 12 Synagogues; there are 3
French Protestant churches; 9 German (Reformed) churches and chapels;
Swiss Protestant, 1; Swedenborgians, 2; Plymouth Brethren, 3; Catholic
Apostolic (not Roman) 6; 1 Swedish, and 1 Greek church; 1 Russian chapel,
and 3 meeting-houses of Free Christians; 1 Moravian; and some 40 other
places for public worship, belonging to miscellaneous denominations. Of
Roman Catholic churches, the chief is _St. George’s Cathedral_, near
Bethlehem Hospital—a very large, but heavy Gothic structure; the tower
has never been finished for want of funds. [Picture: The Tabernacle] The
service here is more complete than at any other Roman Catholic structure
in England. _St. Mary’s_, near Moorfields; the _Spanish Chapel_, near
Manchester Square; and the _Italian Church_, in Hatton Wall—are three
other Roman Catholic chapels that attract many strangers by their
excellent music. The _Catholic and Apostolic Church_, in Gordon Square,
may be regarded as the cathedral of the so-called Irvingites (a
designation, however, which they repudiate); it is one of the best modern
examples of early English, but there are no funds available for finishing
the tower. The minister of the National Scotch Church, in Crown Court,
Drury Lane, is the celebrated Rev. J. Cumming, D.D., whose preaching
attracts large congregations. Of the dissenting chapels in London, by
far the most remarkable is Mr. Spurgeon’s _Tabernacle_, built at a cost
of about £30,000, at Newington, near the Elephant and Castle; everything,
within and without, has been made subservient to the accommodating of
4000 or 5000 persons, all of whom can hear, and nearly all see, the
celebrated preacher. The principal _Jews’ Synagogue_ is in Great St.
Helen’s, near Leadenhall Street—remarkable rather for the ceremonies, at
certain seasons of the year, than for anything in the building itself. A
synagogue exists for the Jews residing in the western half of the
metropolis, in Great Portland Street.
Cemeteries.—Intramural burial is now forbidden in London. The chief
cemeteries are those at Highgate, Finchley, Abney Park, Mile-End, Kensal
Green, Bethnal Green, Ilford, Brompton, Norwood, Nunhead, and Camberwell.
There is a very fine view of London, on a clear day, from the
first-named. Kensal Green contains the graves of many distinguished
persons. Princess Sophia was buried at the last-named cemetery; and a
sedulous visitor would discover the tombs and graves of Sydney Smith, the
daughters and a grandchild of Sir Walter Scott, Allan Cunningham, John
Murray, Thomas Hood, Liston, Loudon, Callcott, Birkbeck, Brunel,
Thackeray, and other persons of note. 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. _Old St. Pancras Churchyard_ has already been named; and another
worthy of attention is _Bunhill Fields_ burying-ground. It has been
called the ‘Campo Santo’ of Dissenters, for there lie the remains of
Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan, John Owen, George Fox, (who founded the sect
of the Quakers about 1646,) Dr. Isaac Watts, and many a stout defender of
nonconformity.
BRITISH AND SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUMS; SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENTS.
British Museum.—This is a great national establishment, containing a vast
and constantly-increasing collection of books, maps, drawings, prints,
sculptures, antiquities, and natural curiosities. It occupies a most
extensive suite of buildings in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury,
commenced in 1823, and not even now finished. The sum spent on them is
little less than £1,000,000. Sir Richard Smirke was the architect. The
principal, or south front, 370 feet long, presents a range of 44 columns,
the centre being a majestic portico, with sculptures in the pediment.
Since its commencement, in 1755, the collection has been prodigiously
increased by gifts, bequests, and purchases; and now it is, perhaps, the
largest of the kind in the world. The library contains more than _eight
hundred thousand_ volumes, and is increasing enormously in extent every
year. The Reading-Room is open only to persons who proceed thither for
study, or for consulting authorities. A reading order is readily
procured on written application, enclosing the recommendation of two
respectable householders, to “the Principal Librarian.” It is open
nearly 300 days in the year, and for an average of eight hours each day.
No general inspection of this room by strangers is allowed, except by a
written order from the secretary, which can, however, readily be obtained
on three days in the week. The porters in the hall will direct to the
secretary’s office; and strangers must be careful to observe the
conditions on which the order is given. The present reading-room, opened
in 1857, and built at a cost of £150,000, is one of the finest apartments
in the world; it is circular, 140 feet in diameter, and open to a
dome-roof 106 feet high, supported without pillars. This beautiful room,
and the fireproof galleries for books which surround it, were planned by
Mr. Panizzi, the late chief librarian.
The portions of the British Museum open to ordinary visitors consist of
an extensive series of galleries and saloons on the ground and upper
floors, each devoted to the exhibition of a distinct class of objects.
Among others are—terracottas, Roman sculptures and sepulchral
antiquities, Sir T. Lawrence’s collection of casts, British antiquities,
ethnological specimens, Egyptian antiquities, several saloons containing
the Elgin and Phigalian Marbles, Nineveh and Lycian sculptures, &c. The
rooms containing objects in natural history and artificial curiosities
are handsomely fitted up with glass-cases on the walls and tables. Days
may be spent in examining this vast assemblage of objects; and to assist
in the inspection, catalogues for the entire Museum may be purchased at
the door at a cheap price. [Picture: Reading Room, British Museum] The
following will convey an idea of the order in which the general contents
of the Museum meet the eye. Outside the building, in unsightly glass
sheds under the porticos and colonnades, are ancient Greek sculptures
from Asia Minor, chiefly from the famous Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; they
are temporarily so placed until room can be found for them elsewhere. On
entering the hall or vestibule, and ascending the staircase, the
galleries of natural history are reached—stuffed quadrupeds, including a
_gorilla_ purchased from M. Chaillu; stuffed birds; birds’ eggs; shells
in immense variety and of surpassing beauty; minerals; and fossils.
These occupy the eastern, northern, and part of the southern galleries.
The western, and the rest of the southern galleries, are occupied by
numerous antiquarian and ethnological collections—including Egyptian
mummies and ornaments, Greek and Etruscan vases, Greek and Roman bronzes,
ancient and mediæval porcelain, ivory carvings, and specimens of the
dresses, weapons, instruments, &c., of various nations. On the
ground-floor, to the right of the hall, visitors are admitted to a room
containing a curious collection of manuscripts, autographs, and early
printed books; and to the King’s Library, a beautiful apartment,
containing the books presented by George IV. This room also possesses a
small but extremely choice display of Italian, German, and Flemish
drawings and engravings; together with a few _nielli_, (black engravings
on silver plates.) The west side of the ground-floor is occupied by the
ancient sculptures—Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian, Lycian, Roman, &c.—A
refreshment-room for visitors was opened in 1866, and is situated in the
western basement.
The British Museum is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and the
whole of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun weeks. It is closed on the first
week in January, May, and September, and on Christmas-day, Good-Friday,
and Ash-Wednesday. The hour of opening is 10 o’clock; that of closing
varies from 4 till 6 o’clock, according to the season of the year.
During many years past there have been newspaper controversies and
parliamentary debates touching the disposal of the rich contents of the
Museum. Almost every part is filled to overflowing; but much diversity
of opinion exists as to which portion, if any, shall be removed to
another locality. Burlington House and the South Kensington Museum, each
has its advocates. Immediate removal of part of the contents has been
decided on.
[Picture: Kensington Museum]
South Kensington Museum.—This very interesting national establishment is
situated at South Kensington, near the Cromwell and Exhibition Roads, on
ground bought out of the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The
varied contents have been either presented to, or purchased by, the
nation, with the exception of a few collections which have been lent for
temporary periods. They consist of illustrations of manufactures and the
useful arts; models of patented inventions; collections of raw produce,
derived from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; a museum of
educational appliances; casts from sculptures and architectural
ornaments; objects of ornamental art, both mediæval and modern; naval
models, &c. Besides these, there are the fine collections of paintings
presented to the nation by Mr. Sheepshanks, and other liberal donors; and
a portion of the Vernon collection, the rest being at the National
Gallery. Turner’s pictures, bequeathed to the nation in his will, were
kept here for some years, but were removed to the National Gallery in
1861. There are, among the group of buildings, some devoted to the
Government Department of Science and Art; but the Museum generally is, so
far as concerns the public, distinct. The Gallery of British Art
contains many hundred pictures, including choice specimens by Turner,
Wilkie, Mulready, Landseer, Leslie, Hogarth, Wilson, Gainsborough,
Reynolds, Lawrence, Constable, Loutherbourg, Callcott, Collins, Etty,
Stanfield, Roberts, Uwins, Creswick, Maclise, Webster, Eastlake, Ward,
Cooke, Cooper, Danby, Goodall, &c. The rooms containing these pictures,
planned by Captain Fowke, are remarkable for the admirable mode of
lighting, both by day and in the evening. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and
Saturdays, the admission is free from 10 A.M. till 10 P.M.; on the other
three days, called _students’_ days, 6d. is charged from 10 A.M. till 4,
5, or 6, according to the season. This is one of the very few free
exhibitions open in the evening (thrice a-week) as well as the daytime.
Bethnal Green Museum.—This is really a branch of the South Kensington
Museum, and is situated not far from Shoreditch Church. It is accessible
by omnibus from most parts of the City and the West End, and is not far
distant from Victoria Park. It was formally opened, in 1872, by the
Prince and Princess of Wales. At the present, its great attraction is
the picture gallery; but it promises to become as popular as any museum
in London, especially as technical information will become an essential
feature of its future existence. It is open under the same regulations
as are observed at the South Kensington Museum.
Museum of Economic Geology.—This small but interesting establishment,
having an entrance in Jermyn Street, is a national museum for the
exhibition of all such articles as belong to the mineral kingdom. It was
built from the designs of Mr. Pennethorne, and was opened in 1851.
Though less extensive than the British and South Kensington Museums, it
is of a very instructive character. Besides the mineral specimens, raw
and manufactured, it contains models, sections, and diagrams,
illustrative of mining, metallurgy, and various manufactures. It is
open, _free_, every day, except Friday.
Museum of the College of Surgeons.—This building, on the south side of
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, can be visited by strangers only through the
introduction of members of the College. The Government, about seventy
years ago, bought John Hunter’s Anatomical Museum, and presented it to
the College. The contents of the museum are illustrative of the
structure and functions of the human body, both in the healthy and the
diseased state; they have been classified and arranged with great skill
by Professor Owen.
United Service Museum.—This is situated in Whitehall Yard. Admission is
obtained through the members of the United Service Institution. The
contents of the museum consist of models, weapons, and implements
interesting to military men. Here see the robe worn by Tippoo Sahib,
when killed at Seringapatam, in 1799. Also observe Siborne’s
extraordinary model of the battle of Waterloo; and notice the skeleton of
the horse which Napoleon rode at that battle.
East India Museum.—Near the building last noticed, in Fife House,
Whitehall, is deposited the collection known as the East India Museum,
formerly deposited at the India House, in Leadenhall Street, and now
belonging to the nation. It comprises a very curious assemblage of
Oriental dresses, jewels, ornaments, furniture, musical instruments,
models, paintings, tools, implements, idols, trinkets, &c. Among the
rest is the barbaric toy known as _Tippoo’s Tiger_. It consists of a
figure of a tiger trampling on a prostrate man, whom he is just about to
seize with his teeth; the interior contains pipes and other mechanism,
which, when wound up by a key, cause the figure of the man to utter cries
of distress, and the tiger to roar. Such was one of the amusements of
Tippoo Sahib! The museum is open free on Mondays, Wednesdays, and
Fridays, from 10 till 4.
Royal Institution.—This building, in Albemarle Street, is devoted to the
prosecution of science, by means of lectures, experiments, discussions,
and a scientific library. It has been rendered famous by the brilliant
labours of Davy and Faraday. Admission is only obtainable by membership,
or by fees for courses of lectures.
Society of Arts.—This institution has existed in John Street, Adelphi,
for a long series of years. Its object is the encouragement of arts,
manufactures, agriculture, and commerce. Under the auspices of the late
Prince Consort, it was mainly instrumental in bringing about the two
great International Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862. The lecture-room
contains six remarkable pictures by Barry, illustrative of ‘Human
Culture.’ Every year there are free exhibitions of manufactures and new
mechanical inventions.
Scientific Societies.—There are many other Scientific Societies which
hold their meetings in London; but only a few of them possess buildings
worthy of much attention, or contain collections that would interest a
mere casual visitor. The _Royal_, the _Astronomical_, the _Geological_,
the _Chemical_, and the _Linnæan_ Societies, the _College of Physicians_,
the _Institution of Civil Engineers_, and others of like kind, are those
to which we here refer. Many of these societies are at present
accommodated with the use of apartments at the public expense, in
Burlington House, Piccadilly.
NATIONAL GALLERY; ROYAL ACADEMY; ART EXHIBITIONS.
National Gallery.—This building, in Trafalgar Square, is the chief
depository of the pictures belonging to the nation. In 1824, the
Government purchased the Angerstein collection of 38 pictures, for
£57,000, and exhibited it for a time at a house in Pall Mall. The
present structure was finished in 1838, at a cost of about £100,000, from
the designs of Mr. Wilkins. Since that year till 1869, the Royal Academy
occupied the eastern half, and the National Gallery the western. In the
last-named year, the Royal Academy was removed to Burlington House; and
the whole of the building is now what its name denotes. This National
Gallery now comprises the Angerstein collection, together with numerous
pictures presented to the nation by Lord Farnborough, Sir George
Beaumont, the Rev. Holwell Carr, Mr. Vernon, and other persons; and, most
recent of all, the Turner collection, bequeathed to the nation by that
greatest of our landscape painters. Every year, likewise, witnesses the
purchase of choice old pictures out of funds provided by Parliament. The
grant annually is about £10,000. To accommodate the constantly
increasing collection, the centre of the building was re-constructed in
1861, and a very handsome new saloon built, in which are deposited the
choicest examples of the Italian Schools of Painting: forming, with its
contents, one of the noblest rooms of the kind in Europe. To name the
pictures in this collection would be to name some of the finest works of
the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and French schools of painters. Some of
the most costly of the pictures are the following:—Murillo’s ‘Holy
Family,’ £3000; Rubens’s ‘Rape of the Sabines,’ £3000; Francia’s ‘Virgin
and Child,’ £3500; Sebastian del Piombo’s ‘Raising of Lazarus,’ 3500
guineas; Coreggio’s ‘Holy Family,’ £3800; Perugino’s ‘Virgin and Child,’
£4000; Claude’s ‘Seaport,’ £4000; Rubens’s ‘Judgment of Paris,’ £4200;
Raffaelle’s ‘St. Catherine,’ £5000; Rembrandt’s ‘Woman taken in
Adultery,’ £5250; Correggio’s ‘Ecce Homo,’ and ‘Mercury instructing
Cupid,’ 10,000 guineas; and Paul Veronese’s ‘Family of Darius,’ £14,000.
Royal Academy, Burlington House.—The Academy was established in 1768, for
the encouragement of the fine arts. Until the finishing of Mr. Wilkin’s
building, the Academy held its meetings and exhibitions in a small number
of rooms at Somerset House. Students are admitted on evidence of
sufficient preliminary training, and taught gratuitously; but so far as
the public is concerned, the Royal Academy is chiefly known by its famous
Annual Exhibition of modern English pictures and sculptures, from May to
July. This Exhibition is a very profitable affair to the Academy. Royal
commissions and parliamentary committees find a difficulty in
investigating the revenues, privileges, and claims of the Academy; it is
known, however, that the schools are maintained out of the profits.
Concerning the building in Trafalgar Square, most persons agree that the
main front is too much cut up in petty detail, and that one of the finest
sites in Europe has thus been comparatively neglected. Some have
humorously nicknamed it “The National Cruet Stand.”
National Portrait Gallery.—This infant gallery, established by the nation
in 1857, is now at Exhibition Road, South Kensington. The object is to
be strictly confined to the collecting of a series of national portraits
of persons of any note, whether of early or of late days. A sum of £2000
a-year is voted for this purpose. The collection is yet only small, but
very interesting, and is yearly increasing. Open free on Wednesdays and
Saturdays.
Soane Museum.—This closely-packed collection, presented to the nation by
the late Sir John Soane, the architect, occupies the house which he used
to inhabit, at No. 13, on the north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Every
nook and corner of about 24 rooms is crowded with works of
art—sarcophagi, ancient gems and intaglios, medals and coins, sculptures,
sketches and models of sculptures, books of prints, portfolios of
drawings, Hogarth’s famous series of pictures of the ‘Rake’s Progress,’
and numerous other examples of _vertu_, some of which cost large sums of
money. The place is open every Wednesday from February to August
inclusive, and every Thursday and Friday in April, May, and June, from 10
till 4. Still, these are very insufficient facilities (only 56 days out
of the 365 in the year) for seeing a fine collection of treasures.
Orders for admission are sent, on application, by post.
Art Exhibitions.—There are always numerous picture exhibitions open in
the summer months—such as those formed by the _British Institution_, the
_Society of British Artists_, the _Society of Painters in Water Colours_,
&c.; concerning which information can be seen in the advertisement
columns of the newspapers. At the British Institution there is a spring
exhibition of modern pictures, and a summer exhibition of ancient. The
price of admission to such places is almost invariably One Shilling.
Other exhibitions, pertaining more to entertainment than to fine arts,
are briefly noticed in a later section.
COLLEGES; SCHOOLS; HOSPITALS; CHARITIES.
London, as may well be imagined, is largely supplied with institutions
tending to the proper care of the young, the aged, the sick, and the
impoverished. A few of the more important among them are worthy of the
attention of strangers.
Colleges.—The two chief colleges in London are connected with the _London
University_. This University is a body of persons, not (as many suppose)
a building. The body was established in 1837, to confer degrees on the
students or graduates of many different colleges in and about London. It
occupies apartments at Burlington House, Piccadilly, lent by the
government for examining purposes; but it neither teaches nor gives
lectures. _University College_, in Gower Street, was originally called
_London University_; but since 1837, the more limited designation has
been given to it. [Picture: University College] It was founded in 1828,
on the proprietary system, to afford a good middle-class education at a
moderate expense, without limitation as to religious tests. Hence it is
much frequented by Jews, Parsees, Hindoos, &c. The whole range of
college tuition is given, except divinity; with the addition of much
fuller instruction in science and in modern languages than was before
given in colleges. The building, with its lofty portico, might possibly
have presented a good appearance if the plans of the architect had been
carried out; but, through want of funds, the wings have never been built,
and the structure is ridiculously incomplete. The college possesses a
fine collection of casts from Flaxman’s sculptures, usually open to
inspection by strangers. _King’s College_, in the Strand, has been
already mentioned as adjoining Somerset House on the east. It was
founded in the same year as University College, expressly in connection
with the Established Church of England. There was some sectarian
bitterness between the two establishments at first, but both have settled
down into a steady career of usefulness. The teaching of divinity, and
the observance of church-service as part of the routine, are maintained
at King’s College. _Gordon College_, or _University Hall_, in Gordon
Square, is an establishment mainly supported by Unitarians; the building
itself, as a modern imitation of the old red-brick style, is worthy of a
passing glance. _New College_, at St. John’s Wood, for
Congregationalists or Independents; the _Baptist College_, in the
Regent’s Park; the _English Presbyterian Theological College_, Guildford
Street, W.C.; the _Wesleyan College_, in the Horseferry Road; _Hackney
College_; and a few others of less note—are establishments maintained by
various bodies of dissenters; some for educating ministers for the
pulpit; some for training schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. Of the
buildings so occupied, the handsomest is New College. This was
established, a few years ago, as a substitute for _Highbury_, _Homerton_,
and _Coward_ Colleges, all belonging to the Congregationalists. _Gresham
College_: this is not a college in the modern sense of the term; it is
only a lecture-room. Sir Thomas Gresham left an endowment for an annual
series of lectures, and residences and stipends for the lecturers. The
charity was greatly misused during the 17th and 18th centuries. Public
attention having been called to the subject, a new lecture hall was
built, a few years ago, at the corner of Basinghall and Gresham Streets,
out of the accumulated fund; and lectures are delivered here at certain
periods of each year. The subjects are divinity, physic, astronomy,
geometry, law, rhetoric, and music. The lectures take place in the
middle of the day, some in Latin, some in English; they are freely open
to the public; but the auditors, at such an hour and in such a
place—surrounded by the busy hum of commerce—are very few in number.
Among the training colleges for schoolmasters and mistresses may be named
the _National Society’s_ at Battersea; _St. Mark’s Training College_,
Fulham Road; the _Training Institution_ for schoolmistresses, King’s
Road, Chelsea; the _British and Foreign_ in the Borough Road; and the
_Home and Colonial_ in Gray’s Inn Road. At Islington is a Church of
England Training College for missionaries. The _College of Preceptors_,
in Queen Square, resembles the London University in this, that it confers
a sort of degree, or academical rank, but does not teach. Many so-called
colleges are either proprietary or private schools.
Great Public Schools.—The chief of these in London is _Westminster
School_, not for the building itself, but for the celebrity of the
institution; although the college hall, once the refectory of the old
abbots of Westminster, is interesting from its very antiquity. The
school, which was founded in 1560, lies south-west of Westminster Abbey,
but very near it. Some of our greatest statesmen and scholars have been
educated here. _St. Paul’s School_, situated on the eastern side of St.
Paul’s Churchyard, was founded in 1521, by Dean Colet, for the education
of ‘poor men’s children.’ Like many others of the older schools, the
benefits are not conferred so fully as they ought to be on the class
designated. The presentations are wholly in the hands of the Mercers’
Company. The now existing school-house, the third on the same site, was
built in 1823. The _Charter House School_, near Aldersgate Street, is
part of a charity established by Thomas Sutton in 1611. Among other
great men here educated were the late Sir Henry Havelock, and W. M.
Thackeray. There is an Hospital or Almshouse for about 80 ‘poor
Brethren,’ men who have seen better days; and there is a school for the
free education of 40 ‘poor Boys,’ with many more whose parents pay for
their schooling. The chapel and ante-chapel, the great hall and
staircase, and the governor’s room, are interesting parts of the
building. _Christ’s Hospital_, or the _Blue Coat School_—as it is
commonly called from the colour of the boys’ dress—is situated within an
enclosure on the north side of Newgate Street, and is one of the most
splendid among the charitable foundations of London. The buildings stand
on the site of a monastery of Grey-friars, which was granted by Henry
VIII. to the city for the use of the poor; and his son and successor,
Edward VI., greatly extended the value of the gift by granting a charter
for its foundation as a charity school, and at the same time endowing it
with sundry benefactions. The hospital was opened, for the reception and
education of boys, in 1552. Charles II. added an endowment for a
mathematical class; and with various augmentations of endowment, the
annual revenue is now understood to be no less than £40,000. This income
supports and educates nearly 1200 children, 500 of whom, including girls,
are boarded at the town of Hertford, for the sake of country air. The
management of the institution is vested in a body of governors, composed
of the lord mayor and aldermen, twelve common-councilmen chosen by lot,
and all benefactors to the amount of £400 and upwards. The children are
admitted without reference to the City privileges of parents; about one
hundred and fifty are entered annually. It is undeniable, however, that
many children are admitted rather through interest than on account of the
poverty of their parents. After instruction in the elementary branches
of schooling, the greater number of the boys leave the hospital at the
age of fifteen; those only remaining longer who intend to proceed to the
university, or to go to sea after completing a course of mathematics.
There are seven presentations at Cambridge, and one at Oxford, open to
the scholars. The buildings of the institution embrace several
structures of large dimensions, chiefly ranged round open courts, with
cloisters beneath; and a Church, which also serves as a parochial place
of worship. The only part of the establishment, however, worth examining
for its architecture is the Great Hall, occupying the first floor of a
building of modern date, designed by Mr. Shaw, in the Gothic style. It
measures 187 feet long, 51 feet broad, and 47 high, and possesses an
organ-gallery at the east end. In this magnificent apartment the boys
breakfast, dine, and sup. Before meals, one of the elder inmates repeats
a long grace or prayer, at the commencement of which the whole of the
boys, in lines at their respective tables, fall on their knees. The boys
are dressed in the costume selected for them in Edward VI.’s reign; the
outer garments consisting of a long dark-blue coat, breeches, and yellow
worsted stockings. The ‘public suppers,’ on Thursdays in Lent, are worth
the attention of strangers: (tickets from governors.) _Merchant Taylors’
School_, situated in a close part of the City behind the Mansion House,
was founded in 1561 by the Merchant Taylors’ Company. The present
structure was built in 1673, with the exception of some of the
classrooms, which are much more modern. About 260 boys are educated,
wholly on the presentation of members of the Company; and there are
numerous fellowships at St. John’s College, Oxford, open to the scholars.
_Mercers’ Free Grammar School_, in College Hill, is a small establishment
of similar kind. The _City of London School_, in Milk Street, Cheapside,
is one of the most modern of these _Grammar_ Schools, as they are called.
It was founded in 1835, and possesses several Exhibitions for successful
senior scholars.
Other Schools.—The schools established under the auspices of the National
Society, called _National_ Schools, are very numerous, but need hardly be
noticed here. The _British and Foreign School Society_, in the Borough
Road, and the _Home and Colonial School Society_, in Gray’s Inn Road,
train up teachers without reference to religious tests; whereas the
_National Society_ is in connection with the Church of England. Many
very superior schools for girls, under the designation of _Ladies’
Colleges_, have been established in the metropolis within the last few
years, in Harley Street and in Bedford Square, &c. The _Government
School of Art for Ladies_ is in Queen Square, Bloomsbury. The _National
Art Training School_ is at South Kensington.
The London School Board, elected in 1870, under the new Education Act,
has its _locale_ at 33 New Bridge Street, Blackfriars. It has,
practically speaking, almost entire control of the educational systems of
the metropolis, and is armed with inquisitorial powers that remind us of
the ancient Star Chamber. Still, the system of election of the members
of the Board gives a certain guarantee of responsibility, that makes its
prestige, at least, without suspicion.
Schools of Telegraphy are established at 138 Regent Street, W., and 24
City Road, E.C., where the art is fully instructed, to resident and
non-resident pupils.
Hospitals and Charitable Institutions.—A small volume might readily be
filled with a list of London’s charitable institutions. The charities
connected in some way with the corporation of London are _Christ’s
Hospital_, for boarding and educating youth, already mentioned;
_Bethlehem Hospital_, Lambeth, for insane patients; _St. Thomas’s
Hospital_, for treating poor patients diseased and hurt; and _St.
Bartholomew’s Hospital_, West Smithfield, for the same purpose. The City
companies likewise support a number of beneficiary institutions, such as
the _Ironmongers’ Almhouses_ at Kingsland, and others of like kind. The
following hospitals are the most important among the large number founded
and supported by private benevolence:—_Guy’s Hospital_, Southwark;
_London Hospital_, Whitechapel Road; _Westminster Hospital_, near the
Abbey; _St. George’s Hospital_, Hyde Park Corner; _Middlesex Hospital_,
Charles Street, Oxford Street; _University College Hospital_, Gower
Street; _St. Luke’s Hospital_, for the insane, City Road; _King’s College
Hospital_, near Clare Market; _Small-Pox Hospital_, Highgate Rise; the
_Foundling Hospital_, Great Guildford Street; the _Consumption Hospital_,
Brompton; _Charing Cross Hospital_, Agar Street; the _Lock Hospital_,
Harrow Road; and the _Royal Free Hospital_, Gray’s Inn Road. Besides
these, there are several Lying-in hospitals, a Floating hospital on the
Thames, now substituted by a part of Greenwich Hospital being devoted to
a similar use; various Ophthalmic hospitals, and numerous Dispensaries
and Infirmaries for particular diseases. Institutions for the relief of
indigent persons, Deaf and Dumb asylums, Blind asylums, and Orphan
asylums, are far too numerous to be specified. In short, there are in
this great metropolis about 250 hospitals, dispensaries, infirmaries,
asylums, and almshouses; besides at least 400 religious, visiting, and
benevolent institutions for ministering to the various ills, mental and
moral, bodily or worldly, to which an immense population is always
subject. It is supposed that these several institutions receive in
subscriptions considerably over £2,000,000 annually. Some of the
hospital buildings above named are large and majestic in appearance.
When, for the Charing Cross extension of the South-Eastern Railway, St.
Thomas’s Hospital and site, which formerly stood close to London Bridge
Station, were purchased for a sum not very much under £300,000, it was
arranged to rebuild the hospital between the south end of Westminster
Bridge and Lambeth Palace. This hospital, which is now completed,
affords a fine object from a steamboat passing up the river, and is
certainly one of the noblest buildings of its class in Europe.
THE TOWER; THE MINT; THE CUSTOM HOUSE; THE GENERAL POST OFFICE.
This section treats of four important government buildings situated in
the eastern half of the metropolis.
The Tower of London.—This famous structure, or rather group of
structures, is a cluster of houses, towers, barracks, armouries,
warehouses, and prison-like edifices, situated on the north bank of the
Thames, and separated from the crowded narrow streets of the city by an
open space of ground called Tower-hill. The Tower was founded by William
the Conqueror, probably on the site of an older fortress, to secure his
authority over the inhabitants of London; but the original fort which he
established on the spot was greatly extended by subsequent monarchs; and
in the twelfth century it was surrounded by a wet ditch, which was
improved in the reign of Charles II. This ditch or moat was drained in
1843. Within the outer wall the ground measures upwards of twelve acres.
Next the river there is a broad quay; and on this side also there was a
channel (now closed) by which boats formerly passed into the main body of
the place. This water-entrance is known by the name of Traitors’ Gate,
being that by which, in former days, state prisoners were brought in
boats after their trial at Westminster. There are three other entrances
or postern-gates—Lion Gate, Iron Gate, and Water Gate—only two of which,
however, are now used. The interior of the Tower is an irregular
assemblage of short streets and courtyards, bounded by various
structures. The _White Tower_, or _Keep_, is the oldest of these
buildings; and the _Chapel_ in it is a fine specimen of a small Norman
church. Other towers are the _Lion Tower_, near the principal entrance;
the _Middle Tower_, the first seen on passing the ditch; the _Bell
Tower_, adjacent to it; the _Bloody Tower_, nearly opposite _Traitors’
Gate_; the _Salt Tower_, near the Iron Gate; _Brick Tower_, where Lady
Jane Grey was confined; _Bowyer Tower_, where the Duke of Clarence is
said to have been [Picture: Chapel in Tower] drowned in the butt of
malmsey; and _Beauchamp Tower_, where Anne Boleyn was imprisoned. These
old towers are very curious, but few of them are open to the public. The
principal objects of interest are a collection of cannon, being trophies
of war; the horse armoury, a most interesting collection of suits of mail
on stuffed figures; and the crown and other insignia of royalty. In the
_Horse Armoury_, a long gallery built in 1826, is an extensive collection
of armour, arranged by Sir Samuel Meyrick, a great authority on this
subject. It comprises whole suits of armour, consisting of hauberks,
chausses, surcoats, baldricks, breast-plates, back-plates, chain-mail
sleeves and skirts, gauntlets, helmets, frontlets, vamplates, flanchards,
and other pieces known to the old armourers. About twenty complete suits
of armour are placed upon stuffed figures of men, mostly on stuffed
horses. Four of the suits belonged to Henry VIII., Dudley Earl of
Leicester, Henry Prince of Wales, and Charles I.; the others are merely
intended to illustrate the kinds of armour in vogue at certain periods.
One suit, of the time of Richard III., [Picture: Traitor’s Gate, Chapel
White Tower] was worn by the Marquis of Waterford at the Eglinton
tournament in 1839. The gallery also contains some other curiosities
relating to the armour of past days. _Queen Elizabeth’s Armoury_ is in
the White Tower, the walls of which are 13 feet thick, and still contain
traces of inscriptions by state prisoners in troubled times: the armoury
contains many curious old shields, bows, Spanish instruments of torture,
petronels, partisans, beheading axe and block, thumb-screws, Lochaber
axes, matchlocks, arquebuses, swords, &c. Immediately outside these
Armouries, in the open air, are some curious cannon and mortars belonging
to different ages and different countries. The new _Barracks_ occupy the
site of the Small Arms Armoury, destroyed by fire in 1841, when 280,000
stand of arms were destroyed. The _Lions_ in the Tower were among the
sights of the place for nearly 600 years; they were in a building near
the present ticket-office, but were given to the Zoological Society in
1834. The _Jewel House_, a well-guarded room to the east of the
Armouries, contains a valuable collection of state jewels. Among them
are the following:—_St. Edward’s Crown_, used at all the coronations from
Charles II. to William IV.; the _New State Crown_, made for the
coronation of Queen Victoria, and valued at more than £100,000; the
_Prince of Wales’s_ and the _Queen Consort’s Crowns_ (the most recent
wearer of the last was Queen Adelaide); the _Queen’s Diadem_; the _Royal
Sceptre_, _Queen’s Sceptre_, and _Queen’s Ivory Sceptre_; the _Orb_ and
the _Queen’s Orb_; _St. Edward’s Staff_ and the _Rod of Equity_; the
_Swords of Mercy and of Justice_; the _Coronation Bracelets_ and _Royal
Spurs_; the _Ampulla_ for the holy oil, and the _Coronation Spoon_; the
silver-gilt _Baptismal Font_, used at the christening of royal children;
and the famous _Koh-i-noor_, or ‘Mountain of Light,’ the wonderful
diamond once belonging to Runjeet Singh, chief of Lahore, but now the
property of Queen Victoria,—it was an object of great interest at the two
great Exhibitions in 1851 and 1862. Strangers, on applying at an office
at the entrance from Tower-hill, are conducted through a portion of the
buildings by warders, who wear a curious costume of Henry VIII.’s
time—some years ago rendered incongruous by the substitution of black
trousers for scarlet hose. These warders, or _beef-eaters_ (as they are
often called), go their rounds with visitors every half-hour from 10 till
4. The word “beef-eaters” was a vulgar corruption of _beaufetiers_,
battle-axe guards, who were first raised by Henry VII. in 1485. They
were originally attendants upon the king’s buffet. A fee of 6d. is
charged for seeing the Armouries, and 6d. for the Jewel House. From time
to time, when foreign politics look threatening, the Tower undergoes
alterations and renovations to increase its utility as a fortress; and it
is at all times under strict military government.
The Mint.—This structure, situated a little north-east of the Tower, is
the establishment in which the coinage is in great part made, and wholly
regulated. The rooms, the machinery, and the processes for coining, are
all full of interest. The assaying of the gold and silver for coinage;
the alloying and melting; the casting into ingots; the flattening,
rolling, and laminating of the ingots to the proper thickness; the
cutting into strips, and the strips into circular blanks; the stamping of
those blanks on both surfaces; and the testing to ascertain that every
coin is of the proper weight—are all processes in which very beautiful
and perfect apparatus is needed. Copper and bronze coins are mostly made
for the government at Birmingham. From a statement made in parliament,
in August, 1869, by the Right Hon. Robert Lowe, we gathered that _98
millions of sovereigns_ had been coined in the Mint since 1850. But of
these no fewer than 44 millions had been lost to our coinage, because
many of the sovereigns, being overweight, had been sent to the Continent
to be melted down as bullion! There are nearly 500 millions of copper
coin in circulation; and of silver coin, from crown pieces down to
threepenny pieces, something like the astounding number of 286,220,000.
Permission to view this interesting establishment could at one time only
be obtained by special application to the Master of the Mint, who has an
official residence at the spot; but since the death of the late Master,
Dr. Graham, that office will not in future be filled up. A letter to the
Deputy Master will probably obtain the required order to view. We should
add that the removal of the Mint to Somerset House is now seriously
contemplated. It is urged that the price of its present site, if sold,
would readily defray cost of removal.
Custom House.—This important building, situated on the north bank of the
Thames, between London Bridge and the Tower, occupies a site on which
other and smaller custom houses had previously stood. The east and west
ends of the present structure were finished in 1817 by Mr. Laing; but the
central portion was rebuilt afterwards from the designs of Sir Robert
Smirke. The river front is extensive, and although not architecturally
fine, the general appearance is effective. One of the few broad terraces
on the banks of the Thames is that in front of the Custom House; it is a
good position from whence strangers can view the shipping in the river.
The ‘Long Room’ in this building is 190 feet long by 66 broad. By way of
illustrating the enormous amount of business done here, we may mention,
that in the years 1867–68, the amount of Customs’ receipts collected in
the port of London was _more_ than [Picture: Billingsgate, Coal Exchange,
and Custom House. (Fenchurch Station, behind at the right.)] that of all
the _other ports_ of _Great Britain_ taken together, and five times that
of the whole of Ireland. In 1867, the port of London gross receipts were
£10,819,711; and in 1868, £10,694,494. The vast Customs’ duties for the
port of London, amounting to nearly half of those for the whole United
Kingdom, are managed here.
[Picture: General Post Office, &c. (Tower, Monument, and London Bridge
in the distance.)]
General Poet Office.—This large building, at the corner of Cheapside and
St. Martin’s-le-Grand, was finished in 1829, from the designs of Sir
Robert Smirke. It is in the Ionic style, with a lofty central portico;
beneath which is the entrance to the spacious hall (80 feet long, 60 feet
wide, and 53 feet high), having also an entrance at the opposite
extremity; but the central Hall is now entirely enclosed, owing to the
recent great extension of the Postal business. A Money-order Office has
been built on the opposite side of the street; and the Post Office has
been added to in various ways, to make room for increased business. The
main building, which contains a vast number of rooms, is enclosed by a
railing; and at the north end is a courtyard, in which mail-vans range up
and depart with their load of bags, at certain hours in the morning and
evening, for the several railway termini. At other portions of the
building the foreign, colonial, and India mails are despatched. From six
to seven o’clock in the evening a prodigious bustle prevails in putting
letters into the Post Office; and on Saturday evening, when the Sunday
newspapers are posted, the excitement is still further
increased—especially just before six, by which hour the newspapers must
be posted. The establishment, some four years ago, employed 20,000
clerks, sorters, and letter-carriers in the various parts of the United
Kingdom; and since the Post Office took over the business of the
Telegraph Companies, the number of its employés is greatly increased.
The postage charged on foreign and colonial letters is too small to pay
for the mail-packets and other expenses; profit is derived only from the
inland letters. There are now in London and the suburbs about 730
pillar-boxes and wall-boxes; without counting receiving houses.
Newspapers and book packets must not be put in town pillar-boxes. A very
useful novelty, _Post Office Savings’ Banks_, was introduced in 1861. In
the year 1840, in which the uniform rate of one penny per letter of half
an ounce weight, &c., commenced, the revenue of the Post Office was only
£471,000. Its revenue received during the year 1871–72 was no less than
£6,102,900, and every year the receipts are increasing. New postal
buildings of great extent have been erected on the opposite side of the
street.
THE CORPORATION; MANSION HOUSE; GUILDHALL; MONUMENT; ROYAL EXCHANGE.
It will be convenient to group here certain buildings belonging to the
Corporation of London; and to prefix to a notice of them some account of
the mode in which the city of London is governed.
The Corporation.—With respect to civic jurisdiction, the city of London
is governed in a peculiar manner. In virtue of ancient charters and
privileges, the city is a species of independent community, governed by
its own laws and functionaries. While all other boroughs have been
reformed in their constitution, London has been suffered to remain, as
yet, in the enjoyment of nearly all its old usages. The city is civilly
divided into twenty-five wards, each of which has an alderman; and with
one alderman without a ward, the number of aldermen is 26. Each is
chosen for life, and acts as magistrate within his division. The freemen
of the various wards elect representatives annually to the
common-council, to the number of 206 members. The lord mayor, aldermen,
and common-council, compose the legislative body for the city. The lord
mayor is chosen by a numerous and respectable constituency, called _the
livery_, or liverymen; these are certain qualified members of trading
corporations, who, except in electing the lord mayor, sheriffs, members
of parliament, &c., do not directly interfere in city management. The
Court of Aldermen and the Court of Common-council have certain
legislative and executive duties, partly with and partly without the
immediate aid of the lord mayor. The revenue of the city corporation is
derived from sundry dues, rents, interest of bequests, fines for leases,
&c. The magistracy, police, and prisons cost about £40,000 annually; but
this is exclusive of large sums disbursed by the court of aldermen. The
lord mayor is elected annually, on the 29th of September, from among the
body of aldermen. The livery send a list of two candidates to the court
of aldermen, and one of these, generally the senior, is chosen by them.
He enters office, with much pomp, on the 9th of November, which is hence
called Lord Mayor’s Day. The procession through the streets on this
occasion attracts citizens as well as strangers. The advocate and legal
adviser of the corporation is an official with the title of Recorder.
The lord mayor and corporation exercise a jurisdiction over Southwark and
other precincts. Westminster, which is not connected in civic matters
with London Proper, is under the jurisdiction of a high-bailiff. The
city returns 4 members to Parliament, besides the 16 returned by
Westminster, Southwark, Marylebone, Tower Hamlets, Finsbury, Lambeth,
Chelsea, and Greenwich.
In 1829, the old mode of protection by _Watchmen_ was abolished in all
parts of the metropolis except the city, and a new _Police Force_
established by Act of Parliament. This has been a highly successful and
beneficial improvement. The new police is under the management of
commissioners, who are in direct communication with the Secretary of
State for the Home Department; under the commissioners are
superintendents, inspectors, sergeants, and constables. The district
under their care includes the whole metropolis and environs, with the
exception of the city, grouped into 21 divisions, each denoted by a
letter. The constables wear a blue uniform, and are on duty at all times
of the day and night. Three-fourths of the expenses are paid out of the
parish rates, but limited to an assessment of 8d. per pound on the
rental; the remainder is contributed from the public purse. The
corporation have since established a Police Force for the city on the
model of that above mentioned. In addition to two Police Offices for the
city, at the Mansion House and Guildhall, there are eleven for the
remaining parts of the metropolis,—viz., Bow Street, Clerkenwell, Great
Marlborough Street, Thames, Worship Street, Southwark, Marylebone,
Westminster, Lambeth, Greenwich and Woolwich, and Hammersmith and
Wandsworth. The Thames Police have a peculiar jurisdiction over the
river. In 1836, a horse patrol was added to the Bow Street
establishment, consisting of inspectors and patrols, whose sphere of
action is the less frequented roads around the metropolis. With all
these means of preserving the peace and preventing crime, the metropolis
is now one of the most orderly cities in the world; and provided
strangers do not seek the haunts of vice, but pursue their way steadily,
they run little or no risk of molestation. The number of metropolitan
police in 1872 was about 9,000; of city police, 700—including, in both
cases, superintendents, inspectors, &c., &c. The commissioner of
metropolitan police is Lieutenant-Colonel E. Y. W. Henderson, C.B., 4
Whitehall Place, S.W.; the commissioner of city police is Colonel James
Fraser, C.B., 26 Old Jewry, E.C.
The _Drainage_ of London was a matter barely understood at all, and in no
wholesome sense practised, till some time after the Board of Works was
formed, in 1855, when their best efforts to check a rapidly growing
evil—viz., the casting of London’s poisonous sewage into the Thames at
our very doors—were called into play. The estimated cost of one of the
most colossal schemes of modern times was, at its outset, put down at
something over three millions; and when the vast plan for main drainage
was commenced, in 1859, a sanitary revolution began. A far greater sum,
however, must be expended ere the idea is wholly carried out. 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. By some returns, furnished in June, 1870, by the engineer of
the Metropolitan Board of Works, it appears that the average daily
quantity of sewage pumped into the river Thames at Crossness was 170,934
cubic metres, and at Barking 152,808 cubic metres—equivalent to about as
many tons by weight. That quantity, of course, will every year, as
London grows, increase. As the sewers on the north side of the river get
more near to the sea, they can be seen. The south side sewers are nearly
all out of sight. As the tide flows, the filth of London, by their
means, is poured into the water. As it ebbs, the sewage is carried out
to sea. Powerful steam-engines, for pumping up sewage from low levels,
are used as they are required. The clerk of the Metropolitan Board of
Works, who may be seen at Spring Gardens, Charing Cross, will, we should
fancy, oblige any gentleman with engineering proclivities with an order
to view what has already been accomplished by marvellous ability and
enterprise,—whose results can in no fair sense gain anything like fair
appreciation without personal inspection.
London is _Lighted_ by sundry joint-stock gas companies; the parishes
contract with them for street lights, and individuals for the house and
shop lights. Gas was first introduced into London, in Golden Lane, in
1807; in Pall Mall in 1809; and generally through London in 1814. There
are something like 2,500 miles of gas-pipes in and about London.
The first of the public _Baths_ and _Wash-houses_ was established near
the London Docks in 1844. The number, of course, has vastly increased.
Many of them are maintained by the parish authorities, and are very
cheap.
The first public _Drinking Fountain_ in London was erected, near St.
Sepulchre’s Church, close to Newgate, in 1859. There are now nearly 200
such fountains and troughs for animals in London.
In 1833, by an agreement among the Fire Insurance offices, there was
established a regular fire-suppression police, or _Fire Brigade_,
consisting of a superintendent, foremen, engineers, sub-engineers, and
firemen; numerous engines are in constant readiness at fifty-four
different stations. (The brigade is now placed under public control,
supported by a house-rate.) The fires in London exceed 1,500 annually,
on an average.
Mansion House.—This is a tall square mass of dark stone building, nearly
opposite the Bank and the Royal Exchange, with a portico of six
Corinthian columns in front, resting on a low rustic basement. This
edifice, which extends a considerable depth behind, is the official
residence of the Lord Mayor of London, provided by the city corporation.
Besides an extensive suite of domestic apartments, it contains a number
of state-rooms, in which company is received and entertained. The chief
of these rooms are the Egyptian hall and the ball-room, which have a
grand appearance. Some fine sculptures by British artists—the best of
which are Foley’s ‘Caractacus and Egeria,’ and Bailey’s ‘Genius and the
Morning Star’—have recently been added; the corporation having voted a
sum of money for this purpose. The lord mayor’s annual stipend is £5,997
8s. 4d., with certain allowances, we believe, not stated; and in the
Mansion House he has the use of a superb collection of plate: he is
likewise allowed the use of a state-coach, &c. Every lord mayor,
however, expends more than this sum during his year of office in grand
banquets.
Guildhall.—This may be regarded as the _Town-hall_, or what the French
would call the _Hotel de Ville_, of London; where are held meetings of
the livery to elect members of parliament, lord mayor, sheriffs, and
others, and where the grandest civic entertainments are given. It is
situated at the end of King Street, Cheapside. The building is old, but
received a new front, in a strange kind of Gothic, in 1789. The interior
of the grand hall is 153 feet long, 48 feet broad, and 55 feet high; it
is one of the largest rooms in London, and can accommodate about 3,500
persons at dinner. Two clumsy colossal figures, called Gog and Magog,
the history of which has never clearly been made out, are placed at the
west end of the hall. Around it are some fine marble monuments to Lord
Mayor Beckford, Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Chatham,
and his son, William Pitt. Note the stained glass with the armorial
bearings of the twelve great city companies; also observe, in the passage
leading to the common-council chamber, the portrait of General Sir W. F.
Williams, the heroic defender of Kars in 1855. At the top of the council
chamber will be seen Chantrey’s statue of George III.; a picture of the
siege of Gibraltar, by Copley; and Northcote’s ‘Wat Tyler slain by Lord
Mayor Walworth,’ with other pictures and portraits. Near by are several
offices for corporate and law courts. The _Library_ contains many
valuable antiquities, books, coins, pottery, &c., and some interesting
autographs. Note that of Shakespere, on a deed of purchase of a house in
Blackfriars. The _Crypt_ is a curious underground vault. On Lord
Mayor’s Day the grand dinner usually costs about £2,200. On the 18th
June, 1814, when the Allied Sovereigns dined here, the gold plate was
valued at £200,000.
The Monument.—This may be regarded as a corporate structure, although it
answers no useful purpose. It is a fluted Doric column, situated in a
small space of ground adjoining the southern extremity of King William
Street, on the descent to Lower Thames Street. It was begun in 1671, and
finished in 1677, at a cost of about £14,500, in commemoration of the
Great Fire of London, which began at the distance of 202 feet eastward
from the spot, in 1666; and its height has on that account (so we are
told) been made 202 feet. It is a handsome column, with a gilt finial
intended to represent flames of fire. Visitors are allowed to ascend by
a winding stair of 345 steps to the top; fee, 3d. No better place can be
chosen from which to view the river, the shipping, and the city
generally.
The Royal Exchange.—This is a handsome quadrangular building on the north
side of Cornhill, having in the centre an open court with colonnades.
The chief entrance faces an open paved space on the west, on which is
placed an equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington. The building was
erected from plans by Mr. Tite, and was opened in 1844; it occupies the
site of the former Exchange, which was accidentally destroyed by fire.
The pediment contains sculptures by Sir R. Westmacott, R.A. The lower
part of the exterior is laid out as shops, which greatly injure the
architectural effect; the upper rooms are occupied as public offices, one
of which is _Lloyd’s_, or, more properly, _Lloyd’s Subscription Rooms_,
where merchants, shipowners, shippers, and underwriters congregate. A
statue of the Queen is in the centre of the quadrangular area. The busy
time on ’Change is from 3 till 4 o’clock, Tuesday and Friday being the
principal days.
THE TEMPLE; INNS OF COURT; COURTS OF JUSTICE; PRISONS.
The buildings noticed in this section belong partly to the crown, partly
to the corporation of London, and partly to other bodies.
The Temple.—Contiguous to the south side of Fleet Street is a most
extensive series of buildings, comprising several squares and rows,
called the _Temple_; belonging to the members of two societies, the
_Inner_ and _Middle Temple_, consisting of benchers, barristers, and
students. This famous old place, taken in its completeness, was, in
1184, the metropolitan residence of the Knights Templars, who held it
until their downfall in 1313; soon afterwards it was occupied by students
of the law; and in 1608 James I. presented the entire group of structures
to the benchers of the two societies, who have ever since been the
absolute owners. The entrance to Inner Temple, from Fleet Street,
consists of nothing more than a mere gateway; the entrance to Middle
Temple was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. _Middle Temple Hall_, 100
feet long, 42 wide, and 47 high, is considered to have one of the finest
Elizabethan roofs in London. A group of chambers, called _Paper
Buildings_, built near the river, is a good example of revived
Elizabethan. A new _Inner Temple Hall_ was formally opened, in 1870, by
the Princess Louise. In October, 1861, when the Prince of Wales was
elected a bencher of the Middle Temple, a new _Library_ was formally
opened, which had been constructed at a cost of £13,000; it is a
beautiful ornament to the place, as seen from the river. The _Temple
Church_, a few yards only down from Fleet Street, is one of the most
interesting churches in London. All the main parts of the structure are
as old as the time of the Knights Templars; but the munificent sum of
£70,000 was spent, about twenty years ago, in restoring and adorning it.
There are two portions, the _Round Church_ and the _Choir_, the one
nearly 700 years old, and the other more than 600. The monumental
effigies, the original sculptured heads in the Round Church, the
triforium, and the fittings of the Choir, are all worthy of attention.
The north side of the church has recently been laid open by the removal
of adjoining buildings; and in their place some handsome chambers are
erected. Hard by, in the churchyard, is the grave of Oliver Goldsmith,
who died in chambers (since pulled down) in Brick Court. The Sunday
services are very fine, and always attract many strangers. The _Temple
Gardens_, fronting the river, are probably the best in the city.
_Lincoln’s Inn_ was once the property of the De Lacie, Earl of Lincoln.
It became an Inn of Court in 1310. The fine new hall—worth seeing—was
opened in 1845. The Chapel was built in 1621–3, by Inigo Jones. He also
laid out the large garden in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, close by, in 1620.
Lord William Russell was beheaded here in 1683. In Lincoln’s Inn are the
Chancery and Equity Courts.
_Graves Inn_, nearly opposite the north end of Chancery Lane, once
belonged to the Lords Gray of Wilton. It was founded in 1357. Most of
its buildings—except its hall, with black oak roof—are of comparatively
modern date. In Gray’s Inn lived the great Lord Bacon, a tree planted by
whom, in the quaint old garden of the Inn, can yet be seen propped up by
iron stays. Charles the First, when Prince Charles, was an honorary
member of Gray’s Inn, and Bradshaw, who tried him, was one of its
benchers.
_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. At the _Old Bailey_, near Newgate, is the
_Central Criminal Court_, for the trial of prisoners accused of crimes
committed within ten miles of St. Paul’s. Nominally, this court is free;
but practically, a small _douceur_ is always extorted by the ushers for a
place. In the other courts this practice of ‘tipping’ is less common.
The _Bankruptcy Court_, in Basinghall Street, the _Clerkenwell Sessions
House_, the _County Courts_, and the _Police Courts_, are other
establishments connected with the administration of justice; but the
business of the first will shortly be transferred westward.
The Record Office.—Connected in some degree with the Courts of Law and
Equity, is the _New Record Office_, Fetter Lane, where is deposited a
vast body of unprinted documents belonging to the state, of priceless
value, including the far-famed _Doomsday Book_; they having been
previously scattered in various buildings about the metropolis. Apply to
the deputy-keeper for an order to inspect any but state papers of later
date than 1688, for which the Home Secretary’s special order is
requisite.
Prisons.—_Newgate_, the chief criminal prison for the city and county, in
the Old Bailey, was a prison in the _new gate_ of the city as early as
1218. Two centuries after it was re-built, and in the Great Fire (1666)
burnt down. It was re-constructed in 1778–80; its interior burnt in the
Gordon ‘No Popery’ riots in 1780; and its interior again re-constructed
in 1857. Debtors are no longer confined here; the few who come under the
new law—which has almost abolished imprisonment for debt—being sent to
_Holloway Prison_ under the new law. Till public executions were
abolished, criminals came out for execution in the middle of the Old
Bailey, through the small iron door over which is suspended a grim
festoon of fetters. They are now hanged privately inside the jail. The
condemned cells are on the north-east side of Newgate. To view the
prison, apply to the sheriff or the lord mayor. The chief debtors’
prison _was_ the _Queen’s Bench_, in Southwark. It is now a _Military
Prison_. The _City Prison_, Holloway, a castellated structure, was built
in 1855, as a substitute for other and overcrowded jails in London.
Other prisons are the _House of Correction_, Cold Bath Fields, capable of
holding 1,200 prisoners; the _House of Correction_, at Wandsworth; the
_House of Correction_, Westminster; _Millbank Penitentiary_, near the
Middlesex end of Vauxhall Bridge, which could, if wanted, hold 1,200
prisoners, and cost £500,000; _Pentonville Model Prison_; _Female
Prison_, Brixton; _Surrey County Jail_, Horsemonger Lane, on the top of
which the infamous Mannings were hanged in 1849; and the _House of
Detention_, Clerkenwell, which the Fenians tried to blow up. The last
prison is for persons not convicted.
BANKS; INSURANCE OFFICES; STOCK EXCHANGE; CITY COMPANIES.
Bank of England.—This large establishment is situated north of the Royal
Exchange; the narrow thoroughfare between being _Threadneedle Street_, in
which is the principal front. This is unquestionably the greatest bank
in the world. The present structure was mostly the work of Sir John
Soane, at various periods between 1788 and 1829. About 1,000 clerks,
messengers, &c., are employed here, at salaries varying from £50 to
£1,200 per annum. The buildings of the Bank are low, but remarkable in
appearance. In the centre is the principal entrance, which conducts to
an inner open court, and thence to the main building. The Dividend and
Transfer Offices, with which fund-holders are most concerned, lie in the
eastern part of the building. Thus far the place is freely open to
visitors. The whole buildings and courts include an area of about eight
acres. The teller’s room shews a scene of great activity—clerks counting
and weighing gold and silver, porters going to and fro, and crowds of
tradesmen and others negotiating business at the counters. The other and
more private parts of the Bank can be seen only by an order from a
director. The most interesting departments are the bullion-office, in a
vaulted chamber beneath—where there commonly are some 14 to 17 millions
in bullion, as a reserve—entering from one of the many open courts; the
treasury; the apartments in which the notes of the Bank are printed; and
the weighing-office, where coin-balances of exquisite construction are
used. In the printing department there is a large steam-engine, which
moves printing-machines, plate-presses, and other mechanism—the whole
being in beautiful order, and forming a very interesting sight. The Bank
is guarded at night by its own watchmen, and a detachment of Foot Guards.
Joint-Stock and Private Banks.—Some of the handsomest modern buildings in
London are those belonging to the Banking Companies. 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. Many have lately been rebuilt in a
substantial and handsome style.
Insurance Offices.—These form another extensive group, which has conduced
much to the improved street appearance of modern London. All the best
conducted Life and Fire Insurance Companies are wealthy; and they have
devoted part of their wealth to the construction of commodious and often
elegant offices. The _County_, the _Royal Exchange_, the _Sun_, the
_Phœnix_, the _Amicable_, the _Equitable_, the _Imperial_, are among the
most noted of these insurance offices. The chief buildings are within a
small circle, of which the Royal Exchange is the centre; another group is
about Fleet Street and Blackfriars; and a western group lies in and near
the Regent Street line.
Stock Exchange.—This building, of which scarcely anything can be seen on
the outside, lies up a paved passage called Capel Court, in Bartholomew
Lane, on the east side of the Bank of England. Dealers and brokers in
the public funds, and in all kinds of joint-stock shares and debentures,
meet and transact business here. They buy and sell, not only for
themselves, but for the public generally; and the amount of business
transacted every day is enormous. The establishment is maintained by
about 900 members, who pay £10 a-year each. They endeavour to enforce
strict honesty in each other’s dealings; but they sedulously refuse to
allow a stranger even to pass the threshold of their Temple of Wealth.
Various Commercial Buildings.—A stranger has only to look at a detailed
map or a directory, to see how numerous are the buildings, especially in
the city, applied in various ways to commerce and trading on a large
scale. The _Trinity House_ on _Tower Hill_; the chambers of the building
that was once the _South Sea House_, near Leadenhall Street; those of the
large but irregular structure called _Gresham House_, in Bishopsgate
Street—are all worthy of a glance, some for their architectural
character, and all for the importance of the work transacted in them.
The _East India House_, in Leadenhall Street, has been pulled down;
commercial chambers in great number, and let at enormous rentals, have
been built on the site.
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. Several of the companies have
halls of great architectural beauty, or curious on account of their
antiquity. Twelve, from their wealth and importance, are called the
_Great_ Companies; and all of these have halls worthy of note. They are
the _Mercers’_, _Drapers’_, _Fishmongers’_, _Goldsmiths’_, _Skinners’_,
_Merchant Taylors’_, _Haberdashers’_, _Salters’_, _Ironmongers’_,
_Vintners’_, _Grocers’_, and _Clothworkers’_. Every year banquets are
given in the halls of these great companies—often under such
circumstances as to give political importance to them. _Mercers’ Hall_,
on the north side of Cheapside, has a richly ornamental entrance.
_Grocers’ Hall_, in the Poultry, is remarkable rather for the age of the
company (more than 500 years) than for the beauty of the building; it is
interesting to note that the Long Parliament was entertained at
city-dinners in this hall. _Drapers’ Hall_, in Throgmorton Street, built
in 1667, replaced a structure which had belonged to Thomas Cromwell, Earl
of Essex, in the time of Henry VIII., and which was destroyed by the
Great Fire. _Fishmongers’ Hall_, the most majestic of the whole, stands
at the northern end of London Bridge, on the west side; it was built in
1831, as part of the improvements consequent on the opening of New London
Bridge, on a site that had been occupied by an older hall since the time
of the Great Fire. _Goldsmiths’ Hall_, just behind the General
Post-Office, is too closely hemmed in with other buildings to be seen
well; it is one of Mr. Hardwick’s best productions, and was finished by
him in 1835, on the site of an older hall. _Skinners’ Hall_, Dowgate
Hill, was built (like so many others of the city halls) just after the
Great Fire in 1666; but was newly fronted in 1808. _Merchant Taylors’
Hall_, Threadneedle Street, is the largest of the city halls. It was
rebuilt after the Great Fire, and has long been celebrated for the
political banquets occasionally given there—this being considered the
leading Tory Company, and the Fishmongers’ the leading Whig Company.
_Haberdashers’ Hall_, near Goldsmiths’ Hall, is quite modern; the present
building having been constructed in 1855. _Salters’ Hall_, St. Swithen’s
Lane, was rebuilt in 1827. _Ironmongers’ Hall_, Fenchurch Street, was
erected in 1748, on the site of an older structure; the banqueting-room
was remodelled a few years ago with great richness. In 1861 this company
held an _Exhibition of Art_, notable for the rarity and beauty of the
objects collected; it was the first thing of the kind organized among
these companies, and was in all respects creditable to those who planned
and managed it. _Vintners’ Hall_, Upper Thames Street, is small and
unpretentious. _Clothworkers’ Hall_, Mincing Lane, is an elegant Italian
Renaissance edifice, erected in 1858, from the designs of Mr. Angell.
Among the minor halls are the _Apothecaries’_, Blackfriars;
_Stationers’_, behind Ludgate Hill; _Armourers’_, Coleman Street; _Barber
Surgeons’_, Monkwell Street, (which contains some fine paintings;)
_Weavers’_, Basinghall Street; _Saddlers’_, Cheapside; and _Paper
Stainers’_, Little Trinity Lane. At the last-named hall an interesting
exhibition of specimens of decorative painting was held in 1864. The
city companies are about eighty altogether. Some, which tell most
singularly of past times, and of the difference between the past and the
present, are the _Cooks’_, the _Bowyers’_, the _Fletchers’_, the
_Woolmen’s_, the _Scriveners’_, the _Broderers’_, the _Horners’_, the
_Loriners’_, the _Spectacle Makers’_, the _Felt Makers’_, the _Patten
Makers’_, the _Parish Clerks’_, and the _Fan Makers’_ companies. All
these, except the _Spectacle Makers’_ and the _Parish Clerks’_, have now
no halls. Eight others, formerly existing, have become extinct. The
only three which are actually trading companies at the present day are
the _Goldsmiths’_, the _Apothecaries’_, and the _Stationers’_. The
Goldsmiths’ company assay all the gold and silver plate manufactured in
the metropolis, stamp it with the ‘Hall-mark,’ and collect the excise
duty upon it for the Government; the Apothecaries’ sell medicines, and
have a certain jurisdiction in relation to medical practice; the
Stationers’ publish almanacs, and register all copyright books.
THE RIVER; DOCKS; THAMES TUNNEL; BRIDGES; PIERS.
We shall next describe certain features connected with traffic _on_,
_under_, and _over_ the Thames.
The River and its Shipping.—The Thames stream rises in the interior of
the country, at the distance of 138 miles above London, and enters the
sea on the east coast about sixty miles below it. It comes flowing
between low, fertile, and village-clad banks, out of a richly ornamented
country on the west; and, arriving at the outmost suburbs of the
metropolis, it pursues a winding course, between banks thickly lined with
dwelling-houses, warehouses, manufactories, and wharfs, for a space of
several miles, its breadth being here from an eighth to a-third of a
mile. The tides affect it for fifteen or sixteen miles above the city;
but the salt water comes no farther than Gravesend, or perhaps
Greenhithe. However, such is the volume and depth of water, that vessels
of great magnitude can sail or steam up to London. Most unfortunately,
the beauty of this noble stream is much hidden from the spectator, there
being very few quays or promenades along its banks. With the exception
of the summit of St. Paul’s or the Monument, and the Custom House quay,
the only good points for viewing the river are the bridges, which cross
it at convenient distances, and by their length convey an accurate idea
of the breadth of the channel. Formerly there were many light and
fanciful boats for hire on the Thames; but these are now greatly
superseded by small steamers, which convey crowds of passengers up and
down the river.
The part of the river between London Bridge and Blackwall, an interval of
several miles, constitutes the _Port_; and here are constantly seen lying
at anchor great numbers of vessels. The portion immediately below the
bridge is called the _Pool_, where coal-ships are usually ranged in great
number. It is curious to watch, while passing up and down the river, the
way in which coals are transferred, by labourers called _coal-whippers_,
from the ships into barges, in which they are conveyed to the wharfs of
the several coal-merchants. At wharfs between the Custom House and the
bridge lie numerous steam-vessels which ply to Greenwich, Woolwich,
Gravesend, Margate, and other places of resort down the Thames; also
steamers for continental ports. London, as has already been observed,
possesses no line of quays on the river. The trade with the ships is
carried on at wharfs jutting upon the water. The Thames is placed under
strict police regulations with respect to trade; certain places being
assigned to different classes of vessels, including those which arrive
from the Tyne, Wear, and Tees with coal, and all coasters. The trade
connected with the Port is mostly carried on in the closely built part of
the metropolis adjacent to the Thames. Almost the whole of this district
consists of narrow streets, environed by warehouses and offices, making
no external show, but in which an incalculable amount of trade is
transacted.
[Picture: Entrance West India Docks]
The Docks.—As a relief to the river, and for other reasons, there are
several very large _Docks_. The lowest or most eastern are the _Victoria
Docks_, in Essex, just beyond the river Lea. They cover an area of 200
acres, and have been the means of introducing many improvements in the
accommodation of shipping. The _hydraulic lift_ at these docks, for
raising and supporting ships during repair, is well worth looking at.
Next are the _East India Docks_, constructed in 1806; they consist of two
docks and a basin, covering 32 acres. Near these are the _West India
Docks_, the entrances to which are at Blackwall and Limehouse; in these
large _depôts_ of shipping connected with the West India and other trade
may at all times be seen some hundreds of vessels, loading or unloading
in connection with the warehouses around. The largest of these docks is
24 feet deep, 510 feet long, and 498 wide; and, with a basin, they cover
nearly 300 acres. Farther up the river, and near the Tower, in the
district called Wapping, are the _London Docks_ and _St. Katharine’s
Docks_. The London Docks consist of one enclosure to the extent of 20
acres, another of smaller dimensions, a basin, and three entrances from
the river. These are surrounded by warehouses for the reception of
bonded goods, and beneath the warehouses are vaults for bonded liquors.
The principal warehouse for the storing of tobacco in bond till it is
purchased and the duties paid, is situated close beside a special dock
called the Tobacco Dock. The Tobacco Warehouse occupies no less than
five acres of ground, and has accommodation for 24,000 hogsheads of
tobacco. The sight of this extraordinary warehouse, and of the
Wine-Vaults, is not soon to be forgotten. The vaults are arched with
brick, and extend east and west to a great distance, with diverging lines
also of great length, the whole being like the streets of an underground
town. Along the sides are ranged casks of wine to an amount apparently
without limit. There is accommodation for 65,000 pipes. These cellars
being dark, all who enter and go through them carry lights. Admission
may be had by procuring an order from a wine-merchant to taste and
examine any pipes he may have in bond: a cooper accompanies the visitor
to pierce the casks. Besides this large vault, which principally
contains port and sherry, there are other vaults for French wines, &c.
_St. Katharine’s Docks_, between the Tower and the London Docks, were
formed in 1828, on a site which required the removal of more than 1,200
houses and 13,000 inhabitants; the earth obtained by the excavation was
employed in raising the site for some of the new streets and squares of
Pimlico. There are twelve acres of water area, and about as much of
quays and warehouses. On the south of the Thames are the _Commercial_
and the _Grand Surrey Docks_, the great centre of the timber trade. The
various docks are the property of joint-stock companies, who receive
rents and dues of various kinds for their use.
Thames Tunnel.—With the view of effecting a ready communication for
wagons and other carriages, and foot-passengers, between the Surrey and
Middlesex sides of the river, at a point where, from the constant passage
of shipping, it would be inconvenient to rear a bridge, a _tunnel_ or
sub-river passage was designed by a joint-stock company. The idea of
tunnelling under the river, by the way, was not a novel one. In 1802 a
company was got up with a similar notion, Trevethick, the inventor of the
high-pressure engine, being its engineer. It came to nought; and in 1825
Mr. (afterwards Sir) Marc Isambard Brunel began his tunnel, at a point
about two miles below London Bridge, entering on the southern shore at
Rotherhithe, and issuing at Wapping on the other. The water broke in in
1827, and again in 1828, when six men perished. After all the funds were
exhausted, and the Government had advanced no less than £246,000 by way
of loan, the work, after many delays, was opened in 1843. The total,
cost was £468,000. The tunnel consisted of two archways, 1,300 feet
long, the thickness of the earth being about 15 feet between the crown of
the tunnel and the river’s bed. As a speculation—toll 1d.—it never paid.
The descent was by a deep, dirty staircase; and only one arch was open
for foot-passengers. But now that the East London Railway Company have
purchased it, a wholesome change has come. Some 40 trains are now
running backwards and forwards through it, from Wapping to Rotherhithe,
and thence to Deptford and New Cross, and _vice versâ_. And so, at last,
the once well-nigh useless scheme, which wore out Brunel’s heart, has
been, some twenty-two years after his death, made of great service to
that part of London.
The Tower Subway.—In the neighbourhood of the Tunnel a subway has been
formed, consisting of an iron tube, 7 feet in diameter, laid below the
bed of the Thames. It belongs to a Limited Liability Company. It was
commenced in February, 1869, and opened for tramway traffic on 12th
April, 1870. Being a losing speculation, the tramway cars ceased to run
on 7th December, 1870; but it was opened for foot-passengers on the 24th
of that month, and it is the intention of the Company to continue it only
as such. It is reached at each end by a spiral staircase of 96 steps.
Its whole length is 1225 feet. A charge of ½d. is made for each person
passing through this Tunnel. The Tunnel is well lighted up with gas, and
the average heat by the thermometer is 65 degrees.
[Picture: Albert Bridge, Chelsea]
Bridges.—The communication between the northern and southern sections of
the metropolis is maintained by means of various bridges. Excluding
_Albert Suspension Bridge_, (between Cadogan Pier, Chelsea, and Albert
Road, leading into Battersea Park,) commenced in 1865, and not yet open,
the number is 14—as follow: 1. _London Bridge_, built by Rennie, and
opened in 1831; it is 928 feet long, and 54 wide; it has 5 arches, of
which the centre is 152 feet span, and cost, with the approaches,
£2,000,000. This is regarded as one of the finest granite bridges in the
world. 2. _South-Eastern Railway Bridge_, to connect the London Bridge
Station with a new terminus in Cannon Street; this bridge, having five
lines of railway, is midway between London Bridge and the one next to be
named. 3. _Southwark Bridge_, by Rennie, was opened in 1819; it is of
iron, 708 feet long, with three magnificent arches, the centre one of 402
feet span; it was a toll bridge, and cost £800,000. In 1865, it was made
free, and remains so, by arrangement between the Company and the
Corporation. 4. _Blackfriars Railway Bridge_, with four lines of rail,
connects the Metropolitan Railway north of the Thames with the Chatham
and Dover Railway on the south. [Picture: Blackfriars Bridge] 5. _Old
Blackfriars Bridge_, by Mylne, was opened in 1769; it consisted of 19
arches, and was 995 feet long. The foundations, however, having become
decayed, the bridge was pulled down, and a magnificent new one, by Mr.
Cubitt, built its place. A wooden bridge of remarkable construction,
with a foot-way _over_ the carriage-way, did duty for traffic till the
opening of Mr. Cubitt’s present structure. This was formally done by the
Queen in person, November 6, 1869. The entire width of the new bridge is
75 feet, the foot-paths being 15 feet each, with a fine road between
them, 45 feet in breadth from kerb to kerb. The entire length of the
bridge, including approaches, is 1,272 feet, and its centre arch has a
span of 185 feet in the clear. It has four piers. All its iron (except
the ornamental portion, which is of cast metal) is hammered. With its
handsome polished red granite piers, Portland stone capitals, and florid
Venetian Gothic ornamentation, light-looking yet massive iron arches,
spandrils, and parapets, and its general _tout ensemble_, new Blackfriars
is, bearing all things in mind, one of the cheapest permanent bridges
thrown across the Thames. Its total cost is under £400,000. 6.
_Waterloo Bridge_, one of the most magnificent in the world, was built by
Rennie, and was opened in 1817; it is flat from end to end, 1,380 feet
long, or 2,456 with the approaches; it consists of nine beautiful arches
of 120 feet span, and cost £1,000,000; a toll of one halfpenny per
passenger yields a very poor return on this outlay. 7. _Hungerford
Suspension Bridge_ has been replaced by a fine new bridge, partly for
foot-passengers, and partly for the Charing Cross extension of the
South-Eastern Railway. 8. _Old Westminster Bridge_, opened in 1750, is
now all removed, to make way for a beautiful new bridge of iron, with
granite piers, built by Mr. Page, opened for traffic in 1862. It is
about 1,160 feet long by 85 feet wide. 9. _Lambeth Bridge_, a wire-rope
suspension bridge of economical construction, from Westminster to near
Lambeth Church, was opened in 1862. 10. _Vauxhall Bridge_, built by
Walker, was opened in 1816; it is of iron, 798 feet long, and consists of
nine equal arches. 11. _Pimlico Railway Bridge_, from Pimlico to the
commencement of Battersea Park, connects the Victoria Station with the
Brighton and other railways. 12. _Chelsea Suspension Bridge_, very near
the bridge last named, gives easy access from Chelsea to Battersea, and
is a light and elegant structure. 13. _Battersea Bridge_ is an old
wooden structure, unsightly in appearance, inconvenient to passengers
over it, and still more so to steamboats under it. 14. _West London
Extension Railway Bridge_, opened in 1863, crosses the Thames from a
point a little above Cremorne Gardens to Battersea town; it is a link to
connect various railways on the north of the river with others on the
south. _Putney Bridge_, _Hammersmith Suspension Bridge_, _Barnes Railway
Bridge_, and _Kew Bridge_, may or may not be included in this series,
according to the acceptation of the indefinite word ‘Metropolis.’
Steam-boat Piers.—If you wish to go eastward of London Bridge, on the
north side of the river, you will find steam-boats at London Bridge to
take you to Thames Tunnel Pier, Limehouse, Blackwall, and North Woolwich.
On the south side, at the Surrey end of London Bridge, you can take boat
for Rotherhithe, Commercial Docks, Greenwich, Charlton, and Woolwich. If
you wish to go westward from London Bridge, on the north side, you can
take boat thence for the following piers:—Bridge, Paul’s Wharf, Temple
Stairs, Waterloo Bridge, Hungerford Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Millbank,
Pimlico, Thames Bank, Chelsea, and Battersea; and on the south side, at
Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Stairs, Vauxhall, Battersea Park, Wandsworth,
Putney, Hammersmith Bridge, and Kew. The steamers make an amazing number
of trips each way daily, between these several piers, at intervals
varying with the season, and at fares ranging from one penny to
fourpence. For example, the fare by the _Citizen_ boats from London
Bridge to Westminster is 1d.; to Pimlico, 2d.; Chelsea and Battersea, 3d.
If you wish to go _quickly_ from Westminster Bridge to London Bridge, you
will avoid delays at piers by getting one of the penny boats which run
every ten minutes from Westminster to London Bridge, only calling at
Hungerford. Steamers for Kew, in the summer, run about every half-hour
from London Bridge, calling at intermediate up-river piers—return ticket,
1s. From Cadogan Pier, Chelsea, you can go to Kew for 4d. And on
Sundays and Mondays you can go up as far as Richmond, if the tide allow,
at half-past 10 a.m. from Hungerford—return ticket, about 1s. 6d. For
more distant journeys, such as to Erith, Gravesend, Sheerness, Southend,
&c., by excursion steam-boats. To Gravesend and back, the fare is 1s.
6d.; Sheerness and Southend and back, 2s. 6d. Boats generally leave
Hungerford Bridge for Gravesend and Erith every half-hour up to 12, and
leave London Bridge at 2 and half-past 4 p.m.; they leave Hungerford
Bridge for Southend and Sheerness at various times from half-past 8,
calling at London Bridge, returning in the afternoon or early evening.
[Picture: The Thames Embankment]
The Thames Embankment is one of the noblest works in the metropolis. As
long ago as 1666 Sir Christopher Wren advocated such a scheme. Till Mr.
Bazalgette, the engineer to the Metropolitan Board of Works, (who, by the
way, planned the main drainage,) came forward with his plans, there had
been scores of others, all over-costly and few practicable. The work was
virtually begun in 1862. Both south and north embankments are now open.
The former (or _Albert Embankment_) was opened the entire length, from
Westminster Bridge to Vauxhall, on the 1st September, 1869; the latter,
(or _Victoria Embankment_,) from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars, in
the middle of July, 1870. What the ultimate cost will be of both these
gigantic works it is for us here impossible to tell. Already the
metropolitan public hare paid for their new Thames boulevard £1,650,000.
And now—in the case of the northern embankment, for example—let us
consider what vast difficulties have had to be surmounted. The words of
an excellent authority put the matter very concisely as follows:—“The
river had to be dammed out for some thirty-eight acres—the mud had to be
dredged out down to the London clay—the granite walls had to be built
below low-water mark; behind these the low-level sewer had to be
constructed. Over this, again, had to come the subway, and behind all
the District Railway, which runs at an average of about eighteen feet
below the surface. It is not known what materials were required for the
railway; but what was used for the Embankment is known. It was:—Granite,
650,000 cubic feet; brickwork, 80,000 cubic yards; concrete, 140,000
cubic yards; timber, (for cofferdam, &c.,) 500,000 cubic feet; caissons,
(for ditto,) 2,500 tons; earth filling, 900,000 cubic feet; excavation,
144,000 cubic feet; York paving, 90,000 superficial feet; broken granite,
50,000 yards superficial. The railway works would make these totals
still more formidable. London is now the metropolis of engineering
works, but there is no part of it in which so many and such varied and
difficult kinds centre as in the Thames Embankment. A section of it
would be a study for engineers for all time.”
The public foot-way had been open since July, 1868. It was for the
formal opening of the carriage-way that the Prince of Wales, on 13th
July, 1870, drove from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars along the
Northern Embankment’s carriage-way. This is sixty-four feet wide, and
the foot-way on the land-side is sixteen feet wide, and that on the
river-side is twenty feet wide. Along the river-side are planted rows of
trees, which in a few years will afford an unbroken line of shade,
doubtless. As the railway works were completed sufficiently to admit of
it, this main roadway has been extended to the Mansion-House, by means of
a new street—_Queen Victoria Street_—referred to in a former page. There
is thus one broad, airy thoroughfare between the Houses of Parliament,
and the West End, and the heart of the city.
It will be obvious that though so much has been done, much yet remains to
be accomplished ere the Thames Northern Embankment is regularly
completed. 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.
Starting from the western end, the Metropolitan District Railway has
already open, along this embankment, five stations, called Westminster,
Charing Cross, Temple, Blackfriars, and Mansion House.
The wall of the Thames Northern Embankment just alluded to is, to quote
once more, “constructed generally of brickwork faced with granite, and is
carried down to a depth of 32½ feet below Trinity high-water mark, the
foundation being of Portland cement concrete. The level of the roadway
generally is four feet above Trinity high-water mark, except at the two
extremities, where it rises to Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges to an
extreme height of about 20 feet above high-water. The rising ground for
both these approaches is retained by a granite faced wall, similar in
character to the general Embankment wall.
“The face of the Embankment forms a graceful curve, having a plane face
to about mean high-water level, and being ornamented above that level
with mouldings, which are stopped at intervals of about seventy feet with
plain blocks of granite, intended to carry lamp standards of cast-iron,
and relieved on the river face by bronze lions’ heads carrying mooring
rings. The uniform line of the Embankment is broken at intervals by
massive piers of granite, flanking recesses for pontoons or landing
stages for steamboats, and at other places by stairs projecting into the
river, and intended as landing-piers for small craft. The steamboat
piers occur at Westminster, Charing Cross, and Waterloo Bridges; and
those for boats midway between Westminster and Charing Cross, and between
Charing Cross and Waterloo Bridge; and both are combined opposite Essex
Street. It is intended eventually to surmount the several blocks and
pedestals with groups of statuary.”
FOOD SUPPLY; MARKETS; BAZAARS; SHOPS.
Food Supply.—The _Quarterly Review_, on one occasion, illustrated, in a
whimsical way, the vastness of the system. The following is described as
the supply of meat, poultry, bread, and beer, for one year:—72 miles of
oxen, 10 abreast; 120 miles of sheep, do.; 7 miles of calves, do.; 9
miles of pigs, do.; 50 acres of poultry, close together; 20 miles of
hares and rabbits, 100 abreast; a pyramid of loaves of bread, 600 feet
square, and thrice the height of St. Paul’s; 1000 columns of hogsheads of
beer, each 1 mile high.
Water and Coal Supply.—The _water_ used in the metropolis is chiefly
supplied by the Thames, and by an artificial channel called the _New
River_, which enters on the north side of the metropolis. The water is
naturally good and soft. The spots at which it is raised from the Thames
used to be within the bounds of the metropolis, at no great distance from
the mouths of common sewers; but it is now obtained from parts of the
river much higher up, and undergoes a very extensive filtration. Nine
companies are concerned in the supply of water,—viz., the _New River_,
_East London_, _Southwark and Vauxhall_, _West Middlesex_, _Lambeth_,
_Chelsea_, _Grand Junction_, _Kent_, and _Hampstead Water Companies_.
Some of the works, within the last few years, constructed by these
companies, up the river, are very fine. Returns furnished to the
Registrar-General by the London Water Companies shewed that the average
daily supply of water for all purposes to the London population, during
the month of May, 1870, was 107,540,811 gallons, of which it is estimated
the supply for domestic purposes amounted to about 88,381,700 gallons, or
26 gallons per day per head of population. The metropolis is supplied
with _coal_ principally from the neighbourhood of Newcastle, but partly
also from certain inland counties; the import from the latter being by
railway. Newcastle coal is preferred. It arrives in vessels devoted
exclusively to the trade; and so many and so excessive are the duties and
profits affecting the article, that a ton of coal, which can be purchased
at Newcastle for 6s. or 7s., costs, to a consumer in London, from 22s. to
27s. The quantity of coal brought to London annually much exceeds
5,000,000 tons, of which considerably more than 2,000,000 come by
railway. The wholesale dealings in this commodity are managed chiefly at
the _Coal Exchange_, a remarkable building just opposite Billingsgate.
[Picture: Smithfield Market]
Markets.—London contains nearly 40 markets for cattle, meat, corn, coal,
hay, vegetables, fish, and other principal articles of consumption. The
meat-markets are of various kinds—one for live animals, others for
carcases in bulk, and others for the retail of meat; some, also, are for
pork, and others principally for fowls. The _New Cattle Market_,
Copenhagen Fields, near Pentonville, built, in 1854, to replace old
_Smithfield Market_, covers nearly 30 acres, and, with outbuildings,
slaughterhouses, &c., cost the City Corporation about £400,000. 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 long, 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. It has cost
upwards of £180,000 already. There are underground communication with
several railways, to bring in, right under the market, meat and poultry
from the country, and meat from the slaughterhouses of the Copenhagen
Fields Cattle Market. _Newgate Market_, as a market, no longer exists.
_Leadenhall Market_ is a _depôt_ for meat and poultry. At Whitechapel
there is a meat market also. The minor meat markets require no special
note here. _Billingsgate_, the principal fish market of London, near the
Custom House, was greatly extended and improved in 1849. It is well
worth visiting any morning throughout the year, save Sunday, at five
o’clock. Ladies, however, will not care to encounter its noise, bustle,
and unsavoury odours. The fish arriving in steamers, smacks, and boats
from the coast or more distant seas, are consigned to salesmen who,
during the early market hours, deal extensively with the retail
fishmongers from all parts of London. The inferior fish are bought by
the costermongers, or street-dealers. When particular fish are in a
prime state, or very scarce, there are wealthy persons who will pay
enormously for the rarity; hence a struggle between the boats to reach
the market early. At times, so many boats come laden with the same kind
of fish as to produce a glut; and instead of being sold at a high price,
as is usually the case, the fish are then retailed for a mere trifle.
Fish is now brought largely to London by railway, from various ports on
the east and south coasts. The yearly sale of fish at Billingsgate has
been estimated at so high a sum as £2,000,000.
_Covent Garden Market_ (connected by Southampton Street with the Strand)
is the great vegetable, fruit, and flower market. This spot, which is
exceedingly central to the metropolis, was once the garden to the abbey
and convent of Westminster: hence the name _Convent_ or _Covent_. At the
suppression of the religious houses in Henry VIII.’s reign, it devolved
to the Crown. Edward VI. gave it to the Duke of Somerset; on his
attainder it was granted to the Earl of Bedford; and in the Russell
family it has since remained. From a design of Inigo Jones, it was
intended to have surrounded it with a colonnade; but the north and a part
of the east sides only were completed. The fruit and vegetable markets
were rebuilt in 1829–30. The west side is occupied by the parish church
of St. Paul’s, noticeable for its massive roof and portico. Butler,
author of _Hudibras_, lies in its graveyard, without a stone to mark the
spot. In 1721, however, a cenotaph was erected in his honour in
Westminster Abbey. The election of members to serve in Parliament for
the city of Westminster was held in front of this church: the hustings
for receiving the votes being temporary buildings. 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. 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. Balls, concerts,
&c., are occasionally given here. The _Farringdon_, _Borough_,
_Portman_, _Spitalfields_, and other vegetable markets, are small
imitations of that at Covent Garden.
The cultivation of vegetables in the open ground within ten miles
surrounding London, has arrived at great perfection; and so
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