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 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 ALEXANDER F MORRISON

 
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 London 
 
 In the Reign of Victoria 
 
 (1837-1897) 
 
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 ... 
 
 By 
 
 G. Laurence Gomme, F.S.A. etc. 
 
 HERBERT S. STONE & COMPANY 
 CHICAGO & NEW YORK 
 
 M DCCC XCVIII
 
 
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 Preface 
 
 Occupied as I have been in London matters all my 
 life, I confess I did not think that the writing of this 
 book would have been so difficult as I have found it to 
 be. The material is so enormous and so scattered, so 
 interesting- and so varied, so surprisingly fascinating as 
 one realizes that it relates to a single community, and 
 [ that community having for its living place the capital of 
 ^ the British Empire, that it is enough to render diffident 
 £! any student who is endowed with a sense of propor- 
 s tion. V 
 
 As it is, I have not produced the book I had intended, 
 when first I undertook the task, at the request of my 
 z friend Mr. Holland Rose. But if it is another book, I 
 % still hope it will be found a useful one. That it will be 
 considered adequate I dare not even hope. I might 
 3 have done so much in other directions and have left 
 . undone so much that I have accomplished, will be 
 "". everyone's opinion. Still, after a deal of consideration, 
 "*• I resolved to represent the London of Queen Victoria's 
 gj reign as a London struggling to become worthy of her 
 S place. That is all she really is. Bad as things were 
 £; in 1837 — and I think I have shown this sufficiently — 
 vm bright and delightful as much of London life is, beau- 
 tiful as London is, there is nothing yet which can be 
 said to be in any way complete. Every country glories 
 in its capital city, helps to make it beautiful, attrac- 
 tive, and prosperous. In Britain only has the capital 
 to struggle on without help, almost, it might be said, 
 with opposition. And so London is only a struggling
 
 vi London 
 
 London after all. If every citizen of hers would help a 
 little, a few years would see great things, and I am not 
 without hope that I may see such help freely and 
 lovingly given. 
 
 I am indebted to various authorities for the informa- 
 tion I have brought together in this volume, and I 
 believe in every case I have made proper acknowledg- 
 ment. Many of the reports published by the London 
 County Council have been used largely in getting to- 
 gether some of the principal facts. Some of these 
 reports are those prepared by myself as Statistical 
 Officer of the Council ; others are those prepared by my 
 colleagues. Among these latter are Mr. Spencer's 
 valuable report on Markets, used in Chapter iv., Mrs. 
 Basil Holmes' report on Burial-grounds, used in Chap- 
 ter vii., and Dr. Garnett's exceedingly valuable reports 
 for the Technical Education Board of the County Coun- 
 cil, used in Chapter ix. The information summarized 
 from these sources is not to be found elsewhere, and I 
 have no hesitation in acknowledging my indebtedness 
 thereto. 
 
 As editor of the series, Mr. Holland Rose has taken 
 much more than ordinary interest in this book, at least, 
 so it appears to me, and I have to thank him for assis- 
 tance as generously given as it has been valuable. Also 
 to my friend Mr. T. Fairman Ordish, I have to tender 
 my most cordial acknowledgment in the reading of my 
 proofs. 
 
 Whatever drawbacks may be found in this book, they 
 are not due to my friends ; whatever good there is in it 
 is hopefully placed at the disposal of those who love 
 London. 
 
 24 Dorset Square, 
 September, i8g%.
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Page 
 
 The London 0/1837 ------- 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 The London of 1837 {Continued) 3° 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 Trade and Commerce 68 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 The Lndustries $4 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 The Growth in Population and Value - 125 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Street Architecture - - 7 J<5 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Parks and Open Spaces 144 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 The Street Lmprovements of London - - - - 152 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 Education T 74 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 London Local Government - - iSS
 
 viii Contents 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Pag* 
 
 Local Taxation ------- 203 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 I. Insanitary Condition 0/ London - - - - 218 
 
 II. Analysis of Robsorts London Directory, 1837 - 220 
 
 III. Occupations of Males and Females from the Census 
 
 0/1851 -231 
 
 IV. Occupations 0/ Males and Females /rom the Census 
 
 0/1891 233 
 
 V. The Food-supply of London ----- 235 
 
 VI. Statistics of Open Spaces ----- 239 
 
 VII. Main Drainage Works of London ... 242 
 
 VIII. London Railways - - - ... 2 ^ 
 
 IX. Local Governinent ...... 245 
 
 INDEX - 246
 
 t • 
 
 
 ... - • . 
 
 London. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 The London of 1837. 
 
 The picture of London in 1837 is not easy to 
 draw. In everything almost it was a different place 
 from that which we now know. It was the City of 
 London and the suburbs of the City of London ; it 
 was not, as it is now, the county of London, grown up 
 from the area surrounding the ancient city bounds. 
 Many of our great towns in other parts of the United 
 Kingdom, with their outstretching suburbs, might 
 afford us an idea of what the London of 1837 was 
 in its general aspect; but we should have to intro- 
 duce the one element which London of all English 
 cities alone possesses, namely, the throbbing life 
 which proclaims it to be, by unquestioned right, 
 the capital of the empire. Other towns dispute for 
 the second place among British cities, but there is 
 no dispute for first place, and all Englishmen, 
 whether inhabitants of the great city or not, agree in 
 their expressed admiration of its wondrous position. 
 
 In going back for more than half a century one 
 is struck by the many indications in prose and also 
 in verse — not always indifferent verse — of the ad- 
 miration with which London was regarded. We 
 get the same sort of admiration in modern days, 
 but only occasionally expressed and only by people 
 specially interested. But in both cases it is curious 
 
 (M517) A
 
 2 London. 
 
 to observe what little attention is paid to the actual 
 meaning of the term London. In the early period, 
 down to 1888 indeed, the term London was, properly- 
 speaking, only applicable to the ancient city, the 
 square mile from the Tower to Temple Bar. All 
 the rest of the area alluded to as London was an 
 indeterminate collection of small places, governing 
 themselves to a great extent by virtue of a long series 
 of local acts, and to a further extent by general acts 
 relating to Sewer Commissions and to the Board of 
 Works created in 1855. The places in this way 
 included in the term London differed according to 
 each speaker's meaning and intention, but the con- 
 glomerate had no existence either in history or law. 
 In 1888 the term London was for the first time 
 properly and legally applicable to an area of some 
 120 square miles centring round the ancient city; 
 but on the other hand, the enthusiasm of the earlier 
 people for a London that did not exist seems to 
 have been largely mixed with expressions of mis- 
 trust and dislike for a London that does exist. The 
 old enthusiasm, however, must reawaken. It is not 
 dead. It is but temporarily diverted by a few people 
 who have not been able to grasp the greatness of 
 the capital city of the empire. 
 
 Retrospects are always pleasing when progress 
 and development have to be chronicled. And the 
 retrospect of London to the^beginning of the Queen's 
 reign certainly presents a vista which has all the 
 charm of enormous distance to render it pleasing to 
 the modern student. I shall not try to describe this 
 either generally or in detail, but certain aspects of 
 London history are peculiar to the Victorian era, 
 and these will be made the subject-matter by which 
 the Queen's London will be presented to the reader. 
 
 The present area of London was in 1837 only 
 beginning to grow into shape, even if it had actually 
 begun. The ancient site of the city was then, as
 
 The London of 1837. 3 
 
 now, covered with houses partly used for occupa- 
 tion, principally for commercial purposes. Within 
 the city area there was a population of 123,000 
 persons, principally congregating in Cripplegate, 
 Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, Aldgate, Newgate, Smith- 
 field, Holborn, Blackfriars, and St. Bride, all of 
 them parishes on the boundary. This popula- 
 tion had slightly decreased since the beginning of 
 the century, owing to expansion from the centre, 
 but the great exodus had not then begun. This, 
 indeed, did not begin until 1861, and then it went 
 on rapidly, the resident population of the city sink- 
 ing down to 75,000 in 187 1, and 31,000 in 1896. 
 These include caretakers, porters, hotel and res- 
 taurant servants, and the lower industrial class, 
 so that there is really very little actual residence 
 in the city. A few of the clergy of St. Paul's 
 Cathedral and other churches, bank managers, and 
 the few residents in Finsbury constitute all that is 
 left of the once wealthy and numerous residential 
 population of the city. 
 
 The district which has now grown into the county 
 of London outside the City bounds was in 1837 
 very sparsely covered with houses. The develop- 
 ment had begun on the west, the Strand district, 
 Westminster, St. Giles, and St. James' being very 
 largely built over, while Holborn and Clerken- 
 well to the north, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, and 
 St. George's to the east, Southwark and North 
 Lambeth to the south, were also nearly built over. 
 Along the great roads, north, east, south, and 
 west, residences were being built upon estates 
 whose owners were only then obtaining acts of 
 parliament to allow them to lease their lands. 
 The map of London in 1837 is indeed more like 
 a great octopus than anything else. The body 
 consisted of an area whose boundary began approxi- 
 mately at Vauxhall Bridge and proceeded thence to
 
 4 London. 
 
 Sloane Square, by Sloane Street, Park Lane, Edge- 
 ware Road south of the Regent's Canal, Maryle- 
 bone Road, City Road, then bending southwards 
 to about the site of the commercial gas-works at 
 Mile End, reaching the Thames at Shadwell Basin. 
 On the south, Greenwich and Deptford in indepen- 
 dent existence joined St. Olave and Southwark as 
 part of the central city, extending with the river 
 about as far as the Walworth Road to Nine Elms. 
 This area was about six miles from west to east, 
 and from two to four miles from north to south. 
 Allen computed the whole to comprehend about 
 nine square miles (Allen, Hist, of London, iii. 2), 
 but this, I think, is somewhat too small to repre- 
 sent the London house area of 1837. The out- 
 stretching limbs were the great roads from the city, 
 along which villa residences were built and which 
 remain to this day in testimony of the general 
 topography of 1837. These roads no longer stand 
 isolated amidst green fields. The space they in- 
 closed has been built upon, and the 9 square miles 
 of 1837 has grown to the 120 square miles of to-day. 
 Such are the general facts which indicate the con- 
 figuration of London in 1837. For my present pur- 
 pose I wish, however, to bring under notice some 
 of the conditions of life in London at that date. 
 Contemporary histories of London and of the 
 several parishes which now constitute the present 
 London contain a few interesting facts which, when 
 pieced together, give a fair idea of the starting- 
 point in 1837 from which the London of 1897 has 
 developed. London consisted of practically six 
 divisions. The City, the chief centre of trade and 
 commerce; Spitalfields, the chief seat of the silk 
 manufacturers; Whitechapel, of sugar refiners; 
 Southwark, extending along the Thames to Vaux- 
 hall, the seat of manufactures of various kinds, 
 tanneries, iron-foundries, glass-works, dye-works,
 
 The London of 1837. 5 
 
 shoe and hat manufactories, breweries, and dis- 
 tilleries; the eastern division, devoted to ship- 
 building, and the docks and warehouses for import 
 and export purposes; the western division, extend- 
 ing from Temple Bar to Knightsbridge, contained 
 the royal palaces, the residences of some of the 
 nobility, the Houses of Parliament, Courts of Justice, 
 Government Offices, &c. ; the north-western division, 
 which, with its newly-built squares and streets, was 
 the most fashionable part of London ; the northern 
 division, extending to the recently-erected districts 
 of Pentonville and Somers Town, constituted the 
 middle-class residential portion. 
 
 These divisions had on their borders the more or 
 less rural parishes of Chelsea, Fulham, Hammer- 
 smith, and Kensington on the west; Paddington, 
 St. Marylebone, Hampstead, St. Pancras, and Is- 
 lington on the north; Stoke Newington and Hack- 
 ney on the north-east; Bow and Bromley on the 
 east; Plumstead, Woolwich, Kidbrooke, Eltham, 
 and Charlton on the south-east; Lewisham, Cam- 
 berwell, Penge, and Lambeth on the south; and 
 Clapham, Wandsworth, Tooting, Streatham, and 
 Battersea on the south-west. These parishes are 
 now part of the county of London, connected by 
 continuous lines of buildings with the central divi- 
 sions, and the rural character of any portion of 
 London proper has departed for ever. 
 
 The reign of George IV. had witnessed consider- 
 able changes in the western portions of London, the 
 Regent's district, as it might be called; and it is 
 curious to read the extraordinary raptures with 
 which these changes were greeted. The miserable 
 Georgian architecture was received with unstinted 
 praise and delight. Old houses and narrow streets 
 gave way to wider streets and newer houses, built 
 after the "Grecian" style, as it was fondly called, 
 and London was supposed to have been rebuilt.
 
 6 London. 
 
 Books of " illustrated London " are devoted to these 
 unhappy specimens of renovated London, while 
 they leave all the beauties of ancient London, the 
 old buildings in the centre and the old villages in 
 the outer parts, unrecorded by the artist's pen. 
 
 In the literature of the day the expansion of 
 London is always alluded to as a thing of mar- 
 vellous, if not ominous, import. Ever since Queen 
 Elizabeth's days the growth of London had been 
 watched with a certain amount of fear. At the 
 commencement of the reign of her great successor 
 the same feeling prevailed in certain quarters. 
 Fenimore Cooper, who was in London in 1828, 
 has left us his impression of the growth of London 
 about this period, which is worth quoting. " As 
 we drove along the long maze of villages that are 
 fast getting to be incorporated with London itself, 
 my mind was insensibly led to ruminations on the 
 growth of this huge capital, its influence on the 
 nation and the civilized world, its origin and des- 
 tinies." He then describes how a connection of his 
 had purchased a small property in the vicinity of 
 London in order to give his children the benefit 
 of country air, and when in 1826 the great novelist 
 was invited to dine with these English relations he 
 found himself in the midst of streets built upon the 
 property of the original owner, whose grandson 
 was then in possession of some fifteen to twenty 
 thousand pounds per annum. "Many", he says, 
 "think the place already too large for the king- 
 dom", and he records that Mr. M c Adam considers 
 the size of London an evil. {England, iii. 67-70.) 
 Mr. M c Adam, whose opinion is thus recorded, was 
 the great road contractor. 
 
 There were thus two Londons in 1837 — tne Lon- 
 don expanding from the centre, with its life, its 
 pleasures, its business, and all the characteristics 
 of a great city; and the London, rural in character,
 
 The London of 1837. 7 
 
 which was gradually being encroached upon and 
 absorbed in order finally to form the one London 
 of 1897. 
 
 I will first endeavour to give an account of the 
 inner London — an account, not of its history, but 
 of its condition ; not of its topography, but of its 
 life — something to show of what materials this great 
 city is composed. 
 
 The City was, of course, absorbed in its com- 
 mercial pursuits. It was the chief port of the 
 kingdom. The old trading monopoly of the East 
 India Company had ceased with the renewal of its 
 charter in 1814, and the new trading co-operative 
 system had not arisen. Trade was in the hands 
 of individual British merchants. The banks even 
 were individual concerns, not joint-stock companies, 
 although even then, as Mr. Rothschild said in 
 1832, "this country is in general the bank for the 
 whole world. I mean that all transactions in India, 
 in China, in Germany, in Russia, and in the whole 
 world are all guided here, and settled through this 
 country." In Lombard Street there were Barclay, 
 Bevan, Tritton, & Co.; Barnetts, Hoare, & Co.; 
 Bosanquet, Anderson, & Co.; Cunliffe, Brooks, & 
 Co.; Esdaile, Greenfell, Thomas, & Co.; Denison, 
 Hayward, Kennard, & Co.; John Feltham & Co.; 
 Glyn, Halifax, Mills, & Co.; Hanbury, Taylor, 
 & Lloyds; Roberts, Curtis, & Co.; Smith, Payn, 
 & Smith; Stevenson & Salt; Stone, Martin, & 
 Stone; Vere, Sapte, Banbury, & Co.; Whitmore, 
 Wells, & Whitmore; and Willis, Percival, & Co. 
 In Cornhill were Barnard, Dimsdale, & Co.; Currie 
 & Co.; Fuller & Co.; and Ladbroke, Kingscote, 
 & Gillman. In Abchurch Lane were Brown, Jan- 
 son, & Co. In Bucklersbury were Cunliffe & Roger, 
 and the Middlesex County Bank. In Princes Street 
 were Drewitt & Fowler. In Lothbury were Jones, 
 Lloyd, & Co. In Fenchurch Street, Hanbury & Co.
 
 8 London. 
 
 In New Broad Street were G. F. Kinloch & Sons. 
 In Mansion House Street were Lubbock, Forster, 
 Clarke, & Co. In Threadneedle Street, Prescott, 
 Grote, & Co. In King William Street, Price, 
 Marryat, & Co. In Nicholas Lane were Master- 
 man, Peters, Mildred, & Co. In St. Paul's Church- 
 yard were Paget, Bainbridge, & Co. In Grace- 
 church Street were Spooner, Attswood, & Co. In 
 Birchin Lane were Williams, Deacon, Labouchere, 
 & Co.; and in West Smithfield, Jones & Son. 
 
 Outside the city there were Child & Co., and 
 Snow, Strahan, & Paul, at Temple Bar; Dixon, 
 Brooks, & Dixon, in Chancery Lane; Goslings & 
 Sharpe, and Hoare & Co., in Fleet Street; Snows, 
 Coutts, and Twinings, in the Strand; Cocks & 
 Biddulph, and H. & G. Drummond, at Charing 
 Cross; Cockburn & Co., at Whitehall; Bouverie, 
 Norman, & Murdoch, in the Haymarket; Sir W. 
 P. Call, Marten, & Co., in Old Bond Street; 
 Hammersley & Clarke, and Ransom & Co., in Pall 
 Mall; Herries, Farquhar, & Co., in St. James' 
 Street; Hopkinson, Barton, & Co., in Regent Street; 
 and Sir Claude Scott & Co., in Cavendish Square. 
 
 The one joint-stock company amidst all this 
 wealth of well-known private bankers was the Lon- 
 don and Westminster Bank, whose head offices 
 were in Throgmorton Street, City, and who had a 
 branch office in Waterloo Place. The jealousy and 
 opposition which the rise of this bank caused among 
 the directors of the Bank of England was the form 
 which the protest against the coming state of things 
 took at this time. But the protest was hardly 
 needed. The businesses of merchants and bankers, 
 and every form of industrial enterprise, were based 
 upon individual effort and individual management, 
 and this single example of the joint-stock company 
 did no more in its early days than to foreshadow 
 what would be the development of the future.
 
 The London of 1837. 9 
 
 The trade with the port of London in 1837 was 
 officially returned at the following totals of vessels 
 entering the port: — 
 
 
 Number. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 British vessels 
 
 Foreign vessels 
 
 Coasters 
 
 4.079 
 
 i,547 
 21,322 
 
 821,788 
 240,135 
 
 2,9", 73° 
 
 
 26,948 
 
 3.973.659 
 
 that is to say, about one-third of the present trade 
 of the port. Below London Bridge were the docks 
 (all except the Victoria Docks, which were not built 
 until 1850), wharves, legal quays, and private moor- 
 ings. Above London Bridge, all the way to West- 
 minster Bridge, except a few spots occupied by 
 private gardens, were wharves chiefly for wood and 
 coal. Coal was then brought only by water. There 
 were usually about 150 colliers in the river dis- 
 charging their cargoes, and from 350 to 400 barges 
 carrying the coal up the river to the different 
 wharves. Now much of this is changed. Most 
 of the coal is brought by railway, and the Thames 
 is freed from what might have grown into an intol- 
 erable nuisance. 
 
 Fenimore Cooper's description of the Thames 
 will help us to realize the former condition of the 
 river. "When full", he says, "it is a river of 
 respectable depth and of some width ; but at low 
 water above London Bridge it is little more than a 
 rivulet flowing amid banks of slimy mud. The 
 wherries in use are well adapted to their work in 
 this part of the river, but lower down they are not 
 sufficiently protected against the waves. The banks 
 of the Thames above Westminster Bridge are quite 
 pretty, and above Chelsea, where the river flows
 
 io London. 
 
 through fields, they may be said to be even more; 
 the villas on the shore, the windings of the current, 
 and the meadows raising them almost to positive 
 beauty. Within the town itself warehouses black- 
 ened by coal smoke, manufactories, timber-yards, 
 building and graving docks, and watermen's stairs 
 principally line the shores. There are no magni- 
 ficent quays, the shipping taking in and discharging 
 by means of lighters, except in the wet-docks, of 
 which, however, there are now nearly sufficient to 
 accommodate all the shipping of the port that is 
 engaged in foreign trade. Much of the trade has 
 gone to the outports, particularly to Liverpool. 
 With the commerce of the river much of its life and 
 peculiarities, it seems to me, have departed. The 
 costumes have disappeared; the watermen have a 
 less jolly manner, and even Jack wears the bell- 
 mouthed trousers no longer. We passed the Temple 
 Gardens and one or two more belonging to private 
 dwellings, before we got to Blackfriars, after which 
 no signs of vegetation were visible. We landed at 
 London Bridge, and inspected the Boar's Head in 
 East Cheap." 
 
 It is interesting to compare this with Von 
 Raumer's description in 1835. In writing his 
 charming letters home to Germany we have the 
 following passage: — 
 
 " From Tilbury to Woolwich the banks of the Thames 
 are bare, from Woolwich to Greenwich there are in- 
 creasing- signs of industry and cultivation; until on 
 arriving at the Docks, you are borne along on absolute 
 forests of ships. Compared with this, anything of the 
 kind that I have ever seen at Havre, Bordeaux, _ or 
 Marseilles, is like a single room cut out of this im- 
 measurable palace. It is true that here, as in Paris, the 
 buildings are, at first sight, in no respect striking; but 
 their very peculiarities show a definite practical aim 
 which distinguishes them from ordinary buildings, and
 
 The London of 1837. 11 
 
 gives them an interest of their own. If, however, the 
 predominancy of mere utility and convenience, to the 
 neglect of all considerations of beauty, be objected to 
 English architecture, this crowd of ships is so far more 
 striking and important a feature in the view, that all 
 those of the land appear insignificant. Here one sees 
 that London is the real capital of the world ; not Parish- 
 spite of the pretensions of its journalists and coteries, 
 Paris is more pre-eminently the Town, Germany the 
 Country, but London alone is entitled to talk of being 
 the World." 
 
 But all this river inspection by the two distin- 
 guished travellers was accomplished by means of a 
 rowed skiff. There were then no penny steam-boats. 
 In 1837 this was altered. Little steamers ran up in 
 summer as far as Richmond and Twickenham, and 
 down to Greenwich and Woolwich. Each steamer 
 could carry 500 passengers. The fares were 6d. to 
 Greenwich, is. to Woolwich, and 4^. to West- 
 minster. 
 
 Of the manufactures the most ancient was perhaps 
 that of silk weaving in the district of Spitalfields. 
 In 1837 competition at Coventry, Manchester, 
 Derby, Paisley, and other places had set in, and 
 the weekly wages to operatives had been reduced, 
 according to Dr. Kay, who inspected and reported 
 upon the district in April 1837, from ^"10,000 or 
 ;£i 2,000 per week to half that amount, and out of 
 14,000 looms one-third were altogether disused and 
 the remainder but partially employed. A weaver 
 had generally two looms, one for himself and one 
 for his wife, while in some families there were four 
 looms. The weaver earned about twenty-five 
 shillings per week on the best looms, and from 
 eight to ten shillings on inferior looms. The 
 district had become squalid and miserable to a 
 degree, and Dr. Kay's report is anything but 
 pleasant reading. It had been invaded by the 

 
 12 London. 
 
 poorest workers from the docks and by the casual 
 population of London, and this character it retains 
 to the present day, though my friend Mr. Holland 
 Rose informs me that a few old weavers still work 
 on at their looms as survivals from the older state 
 of things. 
 
 Bermondsey and Rotherhithe abounded in tan- 
 neries, tenter-grounds, glue and soap manufactories, 
 ropewalks, brimstone and saltpetre works, &c. 
 Bermondsey was not closely built upon, for the 
 manufactures required considerable space, and the 
 pungent odours prevented residence in the district 
 except by those who were obliged to live near their 
 work. Bermondsey Street was occupied by wool- 
 staplers, hair merchants, leather manufacturers, 
 curriers, vinegar manufacturers, and drysalters. 
 Off this street were the tanneries. Tooley Street 
 was occupied with wharfingers, hop and cider 
 merchants, potato merchants, &c. The straw-hat 
 manufacture was also extensively carried on in 
 Southwark, and to some extent at Wandsworth. 
 
 Lambeth had increased rapidly from about 1810 
 to 1837, and the manufacture of machinery, earthen- 
 ware, tiles, &c, was extensively carried on in the 
 northern or riverside portion of that parish. 
 
 The northern districts were not engaged in special 
 manufactures, except perhaps the watch-making of 
 Clerkenwell, but were occupied by the principal 
 retail businesses. 
 
 The number of shops in London was estimated 
 at some 60,000, of which 8500 were engaged in the 
 supply of food, 5000 in liquors, 8000 in clothing, 
 800 to 1000 in coal, 3000 in the building trades, 
 4500 in the supply of household furniture, and the 
 remainder in the general departments of commerce, 
 bookselling, science and art dealing, and the pro- 
 fessions. Paternoster Row, then as now, was the 
 home of booksellers, Lombard Street of bankers,
 
 The London of 1837. 13 
 
 Long Acre of coachbuilders, Cranbourn Street was 
 occupied by straw-hat makers, Holywell Street was 
 occupied by second-hand clothes shops and a few 
 booksellers, Bedfordbury was almost wholly inhab- 
 ited by woollen drapers, tailors' - piece brokers, 
 and trimming sellers, Tottenham Court Road was 
 then much the same kind of market as it is now, 
 and New Cut in Lambeth was a remarkable sight 
 on a Saturday evening, being occupied by butchers, 
 bakers, pork dealers, old-clothes men and itinerant 
 dealers in hot potatoes. 
 
 But the retail businesses were moving to the west 
 end. Ludgate Hill had been the famous emporium 
 for shopping, and it was the chief seat of the silk- 
 mercers (who displayed Indian shawls, French 
 cambrics, Brussels lace), printsellers, booksellers, 
 and jewellers, of the last of which the most famous 
 was the firm of Rendell and Bridges. Fenimore 
 Cooper describes this shop in glowing terms "as 
 the first jewellers and goldsmiths in the world", and 
 then goes on to explain that England has probably 
 more plate than all the rest of Europe united. The 
 shop was large, but it made a wholesale and affluent 
 appearance rather than the brilliant show to be met 
 with in Paris. " You can have ", he says, " no just 
 notion of the affluence of the shops of London 
 generally in the article of plate. Gold, silver gilt, 
 and silver vessels are literally piled in their vast 
 windows from the bottoms to the summits as if space 
 were the only thing desirable. I have seen single 
 windows in which it struck me the simple metallic 
 wealth was greater in amount than the value of the 
 entire stock of our heaviest silversmith." Some of 
 the best of these retail firms are still extant. Meek- 
 ing's in Holborn (now Wallis), Swan and Edgar, 
 Rogers and Hitchcock, Curtis and Harvey are well- 
 known examples. Arcades had come into vogue, 
 and the Lowther Arcade in the Strand, the Burling-
 
 14 London. 
 
 ton Arcade in Piccadilly, and the Pantechnicon in 
 Pimlico, which seems to have been a sort of fore- 
 runner of the modern stores, were all in existence, 
 and very popular. Of bazaars there was one in 
 Soho Square, one in Baker Street, and the Pantheon 
 in Oxford Street. The quadrant in Regent Street 
 had the colonnade extended all round, thus giving 
 the shops the appearance of a sort of arcade. Regent 
 Street, Oxford Street, and Bond Street had already 
 assumed most of the characteristics by which we 
 now know them, and except for the difference in 
 costume of the throng of customers and pedestrians, 
 and in the articles exhibited for sale, this part of 
 London would appear much the same as it does 
 now. Von Raumer, writing in 1835, tells us that 
 the shops did not seem to him to surpass those of 
 Paris in elegance and taste; but the prodigious 
 quantities of goods collected there made them ap- 
 pear what they were, storehouses of the world; 
 and he adds, "The inscriptions and bills in shop- 
 windows sometimes allude to the measures of 
 government. Thus a tea-dealer assures his cus- 
 tomers that he will never have anything to do with 
 * the miserable stuff called free-trade tea ' — that is, 
 contraband tea." 
 
 The markets of London were in 1837 far more 
 useful to the public than they are at present. They 
 did not consist of covered buildings and sanitary 
 arrangements as we see to-day, and Smithfield was 
 an open space of land covered with hurdles. But 
 they were more the people's markets. There were 
 Mark Lane for grain, Smithfield for live stock, 
 Billingsgate for fish, Covent Garden for vegetables 
 and fruit, Newgate and Leadenhall for meat and 
 vegetables; Newport Market near Leicester Square 
 was divided into wholesale and retail markets; 
 Hungerford Market, where the Charing Cross Rail- 
 way-station now stands, entered from the Strand,
 
 The London of 1837. l S 
 
 was a general market ; Aldgate was the market of 
 the Whitechapel butchers ; Spitalfields was a vege- 
 table market; then there were Farringdon Market, 
 a market not far from Finsbury Square, Clare 
 Market in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Portman Market, 
 Carnaby Market, Oxford-Street Market, near the 
 Circus, Cumberland Market, near Regent's Park, 
 and the still existent Shepherd's Market to the west 
 of Berkeley Square. The Borough Market in 
 Southwark was, of course, the chief market of South 
 London for vegetables. In 1837 the Islington 
 Cattle Market was for sale, having proved a com- 
 plete failure. Bloomsbury market, which was estab- 
 lished in 1674, was never a success, and was 
 destroyed in 1852, when New Oxford Street was 
 formed. 
 
 In the way of hotels for the reception of travellers 
 and visitors London could boast in 1837 some 430 
 houses of more or less importance. These included 
 about thirty so-called fashionable hotels, of which 
 Mivart's in Brooke Street and in Davies Street, 
 Warren's in Regent Street, Fenton's in St. James' 
 Street, Limmer's in George Street, Hanover Square, 
 the Clarendon in New Bond Street and in Albe- 
 marle Street, the Burlington in Old Burlington 
 Street, and Wright's in Dover Street, Piccadilly, 
 were considered the best. Some of these names 
 are familiar to us now. But they are not the first 
 hotels of London any longer. The rise during the 
 past thirty years of one hotel after another, each 
 larger and more luxurious than its predecessor, is 
 one of the new features of London. Besides these 
 hotels, however, were the commercial inns and the 
 mail-coach inns, of which I propose to give a list 
 presently. The gin-palace had, however, also be- 
 gun to disfigure the streets. In all there were about 
 4000 licensed houses in London, not a great number 
 compared with the population and the requirements,
 
 16 London. 
 
 and indeed less than had existed a century or so 
 before, when in 1750 a Committee of the House of 
 Commons had investigated the matter and reported 
 a most terrible condition of things. Many of the 
 licensed houses of those days were chiefly supported 
 by supplying malt liquors to resident families for 
 their ordinary daily consumption, a practice which 
 only exists now in the poorest neighbourhoods. 
 They were also chop-houses, and it was a common 
 practice for those who worked away from home to 
 purchase a steak or chop and have it cooked for them 
 at some neighbouring public-house, for which a 
 small charge of a halfpenny was usually made. Still, 
 the growth of the gin-palace "fitted up with spring 
 doors, plate-glass, mahogany or rose wood " {Eng- 
 land and America, 1833, i. 61) was a noticeable 
 innovation, and a bad one; and its continued growth 
 in modern days has assumed proportions which do 
 not tell either for the comfort or picturesqueness of 
 the extra-home life of the people. 
 
 When we turn from this to the outer edge of 
 London there is a considerable change in the class 
 of events to be recorded — inner London was engaged 
 in making money, those who lived at its gates were 
 engaged in spending money. The City turned out 
 of its one square mile of territory a vast hard-work- 
 ing class who went east and north and south to 
 their homes of comfort or of squalor, and a smaller 
 class who went westwards to mingle, as far as they 
 might be allowed, with the aristocracy who yearly 
 came up to their residences in the capital. Every- 
 one knows Thackeray's description of the Sedleys 
 and theOsbornes of Russell Square in the beginning 
 of the century. If this description was true of the 
 period for which it is nominally intended, namely, 
 from 1 8 10 to 1830, it was true of 1837, for it was 
 from the later life that Thackeray in reality obtained 
 the spirit of the whole magnificent word-painting.
 
 The London of 1837. '7 
 
 Still, the universal practice of living away from the 
 place of business which now almost perforce obtains, 
 was not absolutely general at the commencement of 
 the reign. Thus George Augustus Sala, writing 
 of his early life, says: — 
 
 " One house to which I was often taken when my 
 mother gave her lessons (music) was a handsome man- 
 sion, splendidly furnished, in Great Russell Street, 
 Bloomsbury, close, if indeed not immediately contiguous, 
 to Meux brewery at the south-eastern corner of Totten- 
 ham Court Road, and it was to the female members of 
 the family of Sir Henry Meux that my mother gave 
 vocal instruction. Imagine a wealthy brewer of the 
 present day living next door to his brewery. He would 
 in all probability be the occupant of some towering 
 mansion in Belgravia or Tyburnia. But times have 
 changed with a vengeance." 
 
 One important conclusion to be drawn from a 
 study of the London life of 1837 is that it was more 
 domestic in its character than it has now grown to 
 be. People lived in London as they live now in 
 some of the suburbs, and in some of the distant 
 places to which Londoners travel every day — that 
 is, they looked upon it as home. Let me reproduce 
 a slight picture from the experiences of Fenimore 
 Cooper in 1828. He was friendly with Rogers the 
 poet, and he describes how they behaved in the 
 following delightful manner: — 
 
 " Mr. Rogers came to me the other evening on one 
 of his friendly visitations, and I went out with him, not 
 well knowing what was to be the result of it. We trot 
 along the streets together, he a little in the lead, for he 
 is a capital and earnest walker, and I in the rear, getting 
 over the pavement at the rate of four miles the hour. 
 London has certain private ways, called passages, I be- 
 lieve, by which one can avoid the carriages and much 
 of the streets, besides greatly shortening the distances. 
 ( M 517 ) B
 
 18 London. 
 
 We took to a line of these passages and came out in 
 Leicester Square. Crossing this we pursued our way 
 as far as the theatres and entered that of Covent Gar- 
 den." (Fenimore Cooper, England, hi. 97.) 
 
 Here is a delightful way of reaching a theatre 
 from the fashionable west end ; and one is tempted 
 to ask what has become of the " private ways called 
 passages ". Some of them exist now, and very 
 pleasing they are to the real Londoner. Rogers 
 and Cooper no doubt walked through the passage 
 leading from Pall Mall to King's Street — a little 
 bit of old London not quite modernized yet. Many 
 of these passages are worth walking through and 
 taking note of, for when they are not absolutely 
 turned over to the extremely poor they contain 
 elements of London life which it would be difficult 
 adequately to describe. Their chief characteristic 
 is the home-like appearance of houses and occu- 
 pants. 
 
 The fact is, there were no "hansom" cabs in those 
 days, and it is difficult to realize what the introduc- 
 tion of these vehicles meant to London. The post- 
 chaise was a vehicle, says Fenimore Cooper, which 
 the Cockneys do not calumniate when they call it 
 a "post-shay". It is a small, cramped, inconvenient 
 chariot without a box, and, like the interior of the 
 ordinary stage-coaches, does discredit to the well- 
 established reputation of England for comfort {Eng- 
 land, iii. 67). The hackney-coach had a pair of 
 horses and lumbered slowly along; the cabriolet 
 was designed for lighter conveyance ; and the omni- 
 bus had just been introduced by Mr. Shillibeer, 
 and promised to be a great success. Von Raumer 
 enthusiastically describes those of 1835, and men- 
 tions that 
 
 "in the great omnibuses six or seven persons sit 
 sideways opposite to each other, and the entrance is
 
 The London of 1837. IO < 
 
 from behind. They have names of all sorts, from ' Em- 
 peror ', 'Nelson', and such lofty titles, to the names of 
 the proprietors or of animals. Every ride, long- or short, 
 costs sixpence." 
 
 Except for the number of private carriages the 
 streets were not so crowded as they now are. In 
 contemporary literature the crowded state of the nar- 
 row city thoroughfares is noted with some triumph, 
 and no doubt the western parts of London were 
 getting more crowded as the omnibus became a 
 success. But they were not like the present streets. 
 Thus, to quote again from Fenimore Cooper the 
 evidence of 1828, he says: 
 
 " A day or two after my arrival in London an English 
 friend asked me if I were not struck with the crowds in 
 the streets, particularly with the confusion of the car- 
 riages. Coming from Paris I certainly was not, for 
 during the whole of March the movement if anything 
 was in favour of the French capital. " (Fenimore Cooper, 
 England, i. 49.) 
 
 Von Raumer, writing in 1835, was of a different 
 opinion. He says: 
 
 "The number of coaches and equipages far exceeds 
 all that can be seen in other cities ; and you are led to 
 think something extraordinary is going on in this or that 
 street, whereas it is only the daily customary routine. 
 That so many human beings can live together in such 
 a space, carry on their occupations, and procure food, 
 seems, in spite of all explanations, a miracle, and indi- 
 cates a pitch of civilization compared to which the lati- 
 fundia are at best but grazing-grounds and sheep-walks." 
 
 No doubt the west-end improvements in Regent 
 Street had produced the necessary amount of facili- 
 ties for street traffic of 1837. The difference in the 
 management of that traffic and of the present day
 
 20 London. 
 
 cannot better be illustrated than by another obser- 
 vation of Fenimore Cooper with regard to police 
 regulations. ''Walking in Regent Street lately", 
 he says, " I witnessed an attempt of the police to 
 compel some hackney-coachmen to quit their boxes 
 and go with them before the magistrates. A crowd 
 of a thousand people collected immediately, and its 
 feeling was decidedly against the ministers of the 
 law, so much so indeed as to render it doubtful 
 whether the coachmen, whose conduct had been 
 flagrantly criminal, would not be rescued. Instances 
 of this nature might be multiplied." (Fenimore 
 Cooper, England, iii. 176.) It says much for the 
 modern police system that traffic can be regulated 
 by the lift of a policeman's finger. 
 
 Of the London parks only the Green Park, St. 
 James' Park, Hyde Park, and Regent's Park were 
 open to the public. The Green Park was nothing 
 but a large field cropped down like velvet, irregularly 
 dotted with trees, and without any carriage-way. 
 Paths wound naturally across it, cows grazed before 
 the eye, and nursery-maids and children sprinkled 
 its uneven surface whenever the day was fine. On 
 one side the park was open to Piccadilly, on another 
 it was bounded by the carriage-way to St. James'. 
 (Fenimore Cooper, England, i. 66.) This park was 
 drained in 1841, "and its wetness removed" as the 
 official report puts it, and it was then decided not to 
 graze horned cattle there again! Hyde Park was 
 in a more uncultivated and wild condition. It had 
 an evil reputation as the place where duels were 
 fought, and the regular cultivated appearance of 
 modern days was entirely absent. It seems curious 
 that in 1828 Fenimore Cooper could record that 
 "a gravel pit was open in Hyde Park that is a blot 
 upon its verdure" (England, iii. 57). Kensington 
 Gardens were the private grounds attached to the 
 palace, and were not used by the public. Regent's
 
 The London of 1837. 21 
 
 Park had recently been formed, and was a great 
 improvement, and "none but a frozen stockfish", 
 says Von Raumer in 1835, "could really put in 
 practice the nil admirari while looking at it, with 
 its surrounding terraces and mansions, its great 
 extent and magnificence ". Great improvements 
 were made in 1841. Private parts of the park were 
 thrown open, Primrose Hill was added, bridges 
 over the water were constructed, and other works 
 carried on to make the park more useful. 
 
 One feature of London has always distinguished 
 it in modern times from other cities. This is the 
 method of laying out building sites in squares. The 
 large cluster of Bloomsbury squares, the famous 
 Berkeley, Grosvenor, and Belgrave Squares, and 
 the many other squares of lesser note have always 
 elicited a chorus of eulogies from travellers. Von 
 Raumer in 1835 styled them "the great and 
 peculiar beauty of London ", and this is not too 
 much to say. They occupy altogether some 1200 
 to 1500 acres in the centre of London, and thus 
 afford breathing-spaces and green shelters of in- 
 estimable value which it would be difficult or well- 
 nigh impossible to create afresh, even with the 
 modern taste for open spaces. 
 
 In connection with open spaces, it may be 
 mentioned that so far back as 18 19 the Quarterly 
 Review had complained of the churchyards being 
 unfit for the interment of the dead, so that " it had 
 become more difficult to find room for the dead 
 than the living". Steps were being taken in 1837 
 to ameliorate this state of things, but not the right 
 steps. Kensal Green Cemetery had been open for 
 a few years; other cemeteries were springing up all 
 round London, and in 1836 a company was formed 
 and had obtained parliamentary powers for " estab- 
 lishing cemeteries for the interment of the dead, 
 northward, southward, and eastward of the metro-
 
 22 London. 
 
 polis ". This did not prevent burials still taking 
 place even in the city churchyards, while in the out- 
 London districts and in the outskirts very little idea 
 of burying elsewhere than in churchyards had been 
 formed. This danger to health has now long since 
 passed away, and the burial-grounds remain for 
 the most part to help out the breathing space of 
 modern London ; but that cemeteries should have 
 become the property of private companies is one 
 of those startling anomalies only possible to the 
 London of the early Victorian age. 
 
 Many very interesting and on the whole lifelike 
 pictures of London streets in 1837 are still to be 
 obtained by examining the sketches of John Leech. 
 The two little urchins standing up to each other 
 for a fight with an immediate background of 
 bigger urchins supported by a further background 
 of substantial hackney-coach drivers is one of 
 the most typical, and it has been reproduced by 
 Sir Walter Besant in his book Fifty Years Ago. 
 The pages of the Illustrated London News, which 
 began in 1840, also help us to realize the general 
 characteristic of London streets during the earliest 
 years of the Queen's reign. Some of the charac- 
 teristics which at once amuse and annoy us to-day 
 were to be seen in the early days of the reign. 
 Thus Von Raumer, writing in 1841, records how, 
 when an election was pending, he "saw in Oxford 
 Street thirty or forty fellows with immensely large 
 placards before and behind, following each other in 
 slow procession; I supposed they were carrying 
 some political squib, and went up to examine it. 
 It was as follows: — 'Electors and non-electors of 
 London. Who sells the cheapest clothes? Who 
 has reduced the prices of waistcoats and trousers 
 forty per cent? Moses & Co. in the Minories.' " 
 
 Two very interesting points are noted by 
 Fenimore Cooper, who has already been referred
 
 The London of 1837. 23 
 
 to so frequently. One of these is the street music 
 of London, which he declares is positively the best 
 in the world. 
 
 "Respectable artists such as would gladly be received 
 in our orchestras walk the streets and play the music of 
 Rossini, Mozart, Beethoven, Meyerbeer, Weber, &c. , 
 beneath your windows. London is not so well arranged 
 for this species of enjoyment as towns of the Continent, 
 for there are no courts in which the performers can get 
 away from the clamour of the streets ; but about eight 
 the carriages cease, everybody being at dinner and most 
 of the private places are quite silent. Since the weather 
 has become mild I have frequently paused in my evening 
 walks to listen to airs that have come from harp, violin, 
 and flageolet. A party of French come regularly twice 
 a week and play old French airs beneath the windows, 
 favours that are seldom conferred on private houses, the 
 public hotels being their usual stopping places. Walk- 
 ing to dinner the other day I heard a grand piano on 
 which someone was playing an overture of Rossini 
 accompanied by a flageolet, and I found the artist in 
 the street before the open windows of a hotel. He 
 trundled the machine about on a sort of wheel-barrow, 
 and his execution was quite equal to what one hears in 
 society." (Fenimore Cooper, England, iii. 143, 144.) 
 
 It cannot be suggested that London has improved 
 in this respect except in the case of the county bands 
 which play in the parks. On the second point also 
 there is no improvement. Fenimore Cooper was 
 walking to a house where he was engaged to dine, 
 when he heard "one of the most appalling street cries 
 it was ever the misfortune of human ears to endure". 
 The words were "Evening Courier — great news — 
 Duke of Wellington — Evening Courier", screeched 
 without intermission, in a tremendous cracked voice, 
 and with lungs that defied exhaustion. The great 
 novelist was about to buy a paper when another 
 cry in a deep bass voice roared from the opposite
 
 24 London. 
 
 side of the street, "Contradiction of Evening 
 Courier — more facts— truth developed — contradic- 
 tion — Evening Courier'". This perhaps gives us 
 the humour of the moment, coloured, it may be, by 
 the American's point of view. But it is interesting 
 to find that newspapers had reached this condition 
 of publicity. In 1837 there were eighty-five news- 
 papers of various kinds published in London with 
 a total circulation of about twenty-nine millions. 
 The principal papers were the Times, the Weekly 
 Chronicle, the Morning Advertiser, Morning 
 Chronicle, Morning Herald, Sun, Standard, 
 Evening Mail, Globe, Sunday Times, Morning 
 Post, Weekly Despatch, Bell's Weekly Messenger, 
 St. James Chronicle, BeWs Life in London, Planet, 
 Observer, London Despatch, Courier, Examiner, 
 Magnet, Evening Chronicle, Spectator, and Athe- 
 nceum. Some of these papers are known to us 
 now, while others have disappeared. But the 
 newspaper was not then a necessity of the day's 
 routine. Mr. Yates's experience was pretty general. 
 " There was ", he says, "no penny press in those 
 days, and the finances of the grand-paternal estab- 
 lishment were not in the condition to afford a high- 
 priced daily paper. The old gentleman used to 
 console himself with the Morning Advertiser, which 
 was 'lent' from the adjacent Tally-ho Tavern, and 
 came round with the early dinner beer" (Edmund 
 Yates's Recollections). 
 
 Beyond this London of city commercial life and 
 suburban industrial life, this London of west-end 
 wealth and north and east-end domesticity, the 
 London of the parks, the squares, and the streets, 
 there was a belt of rural country which now belongs 
 to London, though it is no longer rural. This 
 surrounding belt was in 1837 untouched by the 
 jerry-builder, who has succeeded in making large 
 districts of the London of Queen Victoria a mere
 
 The London of 1837. 2 5 
 
 stack-house of bricks and mortar. We can now 
 and again obtain an idea of the extent of the evil 
 which has befallen us. There was splendid terri- 
 tory upon which to build up a magnificent Victorian 
 London ; there were local considerations which 
 would have made such a thing possible, and it will 
 serve better than anything else if I now attempt a 
 short survey of the early conditions of those 
 boundary districts of London. 
 
 Fenimore Cooper, who was, as we have seen, in 
 London a few years before the commencement of 
 the Queen's reign,' talks of taking excursions into 
 the country from the capital. What was meant by 
 the country may be gathered by one of these excur- 
 sions, which was to Richmond Hill! He was 
 disappointed with this famous view, dear to Lon- 
 doners, but he paints a pretty picture of the 
 "country". The groupings in the parks, he says, 
 contribute largely to their beauty. The mixture of 
 cows and of deer grazing, with children at their 
 sports, horsemen dashing across the view, and 
 , stately coaches rolling along the even and winding 
 roads, add the charm of a moving panorama to the 
 beauties of verdure, trees, flowers, paths, and water. 
 "Ido not ", he adds, " allude to the Sunday exhibi- 
 tions, for they are Cockney and rather mar the scene, 
 but to the more regular life of the week. You can 
 hardly imagine the beauty of two or three scarlet 
 coats athwart the broad beds of verdure. I have 
 seen battalions parading, but the formalities of lines 
 rather injure than help the effect; though half a 
 dozen soldiers scattered about the grass are like so 
 many fine touches of light in a good picture." Over 
 and over again do we find confirmation of this 
 recorded beauty of rural London in the memorials 
 of the period. " My grandfather and I," says Mr. 
 Edmund Yates, "accompanied by his terrier 'Vic', 
 would walk across the fields to Copenhagen House
 
 26 London. 
 
 — a kind of tea-gardens situated somewhere near 
 Pentonville — or further afield to the Hornsey Sluice- 
 house, a similar resort, which had, I fancy, some 
 connection with the New River, and stood some- 
 where in the locality of the present Finsbury Park" 
 (Yates's Recollections). 
 
 The whole of North Kensington was in grass, and 
 Brompton was still occupied with fruit- and market- 
 garden nurseries. Except along the high-road and 
 the immediate vicinity of the parish church there 
 were but few buildings in this part of London. To 
 read Thomas Faulkner's Histories now seems like 
 going back hundreds of years or going a distance 
 of hundreds of miles. 
 
 Holland House was in the skirts of London, and 
 was constructed as a country residence. " Though 
 the growth of this mammoth town ", notes Fenimore 
 Cooper, " is gradually bringing it within the smoke 
 and din of the capital. The lamps extend miles 
 beyond it" (Fenimore Cooper, England, i. 136). 
 
 Writing in 1839, Thomas Faulkner says that " the 
 parishes of Hammersmith and Fulham may be 
 denominated the great fruit- and kitchen-garden 
 north of the Thames for the supply of the London 
 market" {History of Hammersmith, 32). Florists 
 and horticulturists also carried on flourishing busi- 
 nesses there, and many of the older houses still 
 retain relics of sixty years ago by the possession of 
 a mulberry tree in the now limited garden ground. 
 There were then only 318 acres, out of a total of 
 2300, occupied by houses, and the rest were utilized 
 either for market-gardening or for corn-growing. 
 
 These industries kept this part of London more 
 apart to itself than would generally be the case of a 
 suburb to a large town. They contributed, too, 
 to a characteristic of west London which was con- 
 spicuously interesting. All the roads were crowded 
 with market carts during the night so that they
 
 The London of 1837. 2 7 
 
 might reach the market by three or four o'clock. 
 Every gardener, according to Faulkner, had his 
 market cart, which he loaded at sunset and despatched 
 in the evening. Each cart was accompanied by a 
 driver and by a person to sell. In the strawberry 
 season hundreds of women were employed to carry 
 the fruit to market on their heads. They consisted 
 for the most part of Shropshire and Welsh girls, 
 who carried baskets of fruit weighing from forty to 
 fifty pounds, and made two journeys in the day 
 from Hammersmith. A contemporary description 
 of these strawberry carriers from Hammersmith and 
 Fulham on the west, Hackney on the north, and 
 Deptford and Camberwell on the south, gives us a 
 picture of London not easily understood from its 
 present conditions. 
 
 "A party of these carriers set off with their burdens, 
 walking" at a quick pace and occasionally running- so 
 that they generally accomplish five miles in an hour 
 during their journey. And it is pleasing to observe with 
 what skill and address from habit they manage their 
 head loads, as they are called, seldom having occasion 
 to hold them with their hands. The burden being placed 
 at the top of the head makes it necessary for the carriers 
 to keep a very upright posture in walking, so much so 
 that young persons in the higher ranks of life have been 
 corrected of a bad habit of stooping by being made to 
 walk with a small weight on their heads without being 
 allowed to touch it with their hands, in imitation of 
 these poor women. The carriers arrive at the principal 
 fruiterers in London early enough for their customers 
 to be supplied with fruit gathered the same morning. 
 The same women meantime proceed with a second load 
 to London even when the strawberry ground is situated 
 seven or eight miles from the fruiterers " {Saturday 
 Magazine, 1834, p. 223). 
 
 There were about 2000 of these girls, and the 
 sight must have been not altogether unpicturesque.
 
 28 London. 
 
 The girls are always spoken of as well-conducted 
 and comely, saving the money they earned in this 
 manner, and carrying it back with them to their 
 country homes after the season was over. Light 
 kinds of cars were being introduced to supersede 
 the women carriers, but though this mode of con- 
 veyance was less expensive it did not convey the 
 fruit in such perfection as when carried on the head, 
 and hence the girls always had employment for the 
 most remunerative part of the trade. The pottle 
 baskets used for carrying were made by women and 
 children in their own homes in the neighbourhood 
 of the strawberry gardens, and Brentford was a 
 principal seat of this industry. 
 
 The northern heights were entirely rural, more 
 separated from London than were the western 
 portions. The source of the Fleet river was at 
 Highgate, and in 1837 this was an open stream of 
 entirely a rural character. It flowed through Kent- 
 ish Town, then also a country suburb, passing by a 
 moated farmhouse which existed in 1838. There 
 is an old prophecy which speaks of certain evils 
 that shall befall the realm of England when High- 
 gate stands in the heart of London. In 1837 this 
 contingency seemed remote enough, for "merry 
 Islington " was then only just filling up as a popu- 
 lous suburb, and Highgate was far behind, although 
 when Mr. Sotheby took Fenimore Cooper in 1828 
 to see Coleridge at Highgate, the novelist tells us: 
 " We found the bard living in a sort of New Eng- 
 land house, that stands on what in New England 
 would be called a green. The demon of specula- 
 tion, however, was at work in the neighbourhood, 
 and the place was being disfigured by trenches, 
 timber, and bricks " (England, iii. 80). 
 
 The same story has to be told all round the 
 map, and those who care to pick out these relics of 
 the early topography of London can still do so, by
 
 The London of i8'j. 29 
 
 noting the remnants of villages which are still 
 extant at Hampstead, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 
 Bow, and Bromley, in the most populous parts 
 of northern and eastern London. Bromley High 
 Street, with its quaint relics of Jacobean architec- 
 ture, its triangular street in front of the church, and 
 its surviving houses within high walls and iron 
 gateways inclosing large garden grounds, is a 
 study which would surprise many people who do 
 not care for these things. On the south the quaint- 
 ness of Deptford has not quite departed, while 
 Charlton, Eltham, Lee, Kidbrooke, Lewisham, 
 Dulwich, Tooting, Streatham, Wandsworth, and 
 Putney stretch across the whole south side of 
 London, with the sites of their ancient villages still 
 traceable, though rapidly disappearing. Nearer in 
 the centre too the ancient village streets are not 
 quite destroyed, and I still delight to walk through 
 the village street of Marylebone. Many bits of 
 early domestic London, as one may call it, are to 
 be traced here and there if one looks out for them. 
 The courts and alleys deserve a history of their own, 
 and such a history would not be unworthy of Sir 
 Walter Besant's romantic characteristics. Only 
 quite recently Hindon Place, Ship Court, Garden 
 Place, Kine Court, and Pond Place, all in West- 
 minster, not five minutes' walk from Victoria 
 Station, have been destroyed, with their cottages, 
 and gardens enclosed with wooden palings. 
 
 This was a different London altogether from the 
 inner London we have already examined in some 
 detail. It was the home life of country villages, 
 with corn-fields and market-garden culture as the 
 chief interest of each. It was a separate life and 
 not a collective life, a life that belonged to each 
 village, and was not then London life at all.
 
 30 London. 
 
 Chapter II. 
 The London of 1837 {continued). 
 
 The population of the City of London in 1837 
 was 123,000, and of the immediate continuous occu- 
 pied area 1,523,000, or together 1,646,000. If to 
 this be added the population of the outer edge of 
 London, as I have called it, namely about 300,000, 
 we get a total of 2,000,000 to represent the popula- 
 tion in 1837, compared with the 4^ millions of 1896. 
 
 Now this London population was practically a 
 settled population. London was its home far more 
 than it is now. It did not migrate out of London 
 at every holiday and annually for a month or fort- 
 night. A few of the richer people had "country 
 houses" at a few miles' distance, but the great 
 majority lived their life at home in London. 
 
 The means of communication out of London did 
 not allow of any other condition of things. Stage- 
 coaches were the principal means of conveyance. 
 There were 3026 stage-coaches in the whole country, 
 of which 1507 started from London. One of the 
 most picturesque sights of the period was that 
 afforded by the daily departure of the mail-coaches. 
 They started every night about eight o'clock from 
 the Post-office, except on Sunday evenings, when 
 they went off an hour earlier, and a few started 
 from the east end, the mails being conveyed to 
 them in mail-carts. All the rest arrived a short 
 time before the hour of starting from their respective 
 inns, and it is worth while giving a list of these 
 from the Directory of 1837: — 
 
 Bell and Crown, Holborn, ... Exeter. 
 
 Louth and Boston. 
 
 Wells, Lynn, and Cambridge. 
 Belle Sauvage, Ludgate Hill, ... Norwich and Newmarket.
 
 The London of 1837. 3 1 
 
 Blossom's Inn, Laurence Lane, . . Brighton. 
 
 Bolt in Tun, Fleet Street, ... Hastings and St. Leonards. 
 
 Portsmouth. 
 Bull and Mouth, St. Martin's- 
 
 le-Grand, ... ... ... Glasgow, Carlisle, and Wetherby. 
 
 Leeds. 
 
 Lincoln and Worcester. 
 
 Penzance, Falmouth, and Exeter. 
 
 Thurso, [Inverness, Aberdeen, Edin- 
 burgh, and York. 
 Golden Cross, Charing Cross, ... Carmarthen, Gloucester, and Chelten- 
 ham. 
 
 Chester and Liverpool. 
 
 Hastings and St. Leonards. 
 
 Dover. 
 
 Stroud. 
 
 Halifax. 
 King's Arms, Holborn Bridge,... Stourport. 
 
 Birmingham. 
 
 Banbury. 
 Saracen's Head, Snow Hill, .. Louth and Boston. 
 Spread Eagle, Gracechurch St., Falmouth, Devonport, and Exeter. 
 
 Hull, Lincoln, and Peterborough. 
 Swan with Two Necks, Lad Lane, Devonport, Exeter, and Bath. 
 
 Dover. 
 
 Exeter. 
 
 Halifax. 
 
 Holyhead, Shrewsbury, and Birming- 
 ham. 
 
 Hull, Lincoln, and Peterborough. 
 
 Liverpool and Lichfield. 
 
 Norwich and Ipswich. 
 
 Pembroke, Carmarthen, and Bristol. 
 
 Pool and Southampton. 
 
 Port Patrick, Carlisle, and Manchester. 
 
 Stroud. 
 
 Wells, Lynn, and Cambridge. 
 White Horse, Fetter Lane, ... Yarmouth and Ipswich. 
 
 Portsmouth. 
 
 It took 73^ hours to get to Brighton, 8^ hours 
 to Southampton, 9 hours to Dover, 1 1 % hours to 
 Birmingham, 19 hours to Manchester, 22*^ hours 
 to Liverpool, 27 hours to Holyhead, and 42 hours 
 to Glasgow. There were fifty-four four-horse mails, 
 and forty-nine pair-horse mails. The greatest 
 speed travelled was 10^ miles per hour, and the 
 average speed 8^ miles per hour. The average
 
 32 
 
 London. 
 
 mileage paid for four-horse mails was ij/%d. per 
 mile. 
 
 Besides the mail-coaches, there were the ordinary 
 stage-coaches, of which about 600 were licensed to 
 run between London and places about twenty miles 
 distant. The inns from which these started were 
 as follows: — 
 
 Angel, Farringdon Street. 
 
 Angel, St. Clement's, Strand. 
 
 Axe, Aldermanbury. 
 
 Bank Coffee House, Cornhill. 
 
 Bell, 12 Friday Street. 
 
 Bell, Warwick Lane. 
 
 Bell, Wood Street. 
 
 Bell and Crown, Holborn. 
 
 Belle Sauvage, Ludgate Hill. 
 
 Black Boy and Camel, Leadenhall 
 
 Street. 
 Black Lion, Bishopsgate Within. 
 Black Lion, Water Lane, Fleet 
 
 Street. 
 Blossom's Inn, Lawrence Lane. 
 Blue Boar, Aldgate. 
 Blue Posts, Holborn Bars. 
 Blue Posts, Tottenham Court Rd. 
 Boar and Castle, Oxford Street. 
 Bolt in Tun, Fleet Street. 
 British Coach Office, Cockspur 
 
 Street. 
 Bull, Aldgate. 
 Bull, Bishopsgate Within. 
 Bull, Holborn. 
 Bull, Leadenhall Street. 
 Bull and Mouth, Bull and Mouth 
 
 Street. 
 Castle, Wood Street. 
 Castle, Moorgate. 
 Castle and Falcon, Aldersgate St. 
 Catherine Wheel, Bishopsgate St. 
 Catherine Wheel, Borough. 
 Cheshire Cheese, Crutched Friars. 
 Clemmitt's Inn, Old Bailey. 
 Commercial Yard, Moor Lane. 
 Cross Keys, Gracechurch Street. 
 Cross Keys, St. John's Street. 
 Cross Keys, Wood Street. 
 Crown, St. Paul's Churchyard. 
 
 Elephant Inn, Fore Street. 
 Flower Pot, Bishopsgate Street. 
 Four Swans, Bishopsgate Within. 
 French Horn, Crutched Friars. 
 George, Aldermanbury. 
 George, Borough. 
 George, Old Bailey. 
 George, Smithfield. 
 George, Snow Hill. 
 George and Blue Boar, Holborn. 
 George and Gate, Gracechurch St. 
 Gerrard's Hall, Basing Lane. 
 Gloucester Coffee House, Picca- 
 dilly. 
 Gloucestershire Warehouse, 33 
 
 Whitecross Street. 
 Golden Cross Inn and Norfolk 
 
 Hotel, Charing Cross. 
 Golden Horse, Glasshouse Yard, 
 
 Aldersgate. 
 Golden Lion, St. John's Street. 
 Goose and Gridiron, St. Paul's 
 
 Churchyard. 
 Nos. 4, 8, and n Gracechurch 
 
 Street. 
 Green Dragon, Bishopsgate Street. 
 Green Man and Still, 335 Oxford 
 
 Street. 
 Greyhound, Grub Street. 
 Half Moon, Borough. 
 Hercules, Leadenhall Street. 
 Horse and Groom, St. John St. 
 Horse Shoe, Blackman .Street. 
 Horse Shoe and Magpie, Bridge 
 
 Street, Westminster. 
 India Arms, 44 Lime Street. 
 Ipswich Arms, Cullum Street. 
 Jolly's Warehouse, 13 Aldersgate 
 
 Street. 
 King's Arms, Bishopsgate Street.
 
 The London of 1837. 
 
 33 
 
 King's Arms, Holborn Bridge. 
 
 King's Arms, Leadenhall Street. 
 
 King's Head, Borough. 
 
 Kings and Key, Fleet Street. 
 
 Lamb, Leadenhall Market. 
 
 Lewes Arms, Swan Street, Dover 
 Road. 
 
 London Warehouse, 126 London 
 Wall. 
 
 Magpie and Stump, Newgate St. 
 
 Mitchell's Warehouse, 69 Old 
 Bailey. 
 
 Moore's Warehouse, 122 Oxford 
 Street. 
 
 Nag's Head, Borough. 
 
 Nag's Head, James Street, Covent 
 Garden. 
 
 New Inn, Old Bailey. 
 
 New Inn, Old Change. 
 
 New White Horse Cellar, Picca- 
 dilly. 
 
 18 Old Bailey. 
 
 Old Bell, Holborn. 
 
 Old White Horse Cellar, Picca- 
 dilly. 
 
 One Swan, Bishopsgate Without. 
 
 Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane. 
 
 Parker & Foster's Warehouse, 17 
 Old Change. 
 
 Pewter Platter, Gracechurch St. 
 
 Queen's Head, Borough. 
 
 Ram, Smithfield. 
 
 Red Lion, Aldersgate Street. 
 
 Red Lion, Strand. 
 
 Rose, Farringdon Street. 
 
 Rose, Smithfield. 
 
 Salisbury Arms, Cow Lane, Snow 
 
 Hill. 
 Saracen's Head, Friday Street. 
 Saracen's Head, Aldgate. 
 Saracen's Head, Snow Hill. 
 Shepherd's Warehouse, 35 Camo 
 
 mile Street. 
 Ship, Charing Cross. 
 Silver Cross, Charing Cross. 
 Spotted Dog, Strand. 
 Spread Eagle, Gracechurch Street. 
 Spur, Borough. 
 26 Sun Street, Bishopsgate. 
 Swan, Holborn Bridge. 
 Swan with Two Necks, Lad Lane. 
 Talbot, Borough. 
 Three Cups, Aldersgate Street. 
 Three Nuns, Wbitechapel. 
 Van Inn, 18 Giltspur Street 
 Vine, Bishopsgate Within. 
 White Bear, Basinghall Street. 
 White Bear, Piccadilly. 
 White Hart, Borough. 
 White Hart, Strand. 
 White Hart, St. John's Street. 
 White Horse, Cripplegate. 
 White Horse, Fetter Lane. 
 White Horse, Friday Street. 
 White Swan, Whitechapel. 
 Windmill, St. John Street. 
 
 These coaches enabled about 68,000 individuals 
 to enter and leave London daily. The immense 
 traffic, says a contemporary writer, between London 
 and the suburban districts within a twelve miles' 
 radius from St. Paul's is an interesting object of 
 contemplation. In the mornings from the hours of 
 eight to ten the various short stages and omnibuses 
 are passing us bearing with them the merchant to 
 his business, the clerk to his bank or his counting- 
 house, the officials to Whitehall, Mint, Somerset 
 House, or elsewhere. The movement was extending 
 rapidly. Even those whose incomes did not allow 
 
 ( M 517 ) c
 
 34 
 
 London. 
 
 the daily sum of one or two shillings for convey- 
 ance out and into London, endeavoured to meet the 
 new state of things by walking in fine weather and 
 riding in the wet. Thus, from Stepney and Mile 
 End in the east, from Camberwell, Peckham, Wal- 
 worth, and Brixton on the south, from Chelsea and 
 Brompton on the west, from Hampstead and High- 
 gate on the north, and from Hackney, Clapton, 
 and Homerton on the north-east, there was a daily 
 inpouring and outpouring. There was also the dis- 
 trict beyond this — the limits, that is, of the three- 
 penny post. Within these limits there were 850 
 short stages and omnibuses plying, some making 
 two to six journeys daily, but the majority ten to 
 twelve. The fares were for all short distances 6d. } 
 for longer distances, as to Richmond, is., is. 6d., 
 and 2S. But even something more was tried than 
 horse omnibuses. A steam-carriage ran from Pad- 
 dington to the Bank for a short time, and another 
 along the Stratford and Islington roads. They 
 carried from fifteen to twenty persons, and travelled 
 at the rate of from eight to ten miles an hour. The 
 number of omnibuses on the principal routes 
 were : — 
 
 Between Angel at Islington and Elephant and Castle, 
 
 Newington Butts, 
 Elephant and Castle and Charing Cross 
 West End (along the New Road or Marylebone Road) 
 
 and Bank, 
 Charing Cross to Blackheath, 
 Piccadilly to Black wall, 
 Chelsea to Leadenhall Street, 
 Charing Cross to Hampstead, 
 Bank to Paddington Road, ... 
 
 17 
 3 
 
 54 
 
 14 
 
 4i 
 27 
 
 19 
 
 25 
 
 There was no penny post in London, and, of 
 course, no halfpenny, newspaper, or parcel post. 
 There was a twopenny post for letters within three 
 miles from the General Post-office, but there was 
 no means of sending parcels except by intrusting
 
 The London of 1837. 35 
 
 them to the guards of the stage-coaches. The 
 postage from London to the country twelve miles 
 round was threepence, and so on up to about 13d. 
 for a letter to Alnwick. 
 
 Of the great railways which now converge upon 
 the capital there were practically none in existence 
 in 1837. The London and Greenwich line was 
 begun in 1834, an< ^ P art °f **> as ^ ar as Deptford, 
 was opened in February, 1836. But the modern 
 railway traveller would hardly recognize the system 
 then introduced. Mr. Smiles describes the work- 
 ing of this railway, when first exhibited, as a show. 
 "The usual attractions were employed to make it 
 ' draw '. A band of musicians in the garb of the 
 Beef-eaters was stationed at the London end, and 
 another band at Deptford. For cheapness' sake 
 the Deptford band was shortly superseded by a 
 large barrel-organ, which played in the passengers; 
 but when the traffic became established, the barrel- 
 organ, as well as the Beef-eater band at the London 
 end, were both discontinued. The whole length of 
 the line was lit up at night by a row of lamps on 
 either side like a street, as if to enable the loco- 
 motives or the passengers to see their way; but 
 these lamps also were eventually discontinued as 
 unnecessary. As a show the Greenwich Railway 
 proved tolerably successful. During the first eleven 
 months it carried 456,750 passengers, or an average 
 of about 1300 a day." (Smiles, Life of George 
 Stephenson, p. xxi.) The London and Birmingham 
 line (now the North-Western) was begun in 1834 
 and opened in 1838. The London and Southampton 
 was begun in 1835; the London and Croydon and 
 the Great Western from London to Bristol in 1835; 
 the South-Eastern from London to Dover in 1836; 
 the West London from Paddington to Kensington 
 in 1836; the Eastern Counties from London to 
 Colchester in 1836; the London and Blackwall in
 
 36 London. 
 
 1836; the London and Brighton in 1837. Beyond 
 this there was nothing to indicate the remarkable 
 position to which railway travelling has now reached; 
 and it is an oft-repeated story by those who first 
 travelled by railway, that the carriages were more 
 like the modern cattle trucks, open at the top, than 
 anything we now know in the shape of railway- 
 carriages. r 
 
 It is most interesting to recall that it was on the 
 28th July, 1837, that the first experiment with the 
 electric telegraph took place. The scene of the 
 experiment was between Euston Square and Cam- 
 den Town stations, the North-Western Railway 
 Company having sanctioned the laying down of 
 wires between those places immediately upon the 
 taking out of the patent by Messrs. Wheatstone 
 & Cooke. The position electricity has now assumed 
 does not prepare us for a beginning so recent as this. 
 
 The roads were turnpike roads. Westward there 
 were turnpikes at Knightsbridge, Kensington, and 
 Hammersmith; also at Marble Arch and Notting 
 Hill — the fact is still preserved in the name Notting 
 Hill Gate — and Shepherd's Bush ; northwards there 
 were two in the Euston Road, then the New Road, 
 one close to Great Portland Street, and the other at 
 Gower Street, and there was one at St. James's 
 Church, Hampstead; at King's Cross there were 
 two, one on the east and one on the west; at St. 
 John's Street, Clerkenwell, there was one, two were 
 in the City Road, one in New North Road, Hoxton; 
 eastward there were one at Shoreditch, one in the 
 Bethnal Green Road, one in Commercial Road, 
 three in the East India Dock Road; southwards 
 there were three in the Old Kent Road, one in 
 Bridge Street, Vauxhall, one near the Obelisk, and 
 one at Kennington Church. 
 
 The turnpike gate was picturesque enough, and 
 there are preserved many well-known illustrations
 
 The London of 1837. 37 
 
 of the more famous of these obstacles to locomotion. 
 They were constructed by Act of Parliament passed 
 when such elementary problems as the economics 
 of taxing commodities for the improvement of high- 
 ways had scarcely been approached. But in 1837 
 the prosperous days of turnpike roads had ended. 
 Thus, the report of the Commissioners of the Metro- 
 politan Turnpike Roads for 1837- 1838 states that 
 they have found it necessary to take the greater 
 portion of the tolls into their own hands instead of 
 letting them by auction as heretofore. When the 
 tolls for the current year were put up to be let by 
 public auction at the usual period it was found that 
 no bidders would offer for several of them at nearly 
 the amount which they had been let for in former 
 years. It appeared to be the opinion that the open- 
 ing of some railways north and west of London in 
 the course of the year would materially interfere 
 with the receipts on the ordinary roads. The com- 
 missioners retained therefore in their own hands 
 the tolls on nine of the most important districts of 
 roads. The total receipts from tolls, ^"78,629, 6.r. 2d., 
 and from all sources amounted to ^83,766, 7^. 2d., 
 while the total expenditure amounted to ^"82,993, 
 gs. id., including interest on the debt of the com- 
 mission and the fifth instalment of ,£5000 in dimi- 
 nution of principal. 
 
 These facts gathered together from many sources 
 will convey to the reader a pretty general idea of 
 what London was like in 1837. But there remains 
 one final aspect of the London of 1837^0 consider, 
 and that is its mode of government. The inade- 
 quacy of this will account for some of the saddest 
 aspects of London life during the whole period of 
 the Queen's reign. While Glasgow and Edin- 
 burgh, Liverpool, Manchester, and other provincial 
 cities possessed not only settled forms of govern- 
 ment, but had obtained control over water supply 
 
 434529
 
 38 London. 
 
 and other services of recognized public necessity, 
 London was left alone without government up to 
 1855, and was then experimented with in a manner 
 which even now seems almost incredible. The 
 City Corporation during this period abandoned its 
 control of the Thames, neglected its opportunity to 
 reacquire the water supply, and behaved generally 
 not as a local government authority, but as a party 
 of private gentlemen looking after their own in- 
 terests; the governments of the day appointed 
 commissions and neglected their reports, watched 
 London grow beyond the growth of ordinary cities, 
 imposed the ugly and useless machinery of the 
 Board of Works, and then left things to take their 
 chance. And London is the capital of the empire! 
 The City of London was governed by its cor- 
 poration, with a constitution untouched by any of 
 the reforms which had accomplished so much for 
 the provincial boroughs — a corporation prepared 
 to surrender rights and neglect duties which did 
 not add to its fancied dignities, or which might 
 prove expensive — a corporation always ready to 
 fight for keeping its revenues within the limited 
 sphere of public good, which those who were elected 
 to govern and administer the affairs of the city were 
 capable of perceiving. That the city in 1837, and 
 for some years later, could keep up a fiscal distinc- 
 tion between its own area and the contiguous area 
 around by levying tolls at the several gates of the 
 city "on all carts not the property of freemen", 
 and notwithstanding that the objects for which these 
 tolls appear to have been levied had long since 
 been otherwise provided for, speaks volumes against 
 the government of London at this period. Besides 
 the Corporation, there were also the Commissioners 
 of Sewers, an anachronism bequeathed from Henry 
 VIII. 's legislation, and no less than 112 distinct 
 parishes each with governing powers over areas
 
 The London of 1837. 39 
 
 sometimes so small as not to include the whole of 
 one great institution, as, for instance, the Bank of 
 England. 
 
 Outside the city all was chaos. There is no 
 possibility of describing the state of things actually 
 existing in 1837, for there is no material to show it. 
 What material there may be lies in the official 
 documents scattered here and there or preserved in 
 the archives of a few of the local authorities who in 
 1855 succeeded to the older authorities. But fortu- 
 nately the condition of things in 1855 is known. It 
 is preserved in the speech of the minister, Sir Ben- 
 jamin Hall,; who brought in and carried the Metro- 
 polis Management Act of that year, and there is 
 little doubt that the main facts of 1855 are Dut 
 reproductions of those of earlier years, with the 
 possibility that the earlier years might have been 
 worse. What existed in 1837 existed in 1855, for 
 no legislation had occurred to alter it. 
 
 The government of 1837 consisted of parish 
 administration supplemented by the administration 
 of various commissioners of sewers. By an act 
 23 Henry VIII. the care and control of the various 
 streams in the immediate neighbourhood of London 
 and of communicating ditches and sewers, in fact, 
 all matters relating to the drainage of "rain and 
 wast waters ", were put under the authority of 
 Crown-appointed bodies called Commissioners of 
 Sewers. By this act and the several amending 
 acts there were, in 1837, eight distinct courts of com- 
 missioners for the London district. They were 
 those of the City (which until 1897 retained its 
 separate authority), Westminster, Holborn and 
 Finsbury, Tower Hamlets, and Surrey and Kent, 
 with the three minor commissions of Poplar Marsh, 
 St. Katherine's-by-the-Tower, and Greenwich. 
 
 The Westminster Commission originally go- 
 verned that part of Middlesex west of the City from
 
 40 London. 
 
 the Thames to Hampstead and Willesden, Chelsea, 
 and Kensington. Subsequently the jurisdiction 
 was extended to include Hammersmith, Acton, and 
 Ealing, and the riverside Middlesex villages as far 
 as Hampton. 
 
 The ancient streams of London had been gradu- 
 ally converted into sewers.") Thus the King's 
 Scholars' Pond Sewer, was so called because it 
 emptied itself into the Thames at the King's 
 Scholars' Pond (near the present Vauxhall Bridge), 
 on "the great level extending from the Horse 
 Ferry to Chelsey Mead". Incidentally it may be 
 mentioned that during the reign of Queen Anne the 
 name of the sewer was dutifully changed to Queen's 
 Scholars' Pond Sewer. Anciently it was known as 
 the Tyburn Brook, and later as the Aye Brook, and 
 flowed down the hill from Marylebone Fields, 
 passing near the old village of Tyburn and across 
 the Acton or Tyburn Road (Oxford Street), and 
 the present Brook Street, through Mayfair to the 
 Stone Bridge, situated at the "dip" in modern 
 Piccadilly. Passing under the bridge and the 
 high-road to Kensington, it entered the Green 
 Park. This was formerly St. James's Fields, until 
 Charles II. inclosed them, and added the land thus 
 inclosed to St. James's Park, by which name the 
 whole was known until a comparatively recent 
 period. Large ponds were formed in the course of 
 the sewer in this part of the park. At the bottom 
 of the hill the streamlet passed through the gardens 
 of Goring or Arlington House, where Buckingham 
 Palace now stands, and along by the "coach road 
 to Chelsea" — the present Buckingham Palace Road 
 — and what is now Vauxhall Bridge Road to the 
 river. At different periods the stream was altered 
 in various parts of its course, and gradually covered 
 in and converted into an underground sewer. 
 
 There were other small tributaries of the Thames
 
 The London of 1837. 4 1 
 
 which became in course of time underground sewers. 
 One was the Bayswater Brook or West Bourne, 
 which became the important Ranelagh Sewer, and 
 part of which was utilized to form the Serpentine. 
 A glance at a map of the original winding course of 
 this stream will easily explain the origin of the 
 name Serpentine, for which Mr. Loftie, in his His- 
 tory of Lotidon, confesses himself unable to find a 
 reason. Farther west was the Counter's Creek, with 
 its tributary the Stinking Ditch. Smaller sewers 
 were the Long Ditch and others in the city of 
 Westminster, and the Hartshorne Lane and Essex 
 Street sewers, both of which drained an immense 
 number of courts and alleys north of the Strand. 
 
 The Holborn and Finsbury district comprised the 
 Holborn parishes, the parishes of St. Pancras, 
 Islington, Clerkenwell, St. Sepulchre, St. Luke's, 
 and Shoreditch, with the liberty of Norton Folgate. 
 The chief streams were the Fleet, with its feeders, 
 and the Wall Brook. The oldest document left by 
 this commission is a book of "presentments" of 
 the jury of sewers, dated 1683, containing state- 
 ments of nuisances requiring abatement and repairs 
 necessary to the banks and arches of the sewers. 
 Hockley-in-the-Hole, Hicks' Hall, the Pindar of 
 Wakefield, Battle Bridge, and other places of 
 antiquarian interest are frequently mentioned in 
 this and in the minute-books. 
 
 The jurisdiction of the Tower Hamlets Commis- 
 sioners embraced the ancient manor of Stepney, 
 extending as far north as Hackney, which parish 
 was afterwards included. An exceedingly interest- 
 ing map of Stepney, by Joel Gascoygne (1703), 
 shows the position of the nine hamlets of the parish. 
 These were Ratcliff, Limehouse, Wapping, Poplar, 
 Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Bow, Mile End Old 
 Town and Mile End New Town, the original 
 "Tower hamlets". The gradual development ot
 
 42 London. 
 
 the "hamlets" into parishes, beginning with that 
 of Limehouse, in the reign of Queen Anne (whence 
 the complimentary dedication of the church to Saint 
 Anne), can be traced in the various records. Part 
 of Poplar, the Isle of Dogs, was placed under a 
 separate commission, as were also the hospital and 
 precinct of Saint Katherine-by-the-Tower. 
 
 The southern shore of the Thames from the river 
 Ravensbourne in Kent to East Moulsey in Surrey, 
 was placed under the authority of the Surrey and 
 Kent Commissioners. Their limits extended as far 
 south as Hayes, Croydon, Waddon, and Croydon. 
 
 These various Commissions were amalgamated 
 in 1848 into one body called the Metropolitan Com- 
 mission of Sewers. They did much useful work, 
 and many of their reports and various publications 
 are still very interesting reading to the student of 
 London. But they did not bring into the disinte- 
 grated parts of London uniform administration or 
 successful rules of sanitation. The facts of 1855 are 
 almost startling in their crudity, and their existence 
 was dependent upon long-continued practice. I 
 shall make no excuse for quoting the evidence of 
 these facts from the remarkable speech of Sir 
 Benjamin Hall in 1855. This speech, buried in the 
 pages of Hansard, is an historical document of much 
 value, and deserves to be brought into more pro- 
 minent notice. 
 
 Sir Benjamin Hall cited cases from each of the metro- 
 politan boroughs, and began with that of Finsbury. In 
 the Liberty of the Rolls the vestry was composed of "the 
 ancient inhabitants ", that is, such as had served the 
 office of overseer. The paving committee had 1509 yards 
 of streets, and paid £126 a year in salaries, or £147 
 per mile. St. Sepulchre had nearly 1^ mile of streets, 
 and paid ^129 for supervision. The commission was 
 self-elected. Ely Place was 326 yards long, and paid 
 ^156, 2s. for its superintendence, being at the rate of
 
 The London of 1837. 43 
 
 ^842, 155. per mile. In St. Giles and St. George, 
 Bloomsbury, no person was entitled to attend or vote 
 at the meeting - for the election of vestrymen unless he 
 was rated to the poor-rate at an assessment of ^25, 
 and no person letting part of his premises could be a 
 vestryman, although he might be rated at ^500 a year. 
 In Islington the qualification was £20. He next ad- 
 verted to the borough of the Tower Hamlets. In Norton 
 Folgate the vestry was composed of those inhabitants 
 who had served, or paid fines for refusing to serve, 
 either of the offices of overseer, constable, or head- 
 borough. In Christchurch, Spitalfields, it was com- 
 posed of those who had been either churchwardens or 
 overseers. In St. Botolph Without, Aldgate, it was 
 composed of persons who had served all the parochial 
 offices, namely, head-borough, constables, churchwar- 
 dens, and overseers. The vestry had existed in this form 
 from time immemorial, and was not constituted by any 
 local act. In St. John, Hackney, the vestrymen were 
 elected by the inhabitants, but no inhabitant could vote 
 who was assessed at less than ^40 a year. In Mile End 
 New Town the qualification was £12; in St. Paul, 
 Shadwell, ^10; in St. Mary, Stratford-le-bow, ^15; 
 in All Saints, Poplar, ^30. In St. George's-in-the-East 
 inhabitants could vote who paid 24^. a year to the poor- 
 rate; while in St. Anne, Limehouse, they must pay 48s. 
 a year. St. Leonards, Shoreditch, had three paving 
 boards; one of these, the High Street Commission, 
 had one mile of street, and paid in salaries, ;£n8, 2s., 
 was self-elected and for life. Another, the Hoxton 
 Square Trust, had 456 yards; salaries, ^47, the receipts 
 being ^46; rate per mile, £186, 135. 4^.; commission 
 self-elected and for life. Old Artillery Ground, 814 
 yards; salaries, £122, 8s.; rate per mile, ^264, 13s.; 
 self-elected and for life. St. George-in-the-East : the 
 paving was under 5 separate boards; the lighting and 
 cleansing under 3 boards, one of which paid at the rate 
 of 16s. 7j4d. each for the supervision of 363 lamps. In 
 the Borough of Lambeth, St. Mary, Newington, had 
 2 paving and 4 lighting boards, which were confined 
 to the parish, and 5 other boards which also extended
 
 44 London. 
 
 over other parishes. The average cost of the superin- 
 tendence of each lamp was us. 6d. Of these boards 
 7 were self-elected. Lambeth had 9 lighting boards, 
 and the average cost of the superintendence of each 
 lamp was 1 is. Next came the borough of Southwark. 
 In St. George-the-Martyr the paving was under 6 dif- 
 ferent boards, and the West Borough Pavement Com- 
 missioners had 2% miles of streets, and paid ^484 in 
 salaries, or ^217 per mile. They were self-elected and 
 for life, and there were 2 other boards similarly elected. 
 In St. Olive, St. Thomas, and St. John the East South- 
 wark Commissioners paid ^851 for little more than 
 6 miles of road, or ^136 per mile; self-elected and 
 for life. In St. John's there was a select vestry elected 
 by the parishioners, one-half by persons rated at ^"75 
 and upwards; one-half under ^75 and not less than 
 ;£io. Turning to Westminster, he found that the 
 parish of St. George, Hanover Square, contained 1161 
 acres, and was in three divisions. The part under the 
 vestry elected under the provisions of Hobhouse's Act 
 had 14 miles of road, paid in salaries ^638, or ^45 
 per mile. When he turned to Belgravia, which was 
 under a separate jurisdiction, he found it, if not one of 
 the worst managed, certainly the most extravagantly 
 managed in the Metropolis. The Grosvenor Place Trust 
 had 12 miles of road. The salaries paid were ^1323, 
 or on the average jQi 10, 5.?. per mile. Besides these there 
 was another district of about 218 acres, lying below 
 Grosvenor Place, which was without any jurisdiction, 
 but was kept in order by the Messrs. Cubitt, who built 
 the houses there, and, if they abandoned their present 
 supervision there would be absolutely no jurisdiction for 
 paving purposes in that district. In St. Mary-le-Strand 
 there were 480 yards of streets; the salaries £120, or 
 ^440, 8.y. 6d. per mile. In the Savoy there were 600 
 yards of streets. The amount paid in salaries was 
 ^84, 15s. gd., or ^248, 145. 2%d. per mile. The case 
 of the Strand was exceedingly singular. There were in 
 the whole of the Strand Union 1 1 miles of streets, over 
 which no less than 7 different paving boards, each with 
 its establishment of clerks, collectors, surveyors, and
 
 The London of 1837. 45 
 
 other officers ; and to show in what manner the officers 
 were appointed, it was only necessary to observe that 
 one of the surveyors was, when appointed, a tailor, 
 and another a law-stationer. The cost to the rate- 
 payers for maintaining - the official staff attached to 
 these boards was ^88 a mile. Then, as to the mode 
 in which, under the existing- system, the great thorough- 
 fares were managed in reference to the paving and 
 lighting. In order to give an illustration of this, he gave 
 a description of the Strand, commencing at Northum- 
 berland House, and ending at Temple Bar, a distance 
 of about 1336 yards, or a little more than ^ of a mile, 
 the street is divided into 7 different paving boards. 
 First was St. Martin's, from the starting-point to the 
 centre of Cecil Street (between Nos. 84 and 85), a dis- 
 tance of about 480 yards. Up to this point the whole 
 width of the street belonged to St. Martin's, but from 
 Cecil Street to opposite the centre of Burleigh Street 
 (near No. 112), a distance of 145 yards, only one-half 
 the street (the north side) was under that paving board. 
 The other half, from Cecil Street (between Nos. 84 and 
 85) to No. 107, a distance of about 118 yards, belonged 
 to St. Clements. At No. 107 the district belonging to 
 the Savoy commenced, and for a distance of about 27 
 yards the street was divided between the Savoy and St. 
 Martin's, from opposite the centre of Burleigh Street 
 (near 112) to opposite the east side of Wellington Street 
 North (near 135), a distance of about 83 yards, the street 
 was divided between the Savoy and St. Clements, and 
 from this point to Duchy Place (between Nos. 137 and 
 138), a distance of about 25 yards, it was divided be- 
 tween the Savoy and St. Mary's. From this point to 
 the east end of St. Mary's Church (near 161), a distance 
 of about 226 yards, the whole width of the Strand be- 
 longed to St. Mary's, with the exception of a piece in 
 front of Somerset House. This portion was about 45 
 yards long and 12 yards wide. It was repaired by the 
 Somerset Place contractor. From the east end of St. 
 Mary's Church to Temple Bar, a distance of about 
 400 yards, the whole width of the Strand belonged to 
 St. Clement's. The different paving boards along the
 
 46 London. 
 
 Strand, from No. 1 to Temple Bar, therefore, came in 
 the following order: — 1, St. Martin's alone; 2, St. 
 Martin's and St. Clement's; 3, St. Martin's and the 
 Savoy; 4, Savoy and St. Clement's; 5, Savoy and St. 
 Mary's; 6, St. Mary's alone; 7, St. Mary's and Somer- 
 set Place; 8, St. Mary's alone; 9, St. Clement's alone — 
 the distance being- 1336 yards, or ^ of a mile, and there 
 being- 9 divisions. Cecil Street, a street running from 
 the Strand towards the river, with a carriage-way about 
 10 yards wide, was under 2 separate managements, 
 namely, St. Martin's and St. Clement's. Along Well- 
 ington Street North, from the north end of Exeter 
 Street to the south side of the Strand, a distance of 
 100 yards, there were 4 separate jurisdictions, namely, 
 St. Paul's, Covent Garden, St. Martin's, St. Clement's, 
 and Savoy. It happened that St. Clement's division 
 came close up to the houses at the east side of Welling- 
 ton Street North. The paving of the roadway, for a 
 considerable length of the street, was, therefore, done 
 by that parish, but as the houses on the east side were 
 in St. Mary's, they could not be rated for the repairs 
 of the roadway. A precisely similar case, as regards 
 the number of jurisdictions, occurred from the north end 
 of Exeter Street, along Burleigh Street, to the south 
 side of the Strand. Here the houses on the west side 
 of Burleigh Street were in St. Martin's, the division 
 between that parish and St. Clement's took nearly the 
 line of the footway, so that here again St. Clement's 
 repaired the carriage-way, and got no rates from the 
 houses on the west side of the street. The boundaries 
 of the parish of St. Anne, Soho, or that portion of it 
 under the paving board, were the west side of Crown 
 Street, the west side of Moor Street, and the west side 
 of West Street. The east of these streets belongs to 
 St. Giles's, Upper St. Martin's Lane, together with the 
 north side of Great Newport Street, the west side of 
 Castle Street (as far as Bear Street), the north side of 
 Bear Street, the north and west sides of Leicester Square, 
 and the north side of Spur Street. The other sides of 
 these streets are in St. Martin's ; as are the east side of 
 Princes Street, the east side of Wardour Street, while
 
 The London of 1837. 47 
 
 the other sides of these streets, with the exception of a 
 short piece, are in St. James's. As in the case of St. 
 James's, some of the most inconvenient boundaries were 
 paved, by arrangement, by either one board or the other. 
 
 By an Act of Parliament St. Martin's paved as far 
 as the Horse Guards. Nearly all the other boundaries 
 of St. Martin's were along the centre of the streets. 
 Coming next to St. James's, only one-half of Piccadilly, 
 Princes Street, Coventry Street, and Wardour Street 
 were in the district of St. James's, and owing to the 
 narrowness of the streets much inconvenience arose as 
 to the division of the paving; and arrangements were 
 therefore made between St. James's and the neighbour- 
 ing boards for one or other of them to pave the whole 
 width of the street in some of these instances. Then 
 all the boundaries of the different jurisdictions in West- 
 minster were in the middle of the street, so that one 
 side of the street was governed by one body and the 
 other by another. This led to constant difficulties and 
 quarrels between them, to the great inconvenience of 
 the inhabitants. There was one great thoroughfare in 
 this metropolis where the centre of the road was under 
 one head as far as regarded the pavement, but the 
 lighting and watering, unfortunately for the inhabitants, 
 rested with two other boards — one on the north, and the 
 other on the south. These two boards quarrelled, one 
 of them saying, "We will have the watering done in 
 the morning", and the other saying, "We will have 
 the watering done in the evening ". And the fact was 
 that in the summer months one side of the road might 
 be seen watered in the morning and the other in the 
 evening; so that both sides were, in fact, covered with 
 dust during the whole of the day, but the neighbours 
 had, of course, to pay the rate. 
 
 After instancing Piccadilly and St. James's Street as 
 also affording illustrations of the inconvenience of great 
 thoroughfares being under different paving boards, in 
 consequence of one part of the thoroughfare being in 
 one parish, and another in another, Sir Benjamin Hall 
 referred to Marylebone, the borough he himself repre- 
 sented, and which, he believed, was managed worse than
 
 48 London. 
 
 any other part of London. This was no fault of the 
 inhabitants themselves. He began with the western 
 part of the borough, numbering- about 400,000 inhabi- 
 tants. One parish had 170,000, another 160,000, and 
 the third about 50,000 inhabitants; and the whole 
 borough, having reference to its size, was perhaps the 
 richest district in the world. But how was this large 
 borough governed? To begin with Paddington, it was 
 governed by a local act passed in 1844, under the pro- 
 visions of that antiquated statute known as Sturges 
 Bourne's Act; and a person must be rated at £10 
 before he could have one vote in the election of vestry- 
 men, being a higher qualification than was required to 
 give him a vote for members of parliament, as in that 
 case the real, and not the rateable, value of the house 
 must be ^10. 
 
 Number of assessments under ^50 ... ... 3582 having 1 vote. 
 
 at ^"50 and under ^75, 1333 ,, 2 votes. 
 
 »> 
 
 ,, at ^"75 and under j£ioo, 732 
 
 ,, at ^100 and under ^125, 431 
 
 at ^125 and under ^150, 259 
 
 at ,£150 and upwards, 607 
 
 »> 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 Total, 6944 
 
 So that one-eleventh of the ratepayers, or 607, had 3642 
 votes, which was more than the number of votes pos- 
 sessed by 3582 ratepayers in the same parish, and was 
 more than half the number of assessments in the parish. 
 The vestrymen appointed a committee of 18 to man- 
 age the affairs of the parish ; their decision might be 
 overruled by the ex-officio vestrymen, amounting to 
 nearly 40 under the Act. Every resident peer, privy 
 councillor, and member of Parliament, every judge and 
 every magistrate was an ex-officio member of the govern- 
 ing body of the parish, and besides those, the Con- 
 naught trustees appointed a vestryman and the Grand 
 Junction Canal Company another. There was this 
 peculiarity about the constitution of the vestry — no inn- 
 keeper could have been elected. In 1845 an attempt 
 was made to upset this absurd state of things, and to 
 introduce Hobhouse's Act, which requires half the rate-
 
 The London of 1837. 49 
 
 payers to vote, and a majority of two-thirds of those who 
 vote must vote in favour of the adoption; the conse- 
 quence was, that though 1991 supported the change, 
 there being 12 12 against it, the proposed alterations 
 could not be made. Three years had to elapse before the 
 proposition could again be entertained. It was again 
 attempted in 1853, when 2449 voted in favour of adopt- 
 ing the Act, and only 1 1 against it, but the number was 
 slightly reduced below the requisite amount on scrutiny, 
 and the ratepayers failed again. So much with regard 
 to the western parish. He next dealt with the eastern ; 
 and there he found the most extraordinary state of 
 local management that ever existed in any country — 
 he referred to St. Pancras. There were 16 paving 
 boards ; and a great portion of the parish was without 
 paving, and without any jurisdiction whatever. The 
 manner in which so many different boards were created 
 was this. When a person had some land which he 
 wished to let out on building leases, he applied for an 
 Act of Parliament. This had been the case with the 
 Somers Town, the Camden-town, the Southampton, the 
 Bedford, and other estates. In the Camden - town 
 district there were 15 self- elected commissioners, of 
 whom about 7 attended. There was no treasurer. 
 There were 4^ miles of road, and they spent ^408, ijs. 
 for officers' salaries, the whole expenditure for paving 
 being ^,336, exclusive of lighting; they had incurred 
 a debt of ^"11,100, and levied is. per pound upon the 
 rateable value. There were no public pumps. Take 
 the Doughty estate : there were no public pumps — 
 rate 2s. 6d. in the pound; there were 18 commis- 
 sioners, and the sum expended for repairs jQi, 17s. 4^., 
 whilst there were expended for salaries ^183, 8s. gd.; 
 debt ^6732. On the Foundling Estate Paving Board 
 the commissioners were self-elected; about 10 attended; 
 they had i}( mile of road, and expended ,£765, igs. id. 
 in repairs, and paid ^313, S s - 5^- to officers, clerks, 
 &c. ; they had a debt of ^20,476, which was 50 per 
 cent on the rateable value, and levied a rate of is. 6d. 
 in the pound, besides special rates. On the Lucas 
 Estate Paving Board, they had about ^ of a mile of 
 
 (M617) D
 
 5° 
 
 London. 
 
 road, paid ^38, 195. for paving, and £117, 14s. for 
 salaries and collection. They had a rateable value of 
 ^5867, and a debt of ^4909. No public pump. In 
 Somers Town there were 21 commissioners, self-elected; 
 about 8 attended; they had not any treasurer, had 3 
 miles of road, and spent ^"538, 7s. 8d. in repairs, and 
 ^■301 in salaries; they had a debt of ^15,000, which 
 was 35 per cent on the rateable value, and levied lod. 
 in the pound. One pump. On the South-Western 
 District there were 75 commissioners, self-elected; 
 attendance 11. They had 5 miles of road, expended 
 ^983, 14s. 6d. in repairs and watering, and ^352 for 
 officers, besides a residence for the clerk and surveyor, 
 and they had a debt of ^5500, and levied is. in the 
 pound on the rateable value. On the Southampton 
 Estate Paving Board, only i2}4 miles of road, and the 
 payments to officers amounted to ^677, 4s., being more 
 than ^50 per mile for official payments. In other 
 respects this board was well managed. With respect 
 to Holmes Estate Paving Board, the amount authorized 
 to be raised by the Act was ^1500, but it was believed 
 bonds to about the extent of ^'2400 had been issued; 
 commissioners self-elected; no interest or annuity had 
 been paid since the year 1836 or 1837 ; for the last fifteen 
 years no operations under the Act of Parliament had 
 taken place, and the pavements and roads within the 
 district were in a most dilapidated, dangerous, and 
 dirty state, and under no efficient control ; the books and 
 papers of the expired commissioners were believed to 
 have been destroyed. Thus it appeared that those parts 
 of this great parish which had any paving at all were 
 governed by 16 district boards, 11 of which are self- 
 elected, and wholly irresponsible to the ratepayers. 
 There were 427 commissioners, of whom 255 were self- 
 elected. They had set up 14 public pumps for the use of 
 170,000 inhabitants, of which one was returned as out of 
 order. They had 40 miles of road and 63 officers of 
 various sorts to superintend, and these 63 officers received 
 no less than ^"4000 a year in salaries, or ^100 per mile; 
 and to complete the whole, they had incurred debts to 
 the amount of ;£i35,357- So that excluding the South-
 
 The London of 1837. 51 
 
 ampton district, which had little or no debt, these com- 
 missioners, most of whom were self-elected, had incurred 
 a debt of about ^"140,000, or exactly ^5000 per mile, 
 for which, of course, the ratepayers were liable, and of 
 which liabilities they had little or no knowledge. So 
 much for the local government of St. Pancras under petty 
 self-elected boards. Now, contrast St. Pancras parish 
 with the parish of Marylebone, which was governed by 
 one board. In Marylebone the population was 160,000, 
 in St. Pancras 170,000. Marylebone contained 1560, 
 St. Pancras 2700 acres. The number of officers in 
 Marylebone were 4, in St. Pancras 63. In Marylebone 
 the cost of the staff was ^"657, in St. Pancras ^4000. 
 The debt of Marylebone was ^16,000, which was chiefly 
 created under the old unreformed vestry, of St. Pancras 
 ;£i 35,000 on the paving boards alone. In Marylebone 
 the streets were paved by the board, in St. Pancras 
 they were, to a great extent, let out to contractors. He 
 quoted this to show how much saving had been effected 
 in Marylebone compared with St. Pancras, by having 
 one board — the same as the vestry — and how expensive 
 was the other under many boards. 
 
 He next gave a summary of the management of 
 the Metropolis. It had a population of 2,233,108; 
 number of inhabited houses, 291,240; rateable value, 
 ^"9,011,230, exclusive of the City of London. The 
 number of different local acts in force in the Metro- 
 polis was about 250, independent of public general 
 acts, administered by not less than 300 different bodies; 
 137 of these had returned the numbers comprising 
 these bodies, and they amounted to 4738 persons. 
 From the other boards there was not any return; 
 but taking the same average for them, there would 
 be 5710 more persons; so that upon that computa- 
 tion the whole Metropolis was governed by no less 
 than 10,448 commissioners. Besides these, there were 
 the following chartered bodies: — Lincoln's Inn, Staple 
 Inn, New Inn, Gray's Inn, Furnival's Inn, Charter- 
 house. There were 30 parishes, containing 880,000 
 inhabitants, and assessed to real property in 1843, at 
 ^"3,900,000, which might probably amount to much
 
 52 
 
 London. 
 
 more than ^4, 000,000 at the present time, consequently 
 they represented nearly one-half of the whole value of 
 the Metropolis. On examination it appeared that these 
 parishes were each of them governed either wholly or 
 in part by commissioners or trustees, who were self- 
 elected, or elected for life, or both, and therefore in no 
 degree responsible to the ratepayers. The case of St. 
 Pancras was one of the greatest instances of abuses 
 that had ever existed in a civilized country. In the year 
 1834 these parties came to parliament through their 
 vestry. They desired their vestry to expend money for 
 the purpose of remedying these abuses. The bill was 
 thrown out in the second reading. In 1837 a similar 
 attempt was made with similar results, but at a heavy 
 cost to the ratepayers. In the year 1851 they were 
 more fortunate. A bill was introduced and was referred 
 to a select committee. It passed through the com- 
 mittee, and was sent up to the House of Lords, where 
 it was thrown out, and from that time to the present 
 no step had been taken to remedy these abuses, because 
 they spent ^4000 on the former occasion, and the 
 paving boards, over which they had no control, spent 
 nearly ^3000 in defeating the ratepayers, which the 
 ratepayers had likewise to pay. There were 2 other 
 boards in the Metropolis which had great powers of 
 taxation, over which the ratepayers had no control. 
 One of these bodies consisted of the officers appointed 
 under the Metropolitan Buildings Act of 1844, and the 
 other body was the Commission of Sewers. The officers 
 appointed under the Metropolitan Buildings Act con- 
 sisted of a registrar, appointed by the Chief Commis- 
 sioner of Works, at a salary of ^1000; an official 
 referee at a salary of ^1000; and other referees and 
 officers, at salaries making a total of ^5510, who were 
 paid partly out of the consolidated fund, and partly out 
 of the county rate. Besides these, there were 52 sur- 
 veyors, appointed by the magistrates in quarter sessions; 
 they had incomes varying from ^200 to ^1600 per 
 annum, derived from fees, and the total amount received 
 by them in 1853 was no less than ^24, 364; so that the 
 cost of this establishment to the country and to the
 
 The London of 1837. 53 
 
 ratepayers was just ,£30,000 per annum, over which 
 there was no control whatever. Soon after Sir Benja- 
 min Hall was appointed to the office he held, the cholera 
 was almost at its height, and it became his duty to 
 inquire what these officers had done, whether they had 
 prevented dwellings in cellars contrary to the provisions 
 of the Act, and he found that they had greatly neglected 
 their duty. He reported to the Secretary of State, and 
 sent a copy of the report to the Chief Commissioner of 
 Works. In police division B there were 137 cellar 
 dwellings. In police division D, comprising part of 
 St. Marylebone and Paddington, there were 1260. In 
 these parishes there were two surveyors, one receiving 
 ^540, 135., and the other £"1544, 6s. 6d. per annum. 
 In the police division E, comprising St. Pancras and 
 other parishes, in which the surveyors received incomes 
 varying from ;£ioo to £1557, 13^- 6d., and in 1852 the 
 amount paid to the surveyor in St. Pancras was ^1791, 
 155. 6d., there were 183 of these dwellings. In division F, 
 232; divisions G and H, 870; in K and L, 109; making 
 a total of 2714 cellars used as dwellings, contrary to the 
 provisions of the Act, according to the police returns. 
 
 This was Sir Benjamin Hall's indictment of the 
 local authorities of the London area in 1855, an 
 indictment which would easily reach back to 1837. 
 He was not less severe upon the central authorities, 
 and he proceeded as follows: — 
 
 The other great grievance under which the metropolis 
 laboured was the Commission of Sewers. They had 
 been almost wholly irresponsible to the ratepayers. The 
 Metropolitan Commission of Sewers have jurisdiction 
 over an enormous area, extending in some districts 
 much beyond the Metropolis ; but there was a great por- 
 tion of this area which had never come under rating, or 
 been considered in any way by the commissioners. In 
 1847 the metropolitan area was divided into 7 separate 
 districts (exclusive of the Regent's Park and Regent 
 Street district), under the superintendence of as many 
 separate commissioners. They were as follows : —
 
 54 
 
 London. 
 
 Commission. 
 
 Date of Commission at 
 time of Supersedeas. 
 
 Number of 
 Commissioners. 
 
 Westminster and part of Middlesex 
 
 Dec. 5, 1837 
 
 Aug. 15, 1 841 
 Nov. 13, 1839 
 Dec. 5, 1838 
 
 240 
 
 I50 
 179 
 67 
 280 
 Il6 
 
 33 
 
 Poplar and Blackwall 
 
 
 
 
 Being - a total of 1065, exclusive of the directors for the 
 time being - of the St. Katherine Docks Company. 
 Amongst the names of the commissioners were the 
 Duke of Wellington, the Lord Chancellor, the Prime 
 Minister, and other noblemen and gentlemen who could 
 not attend to such matters. On the 30th November, 
 1847, the first 6 of the above commissioners were super- 
 seded, and 6 new and distinct commissions were issued, 
 one for each district, but addressed to the same body of 
 individuals, 23 in number. On the 4th December, 1847, 
 the St. Katherine Commission was superseded, and a 
 new commission was issued, appointing as commissioners 
 for that district the same 23 individuals who were named 
 in the commissions for the other 6 districts. The amount 
 of debt due on November 30, 1847, when these commis- 
 sioners were appointed, was ^64, 133. Besides these 
 commissioners there were the Regent's Park and 
 Regent Street district, which was formed in 1824, 
 under the provisions of statute 5 Geo. IV. c. 100, out 
 of portions of the contiguous districts, and had a 
 separate body of commissioners appointed under that 
 statute. The debts did not devolve upon the Metro- 
 politan Commissioners of Sewers, but remained a 
 peculiar charge upon the district itself, and had been 
 paid by the district liable. In the year 1848, the n and 
 12 Vict. c. 112, under which one Commission of Sewers 
 was established for the whole Metropolis, excepting the 
 City, was passed, and was brought into operation on 
 1st January, 1849, by the issuing of the first Metro- 
 politan Commission of Sewers. Since that time 5 
 commissions have been appointed, and the debts have
 
 The London of 1837. 
 
 55 
 
 constantly increased. At the time the first was ap- 
 pointed the debt was ^63,489. 
 
 Commission. 
 
 1st Metropolitan 
 
 2nd Metropolitan 
 3rd Metropolitan 
 4th Metropolitan 
 Renewed on 
 5th Metropolitan 
 
 Date of commission. 
 
 No. of com- 
 missioners. 
 
 Debt at date of expira- 
 tion of commission. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Jan. 1, 1849 34 
 
 They increased the debt to 659,973 o o 
 
 Oct. 8, 1849 
 
 13 
 
 74,700 
 
 Oct. 6, 1851 
 
 11 
 
 79,938 5 6 
 
 July 20, 1852 ) 
 July 20, 1854 \ 
 
 14 
 
 297,074 6 4 
 
 Nov. 22, 1854 
 
 16 
 
 587,074 6 4 
 
 The number of commissioners here given was exclusive 
 of the Lord Mayor for the time being, and for other 
 members chosen by the City of London, who were 
 summoned only on matters affecting the City. Since 
 the issuing of the last commission the amount of 
 debt had been increased by a new loan of ^"140,000, 
 and a contract had also been entered into for a further 
 loan of ;£ 1 50,000, in pursuance of powers given to the 
 commissioners by the Sewers Act of last session, en- 
 abling them to charge the rates with an additional debt 
 of ^"300,000, so that the debt now existing, and to 
 which the ratepayers are liable, amounted to the sum of 
 ^587,074, 6s. 4</. Thus it will appear that since the 
 year 1847 there have been no less than seven commis- 
 sions — the old commission existing in that year, a new 
 one in part of that year, and a third in January 1849, a 
 fourth in October 1849, a fifth in October 1851, a sixth 
 in July 1852, and a seventh in November 1854. The 
 cost of the establishment was something extraordinary. 
 In 1849 the cost of management was 28^ per cent on 
 the amount of money received, and the following state- 
 ment would show the actual receipts, amount of ex- 
 penditure, and cost of management in the years 1849 
 and 1850: — 
 
 Receipts. Expenditure. Cost of management. Per cent. 
 
 1849.... £7 1, 623 13 10 £85,345 3 6 £22,400 17 5 28^ 
 1 850.... £9 1, 070 6 11 £94.554 10 " £21,104 17 ° 2 3
 
 56 London. 
 
 Since that period the amount levied by loans and taxa- 
 tion has been so great, varying - from ^129,100 in 1851 
 to ^194, 105 in 1853, that the percentage of cost of 
 management on the gross amount collected was less; 
 but still the cost of management was in 185 1, ^16,430; 
 in 1852, ^14,551; and in 1853, ^17,386. The com- 
 missioners had attempted only one great work, the 
 Victoria Sewer, the estimate of which was ^28,854, 
 and the cost, so far as can be ascertained, ^"41,472; 
 but this, it was said, falls far short of the full amount." 
 
 I need not quote further. Sir Benjamin Hall's 
 indictment against the enormities of 1855 is too 
 strong and too direct not to be of use at the present 
 time. It gives us the historical aspect of early 
 Victorian London, and it points, if I mistake not, 
 a few lessons for the present day. 
 
 I will add a few particulars of matters not touched 
 upon by Sir Benjamin Hall. The parishes were 
 compelled to keep fire-engines and ladders in cer- 
 tain places and to provide stop-blocks and fire-cocks 
 on the mains of the water-works, but the fire insur- 
 ance companies also kept up a distinct body of fire- 
 men, chiefly selected from the watermen, and who 
 wore the special uniform of dark-grey. Lighting 
 by gas had recently been adopted, and there were 
 no less than sixteen gas companies in existence for 
 supplying this necessary of city existence. In 1846 
 there were 30,000 street lamps in London and only 
 40,000 private consumers of gas. Of drainage there 
 was practically nothing except that supplied by each 
 house according to the wisdom or the generosity of 
 its owner. Public water-courses and brooks were 
 kept to some extent from contamination by the 
 several commissioners of sewers, but there was little 
 attention to the claims of sanitation. 
 
 A striking example, among many worse, of the 
 dreadful condition to which the poorer classes were 
 reduced from the want of proper structural arrange-
 
 The London of 1837. 57 
 
 ments and control is supplied by a court in West- 
 minster called Snows Rents, between York Street 
 and St. Ermin's Hill. The court was 20 feet wide, 
 but the houses were mostly without yards, and 
 the refuse, when it had become intolerable inside 
 the houses, was deposited in the court itself, the 
 whole central space being a pool of black stagnant 
 filth that accumulated from time to time, and the 
 awful stench that was engendered there cannot be 
 conceived. There was, in fact, no drainage and 
 no water supply. In wet weather, when the water 
 attained a certain height in the court it found its 
 way into an open, black, pestilence-breathing ditch 
 in a neighbouring court. {Health of Towns Com- 
 mission, First Report, p. 419.) In Southwark a still 
 more dismal state of things is reported. In the 
 old confined districts — courts and alleys — there were 
 blocks of buildings which had nothing but surface 
 drainage. In the Mint, which is the oldest part of 
 Southwark, the people in many houses threw 
 everything out of the windows into the back yards. 
 In some instances there were actually no privies 
 {Health of Toivns Commission, First Report, p. 393.) 
 In Boundary Row, Southwark, men with large 
 boots went into the sewers and threw out the filth 
 into the street; from thence it was carted away. 
 More frequently the mud was thrown upon the sides 
 of the sewers and suffered to remain. 
 
 In 1848 public attention was directed to the 
 drainage of the Westminster Abbey precincts in 
 consequence of an outbreak of fever in the early 
 part of the year. It was found that the outbreak 
 was entirely due to the horrible condition of the 
 drainage of this spot, with respect to which nothing 
 appeared to have been previously known. A plan 
 was drawn, and still exists, showing the sort of 
 drainage which existed prior to 1848, and the 
 report very fitly terms them "extraordinary con-
 
 58 London. 
 
 structions ", scarcely any portion being of the same 
 sectional form for many yards together. All over 
 London much the same sort of thing existed. 
 Drainage by small sections was the plan adopted 
 for closely-built portions of the town, cesspool 
 drainage alone existed for all parts outside the 
 limits of continuous building. 
 
 Water supply was, as might be expected, very 
 inadequately attended to. The private supplies 
 by means of pumps provided the inhabitants of 
 the greater part of the outlying portions of what 
 is now London, and artesian and other wells 
 completed the deficiency from these supplies — 
 indeed, within the past thirty years many parts 
 of West London depended for their water supply 
 upon the rain butts and artesian-well water dis- 
 tributed in buckets to the householders. In 1837, 
 so far as the water supply was not dependent 
 upon private wells, there were ten companies 
 supplying the London area. Of these the oldest 
 was the New River Company, supplying the 
 City of London and the northern district. The 
 capital of this company amounted at that date to 
 ,£1,200,000; its revenue from supply of water was 
 £"105,000, while the number of nouses it supplied 
 was about 73,000. The Hampstead Waterworks 
 Company, which was established in 1692, was in 
 existence in 1837. ^ was bought up by the New 
 River Company in 1855. It had in 1837 a capital 
 expenditure of ,£51,842, and an income from water 
 customers of about £"7000 per annum. The Chelsea 
 Company supplied much the same area as it does 
 now. Its capital outlay in 1837 was only £"70,000, 
 and its revenue £"23,000, while the number of houses 
 was about 14,000. The East London had expended 
 on works £"639,000, and was drawing a revenue from 
 its customers of £"50,000 from 47,000 houses. The 
 Grand Junction had expended on works £398,000,
 
 The London of 1837. 59 
 
 and possessed a revenue of £29,000 from 9000 
 houses. The West Middlesex Company had ex- 
 pended £412,000 upon its works, and was earning 
 a revenue of about £45,000 from 16,000 houses. 
 These were the only companies north of the Thames. 
 On the south of the Thames the Lambeth Company 
 had spent upon its works ,£269,000, and was receiv- 
 ing as income about £17,000 from 17,000 houses. 
 The Southwark Waterworks, originally established 
 in 1 77 1 as the Borough Waterworks, had spent 
 upon its works about £41,000, and was receiving as 
 income £3500. The Vauxhall Company (which 
 amalgamated with the Southwark Company in 1845) 
 had expended upon works about £98,000, and was 
 drawing an income of about £9000. The Kent 
 Company had expended £156,000, and was draw- 
 ing an income of about ,£9500 for a population of 
 33,600. 
 
 • It is impossible to convey an adequate idea of the 
 condition of the water supply by the companies in 
 1837. Even with the evils London has now to put 
 up with, they are not much compared with the con- 
 dition of things in 1837. Supply was intermittent, 
 and some of the companies, the Southwark, for ex- 
 ample, supplied water " for six days in the week and 
 a small portion on Sundays ". The companies 
 supplied in all some 197,000 houses out of a total of 
 262,000 houses in London, which shows a large 
 proportion dependent upon well supplies or other 
 private means of obtaining water. Down to 1843 
 there was no public water supply in Rotherhithe, 
 all the water used by the inhabitants being taken 
 from the tidal waters flowing up the small pools 
 and ditches; and Kingsley did not exaggerate when 
 near the close of his Alton Locke he described the 
 water drawn up from the filthy creek for the house- 
 hold where the tailor's man was dying of delirium 
 tremens.
 
 60 London. 
 
 In 1829 a royal commission had been appointed to 
 inquire into the question of London water supply. 
 This was due to a petition presented by Sir Francis 
 Burdett to the House of Commons from the inhabi- 
 tants living in the west of London, praying for an 
 inquiry into the London water supply, and in doing 
 this, he stated that the water taken from the river, 
 at Chelsea, was impregnated with the contents of 
 the great common sewers, the draining of dung- 
 hills, the refuse of hospitals, slaughter-houses, 
 colour, lead, and soap works, &c, and with all 
 sorts of decayed animal and vegetable substances, 
 rendering the water offensive and destructive to 
 health, and which ought no longer to be taken up 
 by any of the water companies from so foul a 
 source. He also stated that the Grand Junction 
 Waterworks Company had agreed to supply their 
 customers with water from the Colne and Brent, 
 but since 1820 had failed to carry out this agree- 
 ment, and had taken their supply from the Thames 
 at the foot of Chelsea Hospital ; that the company 
 supplied this water to over 7000 families; that the 
 company had not fulfilled their promises to supply 
 water at a comparatively small charge, but had 
 increased their rate equivalent in no case to less 
 than 50 per cent, and extending in almost all cases 
 to 90 and 100 per cent, and had in May of the pre- 
 ceding year obtained the sanction of Parliament to 
 a new table of rates by which an addition of from 
 50 to 300 per cent could be charged on their 
 customers. 
 
 The report came in due course. It stated that 
 the commissioners, having taken the evidence of 
 the companies, and afterwards checked such evi- 
 dence by collateral testimony from other witnesses 
 and occasionally by personal examination into the 
 facts, were of opinion that the existing state of the 
 supply of water to the Metropolis was susceptible
 
 The London of 1837. 61 
 
 of, and required improvement; that many of the 
 complaints respecting the quality of the water were 
 well founded; and that the supply ought to be 
 derived from other sources than those resorted to, 
 and guarded by such restrictions as would at all 
 times ensure its cleanliness and purity. The report 
 concluded by expressing a hope that a full investi- 
 gation by competent persons into the remedies 
 applicable to the existing evils, and upon the best 
 means of conveying a sufficient supply of water of 
 unexceptionable quality to the inhabitants of the 
 Metropolis, would soon be undertaken, and it also 
 stated that the interests of the public required that 
 while the companies continued to enjoy the mono- 
 poly, their proceedings should be subject to some 
 effective superintendence and control. 
 
 There seems to have been no action taken by 
 Parliament on the report of this commission, but in 
 the same year a Select Committee was appointed to 
 inquire further into the water supply of the Metro- 
 polis. 
 
 This Committee was appointed as the result of 
 the following motion brought forward in the House 
 of Commons by Sir Francis Burdett: "that a Select 
 Committee of the House of Commons be appointed 
 to inquire into the present system of supplying 
 water to the Metropolis, including the borough of 
 Southwark, and into the amount of rates paid by the 
 inhabitants ". In justifying this motion Sir Francis 
 Burdett stated that no parliamentary action had 
 taken place on the report of the Committee of 
 182 1, that the evils then existing had never been 
 remedied, and that the reference to the commis- 
 sioners appointed in 1827 was too narrow, as no 
 power had been given them of pointing out a 
 remedy for the evils complained of. 
 
 The report stated that the Committee, after having 
 reviewed the report of the commissioners issued in
 
 62 London. 
 
 the same year with reference to the purity of the 
 Thames supply, and having also derived facts from 
 their own observation and experience, agreed with 
 the commissioners " that the supply of water for the 
 Metropolis, including the burgh of Southwark and 
 the adjacent parishes, should be derived from a 
 purer source than it is at present " ; and in further- 
 ance of this object, they recommended "that Mr. 
 Telford be instructed to proceed to make such sur- 
 veys as he shall think necessary in order to enable 
 him to recommend a practical and efficacious plan 
 of supplying the whole of the Metropolis with pure 
 and wholesome water ". The Committee then pro- 
 ceeded to report on the inquiry, as to the rates im- 
 posed by the different companies, and adopted in 
 its entirety the recommendations contained in the 
 report of the Select Committee of 1821, at the same 
 time remarking that the public were without any 
 protection even against a further indefinite extension 
 of demand, there being no tribunal but the boards 
 of the companies themselves to appeal to in case 
 of dispute, and no regulations except those volun- 
 tarily imposed by the companies; the Committee 
 suggested that the accounts should be submitted 
 annually to Parliament for a few years, in order to 
 throw light upon the question as to whether com- 
 petition by the companies would be beneficial or 
 not. Reference was made to the new table of rates 
 alleged to have been introduced into a private bill 
 passed in May, 1826, empowering the Grand Junc- 
 tion Company to levy an additional charge of from 
 50 to 300 per cent upon their customers, and the 
 chairman of the company stated that this clause 
 was introduced contrary to their wishes, and the 
 Committee recommended the immediate repeal of 
 the said clause. 
 
 In consequence of the recommendations of the 
 Committee contained in its report, the House of
 
 The London of 1837. 6 3 
 
 Commons voted in 1832 a sum of money in order 
 that Mr. Telford might make a report upon the best 
 means of providing the Metropolis with pure water. 
 Two years later Mr. Telford presented his report, 
 in which he recommended that the companies sup- 
 plying the north-west of London, viz. the Grand 
 Junction, West Middlesex, and Chelsea, should ob- 
 tain their supplies from the river Verulam ; and the 
 companies south of the Thames, viz. the Lambeth, 
 South London, and Southwark, from the Wandle. 
 The expenses which would be incurred in this 
 scheme were estimated at ^1,777, 840, and included 
 the construction of reservoirs, covered aqueducts, 
 connecting mains, the value of lands, and damage 
 to various interests. It was also suggested that the 
 New River Company should be granted power to 
 obtain an additional supply from the Lea, some 
 distance below Waltham Abbey. As a further 
 result of the Committee's report, the East London 
 Company obtained powers in 1829 to take water 
 from the Lea above the influence of the tide; the 
 Chelsea Company in the same year established the 
 first large filter-bed of one acre in area, the New 
 River and West Middlesex Companies constructed 
 extensive settling reservoirs, the Grand Junction 
 Company removed its source of supply from Chel- 
 sea to Brentford and formed filters there, and the 
 Southwark and Vauxhall (amalgamated) and Lam- 
 beth Companies improved their services generally. 
 
 This Commission had adopted the statement sent 
 to them by Dr. Bostock, and the condition of 
 things therein described was as follows: — 
 
 "As it" (the water of the Thames) "approaches 
 the Metropolis, it becomes loaded with a quantity of 
 filth, which renders it disgusting to the senses, and 
 improper to be employed in the preparation of food. 
 The greatest part of this additional matter appears 
 to be only mechanically suspended in it, and sepa-
 
 64 London. 
 
 rates by mere rest. It requires, however, a con- 
 siderable length of time to allow of the complete 
 separation, while, on account of its peculiar texture 
 and comminuted state, it is disposed to be again 
 diffused through the water by a slight degree of 
 agitation, while the gradual accumulation of this 
 matter in the reservoirs must obviously increase the 
 unpleasant odour and flavour of the water, and pro- 
 mote its tendency to the putrid state." What Dr. 
 Bostock reported was not too strong. It had been 
 proved to the Commission that the part of the 
 Thames from which the water for domestic uses 
 was taken was "charged with the contents of more 
 than 130 public common sewers, with the drainage 
 from dunghills and lay-stalls, the refuse of hos- 
 pitals, slaughter-houses, colour, lead, gas, and soap 
 works, drug-mills, and manufactories, and with all 
 sorts of decomposed animal and vegetable sub- 
 stances, rendering the said water offensive and 
 destructive to health." But in spite of all this no 
 steps were taken to enforce the conclusion arrived 
 at by the Commission. In 1832 public attention 
 to the quality of the water supplied was again 
 awakened by the ravages of cholera. In 1834 a 
 Committee of the House of Commons was appointed 
 to examine as to the supply of pure water to the 
 Metropolis. It merely received evidence, and did 
 not make a report. Another Committee appointed 
 in 1840 was equally resultless. Inquiry after in- 
 quiry, to assuage the popular indignation against 
 the water companies, came to nothing; and it was 
 not till 1847 that any attempt was made to bring 
 the water supply in this country under anything 
 like public control. 
 
 Facts such as these speak for themselves, and I 
 will only refer to one other matter of government 
 and public administration which had a very bad 
 effect upon the condition of London in the early
 
 The London of 1837. 65 
 
 years of the Queen's reign. I allude to the window- 
 tax. This iniquitous and foolish tax came under 
 the notice of the Health of Towns Commission 
 in 1844, and was reported upon by Mr. W. E. 
 Hickson in the following terms: — 
 
 "The present mode of assessing- houses to the window- 
 tax is unfavourable to the healthfulness of habitations 
 by operating' as a premium upon defective construction. 
 The legislature now says to the builder, plan your houses 
 with as few openings as possible, let every house be ill 
 ventilated by shutting out the light and air, and as a 
 reward for your ingenuity you shall be subject to a less 
 amount of taxation than your neighbours. The Board 
 is of course aware that windows are now charged by a 
 scale, the tax increasing at an average rate of about 
 8s. 3d. for every window, whether large or small. 
 Hence the number of windows in a house becomes to 
 builders of second and third class houses a very serious 
 consideration. Supposing a house to contain 12 rooms; 
 if, to make these rooms cheerful and pleasant, I have 
 put two windows in each room, and thereby ensured a 
 current of air passing from front to back, the window- 
 tax for that house amounts to ^7, 5.9. gd. ; but if I have 
 put but one window to each room, the window-tax is 
 but £2, 45. gd. , showing a difference of ^5, is. per 
 annum, and I need scarcely say that a difference of only 
 10s. per annum is quite enough to influence builders of 
 cheap houses in trying to save such a sum. But the 
 same considerations affect the building of even first-class 
 houses. I have been offered a rent of ^210 per annum 
 for a house unbuilt, on condition that the plan should be 
 altered so as to reduce the amount of the window-tax, 
 for which the house would otherwise be liable. The 
 consequence is, that in the majority of new houses one 
 large window, of the largest size allowed, is made to 
 serve the purpose of two windows ; and privies, closets, 
 passages, cellars, roofs, the very places where mephitic 
 vapours are most apt to lodge, are now left almost 
 entirely without ventilation. An opening only a foot 
 square, even if intended merely to admit the air, and not 
 
 (M517) e
 
 66 London. 
 
 glazed against the weather, makes the house liable for 
 an additional 8s. 3^. per annum. I spoke but lately 
 to a man in humble circumstances who had put in his 
 privy a single pane of glass; it was discovered by the 
 assessor, and rather than pay the tax (the money being 
 an object) the pane of glass was removed, and the open- 
 ing bricked up. The immediate effect of the operation 
 of the 4th and 5th William IV., cap 54, by which all 
 occupiers of houses, if duly assessed to the window-tax 
 in 1835, were permitted to open as many windows as 
 they pleased without additional charge, was that every- 
 body began improving the comfort and healthfulness of 
 their houses by letting in more light and air, but the 
 result has been that all who did so have found them- 
 selves caught as in a trap. A quibble was raised by the 
 lawyers as to the meaning of the words "duly assessed", 
 and upon one ground or another they proved that no- 
 body was duly assessed in 1835. Those persons, there- 
 fore, who could not afford to pay the tax for their new 
 windows, have stopped them up again, and the loudest 
 complaints prevail throughout the country of what is 
 termed breach of faith on the part of government. If 
 the Commissioners would examine personally the houses 
 in which the poor live in the close courts and alleys of 
 the metropolis, they would be surprised at the number 
 of dark staircases and filthy holes which, although on 
 upper floors, are quite as ill ventilated and unfavourable 
 to health as the cellars of Liverpool. And the permanent 
 cause of this state of things is the option given to 
 builders of saving money in taxation by shutting out air 
 and light." 
 
 The London of 1837 was not, as appears from 
 the evidence, equal to its position as capital of the 
 empire. ItAvas wealthy, and was rapidly develop- 
 ing with the wealth of the country. It was pictur- 
 esque in the' many remains of old buildings, in the 
 natural beauty of the country around, and the 
 people gloried in the new architecture of the Regent 
 period. It possessed characteristics which appear
 
 The London of 1837. 67 
 
 to us romantic as they are reproduced in the pages 
 of Dickens and Thackeray. Much of the old ways 
 of life still remained. City merchants still lived in 
 the city in houses frequently as old as the period of 
 Wren, and often, as Mr. Philip Norman has shown 
 us, retaining the ancient sculptured or painted house 
 sign. The old Royal Exchange was there, and so 
 were the old Houses of Parliament and Law Courts. 
 The Strand did not possess the new Law Courts, 
 and it had not lost Temple Bar and Northumber- 
 land House. Shops were more quaint, something 
 like the one last specimen in Bond Street, and the 
 two or three remaining in St. James's Street, and a 
 huge wooden figure of a Highlandman was to be 
 seen standing outside the shops of tobacconists. 
 A few of the famous London spas or wells were 
 still in existence, for it was only on September 14th, 
 1837, that St. Chad's Well, near King's Cross, was 
 sold by auction, and there was even then a brick 
 house facing Gray's Inn Lane, having a pump- 
 room and a large garden at the back, and Mr. 
 Norman points out that at the corner of Rosoman 
 Street and Exmouth Street one sees the words 
 "London Spa" on a public-house, with that sign 
 erected in 1835 to replace a former building (London 
 Signs and Inscriptions, p. 190). Indeed, one could 
 almost best understand the London of 1837 by 
 describing it in terms of negation compared with 
 modern London. And above all, there was one 
 fatal defect. It had no government and no ideal. 
 It drifted just as events directed, into a cholera 
 epidemic, into a chaos which was too stupid and 
 serious to be allowed to go on quite unchecked ; 
 and it is only in recent years thatjt has assumed a 
 conscious existence, capable of definite expression 
 and control of future developments.
 
 68 London. 
 
 Chapter III. 
 Trade and Commerce. 
 
 That London owes its position to the Thames 
 is undisputed. When King James I. offended the 
 city and threatened to remove his court to another 
 place, the Lord Mayor boldly enough told him: 
 "Your Majesty may remove the court at your 
 pleasure, but, thank God, you cannot remove the 
 river Thames" (Fuller's Worthies) ; and the follow- 
 ing words, recited from one of the early charters, in 
 the Act of i and 2 William IV. cap. 76, "that it 
 was notoriously well known that the river Thames 
 was so necessary, convenient, and useful to the city 
 of London that without the said river the said city 
 could not long subsist, flourish, or continue", sum 
 up the position very accurately. 
 
 No impediment exists in the estuary of the 
 Thames to the approach of vessels up the river, 
 and the natural advantages of the situation have 
 been added to by engineering skill in the construc- 
 tion of the docks. 
 
 The questions of London's growth and condition 
 must start from its trade. Its shipping has long 
 been of the greatest magnitude in relation to the 
 shipping of the United Kingdom and of the civilized 
 world, and the point of greatest importance is the 
 position of the docks. All that has been done has 
 been by private enterprise, and private enterprise 
 has not had either the freedom which is necessary 
 to its success, nor the checks which are advisable in 
 the public interest. 
 
 The struggle, which began in 1762, of the mer- 
 chants of London to obtain and control docks suffi- 
 cient to meet the requirements of the port ot 
 London for commercial purposes ended in 1825,
 
 Trade and Commerce. 69 
 
 when the St. Katherine's Docks were established as 
 the first free docks in London. The struggle is not 
 a creditable one. The corporation of the City, who 
 should have headed the movement for improved 
 dock accommodation, tried to stop it by obtaining 
 powers from Parliament for a scheme which met 
 with quick and ignominious failure; the merchants 
 formed companies for the purpose of constructing 
 docks, with special powers of aggrandisement, and 
 therefore without the capacity for development; 
 Parliament lent their aid to schemes which met the 
 requirements of the moment, it is true, but which 
 failed at every point where new departures were 
 needed ; and there was no one to set all this chaos 
 of conflicting personal interests into the right lines. 
 After sixty-three years of struggle something like a 
 system was evolved, but a system which only 
 partially met the case. The West India Docks were 
 established in 1800, the East India Docks in 1803, 
 the London Docks in 1805, the Commercial Docks 
 in 1810, the Surrey Canal Docks in 181 1, and the 
 St. Katherine's Docks in 1823. This system, 
 brought to a head in 1825, was further developed in 
 1850 by the construction of the Victoria Docks, in 
 1868 by the construction of the Millwall Docks, 
 and by extensions of the West India Docks in 1870, 
 and of the Albert Docks in 1888, and it is this 
 system which has continued in existence from the 
 accession of the Queen to the present day. A very 
 able writer in the Times of 1894 thus summarizes 
 the position: — 
 
 "The history of these docks is curious. The earliest 
 of them, the West India Dock Company, came into 
 existence because robberies from the shipping" in the 
 river had become intolerably prevalent, and the com- 
 pany received exclusive privileges and a monopoly of 
 vessels from the West Indies for twenty-five years. The 
 docks were opened in 1800, and in 1819 the company
 
 yo London. 
 
 was ordered to reduce its rates, having paid the maxi- 
 mum dividend of ten per cent regularly, and having 
 accumulated a surplus of ^400,000. The London Docks, 
 opened in 1805, had a monopoly of vessels entering the 
 Thames laden with wine, brandy, tobacco, or rice ; but, 
 owing to the heavy initial expenses, they have seldom 
 been, even in early times, in a position to pay an 
 adequate dividend. The East India Docks came next, 
 with a monopoly of vessels from the East Indies. Fi- 
 nally, after vast opposition from the London Dock Com- 
 pany, the St. Katherine's Docks were constructed under 
 the powers of a bill recognizing in its preamble ' the 
 principle of free competition in trade, and without any 
 exclusive privileges and immunities'. Other docks have 
 been sanctioned since, with the result that, in the long 
 run and for a long time, there was insane competition 
 between the various docks. And now, at this moment 
 it is notorious that the capital sunk in the docks is far 
 in excess of their true and present value. In fact, it 
 was only while the docks of London enjoyed privileges 
 which were repugnant to every principle of modern 
 economy that they could be regarded as profitable 
 undertakings." 
 
 The plan of the Thames shows that all the bends 
 of the river down to Galleon Reach, beyond Wool- 
 wich, have been utilized for docks except a small 
 portion. Thus the London Docks stretch across 
 the first bend below London Bridge; the Commer- 
 cial Docks occupy the Rotherhithe bend ; the West 
 India and the Millwall Docks are established in the 
 Isle of Dogs ; while the Victoria and Albert Docks 
 extend across the North Woolwich bend. Only the 
 East India Docks are not situated in a bend of the 
 river, and are therefore provided with two entrances 
 a short distance apart. But with these natural 
 advantages for dock-building, the three parallel 
 docks of the West India Docks alone, says Mr. 
 Vernon -Harcourt, present any symmetry of ar-
 
 Trade and Commerce. 71 
 
 rangement; the Commercial Docks, consisting 
 partly of timber ponds, present every variety of 
 size and shape; and the Victoria and Albert Docks, 
 though forming a complete design, have been con- 
 structed according to two different types. {Harbours 
 and Docks, i. 491.) 
 
 The accommodation and appliances at the docks 
 are of great magnitude. The warehouses at the 
 London and St. Katherine's Docks are very exten- 
 sive, and project over the quays, resting on pillars 
 placed on the quays, so that the fronts of the ware- 
 houses are flush with the edge of the docks, and 
 goods can be lifted straight out of the vessels and 
 barges and deposited in any floor of the warehouse. 
 These docks are also well supplied with hydraulic 
 cranes and lifts, but they have no railway com- 
 munication (Vernon-Harcourt, op. cit. i. 492). The 
 London Docks are surrounded by extensive ware- 
 houses, and hydraulic power is employed for work- 
 ing the cranes, lifts, gates, and swing- bridges. 
 These docks are connected with the railway on its 
 western side, but the accommodation is not much 
 developed {ibid.). The Surrey Commercial Docks 
 have a set of warehouses devoted to the grain trade, 
 being fitted with elevators and horizontal distribut- 
 ing bands tor storing the grain, which is lifted 
 from the steamers by hydraulic travelling cranes. 
 The remainder of the docks is used for the timber 
 trade {ibid. 493). The East and West India Docks 
 are surrounded by sheds and warehouses, and the 
 export dock and basin are served by sidings from 
 the Blackwall Railway. On the quay, sheds with 
 two floors have been constructed {ibid. 495). The 
 Millwall Docks are joined to the Blackwall and 
 Millwall railway system, and they possess a large 
 granary furnished with the most modern appliances 
 for the distribution of grain {ibid.). The Victoria 
 and Albert Docks and the Tilbury Docks are also
 
 72 London. 
 
 furnished with ample appliances suitable to their 
 requirements. 
 
 The dock system of London includes, besides these 
 great docks, other docks, quays, and wharves. Thus, 
 there are 36 dry docks and 7 pontoons and other 
 kinds of smaller docks. There are also 17 legal 
 quays, that is, quays where goods may be landed 
 under the authority of the customs authorities; and 
 there are 119 sufferance wharves approved for the 
 landing of certain classes of goods, besides which 
 there are 36 up-town warehouses and vaults. There 
 are nine wharves used for unloading coal only, and 
 4 railway wharves have shipping services regularly 
 connected with them. 
 
 This appears complete enough until one looks 
 a little more closely into the subject. In 1894 the 
 Times devoted a series of special articles to the 
 question of the docks, and I quote the following 
 important passage from the opening article: — 
 
 " No problem outside the scope of party politics is of 
 more serious importance than that which is indicated in 
 the words 'the ports of Great Britain and Ireland'. 
 But the subject is not one which receives full attention 
 from the men whom the electors of the country choose 
 as g-overnors, for the simple reason that, inasmuch as 
 it has not yet come within the scope of party politics, 
 members of parliament have not been encouraged to 
 attack it. A complicated and intricate problem does 
 not commend itself to the party politician or his advisers, 
 who are in agreement, and from their narrow point of 
 view in wise agreement, that the best way to secure 
 votes is to make a pretentious display upon some petty 
 question which appeals to passion, prejudice, and senti- 
 ment, while to attempt the study of serious problems, 
 upon the solution of which the prosperity of the com- 
 munity depends, is to court neglect in the first place, 
 and, after neglect has been conquered by persistence, 
 to earn that unpopularity which is the usual reward of
 
 Trade and Commerce. 73 
 
 those who bring- a troublesome subject to the front. 
 Fortunately, however, for the trading community at 
 large, circumstances have conspired to thrust the ques- 
 tion of the ports upon public attention in such a manner 
 that even the partisan politician must be roused into 
 wakefulness. With these circumstances it will be suffi- 
 cient for the moment to deal in general outline. In the 
 first place, schemes for the complete or partial munici- 
 palization of ports are being thrust forward in a very 
 persistent fashion; in the second place, a number of 
 docks have fallen, or seem to be likely to fall, into the 
 hands of railway companies, some of which are ship- 
 owners into the bargain; in the third place, the doctrine 
 that the agencies which provide facilities for the trans- 
 port of goods must not, if they have obtained protection 
 or assistance from the State in securing their positions, 
 be able to show anything approaching to undue pre- 
 ference, has been recognized with so much emphasis in 
 recent statutes relating to railways and canals that the 
 application of a similar doctrine to the ports, which are 
 the nostrils of the breath of the country — that is to say, 
 of its trade— has become a mere matter of time. Finally, 
 and this is perhaps not the least important point, there 
 is such a bewildering variety of systems and allowances 
 at various ports that it is, according to the statement of 
 many competent authorities, utterly impossible, after 
 reference to all the best books of port and harbour 
 charges, to prepare a tabular statement showing the 
 comparative expense of sending similar vessels with 
 similar cargoes — let me say, for example, coastwise — to 
 the various ports of the kingdom, and having their 
 cargoes dealt with in similar fashion. It should be 
 added that, apart from difficulties presented by varieties 
 of system and management, there are some anomalies 
 in matters of charging rates and dues which are common 
 to all ports, and others which are confined to single 
 ports, that there is an endless variety in the constitution 
 of governing bodies, and that the Port of London, 
 which ought for many obvious reasons to be the most 
 prosperous and the best governed port in the world, is 
 under chaotic control, and is losing its hold upon the
 
 74 London. 
 
 trade of the country at a pace which gives ample cause 
 for apprehension." 
 
 This chaotic control of the Port of London is only 
 one example out of many of the disadvantages from 
 which London suffers from the want of unity. It 
 leads to almost incalculable mischief. To sum- 
 marize the facts, I will use the third of the series of 
 articles in the Times already referred to. It is, says 
 the writer, "the deplorable and incontrovertible 
 fact that no port of any considerable size in the 
 United Kingdom is so grossly mismanaged as the 
 Port of London". The government of the Port 
 of London is divided amongst the Thames Con- 
 servancy with 24 members, the Dock Companies' 
 Directors with upwards of 100, the London County 
 Council with 1 19 members, the Trinity House Elder 
 Brethren 27 in number, besides which there are 
 local vestries, lesser railway docks and wharves, 
 with all their members and directors, and there are 
 the Crown, the Admiralty, and the City Corpora- 
 tion. We have thus a rough enumeration of the 
 various bodies controlling the Port of London. 
 Be it observed, in the first place, that there are 
 several geographical definitions of the Port of 
 London. The legal port, defined by the Com- 
 missioners of 1665, extends from London Bridge 
 to the North Foreland. The jurisdiction of the 
 Thames Conservancy extends, so far as the tidal 
 waters are concerned, from Teddington to Yantlett 
 Creek, on the Medway. This body was empowered 
 by the Act of 1857 "to regulate the fishing in the 
 Thames, to remove its obstructions, cleanse the river, 
 repair its banks and breaches, license wharves, piers, 
 stairs, and other projections, and remove such as 
 are unlicensed, grant licenses for the erection of 
 mills and waterworks ", and so forth ; and by an 
 Act of 1894 its powers are considerably increased.
 
 Trade and Commerce. 75 
 
 Trinity House performs certain functions over an- 
 other area, and the London County Council has 
 certain duties in relation to that part of the Thames 
 within the County of London and that part of the 
 lower reaches which it uses for its sewage outfalls. 
 
 The natural result of this multiplicity of control is 
 an extensive subdivision of responsibility and great 
 difficulty in fixing the blame for things left undone 
 upon the persons who ought to bear it. Let us be 
 content, then, to say that the state of the river, the 
 pollution of its waters, the difficulties in the navi- 
 gation which are not caused to disappear, as would 
 surely be the case if they existed elsewhere, and 
 the enormous expense of the port, are due not to 
 the shortcomings of any particular body, or group 
 of bodies, but to the existence of a system, or lack 
 of system, which is complicated beyond all belief. 
 Apart from the fact that the work done cannot be 
 done well when it is done at all, it is clear that 
 the cost of multiple control is, and must be, enor- 
 mous. For this multiple control there is not the 
 slightest justification beyond the bare fact of its 
 existence. "Nearly all the harbour trusts of the 
 United Kingdom," says the writer of the preface 
 to Mr. Schonberg's little book, "in addition to the 
 control of their respective harbours, manage their 
 own docks, establish their own ferries, build their 
 own bridges, and deepen their own rivers, conserve, 
 light, buoy, build protective works, piers, and light- 
 houses, all out of a gross revenue about one-third 
 that of the docks of London." 
 
 To the bad financial effects of this multiple con- 
 trol are to be added the bad administrative effects. 
 It is hardly to be credited that down to so recent a 
 period as 1888 the estuary of the Thames was prac- 
 tically made the dust-bin of London ! and surely no 
 other city in the world would tolerate so scandalous 
 a state of things. In consequence of complaints from
 
 76 London. 
 
 those engaged in the fisheries, an inquiry was made 
 into the matter, and it was reported upon by Mr. 
 C. E. Fryer, Inspector of Fisheries. The report 
 stated that at least a third of the London vestries, 
 &c, barged away their dust, one parish alone 
 sending 40,000 loads annually. The useless por- 
 tion of this dust, estimated at a third of the whole, 
 was simply shot over from the barges into the river, 
 or its estuary, at the most convenient places, and 
 as many as thirteen barges at a time have been 
 observed near the Nore thus engaged. The quan- 
 tity of dust thus disposed of was estimated at 78,000 
 tons annually. The Thames Conservancy and other 
 authorities acted so as to drive the barges making 
 the deposit outside their limits, but had no power 
 to prevent the dust being shot sufficiently near their 
 boundaries to admit of portions of it being carried 
 back into and polluting their waters. Under sec- 
 tion 83 of their Act of 1894, tn -e jurisdiction of the 
 Thames Conservancy, for the dredging, cleansing, 
 and scouring of the river, and other purposes, has 
 been extended to the Nore lightship, and under 
 section 92 power is conferred to proceed in cases 
 where materials are deposited outside this extended 
 limit, when likely to be carried back to the 
 Thames. The Report of the Lower Thames Navi- 
 gation Commission, 1896, states that for many 
 years the Thames Conservancy had deposited 
 waste dredgings in Dead Man's Hole, about three 
 miles above the Leigh Middle Shoal. In an area 
 of 200,000 square yards more than 2,000,000 cubic 
 yards had been deposited since 1878, sufficient to 
 raise the bottom of the whole area by many feet. 
 Recent surveys, however, show that while other 
 portions of the river have become shallower, the 
 depth of Dead Man's Hole has not been reduced, 
 from which it is concluded that the solid material 
 deposited has found its way into other parts of the
 
 Trade and Commerce. 77 
 
 river or estuary to the injury of the navigating 
 channels, both westward and eastward, and it ap- 
 pears to be placed beyond question that to deposit 
 the material as has been done results in the dis- 
 tribution of the larger portion of it through those 
 parts of the river most favourable to accretion. The 
 widening of the river below Star Elbow was also 
 found to be mischievous, and to avoid further em- 
 phasizing this mischief, it was recommended that 
 no further removal of the northern foreshore or 
 shallow banks of the river should be allowed be- 
 tween Star Elbow and Shoeburyness, and that 
 frontage owners should be encouraged to prevent 
 the removal of any ground immediately above high- 
 water line. The deposits by the London County 
 Council, contractors, and others, in Barrow Deep, 
 20 miles below the Nore, were regarded as impor- 
 tant, and as needing careful watching. From the 
 beginning of 1878 to 30th September, 1894, the 
 Thames Conservancy dredged away 2, 196,760 cubic 
 yards of material from the navigable channel of the 
 river, between London Bridge and Gravesend, at 
 a total cost for working expenses and repairs of 
 ;£ 1 58,658, and of ,£22,925 for tugs, dredgers, &c. 
 The average annual expenditure for dredging this 
 section of the river was thus ;£ 10,681, and the 
 average annual quantity of material removed was 
 129,221 cubic yards, the average cost of removing 
 which was 1.65^. per cubic yard. The average 
 quantity of material removed annually would cover 
 a square mile to a height of an eighth of a foot. 
 Dredging for ballast is also carried on by private 
 persons for sale, under license from the Conser- 
 vators, who receive about ^"noo annually for the 
 privilege. 
 
 If Londoners are to wake up to the enormous 
 interests which are at stake from the present want 
 of system in conducting one of the elementary duties
 
 78 London. 
 
 of the community, they must do so speedily. Lon- 
 don has succeeded in spite of obstacles, not by reason 
 of facilities. While Manchester deems it advisable to 
 spend millions upon the creation of a port and dock, 
 while the governments of foreign countries deem it 
 proper to spend national moneys upon the improve- 
 ment of their docks, as at Havre, Rouen, Antwerp, 
 Hamburg, and others, while trade is being diverted 
 or changed as a consequence of the revived com- 
 petition of foreign countries, London stands still, 
 and will probably only awaken to the occasion at 
 the last stage. No doubt each of the authorities 
 interested in the matter work diligently in the 
 public interest. There is ample proof of this. But 
 diligence cannot make up for unity of action and of 
 policy, and this, more than anything else, is needed. 
 
 Let me now turn to the shipping of the port. 
 The number and tonnage of vessels registered 
 under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1868, as belong- 
 ing to the Port of London, on the 31st December 
 in the following years, according to Board of Trade 
 Annual Return, will be found on pages 79 and 80. 
 
 The change from small to large vessels, and the 
 gradual replacing of sailing by steam vessels, are 
 most marked. In 1874 the total tonnage of vessels 
 registered as belonging to the port was 1,201,108 
 tons; the steam-vessels amounted to only 30*9 per 
 cent of the total number, and 41 "5 per cent of the 
 total tonnage ; the average tonnage per vessel being 
 416. In 1896 the total tonnage was 1,661,079 tons, 
 an increase of 38*3 per cent; the steam-vessels 
 amounted to 59*6 per cent of the total number and 
 to 83 per cent of the total tonnage, and the average 
 tonnage per vessel had increased to 606 tons, or by 
 nearly 46 per cent. The total tonnage of 1896, as 
 compared with that of 1894, shows an increase of 
 56,921 tons, equivalent to 3^ per cent. 
 
 The number of ships and their tonnage recorded
 
 Trade and Commerce. 
 
 79 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 1874. 
 
 Sail. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Under 50 
 
 669 
 
 23,256 
 
 212 
 
 5,297 
 
 88l 
 
 28,553 
 
 50 and under IOO 
 
 250 
 
 16,904 
 
 55 
 
 3,822 
 
 305 
 
 20,726 
 
 100 , 
 
 , 200 
 
 170 
 
 25,567 
 
 75 
 
 II,508 
 
 245 
 
 37,075 
 
 200 , 
 
 , 3°° 
 
 123 
 
 30,406 
 
 43 
 
 IO,394 
 
 166 
 
 40,800 
 
 3°° 
 
 • 4°° 
 
 138 
 
 48,249 
 
 43 
 
 14,899 
 
 l8l 
 
 63,148 
 
 400 , 
 
 » 5°° 
 
 108 
 
 48,705 
 
 59 
 
 26,649 
 
 167 
 
 75,354 
 
 5°° » 
 
 , 600 
 
 7« 
 
 42,835 
 
 7i 
 
 39,028 
 
 149 
 
 81,863 
 
 600 , 
 
 , 700 
 
 74 
 
 48,536 
 
 57 
 
 36,994 
 
 131 
 
 85,530 
 
 700 , 
 
 800 
 
 6.3 
 
 46,950 
 
 38 
 
 28,536 
 
 IOI 
 
 75,486 
 
 800 
 
 , 1000 
 
 103 
 
 91,705 
 
 76 
 
 68,099 
 
 179 
 
 159,804 
 
 1000 , 
 
 , 1200 
 
 104 
 
 "3,763 
 
 54 
 
 58,943 
 
 158 
 
 172,706 
 
 1200 , 
 
 , 1500 
 
 74 
 
 97,448 
 
 41 
 
 54,619 
 
 "5 
 
 152,067 
 
 1500 , 
 
 , 2000 
 
 34 
 
 56,235 
 
 47 
 
 81,624 
 
 81 
 
 137,859 
 
 2000 , 
 
 , 2500 
 
 3 
 
 6,362 
 
 17 
 
 37,463 
 
 20 
 
 43,825 
 
 2500 , 
 
 , 3000 
 
 1 
 
 2,730 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 2,730 
 
 3000 and 
 
 above ... 
 
 1 
 
 3,389 
 
 3 
 
 20,193 
 
 4 
 
 23,582 
 
 Total 
 
 1,993 
 
 703,040 
 
 891 
 
 498,o6S 
 
 2,884 
 
 1,201,108 
 
 
 
 1884. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Sail. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Under 50.. 
 
 691 
 
 23,709 
 
 332 
 
 7,088 
 
 1,023 
 
 30,797 
 
 50 and under 100 
 
 287 
 
 18,508 
 
 67 
 
 4,577 
 
 354 
 
 23,085 
 
 IOO , 
 
 , 200 
 
 99 
 
 14,268 
 
 95 
 
 14,107 
 
 194 
 
 28,375 
 
 200 , 
 
 > 3°o 
 
 58 
 
 14,692 
 
 58 
 
 14,146 
 
 116 
 
 28,838 
 
 3°° » 
 
 > 4°o 
 
 57 
 
 20,049 
 
 58 
 
 20,575 
 
 "5 
 
 40,624 
 
 400 , 
 
 , 500 
 
 60 
 
 27,183 
 
 65 
 
 29,518 
 
 125 
 
 56,701 
 
 500 , 
 
 , 600 
 
 37 
 
 20, 306 
 
 53 
 
 29,057 
 
 90 
 
 49,363 
 
 600 , 
 
 1 7°o 
 
 33 
 
 2IJ8I 
 
 44 
 
 28,444 
 
 77 
 
 50,225 
 
 700 , 
 
 800 
 
 21 
 
 15,955 
 
 5i 
 
 3 8 ,533 
 
 72 
 
 54,488 
 
 800 , 
 
 , 1000 
 
 So 
 
 45,Ol6 
 
 112 
 
 100,518 
 
 162 
 
 145,534 
 
 1000 , 
 
 , 1200 
 
 52 
 
 57,369 
 
 112 
 
 123,373 
 
 164 
 
 180,742 
 
 1200 , 
 
 > I 5°° 
 
 48 
 
 64,895 
 
 130 
 
 172,415 
 
 178 
 
 237,3 IQ 
 
 1500 , 
 
 , 2000 
 
 41 
 
 69,376 
 
 60 
 
 io3,344 
 
 IOI 
 
 172,720 
 
 2000 , 
 
 , 2500 
 
 11 
 
 24,264 
 
 17 
 
 37,688 
 
 28 
 
 61,952 
 
 2500 , 
 
 , 3000 
 
 1 
 
 2,651 
 
 12 
 
 32,222 
 
 13 
 
 34,873 
 
 3000 and above ... 
 
 1 
 
 3,389 
 
 3 
 
 20,191 
 
 4 
 
 23,580 
 
 Total 
 
 i,547 
 
 443,4" 
 
 1,269 
 
 775,796 
 
 2,816 
 
 1,219,207
 
 8o 
 
 London. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 1894. 
 
 Sail. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Under 50.. 
 
 
 549 
 
 l8,7II 
 
 395 
 
 6,26l 
 
 944 
 
 24,972 
 
 50 ar 
 
 id under 100 
 
 272 
 
 18,591 
 
 73 
 
 5.054 
 
 345 
 
 23,645 
 
 100 
 
 >, 
 
 200 
 
 73 
 
 10,648 
 
 93 
 
 14,141 
 
 166 
 
 24,789 
 
 200 
 
 », 
 
 300 
 
 20 
 
 4,891 
 
 64 
 
 15.742 
 
 84 
 
 20,633 
 
 300 
 
 1, 
 
 400 
 
 12 
 
 4,2l6 
 
 5o 
 
 17,566 
 
 62 
 
 21,782 
 
 400 
 
 >i 
 
 500 
 
 14 
 
 6,380 
 
 55 
 
 25,095 
 
 69 
 
 31,475 
 
 500 
 
 1 1 
 
 600 
 
 12 
 
 6,636 
 
 5i 
 
 28,211 
 
 63 
 
 34,847 
 
 600 
 
 11 
 
 700 
 
 10 
 
 6,556 
 
 3 1 
 
 19,929 
 
 4i 
 
 26,485 
 
 700 
 
 1 1 
 
 800 
 
 10 
 
 7,585 
 
 34 
 
 25,870 
 
 44 
 
 33,455 
 
 800 
 
 11 
 
 1000 
 
 21 
 
 18,704 
 
 114 
 
 102,106 
 
 135 
 
 120,810 
 
 1000 
 
 11 
 
 1200 
 
 22 
 
 24,362 
 
 108 
 
 119,519 
 
 130 
 
 143,881 
 
 1200 
 
 11 
 
 1500 
 
 46 
 
 61,708 
 
 185 
 
 250,244 
 
 231 
 
 3".952 
 
 1500 
 
 1 > 
 
 2000 
 
 50 
 
 85, I02 
 
 199 
 
 345,401 
 
 249 
 
 430,503 
 
 2000 
 
 11 
 
 2500 
 
 16 
 
 35, '34 
 
 66 
 
 145,611 
 
 82 
 
 180,745 
 
 2500 
 
 1 1 
 
 3000 
 
 3 
 
 7,997 
 
 36 
 
 96,011 
 
 39 
 
 104,008 
 
 3000 
 
 and above ... 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 21 
 
 1.575 
 
 70,176 
 
 21 
 
 2,705 
 
 70,176 
 
 Total 
 
 1,13° 
 
 317,221 
 
 1,286,937 
 
 1,604,158 
 
 
 
 1896. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Sail. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Under 50.. 
 
 557 
 
 18,669 
 
 424 
 
 6,357 
 
 981 
 
 25,026 
 
 50 and under 100 
 
 287 
 
 19,729 
 
 74 
 
 5,o57 
 
 361 
 
 24,786 
 
 100 ,, 200 
 
 66 
 
 9,291 
 
 104 
 
 15,869 
 
 170 
 
 25,160 
 
 200 
 
 3°° 
 
 16 
 
 3,843 
 
 7i 
 
 17,339 
 
 87 
 
 2I,l82 
 
 300 
 
 400 
 
 9 
 
 3,M3 
 
 46 
 
 16,127 
 
 55 
 
 19,270 
 
 400 
 
 5°° 
 
 13 
 
 5,912 
 
 53 
 
 24,153 
 
 66 
 
 30,065 
 
 500 
 
 , 600 
 
 9 
 
 4,927 
 
 49 
 
 27,080 
 
 58 
 
 32,007 
 
 600 
 
 700 
 
 6 
 
 3,868 
 
 33 
 
 21,230 
 
 39 
 
 25,098 
 
 700 
 
 , 800 
 
 10 
 
 7,570 
 
 27 
 
 20,558 
 
 37 
 
 28,128 
 
 800 
 
 , 1000 
 
 12 
 
 10,919 
 
 96 
 
 86,065 
 
 108 
 
 96,984 
 
 1000 
 
 , 1200 
 
 18 
 
 20,321 
 
 105 
 
 "5,979 
 
 123 
 
 136,300 
 
 1200 
 1500 
 
 1500 
 , 2000 
 
 js 7 
 
 132,876 
 
 401 
 
 635,794 
 
 488 
 
 768,670 
 
 2000 
 2500 
 
 2500 
 3000 
 
 (,« 
 
 41,198 
 
 114 
 
 270,951 
 
 132 
 
 312,149 
 
 3000 and above ... 
 
 
 — 
 
 35 
 
 116,254 
 1,378,813 
 
 35 
 
 116,254 
 
 Total 
 
 1,108 
 
 282,266 
 
 1,632 
 
 2,740 
 
 1,661,079
 
 Trade and Commerce. 
 
 81 
 
 as having entered the port in the eighteenth and the 
 early part of the present century afford interesting 
 comparative evidence of the growth of London com- 
 merce. The figures are as follows: — 
 
 Trade. 
 
 i8th Century. 
 
 Beginning. 
 
 Middle. 
 
 Close. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 
 i,335 
 
 5,562 
 
 157,035 
 27S,IOO 
 
 1,682 
 6,396 
 
 234,369 
 5II,6So 
 
 3,269 
 IO,I75 
 
 557,248 
 1,205,650 
 
 
 6,897 
 
 435,135 
 
 8,078 
 
 746,049 
 
 13,444 
 
 1,762,898 
 
 Trade. 
 
 19TH Century. 
 
 1820. 
 
 1830. 
 
 1846. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Foreign... 
 Totals . . . 
 
 4,2IO 
 Not full 
 
 777,858 
 y recorded 
 
 5,178 
 19,057 
 
 951,729 
 2,436,701 
 
 6,728 
 21,619 
 
 1,284,220 
 2,850,813 
 
 — 
 
 24,235 
 
 3,388,430 
 
 28,347 
 
 4,135,033 
 
 The information is only available in regard to ships 
 entered, but the increase shown may perhaps be 
 taken as an approximate indication of the pro- 
 portionate increase in the total ships and tonnage 
 entered and cleared in the years referred to. Among 
 the ships shown for the close of the 18th century 
 were included 3676 colliers, of an aggregate ton- 
 nage of 656,000 tons. In 1825 this number of 
 colliers had increased to 6564, of an aggregate 
 tonnage of 1,856,606 tons, or more than the whole 
 entered trade of the port at the close of the 18th 
 century. At that time all the ships in the port were 
 moored in the river, and discharged and took in 
 their cargoes there. The river was, in consequence, 
 so crowded with shipping, that a vessel frequently 
 took a week to get from London Bridge to Black- 
 
 ( M 517 ) f
 
 82 
 
 London. 
 
 wall. It was this state of things, and the gigantic 
 system of robbery which prevailed on the river, 
 which led to the Parliamentary inquiry into the 
 Port of London in 1797 — the evidence collected 
 containing much valuable and most interesting in- 
 formation — which resulted in the incorporation of 
 the first dock company (the West India), whose 
 docks were opened 1802. This and the subsequent 
 development of dock accommodation immensely 
 increased the trade of the port, which, previously 
 to the West India Docks being opened, was thought 
 to have attained the limit which the provision at 
 that time admitted. Up to the year 1840 the home 
 trade of the port was of far greater magnitude than 
 the foreign, and it was not until i860 that the latter 
 began to constitute the greater part of the trade of 
 the port; now it is nearly double the home trade, 
 and it is gratifying to observe that the proportion 
 of British ships and tonnage engaged in it are 
 yearly increasing in a much greater proportion 
 than the foreign ships and tonnage. 
 
 In i860 London had 21^ per cent of the total 
 foreign trade of the country, that is, 4,526,012 tons 
 out of an aggregate of 20,837,918 tons. In 1896, 
 while the aggregate foreign trade of the country had 
 reached 71,182,887 tons London had received only 
 14,493,353 tons, or 20^ per cent, thus showing a 
 small proportional decrease. The Danish trade, in 
 particular, had been diverted to the following ports: — 
 
 Ports. 
 
 Aggregate of 
 Denmark Tonnage in 
 
 Difference. 
 
 i860. 
 
 1896. 
 
 Leith 
 
 33,942 
 
 150,474 
 
 2,729 
 
 708 
 
 14,997 
 
 183,684 
 
 278,754 
 30,621 
 
 16,530 
 24,968 
 
 149,742 
 
 128,280 
 
 27,892 
 
 15,822 
 
 9,971 

 
 Trade and Commerce. 
 
 83 
 
 These figures show that London is not keeping 
 up its proportion of trade. So long as this trade 
 finds its way to other British ports the country is 
 not, as a whole, concerned ; but if it indicates that 
 the foreign trade is beginning to be diverted into 
 foreign ports, that London is no longer the sole 
 clearing-house of Europe for all eastern trades, 
 then the question becomes a serious one, not only 
 for London but for the country. The statistics are 
 not of course to be taken as affording conclusive 
 proof one way or another. Other things have to be 
 taken into consideration. But they do suggest that 
 the time has arrived when this subject must be 
 examined into most minutely and carefully, and 
 particularly whether the enormous increase in the 
 trade of London, indicated by the tonnage figures 
 of i860 and 1896, does not show that the accom- 
 modation of the port needs very considerable 
 
 augmentation. 
 
 The number and tonnage of vessels in the dif- 
 ferent London docks, and the number of vessels in 
 the various dry-docks for repair, &c, as well as 
 the number, tonnage, and nationality of the vessels 
 
 Docks. 
 
 Number of Vessels. 
 
 Tonnage of Vessels. 
 
 For 
 
 repair, 
 
 outfit, 
 
 &c. , or 
 
 to lie up 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Sail- 
 ing. 
 
 Total. 
 
 5 
 29 
 II 
 II 
 
 8 
 23 
 19 
 21 
 
 55 
 18 
 
 200 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Sailing. 
 
 Total. 
 
 West India 
 
 Tilbury 
 
 3 
 11 
 10 
 8 
 6 
 21 
 18 
 18 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 18 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 3 
 
 43 
 18 
 
 13,926 
 
 18,495 
 
 34,656 
 
 9,428 
 
 6,935 
 60,834 
 78,686 
 21,060 
 
 11,112 
 
 2,630 
 17,729 
 
 554 
 1,854 
 305 
 945 
 278 
 1,125 
 
 26,072 
 
 8,679 
 
 60,171 
 
 16,556 
 36,224 
 35.2IO 
 11,282 
 7,240 
 
 6l,779 
 78,964 
 22,185 
 
 37,184 
 8,679 
 
 3 I 5,303 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 15 
 
 London 
 
 St. Katherine's. 
 Royal Victoria.. 
 Royal Albert. . . . 
 Millwall 
 
 Surrey Com-\ 
 Regent's Canal. 
 
 Total 
 
 107 
 
 93 
 
 255,132
 
 84 London. 
 
 which entered and cleared from the port on a par- 
 ticular day — 6th November, 1896 — will give the 
 best idea of the extent of the shipping trade of 
 London. This information given here in tabular 
 form has been ascertained from the Dock Directory 
 and the Customs House Returns. 
 
 Besides this there were 10 steam and 4 sailing 
 ships in the various dry-docks of London for 
 repair, &c, 6th November, 1896. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 The Industries. 
 
 The occupations of the people of London, outside 
 what may be termed the natural occupations of 
 trade and commerce, are more numerous than is 
 generally supposed. There are very numerous and 
 extensive industries carried on, and these occupy 
 the next place in our consideration. 
 
 The general condition of the industries in 1837, 
 noted in the first chapter, showed us some decaying 
 and some developing. This process has gone on 
 ever since. And first of all there is the important 
 industry of ship-building, once a very important part 
 of the trade of London. 
 
 Mr. Chas. Booth, in his Life and Labour of the 
 People (vol. v.), thus describes the decline in this 
 industry in the Port of London: — 
 
 " There was a time when the banks of the river below 
 London Bridge formed the great ship-building yard of 
 the world; now the ship-building has all gone, although 
 to the last the Thames work retains its reputation for 
 being the very best. In the iron ship-building trade, the 
 Thames, formerly so noted for its work, now does next
 
 The Industries. 85 
 
 to nothing - ; in the midst of the general depression, one 
 or two firms only which have a specialty in the manu- 
 facture of torpedo-boats, &c, are doing well. The 
 tendency for some years past, in regard to the engineer- 
 ing and metal trades generally, has been for London to 
 become more and more exclusively a repairing shop. 
 Each year the quantity of new work turned out becomes 
 smaller, owing to the circumscribed space available, 
 the heavier rent, rates, taxes, greater cost of labour, 
 and in most cases the higher cost of carriage of raw 
 material. These combined causes so heavily handicap 
 London in the competition with provincial rivals, that 
 even for work to be used in London, it is only under 
 some special conditions that a bona fide London firm 
 can secure an order." 
 
 The difficulty of launching the much larger 
 vessels of recent years may also, Mr. Booth thinks, 
 have helped this decline; but the race for cheap- 
 ness, he considers, has been the main cause, and 
 provincial rivals, having every facility for producing 
 at less cost, have succeeded in the contest. The 
 Board of Trade returns do not appear to give par- 
 ticulars of ship-building earlier than 1867. and for 
 that year the aggregate tonnage built at the Port of 
 London, exclusive of those built for foreigners, 
 was only 5667 tons, or 3291 tons, nearly 37 per 
 cent, less than the aggregate of 1896, namely, 8958 
 tons, and 3061 tons in excess of the lowest aggre- 
 gate of all — that of 1884. The aggregate of 1870 
 corresponds with that of 1867, and it would appear 
 that the aggregate for 1874, 2 °»93° tons, is quite an 
 exceptional one, and should therefore be excluded 
 in the effort to determine whether there has been a 
 decline or otherwise in the ship-building industry 
 within a recent period. Vessels built for foreigners 
 should also be excluded in this comparison, because 
 of the considerable variations in their number at 
 different periods, due to circumstances not con-
 
 86 London. 
 
 nected with the conditions obtaining in London. 
 So far as it has been possible to investigate the facts 
 it would appear that ship-building is now decidedly 
 a more prosperous industry than it was thirty 
 years ago, and shows a tendency to increase. How 
 much further back than 1867 it would be necessary 
 to extend the inquiry in order to discover the time 
 when the banks of the Thames were the " ship- 
 building yard of the world ", would be a difficult 
 matter to determine; and we are not assisted by 
 the fact that the building of metal ships was then 
 comparatively in its infancy, and the old materials 
 and methods of construction were almost as much 
 used as they had been for years previously. 
 
 There was no industrial census prior to 1851, and 
 it is therefore difficult to trace the changes of in- 
 dustrial enterprise with any detail. In an Appendix 
 I have printed an analysis of the London Directory 
 of 1837, °f the London census of 1851, and of the 
 London census of 1891. It should be borne in mind 
 that the analysis for 1837 is °f employers only, that 
 for 185 1 and for 1891 is of employers and employed, 
 and further, that the London of 1837, though practi- 
 cally the entire London as it then existed, is not 
 technically the same area as that of modern London. 
 The difference in this respect would not, however, 
 be of importance. 
 
 The manufacturing industries in 1837 consisted 
 of chemical manufactures, implement-makers, arti- 
 ficial-flower makers, cabinet-makers, builders, boat- 
 builders, blacking manufacturers, mathematical- 
 instrument makers, furriers and leather-dressers, 
 watch and clock manufacturers, coach-builders, 
 coopers, dyers, engineers, glove manufacturers, 
 gold and silver workers, hat manufacturers, paper- 
 makers, pen manufacturers, pianoforte makers, 
 pottery makers, printers, silk manufacturers, soap 
 manufacturers, tinplate workers, tobacco-pipe
 
 The Industries. 87 
 
 makers, and other smaller industries. There were 
 altogether 16,536 different employers of labour in 
 connection with the industrial work of London, 
 each of whom employed a large number of persons 
 in the various parts of the manufactory. This is 
 sufficient to indicate the extensive character of 
 London industries, apart from the ordinary domestic 
 and professional occupations of a large and wealthy 
 community. 
 
 The examination of the list in the Appendix will 
 excite the interest of all who care to watch the 
 progress of industrial life in our midst. New 
 industries have been added and old industries have 
 been given up. The extensive operations of match 
 manufacturing, jam making, pickle manufacturing, 
 electrical engineering, and the enormous develop- 
 ment of the jewellery, pottery, and other art 
 industries, have wrought extensive changes in the 
 industrial development of London, and few people 
 realize to what a large extent London depends 
 upon its manufacturing industries. 
 
 Among the professions of 1837 are a few which 
 tell us of the changing order of things. There are 
 enumerated, for instance, "13 cuppers" and "28 
 dentists and cuppers ". These entries tell us of the 
 advance of surgery in all its branches, not only by 
 the fact that "cuppers" now no longer exist, but 
 that the operation is no longer carried on by 
 surgeons, while, on the other hand, dentistry has 
 assumed the position of a separate profession of 
 very considerable importance. The "86 proctors" 
 no longer exist, this branch of the legal profession 
 having been abolished and the work thrown open to 
 solicitors ; and there are other employments strange 
 to modern times. 
 
 There is indeed an enormously large number of 
 persons in London engaged in the learned pro- 
 fessions — law, medicine, and the like. In 185 1,
 
 88 London. 
 
 according to the census enumeration, the number 
 was 25,097, but in 1891 it was 100,731. This has 
 a considerable influence upon the wealth and 
 position of London, for it is the centre of the whole 
 kingdom in such matters, and with the ever-increas- 
 ing facilities for travelling, is becoming more and 
 more the training ground for all branches of high 
 professional occupation. In 1837 it is noticeable that 
 journalists are not specially enumerated, and that 
 the trades connected with books and newspapers 
 only numbered about 800 different businesses. In 
 1891 some 62,000 persons were employed in this 
 branch of work, besides 34,000 persons directly 
 engaged in literature, fine arts, and sciences. It is, 
 I believe, an admitted fact that the training in 
 London in all branches of the learned professions 
 is considered to be of far greater value than that 
 to be obtained elsewhere. 
 
 The comparatively scanty information which is 
 available upon so important a feature of London 
 life as its industries is sufficient at all events to 
 detect a faulty point in our census statistics, and it 
 is to be hoped that this will be mended in the 
 future. Nothing is more important to a community 
 than to be able to consciously observe the tendency 
 of its development. In the meantime, all that can 
 be accomplished by an exhaustive examination of 
 the facts contained in the two censuses of 1881 and 
 1 89 1 has been done by Mr. C. Booth, and I shall 
 not hesitate to quote his masterly summary here 
 (see Life and Labour of the People, ix. 58-64). 
 
 "Between 1881 and 1891 the population of London 
 increased io}4 per cent, but the numbers employed in 
 this or that trade were affected in very varying- degrees. 
 Those engaged in making surgical, scientific, and elec- 
 trical instruments, for instance, increased no less than 
 113 per cent, while, on the other hand, shipwrights 
 decreased 56^ per cent. If we look back further, we
 
 The Industries. 89 
 
 find that the augmentation in the numbers of scientific- 
 instrument makers has been continuous, amounting- to 
 246 per cent since 1861. This increase has been ex- 
 ceeded only by that of the paper trades, in which the 
 total addition to the numbers employed was 250 per 
 cent. Shipwrights have as continuously declined, the 
 reduction being no less than 72^ per cent since 1861. 
 Where there is an increase, it has, as a rule, been a 
 fairly steady one during the whole thirty years; and 
 where a decrease, that also has been persistent. An 
 exception to this rule is to be found in the building 
 trades, in which only the last decade shows a decrease, 
 the explanation being, not that the trade has really 
 declined, but that its operations have been partly trans- 
 ferred to districts beyond the census boundaries. Hat 
 and cap makers form another exception, as after de- 
 creasing rapidly up to 1881, they show 12 per cent 
 increase in the last decade, undoubtedly due to the rise 
 of the cloth-cap industry. In the case of seamen, too, 
 a rapid decline has been followed recently by a slight 
 increase; and, on the other hand, merchants, bankers, 
 and brokers, whose numbers were greatly augmented 
 from 1 86 1 to 1881, have decreased slightly since, due, 
 perhaps, to the development of limited liability com- 
 panies. The changes are often significant as showing 
 the drift and direction of modern industry, and the 
 extension of old or creation of new demands. A dis- 
 tinction, however, must be drawn between trades which 
 work for a wide market, and those which, like the cab 
 and omnibus service, find their customers entirely in 
 London. Among industries of the former description, 
 we find no increase in the last decade equal to that 
 already mentioned as being shown by the scientific- 
 instrument makers (which is connected chiefly with the 
 extended demand for electrical appliances); but paper 
 manufacture (that is, the making of paper boxes and 
 bags, and the cutting of envelopes) shows an increase 
 of 48^ per cent; india-rubber and floor-cloth, 35 per 
 cent; chemical workers, 32 per cent; engineering, &c, 
 31^ per cent; and soap and candle makers, 29^ per 
 cent. All these trades, excepting the last, lie in the full
 
 go London. 
 
 stream of modern development, and in connection with 
 the trade of candle making, we have already noted the 
 very remarkable fact that the more light we have the 
 more we seem to require, so that the demands for elec- 
 tricity, gas, petroleum, and candles all increase to- 
 gether. A test of the amount of work connected with 
 the receiving and handling of merchandise is perhaps 
 afforded by the carmen, who have increased 36^ per 
 cent in the decade, and no less than 198 per cent since 
 1 86 1. These are very eloquent figures, which certainly 
 do not bear out the view that trade is leaving the Port 
 of London. Coal-porters show an increase of 50 per 
 cent, due partly, no doubt, to the general development 
 of trade, but more to the substitution of coal-consuming 
 steamers for sailing vessels. In any case, the figures 
 are strong evidence of the extension of business, of 
 which another proof is found in the increase of com- 
 mercial clerks by 28^ per cent in the decade, and by no 
 less than 205^/2 per cent since 1861." 
 
 Mr. Booth next discusses the trades which are 
 leaving London. These are: 
 
 " milling, sugar-refining, &c, which show 20^2 per cent 
 reduction in the decade, or 49 per cent in the thirty 
 years; silk and fancy textiles, in which the reduction 
 is 21 ^ per cent since 1881, and no less than 61 Yi per 
 cent since 1861 ; coopers, whose trade has slipped away, 
 chiefly in the last ten years, in connection with the sub- 
 stitution of metal drums for wooden barrels, and the 
 making of the latter by machinery; and finally ship- 
 wrights, who have suffered in the revolution which, in 
 replacing wood by iron and steel in ship-building, has 
 transferred this trade to the North of England. All 
 these trades work for a large market." 
 
 Other changes in the census totals indicate altera- 
 tions in business methods, and Mr. Booth instances 
 
 "undefined factory labour, which increased 79 per cent 
 in the decade, following increases in the preceding 
 periods, so that the total addition (calculated on a small
 
 The Industries. 91 
 
 original total) is no less than 309^ per cent; besides 
 this, artisans, &c. , undefined, have increased by 43 per 
 cent since 1881. Here we undoubtedly trace the applica- 
 tion of science to manufacture, with the result that in 
 certain trades the contribution of skill passes into new 
 and fewer hands, — the hands of those who direct rather 
 than those who do the work, — and thus tends to be 
 dissociated, perhaps for ever, from the old skill of the 
 handicraftsman. " 
 
 This revolution is connected with the introduction 
 of machinery, and Mr. Booth next notices some 
 important facts in this connection. 
 
 "The increase in machinists (78 per cent), which re- 
 flects the application of the sewing-machines to many 
 trades, has been naturally accompanied by a decrease 
 amongst seamstresses. With tailors, also, the addition 
 (30 per cent) is connected mainly with a changed method 
 of business, which, by immensely cheapening the pro- 
 duction of clothes, has found a wider market. In fact 
 a new branch of trade has been created, in which room 
 has been found for a large proportion of the Jewish 
 immigrants, by whom, or by whose co-religionists, this 
 industry has been principally built up." 
 
 Next Mr. Booth touches upon the trades in which 
 can be traced both the gradual movement of modern 
 industry and a special extension of London de- 
 mands. These are: 
 
 "printing, with 33^ per cent addition since 1881, and 
 no less than 124^2 per cent since 1861, and book-binding, 
 with an increase of 23 per cent in ten years, or 104 per 
 cent in thirty years. Books, papers, and periodicals 
 printed in the metropolis go all over the world, but a 
 large part of the demand lies within the boundaries of 
 London, and consequently we find a considerable growth 
 in the number of booksellers and newsagents, amounting 
 to 32 per cent in ten, or 66 percent in thirty years. Of a 
 similar character is the increase in the number of makers 
 of musical instruments and toys, an increase which, as
 
 92 London. 
 
 showing the capacity of the population for spending 
 money on the smaller luxuries of life, may perhaps be 
 taken as a further indication of prosperity. Milk-sellers 
 have grown 31 per cent, indicating, surely, a wide- 
 spread advance in comfort, and possibly also in sobriety. 
 Though greatest in recent years, this rise has been con- 
 tinuous, so that milk-sellers have increased, since 1861, 
 by 82 per cent. This increase has been accompanied, 
 and perhaps partly caused, by a revolution in the trade, 
 London dairies having been superseded by railway- 
 borne milk far superior in quality to that formerly 
 supplied. No less satisfactory than the increase in the 
 retailers of milk is the decrease in the numbers of 
 publicans and their assistants, which, though only y 2 per 
 cent in the last decade, is 17^ per cent since 1861 — a 
 great change when compared with 50 per cent increase 
 of population." 
 
 Mr. Booth concludes his very remarkable sum- 
 mary of industrial London as follows: — 
 
 " On the whole, the changes in the industrial constitu- 
 tion of London point to, and are no doubt closely con- 
 nected with, a general increase in and concentration 
 of wealth. That 'wealth accumulates and men decay' 
 is in some sense a true verdict as regards London, but 
 it is not the whole truth, for, thanks on the one hand to 
 better regulation, and on the other to a healthy influx 
 and efflux of population, a wholesome balance is main- 
 tained, and it may even be hoped that the better influ- 
 ences prevail." 
 
 This evidence is very important, and it is derived 
 from a close and special analysis of the census 
 returns, which is the special characteristic of Mr. 
 Booth's book. When we note the remarkable de- 
 velopment of large retail businesses with branch 
 establishments all over London, of the enormous 
 concerns in Oxford Street and Regent Street, and 
 add that the development of the stores system of
 
 The Industries. 93 
 
 trading, of which Mr. White ley was the forerunner, 
 coupled with cheapness of parcel carriage, has made 
 London the centre for a large retail business with 
 customers living many miles beyond its boundaries, 
 we have noted, I think, the chief features of indus- 
 trial London. 
 
 But there is a very interesting and special branch 
 of London industrial life, which is not so well known 
 as it ought to be, and which demands most careful 
 attention at the hands of those who conduct the 
 affairs of London, namely, the various industries 
 connected with the markets. 
 
 London differs in one very striking particular 
 from perhaps every other important city in that 
 it has no general retail markets. In Paris and 
 other large continental cities, and in most of the 
 towns throughout England, general markets at 
 which the retail purchaser can obtain his domestic 
 supplies are generally to be found on a large scale. 
 Practically no market of this kind exists in London, 
 all the authorized markets being mainly wholesale 
 markets or depots, to which the producer or im- 
 porter sends his produce for sale to the retail trades- 
 man, and at these markets the actual consumer 
 rarely purchases. The only semblance to retail 
 markets which exist in London are the informal 
 markets, established by the costermongers in the 
 public streets, which, as is well known, are quite 
 unauthorized. 
 
 The authorized London markets have, in nearly 
 all cases, been established by royal charter. The 
 oldest of these charters appears to be that granted 
 to the Corporation of London by Edward III. in 
 1327. This charter confirmed the liberties, customs, 
 and privileges of the City of London, and pro- 
 hibited the establishment of any market within 
 seven lencce (about 6^3 miles) of the City walls, 
 but this latter right has obviously not been main-
 
 94 London. 
 
 tained, as in addition to two charters granted by 
 Charles II., for Covent Garden and Spitalfields 
 markets, other markets have been established within 
 the prescribed distance under Act of Parliament. 
 The Borough, Columbia, and Shadwell markets 
 may be cited as instances. It was stated by the 
 City Remembrancer, in giving evidence before the 
 Royal Commission, that " in recent times, the policy 
 of the Corporation has been to recognize and assist 
 in every way the establishment of retail markets all 
 over the metropolis"; but the Corporation certainly 
 opposed the Islington Market, the Shadwell Market, 
 and the Stratford Market, and their action in the 
 case of the Deptford Market was a virtual opposi- 
 tion to any other but themselves being the market 
 authority. 
 
 The history of the City Markets is not a pleasing 
 one. It is the history of a struggle for private 
 rights, not for municipal duties. The City has 
 established and maintained nine great markets, two 
 of which, viz. the Metropolitan Cattle Market at 
 Islington, and the Foreign Cattle Market at Dept- 
 ford, are outside the City boundaries, established 
 under special Acts of Parliament. The markets 
 actually within the City are the Central Markets 
 at Smithfield, containing meat, poultry, provision, 
 and general, and fish markets; Leadenhall, which 
 is a general market ; Billingsgate for fish ; and 
 Smithfield Hay Market. Besides these, there are 
 the Corn Exchange, the Coal Exchange, the Wool 
 Exchange, and the Metal Exchange. 
 
 The other principal London markets are: 
 
 Covent Garden (vegetable, fruit, and flower market), 
 
 granted by royal charter. 
 Spitalfields (vegetable and fruit market), granted by 
 
 royal charter. 
 The Borough (vegetable and fruit market), granted 
 
 under statute.
 
 The Industries. 95 
 
 The Great Northern Railway Company (potato market). 
 The Midland Railway, Euston Road (potatoes and vege- 
 tables). 
 Columbia (now a potato market), granted under statute, 
 Shadwell (fish market), granted under statute. 
 Portman Market (general). 
 
 Greenwich Market, granted under charter and statute. 
 Woolwich Market, granted under charter. 
 Whitechapel Hay Market, granted under statute. 
 Cumberland Hay Market, granted under statute. 
 Hide and Skin Market. 
 
 Of the two City markets situated in the county 
 area, the first is the cattle market at Islington. 
 Having become utterly inadequate under private 
 management, an Act was passed in 1851, putting 
 an end to it. This Act, and an amending Act passed 
 two years afterwards, enabled the Corporation to 
 erect the cattle market at Islington, which they did, 
 at a cost of ^450,000. The Act now governing the 
 market was passed in 1S57. The market covers 
 an area of about 75 acres, the market proper con- 
 sisting of 15 acres. The market was opened in 
 June, 1855, for the sale of cattle, sheep, and horses. 
 There is also a " scrap" market for the sale of carts, 
 manufactured goods, old iron, and various odds and 
 ends. The method of conducting the business in 
 the Metropolitan Cattle Market is as follows : — The 
 consignments of cattle, &c, which arrive by the 
 various railways or from the Corporation's own 
 lairs in the immediate vicinity of the market, or 
 from the neighbouring lairs licensed for the pur- 
 pose, are allotted a certain space in the market. 
 When fully set, the market will hold 6600 bullocks 
 and 36,000 sheep, and the lairs will accommodate 
 about 3000 head of cattle and 10,000 sheep. It is 
 said to be the largest cattle market in the world. 
 The "scrap" market in connection with the cattle 
 market is an offshoot of the old Smithfield Market.
 
 96 London. 
 
 Formerly there used to be what was called a pedlars' 
 market at Smithfield, and when that was removed 
 they gradually drew on to the Metropolitan Cattle 
 Market, where accommodation was set apart for 
 them. The tolls, which are fixed by Act of Parlia- 
 ment, are 6d. per head on bullocks, 1 %d. on sheep, 
 3^. on calves, i%d. on pigs, 7^. on horses, and 
 3d. on donkeys. The supplies for the market are 
 drawn from all parts of the United Kingdom and 
 from all countries which are not scheduled by the 
 Board of Agriculture. The market supplies, as a 
 rule, all the home and midland counties, Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire, and in the autumn many of the 
 English watering-places. The market days are 
 Mondays and Thursdays for cattle, sheep, and pigs, 
 and Fridays for horses, mules, donkeys, and milch 
 cows, and for the "scrap" market; but nearly all 
 the cattle business of the week is done on Mondays. 
 
 In 1866 the Metropolitan Board of Works showed 
 by investigations made by them that the cattle 
 plague was being introduced into London by cows 
 imported from Holland, and in 1867 an Act gave 
 power to the Privy Council to regulate the landing 
 of cattle brought from any place out of the United 
 Kingdom. Places were authorized by the Act to 
 be provided for the reception of such cattle. In 
 1868 the Privy Council asked the Board of Works 
 if they would establish and maintain a landing- 
 place and market for the landing, slaughter, and 
 sale of foreign animals, and on the Board assenting 
 to this, a Bill was framed to confer the necessary 
 powers on the Board. The City, however, inter- 
 posed, and stated that they were prepared to estab- 
 lish such a market, and without having recourse 
 to the imposition of any rate to maintain the same, 
 out of the revenue to be derived from the tolls, 
 wharfage, and the rents of any such market. 
 
 In 1869 the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act
 
 The Industries. 97 
 
 was passed, which repealed the Acts of 1848 and 
 1867, and declared the local authority to be the 
 Board of Works, except within the City area. 
 This Act contained special provisions relating to 
 the importation and landing of foreign animals, 
 and declared that the Mayor, Aldermen, and Com- 
 mons of the City of London should, for the pur- 
 poses of that part of the Act, be exclusively the 
 local authority in and for the Metropolis, and gave 
 them power, provided they exercised it by the 
 1st January, 1872, to acquire wharves and lairs for 
 the landing, reception, sale, and slaughter of foreign 
 animals. In default of the City providing such a 
 market before January 1st, 1872, the Board of Works 
 might acquire and erect the same with the consent 
 of the Privy Council. 
 
 Acting under these powers, the Corporation estab- 
 lished the Foreign Cattle Market at Deptford. 
 This market is used for the slaughter and sale 
 of cattle imported into the Port of London from 
 scheduled countries — countries in which contagious 
 disease in animals is known or suspected to exist. 
 All animals coming from such countries must be 
 slaughtered within ten days, exclusive of the day of 
 landing. The cattle are consigned to commission 
 salesmen, who sell the animals alive by private 
 contract. The wholesale and retail butchers who 
 purchase these animals have in most instances a 
 slaughter-house in the market area, for which they 
 pay a yearly rental, but some of the animals are 
 killed in common or public slaughter-houses in the 
 market. The trade of the market is increased or 
 diminished according as the Board of Agriculture 
 increases or diminishes the number of scheduled 
 countries. The market is held on Mondays and 
 Thursdays, but is open every day for the reception, 
 lairage, and slaughtering of cattle. The market 
 was opened in January, 1872, and in that year there 
 
 ( M 517 ) G
 
 98 London. 
 
 were 38,129 cattle, 817 calves, 124,508 sheep, and 
 173 swine brought into the market. In 1882 there 
 were 105,964 cattle, 21,638 calves, 778,775 sheep, 
 and 11,705 swine. In 1891, 154,127 cattle (includ- 
 ing calves) were brought into the Foreign Cattle 
 Market, 196,570 sheep (including lambs), but no 
 swine. The charges for landing, wharfage, lairage, 
 and market dues are as follows: — Beasts per head, 
 5«r. ; calves per head, 2s. ; pigs per head, is. ; sheep 
 per head, gd. The lairs are supplied with a con- 
 stant supply of water, and the market authorities 
 are responsible for the delivery of the animals in 
 the first instance to the consignee, and afterwards 
 to the purchaser, in such numbers as he may re- 
 quire for slaughter. The animals brought by all 
 continental steamers are landed direct on the jetties, 
 but if the steamer is too large to get alongside, the 
 Corporation have a steamer to tranship the animals, 
 for which they charge a uniform rate of 3.9. per head. 
 The ratio of the tolls charged in the market to the 
 value of the animals sold is as follows: — J- s of the 
 value in the case of a bullock; T V in the case of a 
 sheep; -^ in the case of a calf; and -^ in the case 
 of a pig. The supplies for the market are drawn 
 from the following countries: — The United States, 
 cattle and sheep; from Holland, cattle, sheep, and 
 pigs; from Belgium, sheep; from Germany, sheep; 
 from Spain, cattle; from Portugal, cattle; and from 
 Schleswig-Holstein, cattle and sheep. A little 
 over two-thirds of the carcasses of animals killed 
 at Deptford are sent to the London Central Meat 
 Market, and a large quantity goes to Whitechapel 
 Market. An inspection of the animals is made by 
 the Inspector of the Board of Agriculture, and if 
 disease exists, the portion of the market where it 
 exists is immediately closed ; the animals are slaugh- 
 tered under special restrictions; and all the hides, 
 fat, offal, &c, are disinfected.
 
 The Industries. 99 
 
 ^ The large group of markets known as London 
 Central Markets has been gradually erected by the 
 Corporation partly on the site vacated by the re- 
 moval of Old Smithfleld Cattle Market to Islington. 
 The Meat and Poultry Markets are situate 
 between Farringdon Road, Snow Hill, and St. Bar- 
 tholomew's. The meat market was opened in 1868, 
 and the poultry market in 1875. The meat market 
 has a superficial area of 155,226 feet, which is equal 
 to 3 acres 2 roods 10 poles 44 feet. This area is 
 not, however, all available for market purposes, as 
 there is a public right of way through the centre, 
 and the various market avenues. The poultry 
 market has an area of 64,698 feet superficial, or 
 1 acre 1 rood 37 poles 175 feet, and has underneath 
 a cold-air store for the accommodation of the 
 carcasses of 80,000 sheep. The tenants in the 
 markets are chiefly commission salesmen and 
 carcass butchers. The latter, who are fewer than 
 the former, buy and slaughter the cattle and bring 
 them to their own shops in the market to sell. In 
 1869 the tonnage of the provisions brought into the 
 markets was 127,991 tons, in 1879 it was 212,988 
 tons, and in 1887 it was 259,384 tons, so that there 
 has been a steady and continuous increase from the 
 first. A uniform toll of a farthing on every 21 lbs. 
 weight is charged. The shop space allotted to the 
 trade in the meat market is 102,880 feet, and in the 
 poultry market 35,302 feet, so that the rental in the 
 meat market is at the rate of about 1 ]/ 2 d. per foot 
 per week, and in the poultry market the rental 
 amounts to 2d. per foot superficial on the area of 
 the shop floor. The supplies to the markets come 
 from nearly all parts of the world. In 1876 the 
 first importation of American meat came into the 
 market to the extent of 5513 tons. In 1881 it had 
 reached 27,439 tons, and in the same year Aus- 
 tralian and New Zealand dead meat were first sent
 
 ioo London. 
 
 to the market to the extent of 565 tons. The mar- 
 ket supplies the whole of London and surround- 
 ing places, besides many of the provincial towns, 
 even in northern counties of England. University 
 towns and places of seaside and summer resort 
 receive their supplies of meat largely from this dis- 
 tributing centre. The market is held daily, except 
 Sundays, and is wholesale, except on Saturday 
 afternoons, when the working-classes generally 
 visit the markets and make their purchases. 
 
 The Provision and General Market also forms 
 a part of the group of modern structures erected 
 by the Corporation at Smithfield. It occupies the 
 site in the angle formed by Charterhouse Street 
 (south side) and Farringdon Road. Under the 
 main buildings is an extensive railway goods depot. 
 The market is connected by a covered-in thorough- 
 fare with the poultry market on the east side. This 
 structure was originally used as a fish market. 
 This, however, was unsuccessful, and another fish 
 market has been erected on the south side. It is at 
 present ostensibly a provision and general market, 
 but is actually being occupied chiefly for the sale of 
 meat, and appears to form, with the poultry market 
 adjacent, an auxiliary to the main meat market. 
 Provisions form but a small portion of the business 
 of the market, and the term " general " can fairly be 
 applied only to the shops which front to Farringdon 
 Road. The tolls levied are the same as in the 
 meat and other markets in the group, viz. : — 
 
 " For any quantity of meat or other provision not 
 exceeding- 21 lbs., }(d. ; and ditto in proportion 
 for any greater quantity for weighing. 
 
 "Not exceeding 1 cwt., }4d.; every additional cwt., 
 
 The Fish Market forms another of the group of
 
 The Industries. 101 
 
 markets erected by the • Corporation of the City of 
 London at Smithfielti. It is situated upon the 
 triangular site' formed by' the 1 nee 'section of Long 
 Lane with Snow Hill; having the apexin Farringdon 
 Road. The London, Chatham, and Dover Railway 
 connection between Ludgate Hill and Aldersgate 
 Street runs underneath the market. The frontages 
 to streets are ornamental walls only and not shops; 
 all the shops face inwards. There are in all 28 
 shops with small rooms over; some of the shops 
 are very small, 13 of them are at present unoccu- 
 pied. The whole of them are suited only for retail 
 trade, and the greater number are now being used 
 for the sale of shell and dried fish. 
 
 The market is small and does not appear to be 
 extensively used. It is, however, fairly well adapted 
 for the purposes of a retail fish market. There is 
 a vacant space on the east side which could be 
 utilized for extension to about double the present 
 extent. 
 
 Farringdon Market, which was the old City 
 market for fruit and vegetables, having been sold, 
 the Corporation have erected an adjunct to the 
 central market for the sale of fruit and vegetables. 
 
 Leadenhall Market occupies a site within the 
 angle formed by Gracechurch and Leadenhall 
 Streets, and is probably a site once belonging to 
 Roman London. It opens directly into Gracechurch 
 Street, and indirectly into Leadenhall Street via 
 Whittington Avenue, both of these being fairly 
 broad entrances. It is approached also through 
 Bull's Head Passage and Ship Tavern Passage, 
 both from Gracechurch Street, and also through 
 Lime Street Passage and Leadenhall Passage on the 
 east. These four approaches are very narrow and 
 quite inadequate; they are also lined with shops, 
 which, while not standing within the strict market 
 area, practically form part of the market. The
 
 102 London. 
 
 market contains. about 120 shops, and not any open 
 stalls. The shops vary very considerably in size, 
 from about i?,.feet by.2C feet to about 60 feet by 35 
 feet, some of them being excellently adapted for the 
 large business that is carried on, and over all of 
 them are dwelling-rooms or warehouses. There 
 are two large and three or four smaller taverns 
 within the area. The footways within the market 
 proper are covered in with iron and glass roofs, 
 and there is one carriage road through the centre 
 which is also covered in in the same manner. All 
 the shops are occupied, and there is every sign of a 
 large and flourishing business, the market being 
 often densely crowded. The commodities sold are 
 chiefly poultry (wholesale) and meat, game, fruit, 
 vegetables, fish, general provisions, live birds, 
 dogs, rabbits, and other small animals, in which a 
 retail trade is carried on. 
 
 , Billingsgate Market is situate between Lower 
 Thames Street and the river, within the City of 
 London. The market is entirely for the sale of 
 every description of fish, both salt and fresh water, 
 shell-fish of all kinds, and salted fish when in 
 season. The fish is conveyed to the market both 
 by water and by land. The water-borne fish is 
 caught mainly in the North Sea, and is collected 
 from the various fishing fleets by steam -vessels, 
 known as steam-carriers, which deliver at the quay 
 or wharf at Billingsgate. Of recent years the quan- 
 tity of water-borne fish has increased, owing doubt- 
 less in a great measure to the facilities afforded by 
 the steam-carriers. The fish is packed in loose ice 
 in boxes which are technically known as "trunks". 
 These contain on an average about 90 lbs. of fish. 
 The boxes are taken out of the vessels by porters 
 licensed by the Corporation and placed upon the 
 forms provided for the purpose in the market, which 
 are rented by the various fish-carrying companies.
 
 The Industries. 103 
 
 The companies are the Grimsby Ice Company, 
 the Great Northern Steam Fishing and Ice 'Com- 
 pany, the Steam Fishing and Ice Company of 
 Hull, the North Sea Trawling Company, and the 
 Great Yarmouth Steam Carrying Company. The 
 whole of the fish brought by these companies is 
 disposed of by auction by the companies them- 
 selves. The land-borne fish is that fish which is 
 caught around the coast of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land. It is collected at the various seaports and 
 despatched to London by train. From the various 
 railway depots it is conveyed to the market in rail- 
 way vans and by carrying companies. The land- 
 borne fish is disposed of chiefly by commission 
 salesmen to whom it is consigned, partly by auction, 
 partly by private sale. The land-borne fish is 
 packed in " trunks " similar to the water-borne fish, 
 but a large quantity also comes in boxes called 
 "machines", in each of which about two tons of 
 fish are packed in loose ice. These "machines" 
 are brought from the railway depots to the market 
 on trollies. The total tonnage brought into the 
 market has increased nearly 15 per cent within 
 the five years 1883-7, there having been 119,670 
 tons in 1883, and in 1887, 137,029 tons. The toll 
 on vans with four wheels containing fish is 2s. 6d.; 
 on carts with two wheels, is. 6d.; on row-boats, gd. 
 each; on vessels under 5 tons, 2s.; under 10 tons, 
 4$-. ; of vessels of 10 and under 20 tons, 8s. ; of 20 
 tons and under 35, 14-f. ; of 35 and under 50, 20s. ; 
 of 50 and under 75, 30J. ; of 75 and under 100, 40^.; 
 and for every ton over 100 tons, 6d. There is also 
 a toll of id. per cwt. on fish not coming by vehicle 
 or boat, i.e. fish coming into the market from shops 
 or from any other fish market, such as Shadwell. 
 Altogether the tolls average about ^5500 per 
 annum. According to statements made by two 
 costermongers, and by Mr. Packer, secretary to the
 
 104 London. 
 
 London Fish Trade Association, it is alleged that 
 wet fish pay toll, and if taken away and cured or 
 fried, and brought back again, a second toll has to 
 be paid, but this is denied by Mr. Le Poer Trench, 
 the superintendent of the market. The supplies for 
 the market are drawn from the coasts of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and 
 occasionally from France. All parts of England 
 are supplied from Billingsgate, and every day a 
 quantity of fish is even sent thence to Paris and the 
 south of France. The market is held every day of 
 the week except Sundays, but the busiest days are 
 Mondays and Fridays. 
 
 The Coal Market also belongs to the Corpora- 
 tion, having been granted by an act of George III. 
 (cap. cxxxiv. of 43rd year), and rebuilt under the 
 provisions of an act of 1846. The Corn Exchange 
 is in Mark Lane and was built in 1881. 
 
 Smithfield Hay Market, situate in West Smith- 
 field in the City of London, is used exclusively foi 
 the sale of hay and straw. The business is con- 
 ducted entirely by salesmen who sell principally 
 upon commission. The tolls charged are 6d. per 
 load on hay, no toll is charged for straw, but id. is 
 charged for entering the sale of both hay and straw. 
 The market, which supplies principally the metro- 
 politan area, is held on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and 
 Saturdays, and is entirely wholesale. It is held 
 practically in the open streets around Smithfield, no 
 accommodation being provided for people attend- 
 ing it, and the carts simply taking up positions one 
 against the other, and making their own stands. 
 
 This too brief account of the City markets cannot 
 be closed without quoting a passage from the evi- 
 dence given by Mr. John Kemp before the Royal 
 Commission on London government in 1894: — 
 
 ' ' Two things about the City markets deserve to be
 
 The Industries. 105 
 
 noticed. First, they, or at least some of them, notably 
 Billingsgate and the Central Meat Market, are not 
 municipal markets at all. It is not their object to supply 
 food to the inhabitants at a reasonable distance from 
 their homes, in the most direct manner, and therefore 
 at the most moderate prices, and in quantities con- 
 venient and suitable to the needs of the purchasers. 
 They are great wholesale businesses, vast commercial 
 enterprises carried on for the supply, through middle- 
 men, of the demands not only of the metropolis, but of 
 a large part of England, and even foreign countries. 
 Both Mr. Goldney, the City Remembrancer, and Mr. 
 Scott, the City Chamberlain, stated in their evidence 
 before the Royal Commission on Market Rights and 
 Tolls in 1887, with apparent satisfaction, that meat and 
 fish are supplied from the Central Meat Market and 
 from Billingsgate to an area of perhaps a hundred miles 
 round London, and fish, at any rate, is supplied from 
 Billingsgate to Paris, Nice, Cannes, Mentone, and other 
 places in the south of France. The Corporation pro- 
 fesses that it confers great benefits upon the whole 
 metropolis by its management of the City markets, but 
 it does not provide municipal markets at all, such, for 
 example, as those of Berlin, but has used its practical 
 monopoly to establish vast centralized exchanges for 
 wholesale dealing in marketable commodities. It may 
 be that this is a good thing to do, provided that the 
 other and primary duty is not left unperformed; but 
 even in that case such a course is only defensible if the 
 whole of the profits arising from it are fairly and openly 
 devoted to the benefit of the inhabitants at large. This 
 leads to the second observation upon the City markets. 
 The real profits of the markets are not shown as profits 
 by the accounts, because in most cases the amount of 
 money borrowed upon the credit of the tolls of each 
 market is very much larger than was required for the 
 construction of the market itself, and has really been 
 expended upon street improvements under the name of 
 approaches. These improvements were no doubt neces- 
 sary, but they concern the City chiefly, and too large a 
 share of their cost has to be paid in the form of a tax
 
 106 London. 
 
 upon food by the inhabitants of the whole metropolis 
 outside the City." 
 
 I now turn to the markets not held by the City 
 Corporation. Covent Garden Market, which is, 
 and has been for years, the great central market 
 of London for vegetables, fruit, and flowers, is in 
 the parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden, and forms 
 part of the settled estates of the Duchy of Bedford. 
 The market rights were acquired by a charter 
 granted to the Earl of Bedford by Charles II., and 
 dated May 12th, 1661. The charter is as follows: — 
 
 Grant to Earl of Bedford. — Patent Roll (Chancery) 
 22, Chas. II., part 3, No. 28. — The king-, &c, unto all 
 to whom, &c., greeting-. Know ye that we of our 
 special grace and from our certain knowledge and mere 
 motion have given and granted, and by these presents 
 for us our heirs and successors do give and grant to our 
 right, trusty, and well-beloved cousin, William, Earl of 
 Bedford, that he, his heirs and assigns, surely for ever 
 have hold and keep and shall and may have hold and 
 keep one market within the parish of St. Paul, Covent 
 Garden, in our County of Middlesex, in a certain place 
 there commonly called the Piazza, near the Church of St. 
 Paul, Covent Garden, extending from the aforesaid 
 church towards the east, four hundred and twenty 
 statutory feet, a little more or less, and from the wall 
 of the garden, Anglice the garden wall, there of the said 
 east towards the north, three hundred and sixteen 
 statutory feet, a little more or less, as well within the 
 railings there as without on any day in any week 
 throughout the year (except Sundays and Christmas 
 Day), for the buying of all and sundry fruits, flowers, 
 roots, and herbs whatsoever, and to last through all 
 those days for ever, together with all liberties and free 
 customs, tolns, tolls, stallages, piccages, and all other 
 profits, advantages, and emoluments, whatsoever, to 
 such market in any wise belonging, pertaining, arising, 
 or proceeding or with the same usually had or enjoyed.
 
 The Industries. 107 
 
 To have hold and enjoy the aforesaid market and all 
 and singular the rest of the foregoing by these presents 
 above granted or mentioned as to be granted to the 
 aforesaid William, Earl of Bedford, his heirs, and 
 assigns, for the sole and proper use and behoof of the 
 said Earl, his heirs, and assigns, for ever. And this 
 without account or anything else to us our heirs and 
 successors therefore to be rendered paid or made. 
 Wherefore we will, and by these presents for us, our 
 heirs and successors, do provide and command that the 
 aforesaid Earl, his heirs, and assigns, by virtue of these 
 presents will freely, lawfully, and quietly have hold and 
 keep, and shall and may have hold and keep for ever 
 the aforesaid market and all and singular the rest of the 
 foregoing aforesaid, according to the tenour and true 
 intention of these our letters patent without molestation, 
 perturbation, grievance, or contradiction from us, our 
 heirs or successors, from any sheriffs, eschaetors, 
 bailiffs' officers, or ministers of us, our heirs or suc- 
 cessors, or of others whomsoever. And without any 
 warrant, writ, or process from us, our heirs or suc- 
 cessors for the future in that behalf to be procured or 
 obtained, although no writ of Ad quod Damnum in that 
 behalf shall have issued, nor any inquisition thereupon 
 taken or returned shall exist. Whereas express 
 mention, etc. In witness whereof, etc. Witness, etc. 
 Witness the King at Westminster on the twelfth day of 
 May. 
 
 By writ of Privy Seal. 
 
 Although the market is open, and business 
 transacted in it upon every day in the week except 
 Sundays and Christmas-day, the principal market 
 days are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. 
 Upon the mornings, however, of most week-days, 
 the entire space up to the edges of the foot-pavements 
 in front of the houses that surround the market is 
 filled by carts and wagons containing produce. 
 The streets leading to the market are also occupied, 
 and the entire scene is quite one of the pleasing
 
 108 London. 
 
 sights of London. The market area is defined by 
 the letters patent, and extends to the fronts of the 
 houses and buildings on each side, including the 
 foot-pavements and roadways. An act for regu- 
 lating the market was passed in 1813 (53 Geo. iii. 
 cap. 71). Previously to 1822, when the Act of 
 George IV. was passed, the market was conducted 
 in the open air. The present buildings were erected 
 and the original open area broken up under the 
 provisions of that Act, and in accordance with the 
 plan annexed to it. Immediately after the passing 
 of the Act the buildings were commenced, but the 
 roof over the long market was not erected until 
 1875. The central avenue consists of about twenty 
 shops. These are used for the purpose of exposing 
 fruit, flowers, and vegetables, and selling them by 
 retail. Besides these shops there are other rooms 
 or buildings used principally as counting-houses 
 by the salesmen, and there are cellars which are 
 occupied as store-rooms. All these shops, count- 
 ing-houses, buildings, and cellars are let on weekly 
 tenancies, the Duke of Bedford keeping all the 
 buildings in repair, and paying all rates, taxes, and 
 outgoings. The chartered market, which covers 
 an area of 3 acres 34 perches, being 420 feet from 
 east to west and 316 feet from north to south, having 
 become quite inadequate for the rapidly-increasing 
 business, the Duke of Bedford, who is also the 
 owner of the adjoining properties, has from time 
 to time allocated certain portions of the surround- 
 ing property to market purposes. Within the 
 chartered quadrangle there is a considerable space 
 that is not covered, which usage has made a 
 thoroughfare, and the market business is carried 
 on therein. But the streets immediately leading 
 into the markets on all sides, north, south, east, 
 and west, are continually blocked with wagons 
 that cannot be brought within the chartered quad-
 
 The Industries. 109 
 
 rankle. The southern area cleared by the Duke 
 and dedicated to the market was for the purpose 
 of obviating the necessity of any wagons standing 
 in the public streets, but it does not accomplish its 
 object. 
 
 The retail trade in Covent Garden is quite incon- 
 siderable, owing, perhaps, to the fact that so many 
 first-class fruiterers' and florists' shops have sprung 
 up of late years in the West End. The market is 
 the great centre for the distribution of special com- 
 modities which go to all parts of the Metropolis 
 and to many of the Midland towns that cannot 
 obtain local supplies. Goods are even bought in 
 Covent Garden Market and taken to the Borough 
 Market to be re-sold. Covent Garden is therefore 
 pre-eminently a wholesale market into which goods 
 are bought in bulk, sold in bulk, and distributed in 
 bulk. This causes on account of both vendors and 
 purchasers a considerable vehicular traffic which 
 tells heavily upon the neighbourhood. 
 
 By letters patent of the 29th July, 1682, in the 
 34th year of Charles II., the king granted to John 
 Balch, his heirs and assigns, the right to hold a 
 market on Thursdays and Saturdays in every week 
 "in or near a place called Spittle-square" (in sive 
 juxta quodam loco vocato le Spittle Square), in the 
 parish of Stepney, together with all dues, tolls, 
 piccage, stallage, and other profits, advantages, and 
 emoluments whatsoever appertaining in any wise 
 to such market. At the time of this grant Balch 
 was the lessee of a block of land then called " Spittle 
 Square " (another part of Spitalfields parish is now 
 known as Spital Square), under a lease for eighty 
 years, dated 17th December, 1672, and subject to a 
 covenant not to build on the land, and he had also 
 acquired the greater part of the reversionary interest 
 therein. Balch died in 1683, and by a decree in a 
 Chancery suit his successors in title were discharged
 
 no London. 
 
 from the covenant not to build. At some time after 
 the grant of the charter of Charles II., the block of 
 land of which Balch was lessee was laid out by 
 him or his successors in title as a market-place 
 intersected by streets, named North Street, East 
 Street, South Street, and West Street, which were 
 known as the four inner streets of the market. The 
 land immediately surrounding "Spittle Square" 
 was afterwards laid out in streets, named Lamb 
 Street, Commercial Street, Brushfield Street, and 
 Crispin Street. These form the four outer streets 
 of the market. A second charter by letters patent, 
 dated the 22nd September, 1688, in the 4th year of 
 James II., after reciting the charter of Charles II., 
 and that all the title and interest of John Balch in 
 the same markets and premises had come to George 
 Bonn, granted to him two markets, one on Monday 
 and another on Wednesday in every week instead 
 of the market on Thursday appointed by Charles 
 II. 's charter, and confirmed the market granted by 
 such charter to be held on Saturday. This charter 
 of James II. was made void by 2 Wm. and M., 
 session 1, c. 8, on the grounds that the charter was 
 granted during the interval between the taking 
 away of the City rights by the Stuarts and their 
 restoration by Act of Parliament in the first session 
 of William and Mary. It was held that it could 
 not be taken that the City had assented to the grant 
 of that charter, because it was granted at a time 
 when their rights had been forcibly taken away, 
 and the Act of William and Mary, which restored 
 the City rights, declared void all charters granted 
 in the reign of James II. which infringed the liberties 
 of the City. The present market, which is used for 
 the sale of vegetables, fruits, and roots, is open 
 every day ; but the market days, when the growers 
 and market-gardeners attend, are Tuesdays, Thurs- 
 days, and Saturdays.
 
 The Industries. hi 
 
 A fruit and vegetable market was first established 
 in the Borough High Street by virtue of royal 
 charter granted by King Edward VI. to the Mayor, 
 Commonalty, and Citizens of London, and by the 
 29th Charles II. it was enacted that the market 
 should continue to be held in that locality. It was, 
 however, represented in the 28th year of George II. 
 by the City authorities that the market held in the 
 High Street, which was a great thoroughfare for 
 carriages and cattle passing to and from the counties 
 of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, had become a nuisance 
 owing to the number of carts, stalls, and stands 
 which were congregated there for market purposes, 
 and the Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens of 
 London desired, for the convenience and accom- 
 modation of the public, to give up the market. An 
 act was therefore passed (28 Geo. II., c. 9) which 
 provided that from and after Lady Day, 1756, no 
 market was to be held in the High Street. In the 
 same year a further act was passed (the 28 Geo. II., 
 c. 23), which recited that it was necessary, for the 
 benefit and accommodation of the inhabitants of the 
 Borough of Southwark and the neighbouring towns 
 and villages, that a market should be continued at 
 a place as convenient as possible to the Borough 
 High Street, and that the churchwardens, overseers, 
 and inhabitants of the Boroup-h of Southwark were 
 desirous to erect and maintain such a market, and 
 had found a suitable place for the purpose. Com- 
 missioners were appointed under this act to set out 
 the site of the ground for a market, and the church- 
 wardens, overseers, and eleven of the most sub- 
 stantial inhabitants of the parish of St. Saviour's 
 who were from time to time to be chosen and 
 appointed by the vestry of that parish, or any seven 
 or more of them on behalf of themselves and the 
 inhabitants of the parish, were empowered to pur- 
 chase such ground. In the 30 Geo. II., cap. 31,
 
 ii2 London. 
 
 this ground was more specifically described, and 
 the area to be cleared for the market included a 
 piece of ground called the Triangle, and some 
 buildings and courts adjoining, as well as a portion 
 of the houses, ground, and buildings known as 
 Rochester Yard, which formerly belonged to the 
 Bishop of Rochester. This site formed the nucleus 
 of the "New or Borough Market". The market 
 was greatly enlarged and rebuilt about i860 or 1861, 
 when the extension of the South-Eastern Railway 
 to Cannon Street and Charing Cross was con- 
 structed. The area is now nearly three acres in 
 extent, and its management is vested in twenty-five 
 trustees, consisting of six churchwardens, eight 
 overseers, and eleven inhabitants, appointed by 
 the Vestry of St. Saviour's. It is situated off the 
 Borough High Street, and is bounded by St. 
 Saviour's Church and Winchester Street on the 
 north; on the east by Green Dragon Court; on the 
 south by part of Stoney Street, and the block of 
 buildings between Stoney Street and Bedale Street; 
 and on the west by part of Stoney Street. 
 
 The market is open every day of the week except 
 Sundays, and there appear to be no limitations as 
 to the days and hours on which it may be held. 
 The recognized market days are, however, Tues- 
 days, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and the market 
 lasts generally from about 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. The 
 accommodation consists of 116 inner standings, 16 
 market-gardeners' cart stands, 3 casual pitching 
 grounds, 39 cellars, 8 shops, and 10 warehouses. 
 This accommodation appears, however, to be very 
 inadequate for the increasing demands, and serious 
 complaints were made to the Commissioners in 
 1887 as to the lack of sufficient space and the dif- 
 ficulty of access to the market. 
 
 The Great Northern Railway Potato Market was 
 established about 1845 on the site of the original
 
 The Industries. 113 
 
 London passenger terminus of the Great Northern 
 Railway on the west side of York Road, King's 
 Cross. 
 
 In the market are thirty-eight warehouses with 
 small sidings at the back, into which the trucks 
 containing the produce are run, for unloading. 
 The goods sold are potatoes, turnips, celery, and 
 cabbage. The market is not an open one to which 
 the ordinary consumer has free access, but is on the 
 private ground of the company, inclosed by walls 
 and gates, and only wholesale dealers are supplied. 
 When leaving the market, the buyer gives up to 
 the company's constable stationed at the entrance- 
 gates a ticket showing the nature and quantity of 
 the goods he is taking away. The warehouses, all 
 except three of which are occupied, are held by 
 twenty-eight salesmen at an annual rental varying 
 from ,£35 to ,£65. The majority of these salesmen 
 have also a shop or warehouse at Covent Garden, 
 Spitalfields, or the Borough Market. In addition 
 to the produce which arrives and is sold at this 
 depot, a large quantity of vegetables is also re- 
 ceived by wholesale dealers, who send it at once 
 to one of the large markets, such as Covent Garden 
 or Spitalfields. 
 
 The Midland Railway Company's Vegetable 
 Market, Euston Road, St. Pancras, was built in 
 1888, in the Midland Road, with a frontage 
 and entrance in Euston Road. The commodities 
 brought by rail to the market are mostly potatoes, 
 turnips, and carrots, and the quantity averages, 
 during the winter months, about 7000 tons a month, 
 while in the summer the monthly tonnage is much 
 less. There are nineteen warehouses let to sales- 
 men at rents varying from ^55 to £6$ per annum, 
 and provision is made by which the railway trucks, 
 loaded with produce, can run into these warehouses. 
 
 Columbia Market is situated between Hackney 
 
 (M517) H
 
 ii4 London. 
 
 and Bethnal Green Roads, near to Shoreditch 
 Church, and in the midst of a large, thickly-popu- 
 lated district, the inhabitants of which are chiefly 
 very poor. It was built by the Baroness Burdett- 
 Coutts, under the powers given by the Bethnal 
 Green Market and Approaches Act, 1866. It was 
 instituted not to compete with or displace any 
 then existing market, but solely from a philan- 
 thropic desire to provide a good market for the 
 neighbourhood, which had none except the stalls 
 in narrow and crowded streets. It was originally 
 intended for a general market, but failed to attract 
 dealers, chiefly because costermongers prefer free- 
 dom from restraint or regulation, and immunity 
 from rent and other charges, which they enjoy in 
 the streets. It is believed that costermongers have 
 never used it at all, and shopkeepers could not 
 prosper in it, probably because of the want of cus- 
 tomers which the absence of costermongers involved. 
 The building was afterwards used as a fish market, 
 the Baroness making many efforts to establish trade, 
 even to the extent of chartering a fleet of vessels to 
 supply it with fish. This endeavour also failed, 
 mainly on account of the absence of direct railway 
 or water communication, but also by the strong 
 combined action of Billingsgate dealers, who, 
 among other means of opposition, would frequently 
 buy up the whole stock of the best fish immediately 
 on its arrival and take it down to Billingsgate for 
 re-sale. The Baroness then established a branch 
 of this market at Billingsgate itself both for landing 
 and selling purposes, but this step appears to have 
 been ill-advised, as it only intensified the oppo- 
 sition. These efforts failed, and the fish trade 
 ceased altogether. The buildings are now practi- 
 cally empty and disused, the only exception being 
 a very small wholesale potato trade carried on in 
 the extreme western portion. Here the charge
 
 The Industries. 115 
 
 made is only 2s. 6d. per week per standing, and 
 the total income from this source does not amount 
 to £50 per annum. The market area and build- 
 ings consist of a large central quadrangle of about 
 183 feet by 183 feet for stalls, covered in with an 
 iron-and-glass roof having gas and electric light 
 fittings pendent therefrom ; on two sides are eleven 
 shops facing inwards, and two taverns. Only one 
 of the shops is occupied (by a cabinet-maker), but 
 the taverns are both let. A large basement for 
 storage paved with granite sets is under the quad- 
 rangle, and over the shops are suites of dwelling- 
 rooms, all of which are occupied by weekly tenants. 
 A piazza runs along all the sides of the quadrangle. 
 On the north side is a large hall designed for use 
 for meetings, &c, or as a reading-room, and there 
 are offices and other accommodation. Adjoining 
 the main building on the west side, there is an 
 auxiliary market now in partial use for the sale of 
 potatoes. This is covered in by an iron-and-glass 
 roof, and is bounded on the north and south by 
 substantial iron railings with ample entrance-gates 
 in Columbia Road. On the north side, exterior to 
 the hall, is a large open space, bounded by strong 
 iron railings and gates in Baroness Road, forming 
 an excellent standing ground for wagons and bar- 
 rows, or affording an addition to the market proper 
 in fine weather. 
 
 Shadwell Market is a fish market belonging to 
 the London Riverside Fish Market Company. The 
 market was constructed under authority given by 
 private acts in 1882 and 1883, and was first opened 
 for business on November 9th, 1885. It covers an 
 area of 4^2 acres, and is situate 1% miles lower 
 down the river Thames than Billingsgate. The 
 market building has a riverside frontage of 224 
 feet, with a ground space of 22,000 feet, which is 
 the market proper, the rest of the 4^ acres being a
 
 n6 London. 
 
 paved space for standing room for vans and buyers. 
 The City Corporation opposed the establishment of 
 the market on the ground that the company were 
 infringing the rights conferred by a charter of 
 Edward III. Notwithstanding this charter, the 
 right to establish a market at Shadwell was given 
 by Parliament, and an important precedent was 
 thus established. The market appears well placed 
 for steamboats bringing fish to London ; and there 
 is good accommodation for vans bringing fish from 
 the different railway termini to stand and unload. 
 
 Greenwich Market occupies a small covered area 
 situated between Nelson Street and Clarence Street 
 in the parish of Greenwich. By letters patent of 
 William III., dated July 18th, 1700, the king 
 granted to Henry Earl of Romney, and his heirs 
 and assigns, the right to hold a market on Wed- 
 nesdays and Saturdays in every week. The mar- 
 ket, with all tolls and profits arising therefrom, 
 afterwards became vested in the Commissioners of 
 Greenwich Hospital, to whom it now belongs, and 
 is now let to Mr. James Percy of Hammersmith, the 
 Commissioners reserving to themselves the shops 
 situated on each side of the market. The chief, 
 and practically sole, business is the sale of market- 
 garden produce grown in the county of Kent, to 
 small traders and shopkeepers who reside in the 
 neighbourhood of Greenwich, and there are also 
 two or three dealers in foreign fruit and vegetables. 
 The market days are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and 
 Saturdays, but sometimes in the strawberry season, 
 when there is a glut, every week-day becomes a 
 market day. The market is open between the hours 
 of 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the summer months, and 
 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the winter. The business seems 
 to be diminishing rather than increasing, but has 
 not fluctuated to any great extent during the last 
 few years.
 
 The Industries. 117 
 
 Woolwich Market is situated in Beresford Square, 
 the open space in front of the entrance to the Royal 
 Arsenal, Woolwich, at the end of Wellington Street 
 and the New Road. This space measures 180 by 
 140 feet, and has shops on three sides, the Arsenal 
 forming the fourth. The property in rear of these 
 shops consists mostly of cottages inhabited by the 
 working-classes, and the locality is fairly thickly 
 populated. The market rights, granted by letters 
 patent in the sixteenth year of the reign of King 
 James I., to Sir W. Barne, Knight, and Hugh 
 Lydyard, Esq., were purchased by the Woolwich 
 Local Board of Health from Sir Spencer Maryon 
 Maryon Wilson, Bart., on the 13th of June, 1887, 
 with a piece of land called the " Market Place" in 
 High Street, Woolwich. The market rights extend 
 over the whole town and parish. The Woolwich 
 Board in September, 1888, appointed this site as 
 a place for the standing of stalls and barrows, 
 providing also a certain number of portable stalls. 
 Tolls are levied, varying from 2.?. 6d. to 3^., accord- 
 ing to the nature of the vehicle or receptacle used, 
 on every wagon, cart, barrow, basket, or hamper 
 bringing produce to and standing in the market. 
 Stallages and rents are payable for standing places 
 for barrows whether movable or fixed, by persons 
 selling from trays or tins or other receptacles, and 
 by persons selling within the market district, but 
 not at the market place. These stallages and rents 
 vary from 2s. 6d. per day; the stallage payable on 
 a movable stall is 3^. per day, which is paid by 
 persons hawking goods through the market on trays 
 and tins. The market does a small wholesale trade 
 in the early morning for the convenience of the local 
 costermongers, but the principal trade is retail, and 
 is mainly on Saturday, there being only about a 
 dozen barrows on the ordinary week-days. These, 
 however, appear to do a fairly good business, more
 
 n8 London. 
 
 especially at the times when the workmen are leav- 
 ing the Arsenal. The following is a list of the 
 stalls : — 
 
 (a) Perishable goods — Butcher's meat, 4; vege- 
 tables and fruit, 11; fish, 8; flowers and plants, 13; 
 sweets, &c, 8: total, 44. 
 
 (b) Other goods — Boots, brushes, &c, 3; iron- 
 mongery, 3 ; earthenware, 1 ; floorcloth, 1 ; haber- 
 dashery, 4; old clothes, 1; old books, 2; live birds, 
 1 ; live gold-fish, 1 ; caps, 1 ; fancy goods, 1 ; sticks 
 and umbrellas, 2 ; pictures, 2 ; shooting stand, 1 : 
 total, 24. 
 
 Some of the stall-holders are also occupiers of 
 shops in adjacent back streets, and are apparently 
 in fairly good circumstances. A number of those 
 selling non-perishable articles come from other parts 
 of London, but the majority belong to Woolwich, 
 and a large amount of business is done. About 
 one-half of the area of the square is occupied by the 
 market, leaving at the narrowest point about 30 
 feet available for vehicular and general traffic, to 
 which no inconvenience is caused. The foot-pave- 
 ment varies in width from 4 to 16 feet. At the 
 widest part about 4 feet is occupied by flowers and 
 plants, but no inconvenience is caused to the traffic. 
 The market is a convenience to the general public, 
 and also to the shopkeepers, who consider that it 
 brings a large amount of trade to the neighbour- 
 hood. 
 
 Plumstead Market is held in that part of High 
 Street, Plumstead, which extends from Cage Lane 
 to a little beyond Garibaldi Street, a distance of 
 between 400 and 500 yards. It is a wholesale 
 market where garden produce is supplied direct 
 from the market-gardener, and by wholesale dealers, 
 to retailers who come from the surrounding districts 
 of Woolwich, Belvedere, Erith, Dartford, Bexley, 
 and Crayford. It was first established in 1853, and
 
 The Industries. 119 
 
 originated through one or two market-gardeners' 
 wagons stopping while on their way with produce 
 to London. It has steadily increased, and now there 
 are usually about twenty wagons laden with vege- 
 tables and potatoes and three with fruit, and this is 
 considerably increased at certain times when straw- 
 berries and peas are in season, &c. 
 
 Portman Market is on the north side of Church 
 Street, Edgware Road, in the parish of St. Maryle- 
 bone, and extends from Carlisle Street on the west 
 to Salisbury Street on the east, and from Church 
 Street on the south to the back of houses on the 
 south side of Huntsworth Terrace on the north. It 
 has an area of about 31,500 square feet. There are 
 three avenues to the market, viz. western, central, 
 and eastern, In each of these there are several 
 shops, of which some are let to weekly tenants 
 who use them as dwellings, the rents ranging from 
 2s. 6d. to 3-r. 6d. per week ; others are used as work- 
 shops, and some are closed up. The shops in the 
 western avenue are let with the shops abutting on 
 the market on the east side of Carlisle Street, but 
 very few of these are used in connection with the 
 market on market-days. The vendors chiefly occupy 
 stalls, or have spaces allotted to them and lay their 
 goods for sale on the pavement. The market has 
 been established since 1853, and at one time was 
 a very good market; but during the last eight 
 or ten years it has gradually been declining, and 
 at the present time very little business is done. 
 The market-day is on Friday, and it is open from 
 about 8 a.m. till dusk in the evening, there being 
 no fixed hours. The goods sold are of a very mis- 
 cellaneous character, and include vegetables, fruit, 
 flowers, second-hand clothing, earthenware, glass, 
 ironmongery, haberdashery, caps and hats, locks, 
 &c, but there is very little demand for them. 
 
 Whitechapel Hay Market is exceedingly ancient.
 
 120 London. 
 
 It is believed to have been in existence since the 
 time when the City of London was enclosed by walls, 
 and it originated in the congregation of farmers' 
 wagons outside the walls upon the country road. 
 The market has no area of its own, but extends 
 along the entire length of Whitechapel High 
 vStreet, and into portions of Commercial, Leman, and 
 Goulston Streets, the middle portions of the streets 
 being occupied by the hay vehicles, and a margin 
 left on each side for ordinary traffic. The market- 
 days are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. From 
 Lady-day to Michaelmas the market closes at 3 p.m., 
 and from Michaelmas to Lady-day at 2 p.m. The 
 governing body is the Markets Committee of the 
 Vestry of St. Mary, Whitechapel. There is a 
 practical monopoly in the market exercised by four 
 or five local salesmen, who claim and secure the 
 whole space for themselves and their clients, and 
 the Vestry Committee has permitted this monopoly 
 to develop and become established. The market is 
 therefore not an open one, and all "outside" pro- 
 ducers are precluded from dealing. 
 
 Cumberland Market occupies an open space situ- 
 ate between Albany Street on the west and Stanhope 
 Street, Regent's Park, on the east, and at the north 
 end of Osnaburgh Street in the parish of St. Pan- 
 eras. It covers an area of about 5000 square yards, 
 and was established at the time when the old Hay 
 Market at St. James's was abolished, about sixty- 
 eight years ago, under the act of nth Geo. IV., 
 cap. 14, dated 3rd May, 1830. Under this act the 
 Commissioners of Woods and Forests obtained 
 power to appropriate certain open spaces in the 
 parish of St. Pancras known as York Place, Clar- 
 ence Gardens, and Cumberland Market, or any 
 parts of them which they thought proper, for mar- 
 ket purposes, and were empowered to appoint the 
 days on which such market should be held, to levy
 
 The Industries. 121 
 
 tolls in accordance with the schedule attached to 
 the act, to allot spaces for the purchase and sale of 
 different commodities, and to make regulations and 
 bye-laws for the good government of the market. 
 The act also prohibited the selling of any goods of 
 the same nature as those sold in the market within 
 100 yards of its area under a penalty of 40J. The 
 market is now used for the sale of hay and straw 
 only, though the act gave power to sell all the 
 commodities usually sold in markets, such as hay, 
 straw, corn, grain, flour, malt, hops, &c. ; meat, 
 fish, poultry, eggs, &c. ; fruit, vegetables, flowers, 
 and plants. The market-days are Tuesdays, Thurs- 
 days, and Saturdays, and the market hours are from 
 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Lady-day to Michaelmas, and 
 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Michaelmas to Lady-day. 
 
 A Hide and Skin Market is held at Weston Street, 
 Bermondsey, daily, except Mondays, from 6 a.m. 
 till 6 p.m. It is a private market belonging to the 
 London Leather Warehouse Company, Limited, but 
 open to the public for business between the hours 
 stated. The company appoint a superintendent 
 and gatekeeper, and standing-places, &c, are let 
 to persons in the trade. A great part of the skins 
 and hides sold come from the Deptford Market. 
 
 There are also the London Leather Exchange, 
 Weston Street, Bermondsey; Exchange and Hop 
 Warehouse, Southwark Street; London Egg Mar- 
 ket, Southwark Street; and the Home and Foreign 
 Produce Exchange, Hibernia Chambers. 
 
 Besides these, there are in London a large 
 number of unauthorized street markets. These are 
 practically confined to poor and crowded neigh- 
 bourhoods, and are largely the means by which 
 the surplus produce remaining unsold in the 
 authorized markets are distributed amongst the 
 poorer classes. Costermongers are keenly alive to 
 ascertaining when produce is at exceptionally low
 
 122 London. 
 
 prices, and are always ready to purchase and dis- 
 tribute an almost unlimited quantity when that is 
 the case. By this means the humbler consumer is 
 frequently able to purchase food at a lower price 
 than it has been quoted wholesale at the authorized 
 market, as the costermonger is enabled to re-sell his 
 goods at very low profits, his expenses being small. 
 The facts and conditions affecting each one of the 
 informal markets now held in the County of London 
 have been investigated by the London County 
 Council, and a very able return was published. It 
 was found that, in addition to isolated stalls scat- 
 tered throughout the streets in many parts of 
 London, there are in 112 cases such a persistent 
 and continuous congregation of stalls as to pro- 
 bably bring them within the description "street 
 markets". Of these there are: 
 
 North of the Thames, ... ... ... 76 
 
 South of the Thames, ... ... •••36 
 
 Many of these street markets have been in exis- 
 tence beyond living memory, while others have 
 been established at a comparatively recent date. 
 The street markets are in nearly every case placed 
 in the midst of or adjacent to working-class dis- 
 tricts. The dimensions of the markets fluctuate 
 from time to time considerably, varying with the 
 seasons, and with the nature, quantity, and cheap- 
 ness of the commodities that are sold at the stalls. 
 The majority of these markets are continuous, that 
 is to say, they are held during the whole week, 
 although Saturday is the day upon which by far the 
 greatest amount of trade is done: twenty-one of 
 them are held upon Saturdays only, and two on 
 Fridays and Saturdays only. In five cases, 
 viz. those in Wentworth Street, Brick Lane, and 
 Bethnal Green Road, on the north side of the
 
 The Industries. 123 
 
 Thames, and in London Road and East Street, 
 Newington, on the south side, the market is also 
 held on Sunday morning, when a considerable 
 amount of business is done. One street market, 
 that in Sclater Street, Bethnal Green, is held only 
 on a Sunday. In thirteen cases these markets are 
 of sufficient importance and do a sufficiently large 
 and general trade to be regarded as retail markets 
 in the ordinary acceptation of the term, with the 
 important exception that they have no market 
 area or market buildings, but are conducted entirely 
 in the public streets. Each of these thirteen markets 
 supplies a very large district, purchasers often com- 
 ing to them from a considerable distance. They 
 are those situate as follows : — 
 
 King - Street, Hammersmith. 
 Berwick Street, St. James's. 
 Leather Lane, Holborn. 
 Chapel Street, Clerkenwell. 
 Hoxton Street, Shoreditch. 
 Whitecross Street, St. Luke's. 
 Wentworth Street, Whitechapel. 
 Watney Street, St. George's. 
 Brick Lane, Bethnal Green. 
 Chrisp Street, Poplar. 
 Lambeth Marsh, Lambeth. 
 East Street, Newington. 
 Southwark Park Road, Bermondsey. 
 
 There are several other large street markets where 
 considerable trade is done, but these are more local 
 in their character, and are hardly to be regarded as 
 market centres. 
 
 It was ascertained that the total number of stalls 
 in 1893 in the 112 markets was 5292. Of these 790 
 belonged to shopkeepers, and were placed either op- 
 posite the shop or in its immediate neighbourhood, 
 and the remaining number, 4502, belong to coster-
 
 124 London. 
 
 mongers. With regard to the nature of the com- 
 modities sold in these markets, it was found that, 
 out of the total number of stalls, 3471 were devoted 
 to the sale of perishable goods and 1821 to non- 
 perishable. 
 
 This is not a creditable story. To think that 
 London has only three classes of markets — one 
 class for wholesale produce administered by the 
 Corporation of London under obsolete charters and 
 acts, loaded with an enormous debt which is not 
 being paid off, and the surplus revenue (derived 
 from the taxation of a very considerable area) applied 
 to the non-municipal purposes of the City Corpora- 
 tion instead of being applied to the development 
 of the market buildings and interests; the second 
 class, belonging to private owners or to purely local 
 authorities; and the third class, established in the 
 open streets, under no control but the general police 
 regulations, with no covered-stall sites, no sanitary 
 conveniences, no market regulations to prevent un- 
 wholesome food or bad wares of any kind being 
 sold, causing impediments of the most serious 
 kinds to street traffic, and exercising evils in many 
 directions. There are few questions more worthy of 
 proper consideration and practical attention at the 
 present time than this, and it is only privilege of a 
 most indefensible character which prevents reform. 
 It is not easy to speak moderately of this remark- 
 able state of things. In the midst of the most 
 elaborate schemes of local reform, such an essential 
 as the complete reform of the market system is 
 scarcely ever referred to, and the City markets may 
 go on getting further into debt, the private markets 
 may go on returning income to their owners with 
 no regard to the obvious requirements of the market 
 sites and buildings, and the street markets may go 
 on fulfilling their legitimate objects in a fashion that 
 would have disgraced the middle ages. There are,
 
 The Growth in Population and Value. 125 
 
 however, signs of discontent with the present state 
 of things, and the recent disclosure of the fact that 
 at Clapham Junction the apparent costermongers' 
 stalls are the private property of one owner who 
 does a large and profitable trade destroys the justi- 
 fication of the nuisance. But reform is needed all 
 round, not in isolated cases, and not in a direction 
 to damage legitimate trade. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 The Growth in Population and Value. 
 
 It is not easy to trace the rapid growth of popula- 
 tion in London because of the scarcity of census 
 figures, a decennial census being of very slight 
 value to rapidly-changing districts. The population 
 of the present area of London in 1831 was 1,655,099, 
 and in 1841 it was only 1,948,563. But in 1896 it 
 had reached 4,433,018. 
 
 Of course the movement of this population is in 
 the outer ring of London. Places that were rural 
 in 1837 are now not detached from the continuous 
 line of buildings that stretch all round the centre. 
 Places that have even now fragments of their once 
 rural character still remaining are losing them year 
 by year, owing to the steady march of the builder. 
 
 A glance at the maps of London would help us 
 to realize this growth. There are, for instance, 
 three or four areas in the map of 182 1 which are left 
 more or less blank, and their gradual "filling-in" 
 up to 1855 can be traced year by year. One of 
 these areas, the triangle south of the river between 
 Waterloo Road and Westminster Bridges Road, is 
 shown in the 182 1 map to contain only a few scattered
 
 126 London. 
 
 houses between Lambeth Marsh and the river, with 
 no road but a narrow lane (called, I think, Narrow 
 Lane) running nearly alongside the river. The 
 1829 map shows York Road, with several cross- 
 roads joining it to Lambeth Marsh and the river, 
 with rows of houses on either side of the new roads. 
 The 1837 map shows more cross-roads and more 
 houses. The 1851 map shows the formation of 
 Belvedere Road parallel to the river and Lambeth 
 Marsh, and of Waterloo Station and the South- 
 western line. The 1855 map shows Hungerford 
 Bridge. Similar information may be obtained for 
 almost every other district of the county, affording 
 a most interesting method of studying London. 
 
 A few figures will best illustrate the enormous 
 growth of London. In 1870 the annual value of 
 land which was not used for buildings was £1 18,836, 
 while in 1894 it was ,£67,560. This reduction shows 
 that land was being taken into use for other pur- 
 poses, and the other purposes may be specified 
 under the heads of buildings, railways, and other 
 kinds of buildings. Now, buildings in 1870 were 
 valued at £17,108,736, while in 1894 they were 
 valued at no less than £30,913,022; railways which 
 in 1870 were valued at £617,780, were valued in 
 1894 at £1,754,404; while other kinds of property, 
 valued in 1870 at £391,568, were valued in 1894 
 at ^1,317,116 {Pari. Ret. 204, 1895). It is impos- 
 sible to mistake the significance of these figures. 
 They show a growth which is probably unique in 
 the world's history, for it is not a sudden rise from 
 almost nothing to a great city, such as is sometimes 
 found in America, but it is a gradual rise, during 
 a comparatively short period of years, from a great 
 city to the greatest the world has yet seen. It is 
 not generally appreciated that each householder 
 in London is a unit among something like six 
 hundred thousand fellow-householders, and that his
 
 The Growth in Population and Value. 127 
 
 rent or annual value is a portion of a total rent of 
 forty millions. An appeal to figures in such cases 
 as this is the only way to bring home the facts. 
 When people in the beginning of the reign, as I 
 have noted in the first chapter, were auguring ill 
 from the growth of London, they were speaking of 
 a comparatively small London. Now, when we talk 
 of London, whether in matters of pleasure, business, 
 politics, or whether in matters of her interest and wel- 
 fare, we are dealing with a community whose wealth 
 and importance commands such a vast annual ex- 
 penditure upon rent alone as forty millions of money. 
 The population of the present county of London 
 is of course not contained in the census returns 
 earlier than 1861, but grouping the parishes to- 
 gether the following are the results: — 
 
 Year. 
 
 City of 
 
 London. 
 
 County of 
 London. 
 
 Administrative 
 County of 
 London. 
 
 l8oi 
 
 128,129 
 
 830,659 
 
 958,788 
 
 l8ll 
 
 120,343 
 
 1,018,403 
 
 1,138,746 
 
 I82I 
 
 124,137 
 
 1,254,944 
 
 1, 379,o8l 
 
 183I 
 
 122,491 
 
 1,532,608 
 
 1,655,099 
 
 184I 
 
 123,563 
 
 1,825,000 
 
 1,948,563 
 
 1851 
 
 127,819 
 
 2,235,455 
 
 2,363,274 
 
 l86l 
 
 II2,OI3 
 
 2,696,849 
 
 2,808,862 
 
 1871 
 
 74,844 
 
 3^92, 143 
 
 3,266,987 
 
 l88l 
 
 50,5 6 9 
 
 3.783,625 
 
 3,834,194 
 
 1891 
 
 37,636 
 
 4,194,482 
 
 4,232,118 
 
 j 1896 
 
 S 1 .^ 
 
 4,401,935 
 
 4,433,Ol8 
 
 Examining these figures in detail it is found that 
 the population of the central parts of London is 
 decreasing, and that this decrease is taking place 
 geographically from the city outwards on the west, 
 south, and north. Thus, a line bounding the City, 
 St. Luke, Holborn, St. Giles, Strand, St. James, 
 St. Martin, and St. Margaret on the north of the 
 Thames, and St. Olave and St. Saviour on the
 
 128 London. 
 
 south, would embrace all the sanitary districts with 
 a decreasing population of over 2 per cent. Also, 
 with the exception of Whitechapel on the east and 
 St. George, Hanover Square, on the west, the dis- 
 tricts immediately outside this line, viz. — Bethnal 
 Green, Shoreditch, Clerkenwell, St. Marylebone, 
 Chelsea, St. George-the-Martyr and Bermondsey 
 — have a slightly decreasing or a stationary popu- 
 lation ; while the districts with rapidly increasing 
 populations are the outlying districts particularly 
 in the west, south-west, and south-east, Fulham, 
 Hammersmith, Wandsworth, Battersea, Lambeth, 
 Camberwell, Clapham, Tooting, Lewisham, and 
 Plumstead, and on the north, Hampstead, Stoke 
 Newington, and Hackney. 
 
 It is well known that the population of London is 
 not for the most part a London- born population. 
 It is derived from the country to a large extent, and 
 at the last census only 65 per cent of the people 
 were born in London. Of course everybody has 
 heard of the London cockney, but everybody does 
 not know that the peculiar features of his pronun- 
 ciation, so frequently made fun of, are real dialect 
 forms, just as much so as the far-famed dialects of 
 Somersetshire, Yorkshire, or any other county. 
 The London dialect is really that of Essex, and it 
 is a remarkable fact that the east end of London, 
 so little known to the west end, possesses traits 
 of character, peculiar customs and manners, and 
 idiosyncracies which stamp it at once as an inde- 
 pendent part of London, and not the refuse ground 
 where the poor do congregate. The east end of 
 London, indeed, is a study well worth any one's 
 attention, and its solid capacity for work and 
 patience is not the least among the valuable assets 
 which London possesses in her population. 
 
 Another element in the London population is that 
 of foreigners. There are 95,000 foreigners in Lon-
 
 The Growth in Population and Value. 129 
 
 don. The subject of alien immigration as it affects 
 the population of London and other large cities 
 has been attracting attention in Parliament for some 
 time, and it is not impossible that it may be dealt 
 with by legislation. It is, however, exceedingly 
 difficult to say how far, if at all, the number of alien 
 immigrants who settle in London is increasing. 
 Of the 15,499 aliens who arrived in the port of 
 London in 1895, only 141 were stated to be en route 
 for America or other places. It would appear, 
 however, that it is not customary to issue through 
 emigration tickets via London. For the whole of 
 the United Kingdom, the total number of pas- 
 sengers from European ports (see Pari. Report, 
 Emigration and Immigration, 1895) was 522,449, 
 while the number sailing to European ports was 
 493,946, leaving the balance of inward passengers 
 to the United Kingdom as 28,503. Assuming the 
 number of British passengers outward and inward 
 to be equal, this figure would represent the number 
 of aliens arriving from the Continent. On the 
 other hand, the number of foreigners sailing to non- 
 European ports from the United Kingdom was 
 83,984 while the number returning was 65,343, 
 leaving a net balance of foreign emigrants, 18,641. 
 The maximum number of aliens settling in the 
 United Kingdom in 1895 cannot therefore exceed 
 9862, the difference between the number of aliens 
 arriving (28,503) and embarking (18,641). The 
 28,503 aliens, however, arriving from the Continent 
 include 9894 alien seamen who, though arriving in 
 the United Kingdom as passengers, may be assumed 
 to have shipped again as crews. If so, they will not 
 have been reckoned as emigrants, and their number 
 must be added to the emigrant total in order to get 
 an apportionately fair balance. From this it would 
 seem as if there was a reduction of 32 in the number 
 of aliens making a permanent settlement in the 
 
 (M517) 1
 
 130 London. 
 
 United Kingdom in 1895. This is in continuation 
 of a decline in the alien immigration, at least since 
 1892; the number of immigrants settling in the 
 United Kingdom being estimated on the same 
 basis at 8430 in 1892 and 3636 in 1893, while in 
 1894 and 1895 it would appear as if more aliens left 
 the country than those who arrived. It cannot, how- 
 ever, be stated how London itself has been affected 
 by alien immigration and emigration in any year, 
 and until there is account taken of the number of 
 aliens embarking from London, and of those travel- 
 ling by railway to other ports of emigration, the 
 exact number of aliens who settle in London cannot 
 even be guessed. It is well worth consideration 
 whether the alien immigration statistics could not 
 be so framed as to be of service to the governing 
 authorities of London. This is particularly im- 
 portant from the fact that though in proportion to 
 the whole of London foreign settlement may be a 
 small element, it may, and probably will, be found 
 to affect particular districts to a marked degree. 
 {London Statistics, vol. vii. p. xv.) 
 
 We get some indication of this from a report 
 by the Italian consul, Signor Silvestrelli, pub- 
 lished at Rome in February, 1895, which is in- 
 structive as to the Italian colony in London. There 
 are two great Italian centres, the oldest being in 
 Holborn, and composed of organ-men, ice-vendors, 
 ambulant merchants, plaster-bust sellers, models 
 for artists, &c. The second centre, more recent, is 
 in Soho, composed of cooks, valets, domestics, 
 couriers, teachers, artists, tailors, watchmakers, 
 restaurant and hotel keepers. The whole Italian 
 colony numbers about 12,000 persons. One of the 
 most profitable trades of the Italians is the importa- 
 tion of alimentary articles. The Italian hotels and 
 restaurants employ Italian cooks, who are also 
 liked in some English establishments and clubs.
 
 The Growth in Population and Value. 131 
 
 Italian tailors are increasing in number. As new 
 industries the retail fruit and vegetable trades are 
 giving large profits to Italian vendors. On the 
 other hand, the Italian shoe trade is on the decrease, 
 while, again, the Italian artificial-flower makers are 
 prospering more and more. Since the Italian Ex- 
 hibition in London of 1888 the importation of gloves, 
 straw hats, furniture, inlaid work, glasswork, pic- 
 tures, sculpture, and other kinds of fine art has 
 much increased. The scientific-instrument trade has 
 decreased in the Italian community. But decorative 
 work in theatres, hotels, and cafes done by Italians 
 promises more important development. Mechanics 
 from Turin are much employed in such foundries 
 as those of Maxim-Nordenfeldt. The use of Italian 
 pavement-makers is increasing. The Holborn 
 colony is the black point, as it is mostly composed 
 of Southern Italians, whose reputation is not good. 
 The total number of Italians enumerated in the 
 report is n, 595, and the details are interesting, 
 though it must be confessed that in some instances 
 the information does not seem quite satisfactory. 
 For instance, there are Italian organ-grinders living 
 at Battersea. It appears probable that the Italian 
 consul has not dealt with the whole of London, but 
 only central London, the London that he knows, or 
 learns from the so-called Post Office London Direc- 
 tory, which does not really cover London. The 
 Italian settlers are: 
 
 Merchants, traders, professional artists, 
 
 Sculptors, 
 
 Engineers and architects, 
 
 Hydraulic engineers, ... 
 
 Lawyers, 
 
 Doctors, 
 
 Professors of dancing, language, music and 
 
 Dentists, 
 
 Stockbrokers, ... 
 
 Photographers, 
 
 Journalists, 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 singing, 43 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 9
 
 132 London. 
 
 Music publishers, ... ... ... ... ... ... 5 
 
 Booksellers and newsagents, ... ... 3 
 
 Printers, ... ... ... ... ••■ •■• ••• 2 
 
 Makers of barometers and scientific instruments, ... 10 
 
 Importers and makers of musical instruments, ... ... 12 
 
 Hotel keepers, ... ... ••• ••• ••• ••• 25 
 
 Apartment and boarding-house keepers, ... ... 21 
 
 Ice merchants, ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• 10 
 
 Wholesale dealers in butter, cheese, eggs, poultry, ... 13 
 
 Importers of general food and drugs, ... ... ... 48 
 
 Publicans and beerhouse keepers, ... ... ... ... 9 
 
 Wine importers and merchants, ... ... ... ... 25 
 
 Restaurants, 122 
 
 Confectioners, .. ... ... ... ••• ••• H7 
 
 Dealers in fruit and vegetables, ... ... ... ... 1 1 
 
 Bakers and pastrycooks, ... ... ... ... ••• 9 
 
 Commission agents, ... ... ... ••■ ••• 10 
 
 Despatch agents, ... ... ... ... ... ••• 1 
 
 Tobacconists, ... ... ... ... ••• ••• 5 
 
 Exporters of charcoal and iron, ... ... ... ... 5 
 
 Importers of marble, ... ... ... ... ••• 5 
 
 Furniture makers, ... ... ... ... ... ... IS 
 
 Engravers and gilders, ... ... ... ... ... 5 
 
 Makers of looking-glasses and picture frames, ... ... 18 
 
 Glass silverers, ... ... ... ... ... ••■ 2 
 
 Upholsterers, ... ... ... ... ••• ••• 4 
 
 Painters and decorators, ... ... ... ... ... 5 
 
 Importers of works and objects of art, ... ... ... II 
 
 Dealers in glass and mosaics, ... ... ... ... 5 
 
 Jewellers and goldsmiths, ... ... ... ... ••• 8 
 
 Importers and makers of artificial flowers, ... ... 7 
 
 Tailors, 16 
 
 Dressmakers, ... ... ... ... ••• ••■ H 
 
 Dealers in gloves, Straw hats, ... ... 4 
 
 General dealers, ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• 33 
 
 Hairdressers, ... ... ... ••• ••■ •■• 25 
 
 Shoemakers, ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• 10 
 
 Importers of live animals and fish, ... ... ... 4 
 
 Laundresses and ironers, ... ... ... ... ... 9 
 
 Modellers and figure makers, ... ... ... ... 9 
 
 Employment agencies, ... ... ... ... ... 7 
 
 Translators, commissioners, guides, couriers, interpreters, 150 
 
 Residents whose addresses appear in the directory, ... 1012 
 
 Holborn Quarter. 
 
 Asphalters — Workmen, 180 
 
 Mosaic workers, ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• 13° 
 
 Organ makers, ... ... ••• ••• ••• ••• 60 
 
 Furniture makers, frame makers, barometer makers, &c. , 250 
 
 Workmen in ice trade, ... ... ... ... ••• 3°°
 
 The Growth in Population and Value. 133 
 
 Boys in kitchen (kitchen assistants), ... ... ... 40 
 
 Organ grinders, ... ... ... ... ... ... 1000 
 
 Vendors of ice-cream, potatoes, chestnuts, ... ... 2000 
 
 Soho and West End. 
 
 Valets and domestics, ... ... ... ... ... 2500 
 
 Cooks and apprentices, ... ... ... ... ... 900 
 
 Kitchen assistants, ... ... ... ... ... ... 1200 
 
 Shop assistants, ... ... ... ... ... ... 100 
 
 Workers in gold and jewellery, ... ... ... ... 150 
 
 Tailors, hairdressers, shoemakers (workmen), ... ... 600 
 
 Makers of artificial flowers, cages, and mineral waters 
 
 (workmen), ... ... ... ... ... ... 5° 
 
 Various, ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 180 
 
 Whether London gains from the foreign colonies, 
 apart from individual foreigners, is open to question, 
 but it is pleasing to think that exiles from foreign 
 lands love the home of their adoption. In the 
 district of Soho a few years ago were many French 
 exiles of fine soldier-like appearance who worked as 
 barbers and at other trades, and who always struck 
 one as men who have seen history in the making; 
 while few things are more charmingly humorous 
 than the occasional boast of a naturalized foreigner 
 that he is a "John Pull". These, at all events, 
 are not the men London could do without; while it 
 would lose somewhat of its picturesqueness if the 
 Chinamen with their costumes of many colours and 
 fashions, the Japanese, the Hindus, and other well- 
 to-do sojourners were to disappear from our streets. 
 Some of us, too, would not like to lose the courteous 
 negro omnibus conductor nor the picturesque black 
 shop porters who now and again help us to realize 
 that London is the capital of an empire which 
 includes many different races of people. 
 
 Before leaving this part of our subject it will 
 be interesting, I think, to give a few indications 
 of the wealth of London. A visitor to London 
 would naturally go to see the far-famed Lombard 
 Street, the abode of bankers, and assuming that 
 he would walk from thence westwards, let us see
 
 134 London. 
 
 what he would pass in the shape of wealth. Lom- 
 bard Street consists of only 41 houses, which are 
 valued at ,£116,946 per annum; from thence into 
 Cheapside the pedestrian would pass 130 houses 
 valued at ,£93,373; then into St. Paul's Church- 
 yard with 61 houses worth £47,981 ; into Ludgate 
 Hill with its 72 houses valued at £48,047; Fleet 
 Street with 143 houses valued at £"60,883; the 
 Strand with 406 houses valued at £"169,224. Pro- 
 ceeding from this point into Pall Mall we pass 
 through this far-famed street with its 132 houses 
 valued at £"99,750 per annum, and into Piccadilly, 
 which has 241 houses valued at an annual £"165,924, 
 and Bond Street, with its 234 houses valued at 
 £"124,751. Oxford Street has 600 houses, the 
 annual value of which is £"201,276, and Regent 
 Street 321 houses valued at £"154,865. 
 
 Many streets of the great capital city are thus 
 of higher value than whole towns in other parts 
 of the country — towns of such importance as Can- 
 terbury, whose valuation is £"110,000; Northamp- 
 ton, £"205,000; Yarmouth, £"177,000; Gloucester, 
 £"157,000; Winchester, £"92,000; Rochester, 
 £"104,000; Margate, £"128,000; Ramsgate,£"i34,ooo; 
 Bedford, £'124,000; and so on. 
 
 A serious problem is presented by these facts. 
 What is the future population of London to be? is 
 it to consist of the business part of the community 
 and the wealthy inhabitants? are the poorer in- 
 dustrial sections to be located outside London in the 
 counties of Essex, Middlesex, Kent, and Surrey? 
 The settlement of this problem has become pressing 
 during the past ten years. Overcrowding of the 
 poorer classes is a danger to health, and it may be 
 met by either of two ways, by erecting large sanitary 
 buildings for the housing of work-people, or by 
 providing cheap and commodious means of travel- 
 ling to the outer parts beyond London. As to which
 
 The Growth in Population and Value. 135 
 
 is the proper method of settling the problem it may 
 be difficult to provide an answer. Experience 
 alone can answer, as force does not determine 
 economic problems, but the line of least resistance 
 seems to point to the sending of the industrial 
 population farther out by providing them the means 
 of transit. It need hardly be pointed out how 
 materially this will affect the future history both of 
 London and extra-London. 
 
 It would have been a pleasing thing to have 
 concluded this chapter with an account of some of 
 the peculiarities of the London people — its love of 
 law and order; its fondness for crowds; its cries, 
 at once so amusing and so distracting, " West- 
 minister ", " igher up", and the rest of them; its 
 solid humour; its principal characters, from the 
 distinguished statesmen, literary men, musicians, 
 actors, whom one encounters in Bond Street or 
 Pall Mall, to the men who daily, summer and 
 winter, wet or fine, snow or ice, take their morning 
 bath in the Serpentine; its children who play at 
 traditional games as old as the nation itself, in 
 squalid and dirty courts, and yet get ruddy cheeks 
 and not unpleasing faces, and those who congregate 
 round the organ-grinder and dance as never chil- 
 dren danced elsewhere ; its respectable Sunday class 
 of church-goers, and the freer minds who use the 
 parks, museums, and other places of amusement; 
 its resistless never-ceasing energy whether for play 
 or for work, commencing with the morning from 
 before eight o'clock, when two millions of people 
 pour into the centre, and scarcely ending at eleven 
 o'clock in the evening, when a quarter of a million 
 pour forth from the theatres, music-halls, and places 
 of amusement, to find their way home through the 
 cool streets when Londoners like London best — all 
 this would have formed a pleasing record of London 
 people. But there would also have been the less
 
 136 London. 
 
 pleasing features, the crime, the poverty, the dirt, 
 misery, and hoplessness of many thousands. And 
 I have no room and scarcely any heart for all this. 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 Street Architecture. 
 
 The early years of the Queen were marked by the 
 gloom and incompetence in matters of art which 
 characterized the Georgian period of history. There 
 were the remains of the older buildings, but no new 
 inspiration to add picturesque details to the bricks 
 and mortar which took the place of green fields and 
 trees. 
 
 All round London were noble examples of inter- 
 esting houses — houses standing within a large area 
 of garden and meadow space, generally possessing 
 fine hammered-iron gateways, and frequently con- 
 taining a picturesque cedar-tree or a mulberry-tree. 
 North, east, south, and west was this the case. In 
 Fulham and Hammersmith there were many ex- 
 amples of Jacobean architecture; in Wandsworth, 
 and other places in the south, they are not all gone 
 even now; while in the east, in Bow, Poplar, and 
 Bromley, there were quite a large number of the 
 old dwellings of wealthy London citizens or Middle- 
 sex residents. Anyone caring for examples of such 
 interesting work should visit the manor-house at 
 Poplar, Bromley Hall, or others of this nature. 
 
 In the centre of London there were also numerous 
 buildings of interest. Northumberland House, the 
 most westerly of the ancient Strand palaces, had not 
 then been needlessly destroyed for the street improve- 
 ment of Northumberland Avenue, the ancient inns 
 of Southwark and of Holborn were still in their
 
 Street Architecture. 137 
 
 picturesque if somewhat battered condition ; the 
 White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly, from which the old 
 coaches started at least as early as 1750; Winchester 
 House, Old Broad Street; Earl's Court House, the 
 residence of Dr. John Hunter from 1764 to 1795; 
 bits of the ancient villages of London at Hampstead, 
 Hackney, Bromley, and elsewhere; squalid but 
 picturesque remnants of old Westminster; Fairfax 
 House at Putney, and the so-called Cromwell's 
 House at Shepherd's Bush, were all in existence, 
 though, alas! the drawings published by the Lon- 
 don Topographical Society and the descriptive 
 notes by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient 
 Buildings are all that is left to remind the Londoner 
 of these interesting relics of the past. 
 
 Of spots sanctified by memories that belong to 
 the Queen's London almost as much as to their 
 antiquarian value is surely the Charterhouse. There 
 is no talk yet of destroying this piece of ancient 
 London and of Thackeray's London. The great 
 writer was, as is well known, educated there, and 
 he has left us memories of the place in the heroes 
 of his stories, for they were all Charterhouse boys. 
 Charterhouse School has now migrated to Godal- 
 ming, but the Merchant Taylors' School has taken 
 its place, and it is to be hoped will help to keep 
 intact the whole of this interesting site. 
 
 The great squares of London remain much the 
 same as when they were built, though some have 
 been destroyed. Leicester Square, once the home 
 of many famous men, has become the home of 
 music-hall amusement, and Russell Square is 
 doomed to destruction. But nearly all the others 
 retain their sombreness and their charm, including 
 here and there, perhaps most notably in St. James's 
 Square and Portman Square, the iron link-holders 
 on the railing in front of the houses, which mark the 
 time before gas was used for the lighting of the streets.
 
 138 London. 
 
 One cannot help being struck by the beauty of 
 street architecture where, as in our oldest cities, 
 Chester, Salisbury, Ipswich, and others, Eliza- 
 bethan and Jacobean buildings are still extant. 
 The houses of Staple Inn facing Holborn, oppo- 
 site Gray's Inn Lane, are of this character, and 
 they have been preserved by the public spirit ot 
 their owners, the Prudential Fire Insurance Com- 
 pany. But why were houses of this description 
 destroyed so largely, and why was their architec- 
 ture not copied? They were, at all events, works 
 of art, and helped to make pleasing the sur- 
 roundings of dwellers in towns. They have been 
 replaced by the hideous monstrosities of Harley 
 Street, Gower Street, and so on in the west of 
 London, and by long rows of unshapen cottages or 
 hovels in the poorer parts. The Georgian spirit 
 of architecture was against art, and declared for so- 
 called utilitarianism, as if utility could exist without 
 the element of art. 
 
 London in the eighteenth century contained many 
 specimens of this picturesque architecture, but they 
 rapidly disappeared, and in searching for the cause 
 (for it has never been properly ascertained), I think 
 the most likely is to be found in the preamble to 
 many of the local acts of Parliament. Examples 
 occur in the acts of Clerkenwell and Aldgate, where 
 the disadvantages of the gable houses are curiously 
 set forth. 
 
 The preamble to an act of 11 George III., cap. 
 23, 1 77 1, recites that certain streets in the parish of 
 Aldgate, in the county of Middlesex, "are very ill 
 paved, and the passage through the same greatly 
 obstructed by posts, projections, and other nui- 
 sances, and annoyed by spouts, signs, and gutters ", 
 and then proceeds to enact "that all houses and 
 buildings hereafter to be built or new fronted shall, 
 for the effectual and absolute prevention of all man-
 
 Street Architecture. 139 
 
 ner of projections, annoyances, and inconveniences 
 thereby, rise perpendicularly from the foundation ; 
 and if any person shall at any time hereafter pre- 
 sume to build or new front any house otherwise 
 than perpendicularly" the commissioners shall cause 
 the same to be pulled down and removed. In this 
 way were the projecting" house fronts of picturesque 
 London destroyed; they did not suit the new re- 
 quirements, and so they had to give way. Neces- 
 sarily, and not so unreasonably, the projecting 
 shop-signs and house-marks, which belonged to an 
 age when sign-reading was more generally under- 
 stood than letters, were also condemned, and I will 
 quote an act of 1834 as an example of the spirit 
 with which these things were condemned. The 
 act makes all signs, sign-irons, sign-posts, barbers' 
 poles, dyers' poles, stalls, blocks, bulks, show- 
 boards, butchers' hooks, spouts, water-pipes, and 
 other projections in front of the houses in Bermond- 
 sey to be liable to removal at the demand of the 
 local commissioners, and at the same time autho- 
 rizes the impounding of cattle straying in the streets. 
 It seems remarkable that the only remedy for de- 
 ficient rain-water drainage should be the destruction 
 of the buildings and the introduction of a totally 
 different style of street architecture. Street signs 
 no doubt had to go, picturesque though they were, 
 and yet it is noticeable that there is a revival of the 
 practice occasionally to be met with, as, for instance, 
 the " Gainsborough Head" which graces one of the 
 business premises in South Molton Street, Oxford 
 Street. But in the meantime a new method of using 
 signs has been developed. Anyone who travels 
 through the streets of London, or indeed any modern 
 city, must be struck with the enormous extent of 
 street advertisements. The sky signs, without one 
 single element of artistic construction, lime-light 
 and electric-light letterings, posters covering hoard-
 
 140 London. 
 
 ings sometimes for considerable distances, all com- 
 bine to render as hideous as possible the modern 
 street. And yet the modern street might be made 
 so picturesque, nay, is so picturesque. Lord Bea- 
 consfield once said that the Strand was the most 
 picturesque street in Europe, and in a sense this is 
 so. A ride on the top of an omnibus through any 
 of the great routes traversing all parts of London 
 reveals to those who have the feeling for the pic- 
 turesque beauties in London streets which are wholly 
 local in character. The variety of architecture, the 
 change of scene from shops brilliantly fitted up and 
 at night brilliantly lighted, to private houses bright 
 with flowers, and very often bright with the lights 
 of some festive gathering, then to patches of green 
 which mark a square-garden, or the grounds of an 
 old-fashioned house still preserved in the midst of 
 newer surroundings, and finally the long vistas 
 opened up by the great western roads at the time of 
 early morning or sun setting, and by the eastern, 
 northern, and southern roads at other times of the 
 day or night, all combine to make up the peculiar 
 charm of London scenery. The pity of it is that 
 it is not appreciated by those who can utilize it to 
 make London what it could easily be, the most 
 beautiful city in the world. 
 
 One means of doing this is to preserve what little 
 is left of historic interest, a house sanctified as the 
 residence of a great man, or as the place where a 
 great event has happened, or as a relic of a past con- 
 dition of life, even a street name; all help to create 
 an interest in London which it is of the utmost 
 benefit to foster and keep alive. It makes people 
 the happier to know when they tread on historic 
 ground. Some years ago my old friend Mr. W. 
 J. Thorns (through some assistance of my own) 
 saved the name of Tothill Street to Westminster, a 
 name full of the most ancient memories, a guerdon
 
 Street Architecture. 141 
 
 to Westminster of a whole system of institutions 
 belonging to the earliest times of Saxon England. 
 And so it is with other street names. They take 
 us back along the stream of time. 
 
 It is pleasing therefore to record that the London 
 County Council has set an excellent example of 
 public influence in the preservation of historic 
 buildings by obtaining parliamentary sanction to 
 spend money for the purpose. By this means it 
 is to be hoped that what little still exists will be 
 allowed to remain, and particularly that the econo- 
 mies of preservation may be carefully considered 
 before destruction is decided upon. 
 
 Of course it will be asked by the stern utilitarian 
 of the time what is to be gained by keeping up old 
 buildings and ancient memories, which are not in 
 accord with our present requirements and surround- 
 ings; of course it will be objected by those who 
 desire to use the magnificent site of London for 
 squeezing out the largest possible amount of 
 annual rent, that the preservation of such build- 
 ings has no justification; of course there will be a 
 thousand arguments in favour of destruction against 
 the one or two voices raised for preservation. And 
 yet on strict grounds of utilitarianism there is much 
 to be said in favour of keeping these places. They 
 are better for the moral well-being of the community 
 than the hideous rows of ghastly cottage or villa 
 residences which disgrace all but the immediately 
 central portions of London. 
 
 What a tremendous meaning there is in the 
 fact that when Queen Victoria first began her 
 reign there were living in London two great Lon- 
 doners — two of the greatest Londoners, Thackeray 
 and Dickens! Thackeray was married in 1837, 
 and then lived in Great Coram Street, close to 
 the Foundling Hospital. Later on he had cham- 
 bers at 10 Crown Office Row, Temple, and at 88
 
 142 London. 
 
 St. James's Street, both which houses have since 
 been demolished. From 1847 to 1853 he lived at 
 No. 13 (now 16) Young Street, Kensington, and 
 wrote there Vanity Fair, Esmond, and Pendennis. 
 From 1853 to 1861 he lived in Onslow Square, 
 Brompton, and from 1861 until his death in 1863 
 he occupied a house in Palace Gardens. Who 
 would not think pleasingly, if not tenderly, of a 
 city which contains such memorials as these? They 
 are not manufactured, nor are they even developed, 
 by the aid of anything that a city, however great, 
 can do. And yet it is memorials such as these that 
 London most neglects. A few tablets here and 
 there, put up by the liberality and public spirit of 
 the Society of Arts, the purchase of one house hal- 
 lowed by the memories of a great man, namely, 
 Carlyle's house in Cheyne Walk, and Londoners 
 think no more of these things. 
 
 I think of the London where Thackeray's master- 
 pieces were written as a place glorified. And then, 
 too, there is the London which is to be found in the 
 pages of Charles Dickens. The late Mr. Sala gives 
 us a picture of what London meant when Dickens 
 was one of its denizens. He was encountered "in 
 the oddest places and in the most inclement weather: 
 in Ratcl iff Highway, in Haverstock Hill, in Camber- 
 well Green, in Gray's Inn Lane, in the Wandsworth 
 Road, at Hammersmith Broadway, in Norton Fol- 
 gate, and at Kensal New Town. A hansom whisked 
 you by the Bell and Horses at Brompton, and there 
 was Charles Dickens striding as with seven-leagued 
 boots seemingly in the direction of North End, 
 Fulham. The Metropolitan Railway disgorged you 
 at Lisson Grove, and you met Charles Dickens 
 plodding steadily towards the Yorkshire Stingo. 
 He was to be met rapidly skirting the grim back 
 wall of the prison in Coldbath Fields, or trudging 
 along the Seven Sisters Road at Holloway, or bear-
 
 Street Architecture. 143 
 
 ing under a steady press of sail through Highgate 
 Archway or pursuing the even tenor of his way up 
 the Vauxhall Bridge Road." 
 
 This is delightful word-picturing. Hansom cabs 
 and metropolitan railways that did not exist at the 
 beginning of the Queen's London have the sanctity 
 of a great personality brought to them while Lon- 
 don was yet the Queen's London. 
 
 Furnival's Inn was the residence of Dickens in his 
 bachelor days when he was a reporter for the 
 Morning Chronicle. It is now pulled down. In 
 1837 he removed to 48 Doughty Street, where he 
 wrote Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and some 
 sketches. In 1840 he went to 1 Devonshire Terrace 
 in the Marylebone Road, which has recently been 
 altered, and in 1851 to Tavistock House, Tavistock 
 Square, where he wrote Bleak House, Little Dorrit, 
 A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. At 
 Devonshire Terrace he wrote Master Humphrey's 
 Clock, Martin Chuzzlezvit, Dombey and Son, and 
 David Copperjield. 
 
 These two of the long roll of distinguished Lon- 
 doners are known to the present generation, and it 
 seemed worth while to illustrate the interest of Lon- 
 don when it is viewed from the personal interest 
 derived from such writers as these. The interest 
 could be extended in many directions though the 
 chances are disappearing all too rapidly. 
 
 In the central and more wealthy districts of Lon- 
 don there is a vast improvement in street architec- 
 ture. Any one acquainted with the rebuilding of 
 Lord Cadogan's estate at Chelsea, and of the 
 Grosvenor estate in St. George's will concede this. 
 The shop property and private houses built within 
 the last few years in Mount Street, Audley Street, 
 and the neighbourhood are of the most interesting 
 types, while in all the great centres, Oxford Street, 
 Bond Street, the Strand, rebuilding is proceeding
 
 144 London. 
 
 at an astonishing pace. And fortunately rebuilding 
 means, as a rule, improvement in style. There 
 seems at least a hope that London may be made 
 more worthy of her position than has hitherto been 
 the case. 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 The Parks and Open Spaces. 
 
 The filling up of London with buildings has not 
 been accomplished without regard to the essentials 
 of health in one important particular. Open spaces, 
 very aptly termed the lungs of the great city, have 
 been extended, and are being extended, in all direc- 
 ions. Hyde Park, St. James's Park, and Regent's 
 Park called forth, as we have already seen, the enthu- 
 siastic admiration of foreign visitors at the beginning 
 of the Queen's reign, and they are still the subject 
 of the same degree of admiration. To the royal 
 parks, however, have now been added the muni- 
 cipal parks, and these have become of service to 
 the people in a sense that was not contemplated 
 a few years ago. Anyone who can remember the 
 London Sunday in the summer say twenty years 
 ago, and will compare it with that of to-day, will 
 think that London has changed her old reputation 
 of a sad and miserable method of spending Sunday 
 for an approach to the continental method. The 
 gaiety of Hyde Park on a July Sunday evening is 
 indescribable. It is equal to anything to be seen in 
 Paris for brightness of colour and attractiveness ; it 
 surpasses anything to be seen in Paris or elsewhere 
 for a sense of real comfort and enjoyment. And 
 in the other parks and open spaces there are the 
 same elements, if differently expressed. Battersea 
 Park particularly is a happy expression of a people's
 
 The Parks and Open Spaces. 
 
 H5 
 
 holy day, while Wormwood Scrubs, Hampstead 
 Heath, Victoria Park, and Greenwich Park com- 
 plete the circle of open-air enjoyment all round 
 London, with numerous additional examples inter- 
 vening in different localities. London indeed is 
 beginning to assume a more domestic appearance, 
 a more residential look, than it did in the sixties, 
 and this is chiefly due to the increase of the parks 
 and their superior administration. 
 
 But the parks are for health as well as enjoyment. 
 How they serve for health purposes can be tested 
 by comparing their location with the requirements 
 of the different districts. In the whole county there 
 is the following acreage of parks and open spaces: — 
 
 Authority maintaining open space. 
 
 H.M. Government 
 London County Council — 
 
 Small open spaces 
 
 Other open spaces 
 City Corporation ... 
 Vestries and District Boards 
 Burial Boards 
 Conservators of Commons 
 Metropolitan Public Gardens Association 
 Private persons and companies ... 
 
 Disused burial-grounds not open to the 
 public ... 
 
 Total for County of London 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 1875^ 
 
 3403 % 
 4 
 
 212X 
 
 1% 
 460^ 
 6 
 
 4iX 
 
 6051 
 9i 
 
 6142 
 
 The total area of open spaces in London is there- 
 fore 6142 acres, being one acre for every 717 in- 
 habitants. This general proportion, however, does 
 not give the real significance of the open spaces 
 in London. For this purpose, the distribution of 
 open spaces amongst the population must be con- 
 sidered. Material for such a comparison is given 
 
 (M517) k
 
 146 
 
 London. 
 
 in a table printed in the Appendix, which shows 
 for each sanitary district arranged in geographical 
 groups the total area of open spaces (including 
 burial-grounds not open to the public), and the 
 total area of the sanitary district. For this pur- 
 pose it might be proper to include the acreage 
 of foreshore and tidal water of the upper portions 
 of the river, which are used for recreation and 
 pleasure, but the same conditions do not apply to 
 the river below London Bridge, which is used 
 almost entirely for commercial purposes. It has 
 therefore been considered better to omit the acreage 
 of foreshore and tidal water altogether. 
 
 It will be seen from this Appendix how differently 
 the various sanitary districts are situated in relation 
 to open spaces; it is particularly instructive to con- 
 sider the relation between various groups of dis- 
 tricts. Placing the groups in the order of the death- 
 rates, the relation of the groups with regard to 
 statistics of population per acre and of overcrowding 
 may be compared. 
 
 Group. 
 
 Death- 
 rate. 
 
 Population 
 
 per acre 
 
 of open 
 
 space. 
 
 Population 
 per acre 
 of whole 
 district. 
 
 Over- 
 crowding, 
 proportion 
 
 of total 
 population. 
 
 Central London (East) 
 
 Central London (West) ... 
 Central London (South)... 
 East London 
 
 257 
 
 25 'O 
 
 24-9 
 
 24 '3 
 20-8 
 19-9 
 
 *9'3 
 
 19-2 
 
 177 
 17-5 
 
 9.H9 
 
 943 
 
 3.9" 
 
 2,326 
 
 717 
 
 1,648 
 
 710 
 
 625 
 
 401 
 
 224 
 
 188 
 123 
 131 
 
 "5 
 59 
 65 
 73 
 77 
 20 
 
 3i 
 
 38-49 
 2976 
 
 25-09 
 25-78 
 
 1957 
 I366 
 16-07 
 
 20*06 
 862 
 9-80 
 
 
 South London 
 
 West London 
 
 North London 
 
 South-East London 
 
 
 A valuable contribution to the subject of the 
 provision of open spaces is made by Sir Robert 
 Hunter in his paper on the movements for the
 
 The Parks and Open Spaces. 
 
 147 
 
 inclosure and preservation of open lands, read 
 before the Royal Statistical Society. He gives the 
 cost and the area, as well as the date of acquisition, 
 of open spaces in Greater London. He sets out 
 separately those situated for the most part in the 
 County of London. The following is a summary : — 
 
 COUNTY OF LONDON. 
 
 
 N.E. District. 
 
 S.W. District. 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 Price. 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 Price. 
 
 Commons 
 
 A. R. 
 
 496 2 
 
 502 - 
 
 £ 
 
 165,000 
 
 394,459 
 
 A. R. 
 
 677 - 
 338- 
 
 £ 
 
 42,776 
 142,507 
 
 Parks and Gardens. 
 
 998 2 
 
 559,459 
 
 I,Ol5 - 
 
 185,283 
 
 
 S.E. District. 
 
 N.W. District. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 Price. 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 Price. 
 
 Acreage. Price. 
 
 Commons 
 
 Parks and 
 
 Gardens 
 
 Royal Parks 
 
 A. R. 
 
 498 3 
 432 3 
 
 £ 
 
 16,500 
 
 332,580 
 
 A. R. 
 
 490 - 
 381 I 
 
 £ 
 
 45,505 
 
 443,650 
 
 A. R. 
 2,l62 I 
 
 1,654 - 
 
 £ 
 
 269,781 
 
 1,313,196 
 
 931 2 
 
 349,o8o 
 
 871 I 
 
 489,155 
 
 3,8l6 I 
 1,249 - 
 
 1,582,977 
 
 5,065 I 
 
 GREATER LONDON. 
 
 
 County of London. 
 
 Outer London. 
 
 Greater London. 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 Price. 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 Price. 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 Price. 
 
 Commons 
 Epping Forest 
 Parks and 1 
 gardens J 
 
 Royal Parks 
 
 A. R. 
 
 2,162 I 
 1.654 - 
 
 £ 
 
 269,781 
 
 1,313,196 
 
 A. R. 
 
 4,296 3 
 
 5.53 1 - 
 
 466 - 
 
 £ 
 
 43,600 
 189,012 
 
 87,600 
 
 A. R. 
 
 6,459 ~ 
 5,531 " 
 
 2,120 - 
 
 £ 
 
 3!3.38i 
 189,012 
 
 1,400,796 
 
 3,816 I 
 1,249 - 
 
 5.065 I 
 
 1,582,977 
 
 10,293 3 
 3.639 - 
 
 320,212 
 
 14,110 - 
 4,888 - 
 
 r, 903, 189 
 
 13.932 3 
 
 18,998 -
 
 148 London. 
 
 It will be seen that the total for the County of 
 London differs from that shown in the Appendix, 
 and this is because the latter includes the area of 
 the portions of open spaces the greater parts or 
 which are situated without the county. 
 
 Allusion was made in the first chapter to the 
 question of the burial-grounds of London, and the 
 serious effect of their continuous use. They are 
 now made to serve the purposes of health by keep- 
 ing them as recreation grounds, and it will be seen 
 that they are included in the above calculations. 
 
 The burial-grounds which exist in the County 
 and City of London are 362 in number. Of these 
 41 are church-yards and cemeteries still in use, a 
 few being burial-grounds in which interments only 
 occasionally take place, either in graves already in 
 existence, or under the regulation of the Home Sec- 
 retary. The other 321 are disused burial-grounds, 
 most of which were closed by order in council be- 
 tween the years 1853 and 1858, and 90 of which are 
 now public recreation grounds. While many of the 
 graveyards are smaller than they once were, there 
 existed within a reasonable period between 100 and 
 150 which have been entirely built over or appro- 
 priated as sites for railways and new roads. 
 
 In 1884 an act known as the Disused Burial- 
 Grounds Act, 47 and 48 Vict., was passed to pre- 
 vent the erection of buildings on burial-grounds. 
 This was materially extended by clauses in the 
 Open Spaces Act of 1887, and by a "burial-ground" 
 is now meant any land set aside for interments, 
 whether closed by order in council or not. The 
 London County Council has special authority to 
 enforce this act within the county area, powers to 
 carry it out having been conferred upon the late 
 Metropolitan Board of Works under its Various 
 Powers Act of 1885. In the County of London the 
 only encroachment which is permissible on a dis-
 
 The Parks and Open Spaces. 149 
 
 used burial-ground is the enlargement of an existing 
 place of worship, although in the City the Com- 
 missioners of Sewers have the right, under certain 
 circumstances, to appropriate portions of them for 
 the widening of roads. But nevertheless encroach- 
 ments on places of interment are frequent, mor- 
 tuaries, schools, outhouses, stables, &c, being 
 often erected in them; and as many of these 
 grounds are, to a casual observer, unrecognizable 
 as graveyards, being used as cooperages, builders' 
 yards, asphalted play-grounds, &c, the law is 
 easily evaded. 
 
 With a view to recording the actual site of all the 
 existing burial-grounds in London, a valuable re- 
 turn was published by the London County Council 
 and prepared by Mrs. Basil Holmes, from which I 
 quote the following passage: — 
 
 " Upon the question of the general condition of the 
 London burial-grounds, those which have been laid out 
 for public recreation, and are being maintained by the 
 London County Council, the vestries, district boards, or 
 burial boards, are not only the most sanitary, the most 
 useful, and the most pleasing, but are also the least in 
 danger of being misused or encroached upon. Many of 
 them are kept up with great reverence and care, and are 
 bright and attractive all the year round. Amongst the 
 burial-grounds which are closed to the public, by far 
 the best kept are those which belong to the Society of 
 Friends, a fact which was recognized by G. A. Walker 
 as long ago as 1847, and which is still most noticeable. 
 Some of the parochial churchyards and some of the 
 Jewish grounds are also well kept, while others are not 
 as neat as they should be. Most of those grounds which 
 were started about 100 years ago by private speculators, 
 and a few of the parish and dissenting burial-grounds, 
 are now being used as builders' yards, carters' yards, 
 &c. ; but the burial-grounds which are most untidy, 
 insanitary, and neglected, where the tombstones are
 
 150 London. 
 
 broken and tumbling about, where the grass is never 
 cut, and where unsavoury rubbish of all kinds is allowed 
 to accumulate, are certain, not very many, graveyards 
 adjoining Baptist and Congregational chapels in different 
 parts of London. This is partly due to the fact that 
 there is no central body which looks after these grounds, 
 and no lists of them, or reliable information about them, 
 are to be had at Memorial Hall or the Baptist Union. 
 Many of the chapels themselves have often changed 
 hands, first belonging to one community and then 
 another, so that the buildings and the graveyards (which 
 are often in the hands of a few trustees) have not been 
 maintained with the same interest as those of the Society 
 of Friends, who attend to all matters connected with 
 their meeting-houses and burial-grounds at their ' six 
 weeks meeting'." 
 
 Besides the burial-grounds there are, in every 
 division of the county, churches and chapels which 
 never had graveyards attached to them, but which 
 have vaults underneath them. Some of these were 
 very extensively used. From the returns ordered 
 by Parliament between the years 1830 and 1855, it 
 appears that the burial-grounds attached to the 
 dissenting places of worship were not so generally 
 overcrowded as some of the churchyards, or as all 
 of the private grounds, in one of which the rate 
 of interment was computed to be upwards of 2300 
 bodies per acre annually. 
 
 The oldest of the churchyard-gardens, and one of 
 most beautiful, is that of St. George's-in-the-East, 
 which, with the adjoining graveyard of Cable Street 
 Chapel, was laid out in 1875. The newest is St. 
 Mary's, Woolwich, opened to the public on the last 
 day of May, 1895. That it would eventually be 
 well to treat all the Metropolitan burial-grounds in 
 this manner was prophesied by the late Sir Edwin 
 Chadwick in 1843, even while they were still being 
 used for interments. He wrote: "The only obser-
 
 The Parks and Open Spaces. 151 
 
 vation I at present submit upon the space of ground 
 now occupied (as burial-grounds) is that it would 
 serve hereafter advantageously to be kept open as 
 public ground ". 
 
 The work of the Metropolitan Public Gardens 
 Association has been most valuable and effective in 
 preserving London's open spaces. Of the 90 burial- 
 grounds which are now public recreation-grounds 
 there is hardly one in the laying out of which the 
 Association has not assisted, while many have been 
 secured and laid out solely through its efforts, and 
 negotiations have been carried on and offers made 
 in connection with a large number of those which 
 are not yet open to the public. The passing of the 
 Disused Burial-Grounds Act was also due in great 
 measure to the Association, while most of the cases 
 of infringement of that Act which have been brought 
 to light, were traced by its officials. 
 
 The work of providing London with open spaces 
 is still going on, and so long as there remain any 
 of the old mansions with large garden grounds 
 attached there will still be opportunities. Ravens- 
 court Park at Hammersmith is one of the most 
 successful of the conservative actions in this direc- 
 tion. It is a pity that Fairfax House, Putney, was 
 not treated in the same way. An old Jacobean 
 house and grounds in St. Leonard's Street, Brom- 
 ley, is the latest acquisition made by the County 
 Council for this purpose, and as this is such a dis- 
 tinctively historical feature of the neighbourhood it 
 is hoped that its chief characteristics will be pre- 
 served.
 
 152 London. 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 The Street Improvements of London. 
 
 A map of modern London is not the same in some 
 of its chief topographical features as that of fifty 
 years ago. The streets and roads of a past age do 
 not suit the requirements of a later age in a city like 
 London, where development has been so extensive 
 and so continuous. And so from time to time the 
 streets and roads of London have been altered. 
 
 Few things are more interesting than to notice 
 the topographical changes caused by different econo- 
 mical conditions. The Roman roads of Britain, 
 remarkable for their splendid engineering, their 
 directness of purpose, their magnificent construc- 
 tion, are still largely used as the main roads in 
 country districts. But the places where changes 
 have taken place reveal the most significant evidence 
 of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain. The 
 Roman roads converging on to London get lost as 
 they approach the great city. The Edgeware Road, 
 so magnificently straight for so long a distance, 
 stops suddenly short at Oxford Street. The eastern 
 road through Stratford continues into London, and 
 so do the northern and southern roads. But the 
 road plan of modern London is not the road plan 
 of Roman London. Cheapside, the centre of Saxon 
 life, chops up, so to speak, all the Roman concep- 
 tion of things. 
 
 As with Roman London so with later London. 
 The Great Fire in 1666 gave to Wren an opportunity 
 for remodelling the ground-plan of the city, which, 
 however, was never accomplished, owing to the 
 desire of the citizens to keep to the old lines. I 
 am not sure that the citizens of King Charles the 
 Second's reign were not correct in their view, and
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 153 
 
 I am quite sure that the London of to-day is the 
 more picturesque in consequence. 
 
 But changes have to be made. A Select Com- 
 mittee, appointed in February, 1838, to consider 
 plans for the improvement of the Metropolis, ex- 
 pressed the opinion that the original construction 
 of the City of London on a great navigable river, 
 along the banks of which its habitations were gradu- 
 ally extended, has determined the direction in which 
 its main streets have always run — viz. from east 
 to west; and the circumstances which have led to 
 the vast increase of its buildings on the western 
 side, a great city of opulent consumers having been 
 thereby established at a considerable distance from 
 what may properly be called the Port of London, 
 whence is derived a large proportion of their con- 
 sumable supplies, have contributed to maintain 
 these as the main channels of communication. The 
 Committee called attention in its report to the fact 
 that there were districts in London through which 
 no great thoroughfares passed, and which were 
 wholly occupied by a dense population composed 
 of the lowest class of labourers, who, being entirely 
 secluded from the observation and influence of better- 
 educated neighbours, exhibited a state of moral 
 degradation deeply to be deplored. It was sug- 
 gested that this lamentable state of affairs would be 
 remedied whenever the great streams of public in- 
 tercourse could be made to pass through the dis- 
 tricts in question. It was also contended that the 
 moral condition of these poorer occupants would 
 necessarily be improved by communication with a 
 more respectable inhabitancy, and that the introduc- 
 tion at the same time of improved habits and a freer 
 circulation of air would tend materially to extirpate 
 those prevalent diseases which not only ravaged the 
 poorer inhabitants in question, but were so danger- 
 ous to the adjacent localities.
 
 154 London. 
 
 Between the years 1831 and 185 1 the necessity of 
 street improvements in London was so fully recog- 
 nized by Parliament that, during that time, some 
 eleven or twelve select committees were appointed 
 to take into consideration plans for the improvement 
 of the Metropolis, and to advise as to the best means 
 of carrying out improvements. 
 
 So important was the subject of street improve- 
 ment considered, that the Metropolitan Board in the 
 first year of its existence proceeded to give much 
 attention to the question of opening new lines of 
 communication, and from the year 1857, when appli- 
 cation was made to Parliament and power obtained 
 for the formation of two new streets, until the Board 
 ceased to exist in 1889, there was not a time at which 
 it had not in hand extensive works intended to pro- 
 vide improved means of access from one part of the 
 town to another. 
 
 A very valuable report, prepared by Mr. Percy 
 Edwards, who is clerk to the Improvements Com- 
 mittee of the London County Council, has been 
 published by the Council, giving a complete history 
 of London improvements since 1855. Mr. Edwards's 
 work is so exhaustive that there is little else to be 
 said upon this subject, but I shall take from him 
 a few particulars of interest, in order to explain 
 generally the changes that have taken place. 
 
 The most important improvement, perhaps, is 
 the construction of the Thames Embankment north 
 of the Thames from Blackfriars to Chelsea, and 
 south of the Thames from Westminster Bridge to 
 Vauxhall. Napoleon is reported to have said that 
 if ever he reigned over England he would make two 
 embankments, north and south, and so make Lon- 
 don a grand city. Left to themselves Londoners 
 have accomplished much of this, though not all, 
 and they have avoided the inevitable straight lines 
 which would have resulted from a French ideal.
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 155 
 
 The reaches of the river are far too beautiful, and 
 let it be added too useful, to be straightened out 
 so as to become parallel to the opposite side, and 
 Chelsea Reach was saved from such possible van- 
 dalism only this year (1898). 
 
 The Embankment from Blackfriars to Westminster 
 was authorized by the act of 1862. It provided, in 
 accordance with the recommendation of the Royal 
 Commissioners, for a solid embankment with a road 
 100 feet wide between Westminster Bridge and the 
 east side of the Temple Gardens, and for an em- 
 bankment with dock openings and a road 70 feet 
 wide between the last-mentioned point and Black- 
 friars, it having been deemed necessary to preserve 
 access to the Whitefriars Dock and to the works of 
 the City of London Gas Company, which were then 
 on the river bank. But this was amended by the 
 Metropolitan District Railway Act, 1864, which 
 enacted that the eastern end of the Embankment 
 should be so constructed as to best suit the forma- 
 tion of the railway as well as the convenience of the 
 gas-works and docks. 
 
 The total area of ground reclaimed from the river, 
 and previously covered with offensive mud-banks, 
 was 37/4 acres. Of this area the carriage-way 
 and footway occupy 19 acres. A space of about 
 10 acres is covered by gardens and ornamental 
 grounds devoted to the public use, and the re- 
 mainder became the property of the Crown, of the 
 Societies of the Inner and Middle Temple, and of 
 other adjacent land-owners. In connection with the 
 improvement a subway was constructed for gas 
 and water pipes, &c. The net cost of the Em- 
 bankment, and of the works connected with it, was 
 j£i, 156,981. 
 
 The magnitude of the Victoria Embankment 
 works may be gathered from the quantities of 
 various materials employed in their execution.
 
 i56 
 
 London. 
 
 which Mr. Edwards approximately states as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Granite 
 
 Brickwork 
 
 Concrete 
 
 Timber (for coffer-dam, &c.) 
 
 Caissons (for coffer-dam, &c.) 
 
 Earth filling ... 
 
 Excavation 
 
 York paving ... 
 
 Broken Granite 
 
 650,000 cubic feet. 
 80,000 cubic yards. 
 140,000 cubic yards. 
 500,000 cubic feet. 
 2,500 tons. 
 1,000,000 cubic yards. 
 144,000 cubic yards. 
 125,000 superficial feet. 
 50,000 superficial yards. 
 
 For some years after the opening of the new Em- 
 bankment there was no direct approach to it from 
 Charing Cross. This was felt to be a great incon- 
 venience, as much traffic coming from the west and 
 north-west to the City converged at Charing Cross, 
 and needed direct access to the Embankment on its 
 way eastward. So early as 1866, while the Em- 
 bankment works were in progress, the Metropolitan 
 Board had perceived the need, and had proposed 
 to make a new street through the site of Northum- 
 berland House and grounds. The Duke of Nor- 
 thumberland of that day, however, set his face 
 determinedly against any interference with his an- 
 cestral mansion, and his opposition received much 
 support from members of both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, and from those who looked with disfavour 
 on a proposal to destroy the last of the palaces of 
 the English nobles which three centuries ago stood 
 on the south side of the Strand now occupied by 
 the streets leading from it to the river. The Metro- 
 politan Board was forced to yield to the resistance 
 which then and for several years after was offered 
 to every attempt to get power to take Northum- 
 berland House. Eventually the necessities of the 
 case were so strongly pressed that further resistance 
 was abandoned, and the Board having, in 1872, 
 learned that the present Duke of Northumberland
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 157 
 
 was willing to sell his property, an agreement was 
 in the year 1873 concluded and ratified by Parlia- 
 ment, under which the Board acquired his Grace's 
 property upon payment of ^500,000, the Board at 
 the same time obtaining power to make the new 
 street. The house was pulled down and the 
 thoroughfare completed and opened in March, 1876, 
 and was named Northumberland Avenue. 
 
 Northumberland House was the town house of the 
 Dukes of Northumberland. It would appear that a 
 house existed on this spot in the time of Henry VIII. 
 of which little or nothing is known, but in the reign 
 of James I. a mansion was erected by Henry How- 
 ard, Earl of Northampton, in 1605, and was then 
 known as Northampton House, but subsequently 
 passing into the hands of the Earl of Suffolk, its 
 designation was changed to Suffolk House. In 
 1642 it passed by marriage into the possession of 
 Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and its 
 name was altered to Northumberland House, a de- 
 signation which it retained during the remainder of 
 its existence, being in possession of the Dukes of 
 Northumberland to the last. The house as erected 
 by the Earl of Northampton consisted of only three 
 sides of a quadrangle, one towards the Strand, with 
 a wing on either side, the fourth side, fronting the 
 river, having been subsequently built by the Earl 
 of Suffolk; but this was afterwards reconstructed 
 by the Earl of Northumberland from the designs of 
 Inigo Jones. The first building is said by Walpole 
 to have had for its architects Bernard Jansen and 
 Gerard Christmas, but later authorities state that the 
 Earl of Northampton himself designed the building. 
 The greater part of the Strand front was rebuilt 
 about 1748-50 and was burnt down in 1780. De- 
 spite this, however, the central portion, over the 
 gateway, was probably but little interfered with. 
 It was at this time that the ball-room was erected,
 
 158 London. 
 
 forming a western wing projecting towards the river 
 on the garden front, together with a corresponding 
 wing on the eastern side. Altogether it was a great 
 pity to have destroyed so characteristic a feature of 
 this central part of London. It was also unneces- 
 sary, for the present Northumberland Avenue is so 
 constructed as to lead to the hideous railway bridge 
 of the South-Eastern Railway instead of to the 
 Embankment clear of all obstructions. The house 
 could have been preserved for public purposes, part 
 of the grounds for open spaces, and the access to 
 the Embankment could have been better arranged. 
 But these things are not much attended to in Lon- 
 don, and Somerset House alone remains to tell us 
 of the ancient Strand. 
 
 The southern Embankment was completed in 
 1869. Its length is 5200 feet, and the width varies 
 from a minimum of about 60 feet. The net cost of 
 the improvement was ;£i, 014,525. 
 
 The ground available for building after the 
 formation of the Embankment, and consisting of 
 about 8j4 acres between Westminster and Lambeth 
 Bridges, was sold to the Governors of St. Thomas's 
 Hospital, who, having been compelled to give up 
 their old hospital in St. Thomas Street, Southwark, 
 to make room for the railway works near London 
 Bridge, erected the extensive and imposing range 
 of buildings which, overlooking the river opposite 
 the Houses of the Lords and Commons, forms one 
 of the most prominent architectural features in that 
 part of London. Some small pieces of ground 
 remaining were inclosed and laid out as gardens. 
 It should be stated that the Embankment was so 
 planned as to render unnecessary the closing of 
 the entrances to the docks which then existed in 
 the locality, such as those at the Lambeth Pottery, 
 the new road being carried over the entrances in 
 question.
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 159 
 
 The name "Victoria Embankment" having been 
 given to the embankment and new road between 
 Westminster and Blackfriars, it was thought the 
 most appropriate designation for that on the other 
 side of the river between Westminster and Lambeth 
 would be the "Albert Embankment", which name 
 was accordingly given to it. 
 
 A third part of the river embanked by the Metro- 
 politan Board was that at Chelsea, between the 
 Royal Military Hospital and Battersea Bridge. 
 From Millbank to Chelsea Hospital the river was 
 already embanked, the work having been done by 
 the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Works and 
 Public Buildings about the year 1854. It was 
 deemed desirable that the thoroughfare along the 
 river-side from Westminster should be extended to 
 Battersea Bridge, and the formation of an embank- 
 ment offered the opportunity, which was found so 
 useful in the case of the Victoria Embankment, of 
 constructing in connection with it a portion of the 
 low-level intercepting sewer. An act was obtained 
 for this purpose in 1868. The works were begun in 
 July, 187 1, and completed in May, 1874. The length 
 of the Chelsea Embankment was rather more than 
 three-quarters of a mile, and the road was 70 feet 
 wide. The road thus made completed a thorough- 
 fare by the river-side, extending from Blackfriars to 
 Battersea Bridge, 4^ miles in length. The net cost 
 of this portion of the work was ^"269,591. 
 
 At the commencement of the Queen's reign the 
 Bridges were maintained by tolls. They are now 
 free, and Hammersmith and Fulham bridges have 
 been rebuilt, others having been thoroughly reno- 
 vated. Lambeth is being rebuilt, and the Corpora- 
 tion of the City, out of surplus trust funds devoted 
 to London Bridge, have built Tower Bridge. The 
 approaches to all these bridges have been improved 
 at great cost. But there are only fifteen bridges in
 
 160 London. 
 
 London, and the time is rapidly approaching when 
 this subject must receive attention. 
 
 Passing now to the street improvements, the 
 most important in the central area are Queen 
 Victoria Street from the Mansion House to Black- 
 friars Bridge, and the magnificent Holborn Viaduct 
 over Snow Hill. The former connected the Em- 
 bankment with the City, thus forming a complete 
 route from the Houses of Parliament to the Mansion 
 House. In excavating through a locality so rich in 
 historical associations, it was to be expected that 
 some memorials of the past would be discovered. 
 The most interesting example of this kind was met 
 with at the eastern end of the street near the Man- 
 sion House, where, in the valley of the Walbrook, 
 formerly a tributary of the Thames, was found, in 
 excellent preservation, a large slab of Roman tesse- 
 lated pavement attached probably to a villa situated 
 on the banks of the stream. This relic was care- 
 fully removed, and presented by the Metropolitan 
 Board to the City Corporation, who placed it in the 
 Guildhall Museum. It is, however, to be regretted 
 that the excavations were not properly watched for 
 remains of the past inhabitants of London. 
 
 A very necessary improvement was that of the 
 Tower Hill. A block of houses between Postern 
 Row and George Street was removed, and the road 
 levels throughout were readjusted. Sandy's Row, 
 a continuation of Middlesex Street into Bishopsgate, 
 was widened in 1889. Coming farther west, the 
 removal of Middle Row, Holborn, in 1867, de- 
 stroyed one of the most picturesque examples of 
 sixteenth-century timber-work in London. The 
 widening of Gray's Inn Road, from the Clerkenwell 
 Road to Rosebery Avenue, was completed in 1892, 
 and included a viaduct of fourteen arches over the 
 ancient valley of the Fleet river. A small improve- 
 ment by the widening of Elm Street, Gray's Inn
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 161 
 
 Road, was completed in 1888. The widening of 
 Southampton Row, Holborn, is being proceeded 
 with, and will form a continuation line of the pro- 
 jected new street from the Strand at Holywell Street 
 to Holborn. 
 
 Evidence of the extension of the improvements 
 westwards occurs first in the widening of Tottenham 
 Court Road at Bozier's Court. In the Strand dis- 
 trict several improvements in the approaches to the 
 Victoria Embankment in the Savoy district were 
 carried out in 1877, and the widening of the Strand 
 in Holywell Street is now progressing. There was a 
 wicked attempt to remove the church of St. Mary-le- 
 Strand for this purpose, but fortunately the London 
 County Council rejected the proposal. The houses 
 to be removed are very old, but not interesting his- 
 torically or architecturally, and the improvement will 
 be a good one. One great effect, though perhaps 
 not the most important, will be the beautifying of 
 this particular portion of the Strand, for it must be 
 evident that this thoroughfare will gain considerably 
 by opening up to view the two churches at present 
 partly shut in and obscured, and by the imposing 
 new buildings which the improvement will un- 
 doubtedly cause to be erected on what will be the 
 new northern frontage to the Strand. St. Mary's 
 Church is a beautiful example of the Italian style, 
 while St. Clement's Church is connected with many 
 historical associations. "That old church," said 
 Carlyle of it, "where Samuel Johnson worshipped 
 in the era of Voltaire, is a very venerable place." 
 
 It is also proposed that the appearance of the 
 Strand should be further improved by the planting 
 of trees at the widened portion. By no means the 
 least important feature of the scheme is that the 
 improvement will have the effect of giving greater 
 air space and of admitting light and air where very 
 much needed. Every large street improvement must 
 
 ( M 517 ) L
 
 162 London. 
 
 confer a great amount of benefit upon the people in 
 consequence of the air space which a wide thorough- 
 fare always provides. 
 
 A great series of improvements from Piccadilly 
 Circus eastwards have been effected. The Circus 
 itself has been enlarged by absorbing Titchborne 
 Street, and a plot of land has been utilized by the 
 erection of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain. 
 Shaftesbury Avenue, from Piccadilly to Blooms- 
 bury, was completed in 1886; Charing Cross Road, 
 from Charing Cross to Tottenham Court Road, was 
 completed in 1887, and Coventry Street was widened 
 in 1881. The approaches to Covent Garden were 
 improved by the formation of a new street, now 
 called Garrick Street, in 1861. 
 
 Passing on still farther westwards, we have the 
 improvement at Stingo Lane, Marylebone, in 1872; 
 the widening of Harrow Road at its junction with 
 the Edgeware Road in 1877; and a series of im- 
 provements at Hyde Park Corner. The most im- 
 portant of these consisted in the formation of a 
 curved road commencing in Piccadilly opposite 
 Hamilton Place, and passing through the Green 
 Park into Grosvenor Place, which it entered oppo- 
 site Halkin Street; a second road from Piccadilly 
 opposite the entrance to Hyde Park leading into 
 the new road already described, and having a short 
 branch into Grosvenor Place immediately opposite 
 Grosvenor Crescent, and diverting Constitution Hill 
 into the new road from Hamilton Place at the point 
 where the two new roads intersect. In order to 
 effect these alterations it was necessary to remove 
 the Wellington Archway, which is placed at the new 
 entrance to Constitution Hill. This was carried 
 out in 1883. Park Lane had already been widened 
 at its Piccadilly end in 1871; and Knightsbridge 
 was widened during the rebuilding of the barracks 
 in 1880.
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 163 
 
 Kensington High Street has been considerably 
 altered by improvements, and the old church has 
 been replaced by a rather handsome modern struc- 
 ture. High Street, Young Street, and King Street 
 have all been widened, and the picturesque appear- 
 ance of old Kensington has been materially altered. 
 Hammersmith Road eastwards from the Broadway 
 was widened in 1888, and the Convent of Nuns there 
 was pulled down and re-erected. Small improve- 
 ments at Wood Lane, Hammersmith, in 1897, and 
 Church Street, Fulham, in 1 891, were also carried out. 
 
 South of the river, Battersea Park Road is to be 
 widened, and two bridges have been widened in 
 the same district. South Lambeth Road, near 
 Beaufoy's distillery, was widened in 1896, and Cold- 
 harbour Lane, Lambeth, in 1890. The widening 
 of Walworth Road, between Hampton Street and 
 Thomas's Place, was much needed, and it was com- 
 pleted in 1888, while the widening of Newington 
 Butts, opposite St. Mary's Church, was effected in 
 1877. The opening up of a communication between 
 New Kent Road and Rodney Road at Victory 
 Place, Newington, was completed in 1887. The 
 widening of High Street, Camberwell, and High 
 Street, Peckham, was completed in 1882, and 
 opened up one of the chief roads in the south. In 
 the same year the Deptford Bridge approaches were 
 improved, and Canterbury Road Bridge over the 
 Grand Surrey Canal was constructed in 1890. A 
 new street connecting Evelyn Street, Deptford, with 
 Creek Road is nearly completed. 
 
 In Southwark many improvements have been 
 carried out, the most important of which is the 
 widening of Tooley Street from Bermondsey Street 
 to Dean Street. This was finally completed in 1884, 
 and in 1887 the western side of Bermondsey New 
 Road from Rothsay Street to Grange Road, and the 
 eastern side of Star Corner, from Grange Road to
 
 164 London. 
 
 Abbey Street, were set back. The widening of 
 Jamaica Road between New Church Street and 
 Princes Road was effected in 1880. In 1888 a new 
 street was formed, commencing in Southwark 
 Bridge Road, near its junction with Peter Street, 
 continuing in a south-easterly direction, and ex- 
 tended by the widening of Mint Street to Great 
 Dover Street. 
 
 Coming next to east London north of the Thames, 
 a new street was constructed, commencing at High 
 Street, Whitechapel, at its intersection with Leman 
 Street and Commercial Street, and terminating at 
 Backchurch Lane, in the Commercial Road. Great 
 Eastern Street, from High Street, Shoreditch, to 
 Old Street, by way of Willow Walk, was completed 
 in 1876, and makes a very important line of com- 
 munication. In 1877, High Street, Shoreditch, was 
 widened, and in 1879 the east was connected with 
 the west by the new road from High Street, Shore- 
 ditch, to Oxford Street. In the same year the 
 Bethnal Green Road was widened, and a new road 
 constructed from Sun Street to Worship Street. 
 The approaches to Victoria Park were constructed 
 in 1862, forming a road named Burdett Road after 
 the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, who has done so much 
 for East London. An important riverside improve- 
 ment at Wapping was completed in 1879 by widen- 
 ing High Street and Lower East Smithfield, by 
 setting back portions of both the northern and 
 southern sides, commencing from the eastern side 
 of the entrance of the Wapping Basin of the London 
 Dock in the parish of St. John, Wapping, and ter- 
 minating at Little Thames Street, in the parish of 
 St. Botolph Without Aldgate, and in the precinct 
 of St. Katharine, and by widening the thorough- 
 fare, commencing in Lower East Smithfield at the 
 eastern end of Little Thames Street, and terminating 
 near the entrance to St. Katharine's Docks.
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 165 
 
 Going farther northwards, the old-world aspect 
 of Hackney has been destroyed by the necessities 
 of the times, Mare Street having been widened in 
 1879. In the "merry" Islington of old several 
 improvements were necessary. Goswell Road, op- 
 posite the Angel, was widened in 1879, and Upper 
 Street was widened in 1888 by setting back the 
 eastern side of the road between Islington Green 
 and Florence Street, and the western side, between 
 Waterloo Terrace and Barnsbury Street. 
 
 In Kentish Town the Kentish Town Road and 
 Great College Street were widened in 1883; in 1895 
 a similar improvement at Fosters Road was effected ; 
 while in 1886 a new street was formed in continua- 
 tion of Clarence Road to Great College Street, at 
 the junction with King's Road. Some of the glories 
 of old Hampstead disappeared by the formation of 
 a new street, 50 feet wide, from Heath Street to 
 Greenhill Road, the widening of High Street be- 
 tween Heath Street and Norway Yard, and the 
 construction of a foot-passage connecting High 
 Street with the new street. 
 
 It will be understood from this survey of the 
 alterations in London streets that considerable 
 changes have been effected. The net cost of all 
 the improvements has been ^11,516,974, and the 
 total length of the streets improved or constructed 
 is about I5 4 / S miles, the average width of the new 
 roads being about 60 feet. 
 
 The whole of this cost falls, either directly or 
 indirectly, upon the ratepayers, and the many eco- 
 nomical questions which this fact involves have 
 been matters of public discussion for some years. 
 This is not the place to enter into this vexed sub- 
 ject. But it is open to doubt whether the piece- 
 meal improvement of a place like London is an eco- 
 nomical proceeding. So few connected necessities 
 have been considered. Streets in formation for
 
 166 London. 
 
 the first time are all constructed upon the straight- 
 line principle, and the endless beauties of an ancient 
 street, with its broken sky-line everywhere forming 
 charming touches of town scenery, if one may so 
 call it, give way to the new idea of direct communi- 
 cation. But direct communication should be from 
 somewhere to somewhere, and should take all mat- 
 ters into consideration. Already we have noted 
 how woefully incomplete our market system is in 
 London. Street improvements should have caused 
 the consideration of this important subject, and 
 the new thoroughfares should have led to the natu- 
 ral retail market-places of which I have already 
 spoken, and have included the construction of a 
 covered market. All round the great railway cen- 
 tres natural market-places exist, and these could be 
 utilized for the public good. 
 
 One great improvement has been properly 
 attended to, namely, the formation of street subways. 
 People have little idea of what is built underground 
 in London. Thus few streets have been more 
 extensively utilized either above or below ground 
 than that opposite the Mansion House. Im- 
 mediately below the surface are the subways for 
 gas and water pipes; the house-drains and sewers 
 are beneath these; at a still lower level is the 
 railway, and below this again, the large low-level 
 intercepting sewer. Between Lambeth Hill and 
 New Earl Street the whole of the ground beneath 
 the street is completely honeycombed with those 
 several structures, which extend the entire width 
 of the street, from a depth of 30 feet below, up 
 to within 18 inches of the surface. Few people 
 passing along the street are aware of the net-work 
 of iron pillars and girders which lie only a few 
 inches beneath their feet. At Chatham Place, Black- 
 friars, are four large structures crossing each other 
 in various directions below the surface ; at the lowest
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 167 
 
 depth, about 40 feet, is the low-level sewer, over 
 which crosses the main Fleet sewer, formerly a 
 tributary stream of the Thames; above this, the 
 Metropolitan District Railway; and above this 
 again, the subway with its gas, water, and other 
 pipes. These are all closely packed below the 
 surface, and to accommodate them all within so 
 limited a space was a matter of no little diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 Sir Alexander Binnie, the chief engineer of the 
 County Council, in giving evidence before the 
 Water Commission of this year (see Minutes of Evi- 
 dence, p. 287) gave two good examples of the way 
 in which streets are used underground. The first 
 instance is the Bayswater Road, between Notting 
 Hill Gate and Westbourne Terrace. It is occupied 
 by the main middle-level sewer of the London 
 County Council, 6 feet by 4 feet; two 30-inch 
 diameter, and one 21-inch diameter mains of the 
 West Middlesex Company; two 30-inch diameter 
 and one 18-inch diameter mains of the Grand 
 Junction Company; one 36-inch main of the East 
 London Company; then there are the local sewers 
 and the large gas mains of the Gas Light and Coke 
 Company; there is also an hydraulic company's 
 main, about 6 or 7 inches in diameter; and below 
 the whole of that there are two tunnels, 10 feet 6 
 inches in diameter, of the Central London Railway. 
 At Notting Hill Gate the whole of these lines are 
 crossed at right anglej by the Metropolitan Railway. 
 Another instance is the Edgware Road. In a 
 portion of the Edgware Road there are the West 
 Middlesex Company's mains, 36 inches and 15 
 inches in diameter; the Grand Junction Company's 
 main, 24 inches in diameter; the East London 
 Company's main, 36 inches in diameter; and then 
 there are local sewers, gas mains, and electric- 
 lighting conduits.
 
 168 London. 
 
 In all the new streets formed by the Council 
 trees have been planted. Treeless London is, it is 
 to be hoped, a thing of the past. The single tree 
 in Cheapside may be cherished for many years as a 
 curiosity of the City, but outside the busiest centres 
 streets might well be beautified by the planting of 
 trees. The Marylebone Road is in this respect one 
 of the most pleasant and picturesque streets in 
 London, and though attempts have been made to 
 destroy it, just as its extension beyond Portland 
 Road has long ago been destroyed, there is every 
 prospect now of better policy prevailing. 
 
 Under the new streets subways have been con- 
 structed, and in some instances provision has been 
 made for lighting these thoroughfares by electricity 
 instead of by gas. The object of a subway 
 is to prevent the paving from being constantly 
 broken up for the alteration or laying of pipes, 
 wires, &c. The Metropolitan Board in 1868 ob- 
 tained an act conferring certain powers with regard 
 to the subways which existed at that time. In 
 1893 the London County Council (Subways) Act 
 was passed. That statute enacted that, with regard 
 to all streets in which subways belonging to the 
 Council were at that time in existence, no company 
 should have the power to break up, without the 
 consent of the Council, the surface of such streets 
 for the purpose of laying or renewing any pipe 
 other than a communication or supply pipe. The 
 Acts also gave the Council power to require any 
 company to take up any pipes in the streets in 
 which subways existed at the time the Acts were 
 passed, and to relay such pipes in the subways at 
 the expense of the Council. The principal subways 
 are: 
 
 Yards. 
 Garrick Street ... ... ... ... ... IOO 
 
 Commercial Road East ... ... ... 380 
 
 Northumberland Avenue ... ... ... 310
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 169 
 
 
 Yards 
 
 Shaftesbury Avenue 
 
 900 
 
 Charing Cross Road 
 
 900 
 
 Southwark Street 
 
 ... IIOO 
 
 Queen Victoria Street ... 
 
 1200 
 
 Victoria Embankment ... 
 
 ... 2230 
 
 Rosebery Avenue 
 
 800 
 
 Sandy's Row 
 
 170 
 
 And it is a pity that this system cannot be extended 
 throughout London, to avoid the constant expense 
 of taking up and re-laying roadways. Underground 
 London is indeed a wonderful place. Some of the 
 great shops in Oxford Street have enormous under- 
 ground apartments fitted up with wares for sale. 
 Underground conveniences are being built in all 
 directions, and anyone who has not stood in a 
 London main sewer does not yet know the whole 
 of his London history. 
 
 But if intercommunication between all parts of 
 London has been facilitated by the construction 
 of great roads, the pressure of London traffic 
 has developed to an even greater extent. In no 
 city in the world has street traffic assumed such 
 enormous proportions, and in no city in the world 
 has it been so shamefully neglected. Until quite 
 recently it was left absolutely to private enterprise. 
 The plan of a municipal service of locomotion, 
 undertaken as a matter of course in all the great 
 towns of England, was denied to London, and even 
 now the shareholders of tramway companies cannot 
 understand that the public need must stand before 
 private gain. The speeches at the companies' 
 meetings betray an amount of ignorance which 
 would be amusing if it were not so painful. The 
 subject is of importance to London in considering 
 future street improvements, and in considering 
 the needs of locomotion apart from street improve- 
 ment. In this aspect it has already engaged the 
 serious attention of the City Corporation, which, at
 
 170 London. 
 
 a special meeting of the Court of Aldermen on the 
 24th June, 1895, considered a report brought up 
 from the General Purposes Committee on petitions 
 of the Great Eastern and Metropolitan Railway- 
 Companies relative to obstructions in Liverpool 
 Street, and asking that steps might be taken to 
 remedy the serious hindrance to business and the 
 great danger to the pedestrian traffic of that street. 
 The Committee stated they had given the whole sub- 
 ject earnest attention, realizing its great importance 
 in relation to the remarkable increase of traffic in the 
 City. It appeared that the vehicles entering Liver- 
 pool Street on four consecutive days in April varied 
 from 11,263 to 16,674 daily, and that the daily 
 number of passengers using Bishopsgate Street 
 Station was 30,000; Broad Street Station, 75,000; 
 and Liverpool Street Station, 100,000. The total 
 number of omnibuses entering the City daily was 
 8955 ; of persons entering and leaving the City by 
 way of London Bridge, 214,000; of vehicles enter- 
 ing the City, 25,826; and foot passengers, 1,100,636. 
 From a special report published by the London 
 County Council it appears that the greatest pressure 
 of public locomotive traffic, apart from private 
 vehicles, is at the following places, where the 
 number of vehicles (omnibus and tramway only) is: 
 
 Bank of England (omnibus) 
 
 Charing Cross ,, 
 
 Piccadilly Circus ,, 
 
 Oxford Circus „ 
 
 Elephant and Castle (omnibus and tramway) 
 
 774 per hour. 
 692 „ 
 
 643 „ 
 627 „ 
 
 597 „ 
 
 Along Fleet Street 316 omnibuses pass per hour; 
 at Ludgate Circus, 379 per hour; in the Strand it 
 increases to 444 per hour; and in Piccadilly it 
 reaches to 423 per hour; in Oxford Street there are 
 569 per hour; in Holborn, 414 per hour. The 
 central bridges are used to the following extent : —
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 171 
 
 London, 431 per hour; Blackfriars, 172 per hour; 
 Waterloo, 134; and Westminster, 170 per hour. 
 
 There are twelve different tramway systems in 
 London, having 136^ miles of line open for traffic 
 and conveying 225,263,079 passengers during the 
 year 1894; and fourteen omnibus systems, having 
 approximately 636 miles of traffic routes, and con- 
 veying 326,082,794 passengers during the same 
 year. These enormous figures are sufficient to 
 prove the public character of this important service 
 and the need there is to establish it upon a system 
 which shall have for its first object the improvement 
 of the traffic and conveniences for travelling. The 
 Thames is now little used for travelling, and yet it 
 was once one of the chief highways of London, 
 and could be made to serve the same useful purpose 
 now if it were properly regulated. 
 
 But the needs of London are concerned not only 
 with the inter-county traffic, but with the traffic 
 extension beyond the county area. It is so obvious 
 that London depends upon outer-London for many 
 necessities, that no enquiry into the means of 
 locomotion can be complete without taking this sub- 
 ject into account. The necessities of London in re- 
 lation to outer-London may be summed up under 
 the heads of residential places and food supply. 
 
 The first head is met to a large extent by the 
 railway system, but the subject extends into the 
 question now engaging the attention of the London 
 County Council, namely, whether artisan dwellings 
 should be built upon the valuable sites within the 
 county, or should be built upon sites outside the 
 county and connected by tramways which should 
 be run as part of the cost of artisan dwellings. 
 Upon this part of the subject much information is 
 needed which is not yet to hand, because it by no 
 means follows that even if locomotive and residen- 
 tial conveniences were supplied in places chosen
 
 172 London. 
 
 by the Council, the artisan class would follow the 
 lead thus indicated to them, and it is rather a 
 question for consideration whether the opposite 
 policy of accepting the actual conditions of in- 
 dustrial residence and locomotion as the basis for 
 future action should not be followed. 
 
 The second head, that of food supply, is a very 
 important and, as yet, a very much neglected part 
 of this subject. It is contained in the subject of 
 light railways, which has resulted in recent legisla- 
 tion. This has special reference to the facilities 
 such railways would afford for the cheaper and 
 more expeditious and convenient despatch of the 
 agricultural produce of the home counties to the 
 metropolitan markets, and to the facilities they 
 would give to consumers in London for visiting the 
 counties and purchasing, on the spot, what they 
 needed. The extra-London area is largely used at 
 present for the cultivation of garden produce, fruit, 
 flowers, and other things for the London markets, 
 and there appears to be a probability that the 
 establishment of light railways would stimulate the 
 development of the existing and other agricultural 
 industries throughout the home counties, to the 
 mutual advantage of producer and consumer, if 
 light railways were so constructed as to combine 
 both goods and passenger traffic, and were allowed 
 running powers during certain hours over the 
 London lines which lead direct to market centres. 
 The evidence collected and published by the Royal 
 Commission on Agriculture, appears to support 
 these views. Many producers expressed their 
 opinion that they are still most unfairly handi- 
 capped in competition with the foreign producers for 
 the supply of the home markets, by reason of the 
 reduced preferential rates conceded by the railway 
 companies to the latter. As one witness forcibly 
 put it, the struggling fruit-grower in Kent has to
 
 The Street Improvements of London. 173 
 
 suffer the mortification of seeing foreign fruit carried 
 by the railway past his farm at rates which would 
 not be conceded to him, and of finding his pro- 
 duce, in consequence, undersold in the London 
 market. 
 
 The railways of Britain all converge on London, 
 and there is no place too remote to be, more or less, 
 in direct communication with the capital. No less 
 than eleven great railway systems have their ter- 
 mini in London, with magnificent stations and 
 enormous goods yards. The great junctions at 
 Clapham on the south, Finsbury on the north, and 
 Willesden on the west are the largest in the world. 
 In all there are 251 railway-stations and twenty-two 
 railway companies which serve London, and yet it 
 is curious to note that not one station is called 
 London. Of the vast traffic carried on by these 
 lines, and of the perfect net-work of lines which 
 they have made, it is almost needless to speak, for 
 they are known to every Londoner. The special 
 features of the London railway system are the luxu- 
 rious travelling to the north or to Paris and abroad; 
 the daily runs to Brighton and other sea-side resorts, 
 where London merchants have one of their homes ; 
 the state-travelling of the Queen or other members 
 of the royal family or their guests, in which Pad- 
 dington Station, where the train for Windsor starts, 
 takes so prominent a part; the various excursions 
 to the sea and other country places ; the consign- 
 ments of food, from the daily early morning milk 
 in millions of gallons to the occasional tons of 
 water-cress, at Waterloo Station, up from Hamp- 
 shire, and live turtles for aldermanic banquets; the 
 constant daily influx of business men and women in 
 the morning, and their return in the evening;— 
 all the curiosities of travelling, in fact, make the 
 London railway-stations marvellous indications of 
 London life — indications that, if compared with the
 
 174 London. 
 
 list of inns where the stage-coaches started from in 
 1837, will illustrate the almost startling progress of 
 London during the Queen's reign. 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 Education. 
 
 Now that there is a chance of London possessing 
 a teaching university, it may be hoped that there 
 will be still further improvements in this very neces- 
 sary part of London life than that shown during 
 the past few years. It is not possible to give a 
 complete idea of the educational system of a place 
 like London in a single chapter, but a few salient 
 facts are absolutely necessary, and these will be 
 stated as briefly as possible. 
 
 For a long time past, indeed, I suppose one may 
 say ever since the Royal Society was founded by 
 King Charles II., London has been the home of 
 research. The so-called learned societies which 
 now flourish in London apply themselves to every 
 branch of science, history, and art, and on the 
 whole apply themselves well. The meetings of 
 the Royal Society, which were attended by Sir 
 Isaac Newton, Sir Christopher Wren, John Evelyn, 
 and Samuel Pepys when Charles II. was king, 
 are now attended by men whose names have illu- 
 mined the most remarkable period of scientific 
 research which the world has ever seen. Whether 
 societies formed on the voluntary principle assist 
 the good work in the more advanced subjects or in 
 the humbler methods, they are all useful educational 
 institutions, and the continuous meetings for lectures 
 and discussions which take place from November
 
 Education. 175 
 
 to June are a distinct feature of London life, and a 
 feature which is becoming increasingly popular, 
 and which might be made of far greater importance 
 if only the societies would organize their work. 
 
 As the capital of the empire, London is the seat 
 of the principal museums of the nation. The British 
 Museum is known all over the world for its treasures 
 in every department of knowledge, from mere books 
 to anthropology. The South Kensington Museum 
 for Art, the Geological Museum in Jermyn Street, 
 the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, 
 the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, 
 the Tate Gallery, Grosvenor Road, the Wallace 
 Collection, Sir John Soane's Museum and the 
 Hunterian Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and 
 the Guildhall Museum are the principal centres, 
 but it is remarkable and regrettable how little these 
 places are ustd for practical educational purposes. 
 Schools do not make it a part of their duty to teach 
 from the objects themselves; there are few classes 
 held for demonstration on any of the subjects for 
 which the museums contain ample material for 
 teaching, nor can it be said that the museums 
 authorities encourage the educational side of their 
 work. Theoretical education by lectures and class- 
 books is the only accepted method, and practical 
 education from objects collected for the purpose is 
 almost entirely neglected. 
 
 The system of university extension lectures has 
 been carried on in London since 1876 with marked 
 success, and is becoming more and more appre- 
 ciated by those who cannot afford other means of 
 obtaining the results of the best teaching. In 1897 
 upwards of fourteen thousand students attended 
 courses of lectures at about seventy centres. With 
 Sir John Lubbock as president, Professor James 
 Stuart, M.P., as chairman of the Universities Joint 
 Board, and Dr. Kimmins as secretary, an enormous
 
 176 London. 
 
 deal of successful work has been accomplished, and 
 there is something pathetic in the manner in which 
 hard-working men will turn in their evenings to 
 learn something of the knowledge which is outside 
 their ordinary course of life. 
 
 In the meantime the old-fashioned private school 
 has fortunately disappeared. Many of these at the 
 beginning of the Queen's reign were founded by 
 people of little or no training as teachers, too often 
 by those who had failed in other branches of life. 
 It is little short of marvellous that the English 
 people, and above all the Londoner, should have 
 allowed this system to have gone on so long. The 
 high schools for girls, together with the private 
 schools conducted on the same principles by pro- 
 perly-qualified teachers, and the public schools for 
 boys, have done much to waken people to the situa- 
 tion. But a great deal still remains to be done 
 which a proper system of organization would ac- 
 complish. People in London are migratory to an 
 enormous extent. They move from north to south, 
 from south to east, and so on with astonishing 
 rapidity, and if public and private schools would re- 
 cognize this, and endeavour by common agreement 
 to adopt a system of education by which children 
 could pass from one school to another without 
 absolutely breaking the system of education a great 
 gain would be obtained. Even among the public 
 schools there is no common ground, and this might 
 be attained without sacrificing special features. 
 
 The public schools of London have done so 
 much for the sharp, clever London boy that it seems 
 a pity they should be leaving London. Charter- 
 house and King's College have gone, Christ's 
 Hospital is going. And what is to fill their place? 
 It is true that Merchant Taylors', St. Paul's, Uni- 
 versity College, Mercers', City of London, and other 
 schools are enlarging their bounds, and that new
 
 Education. 177 
 
 schools are coming into existence; but there is no 
 justification for a London school, founded by Lon- 
 don men for London boys, deserting the place 
 of its foundation ; and I think the policy will be 
 found in the end unsatisfactory both to the schools 
 and to London. Doctor Abbott and the late Pro- 
 fessor Seeley, two of the best authorities on the 
 subject, had the profoundest respect for the ability 
 of London boys. That the schools should desert 
 these boys just at this moment, when London educa- 
 tion promises to become more thoroughly organized 
 than ever, is not creditable, and it is to be hoped 
 that the new university may eventually be able to 
 propound a scheme of affiliation or organization by 
 which all the great London schools will eventually 
 become parts of a great educational system, the 
 feeding-ground for the future university scholars. 
 
 Next to the public schools are the special schools, 
 of which the London School of Economics is the 
 most important new development, and the poly- 
 technics and technical centres. 
 
 The London School of Economics and Political 
 Science, of which the commercial, economic, and 
 statistical classes receive considerable aid from the 
 Technical Education Board of the London County 
 Council, was founded in 1895 in order to provide 
 instruction of a university type in subjects relating 
 to economic science and commercial organization. 
 The school, which is under the direction of Profes- 
 sor W. A. S. Hewins, has grown with remarkable 
 rapidity, and now provides continuous courses of 
 instruction for two or three years in various branches 
 of economics, in statistics, in railway organization, 
 in palaeography, in local government, and other 
 subjects. The Commercial Education Committee 
 of the London Chamber of Commerce have recently 
 incorporated the commercial curriculum of the 
 school in the syllabus of their examination for the 
 
 ( M 517 ) M
 
 178 London. 
 
 senior commercial certificate, and all the higher 
 commercial subjects required for the examinations 
 of the Institute of Bankers are now taught at the 
 school. 
 
 The polytechnics are the most important centres 
 of technical instruction in London. In 1893 there 
 were only 6 of these institutions at work. There 
 are now n, including the East London Technical 
 College (People's Palace) and the Goldsmiths' In- 
 stitute, New Cross, which are supported, the one 
 chiefly by the Drapers' Company and the other 
 entirely by the Goldsmiths' Company, except for 
 fees and Government grants. The remaining nine 
 institutions are largely dependent upon the Techni- 
 cal Education Board of the London County Council 
 for their maintenance and equipment, the other chief 
 source of support being the Central Governing 
 Body of the City Parochial Charities. Last year the 
 Technical Education Board contributed a sum of 
 ^28, 129 to the polytechnics, while the funds from 
 the Central Governing Body amounted to ^29,650. 
 
 The work of a polytechnic is of an extremely 
 varied character. Within the walls of a single 
 institution theoretical and practical instruction is 
 given in all branches of chemistry and physics from 
 the elementary to the most advanced stages, the 
 laboratories being equipped with apparatus suit- 
 able both for general work and for research work; 
 biology, botany, physiology, zoology, and other 
 branches of natural science are taught on practical 
 lines; thorough courses of training are provided 
 for mechanical and electrical engineers in labora- 
 tories and workshops of the newest type; on the 
 art side not only is teaching given in the ordinary 
 branches of drawing, painting, and modelling, but 
 students are specially trained in the application of 
 design to existing industries ; instruction is provided 
 in foreign languages, literature, and commercial
 
 Education. 179 
 
 subjects, and at most polytechnics there is a special 
 department for the teaching of various branches 
 of domestic economy to girls and women. The 
 two new polytechnics which were opened for full 
 work in 1898 both devote considerable attention to 
 the needs of the building trades. Both the North- 
 ampton Institute in Clerkenwell and the Northern 
 Polytechnic in Holloway Road provide classes in 
 bricklaying and brick-cutting, masonry, carpentry 
 and joinery, painters' and decorators' work, and 
 plumbing. Of the older polytechnics, those at 
 Regent Street and the Borough are specially note- 
 worthy for the success which has attended their 
 trade classes; in both institutions it has always 
 been regarded as of great importance that the 
 workers should be induced to join theoretical classes 
 in addition to the practical classes. At Battersea 
 Polytechnic the trade classes in brickwork, masonry, 
 and plasterers' work form an important feature of 
 the work of the institute; while at the South-West 
 London Polytechnic the classes in plumbing, in 
 painters' and decorators' work, and in electrical 
 engineering, have met with considerable success. 
 
 The greater part of the educational work done 
 in polytechnics is evening work; but most of the 
 polytechnics have now established day classes as 
 well. At Regent Street and the Birkbeck Institu- 
 tion day classes in science, literature, and com- 
 mercial subjects have long been successfully carried 
 on. At Regent Street there are also large day 
 schools for boys and girls, and a school of archi- 
 tecture for young men between sixteen and eighteen 
 years of age. Day schools, mostly organized as 
 schools of science on the lines laid down by the 
 Science and Art Department, have been established 
 at Battersea Polytechnic and theSouth-West London 
 Polytechnic, both being "mixed" schools for the 
 co-education of boys and girls, and during the
 
 180 London. 
 
 year 1898 similar schools for boys only have been 
 opened at the Borough Polytechnic and the Wool- 
 wich Polytechnic, a very successful start having 
 been made in both cases. A further step in the 
 direction of developing the day work at polytechnics 
 has been taken during the last two years by the 
 inauguration of day colleges for young men and 
 young women at the South-West London Poly- 
 technic. Both of these colleges have met with 
 marked success; the college for men numbering 
 94 students, and the college for women, which was 
 only opened this session, already numbering 144 
 students. Day classes on Saturday mornings for 
 teachers, similar in scope and character to those 
 held at University, King's, and Bedford Colleges, 
 have been conducted during the past session at 
 Battersea Polytechnic and the South- West London 
 Polytechnic. 
 
 Technical institutes for specialized industries have 
 also developed considerably under the influence of 
 the Technical Education Board of the London 
 County Council. The Trades Training School in 
 Great Titchfield Street, supported by several of the 
 City Companies, is generally recognized as an 
 excellent example of an institution devoted chiefly 
 to a special form of trade instruction, viz. workshop 
 classes for members of the building trades; while 
 the Leather Trades School in Bethnal Green, sup- 
 ported by the City and Guilds of London Institute, 
 forms a good example of a " monotechnic" institution 
 where instruction is given in one particular craft. 
 
 The Bolt Court Technical School has, since the 
 commencement of the present session, fallen en- 
 tirely under the management of the Technical 
 Education Board. Day classes, giving a complete 
 course of instruction in photo-process work, have 
 been recently opened at the school, and several 
 students are now pursuing a thorough training in
 
 Education. 181 
 
 the various branches of the craft. In addition to 
 the ordinary day and evening classes, arrangements 
 have been made for the delivery of eight special 
 lectures on photo-process work, and on the use of 
 bichromated gelatine. 
 
 The Hackney Technical Institute, in Cassland 
 Road, was opened in 1897, in order to provide trade 
 instruction for members of the building trades. The 
 Herold's Institute at Bermondsey is carried on as a 
 branch of the Borough Polytechnic, and is devoted 
 entirely to specialized instruction in the leather 
 trades. The Shoreditch Municipal Technical School 
 was opened by the Vestry of Shoreditch in 1893, 
 with a view of providing trade instruction for mem- 
 bers of the furniture trade. The St. Bride Foun- 
 dation Institute was opened in 1894 for the benefit 
 of those engaged in various branches of the printing 
 trade. The Westminster Technical Institute in 
 Vincent Square is devoted mainly to the provision 
 of trade instruction for members of the building 
 trades. Classes are conducted in brickwork, ma- 
 sonry, painters' and decorators' work, and plumb- 
 ing. It is one of the few centres in London where 
 trade instruction is given in carriage-building. 
 > In order to meet the requirements of artisans and 
 craftsmen who were engaged in industries for which 
 a knowledge of artistic handicraft is essential, the 
 I Technical Education Board has established special 
 ; schools in which art is taught entirely in its relation 
 to special crafts, and in which the fees are fixed at 
 a sufficiently low figure to enable working-men to 
 attend the classes. The first school of this nature 
 was the Central School of Arts and Crafts, which 
 was opened at 316 Regent Street in November, 
 1896. The instruction given in this school relates 
 in a great measure to those branches of the building 
 trades which are associated with artistic handicraft, 
 the following subjects being taught — architectural
 
 182 London. 
 
 design, shaded drawing for architects, stone work 
 for architects, decorative lead work for architects 
 and plumbers, the mechanics of building, stained- 
 glass work, and cabinet design. A very successful 
 branch has also been established dealing with silver- 
 smiths' work, and with enamelling. The subjects 
 taught in the silversmiths' classes include design- 
 ing, making, engraving, chasing, metal carving, and 
 modelling. Classes are also held in bookbinding, 
 embroidery, heraldic drawing, and woodcuts in 
 colour, besides modelling and general drawing. 
 
 The second school of this type is the Camberwell 
 School of Arts and Crafts, which is conducted 
 under the management of the Board in a new 
 building erected for the Camberwell Vestry, through 
 the liberality of Mr. Passmore Edwards, who gave 
 ^"5000 towards the cost of erection of the building 
 in memory of the late Lord Leighton. 
 
 When the Technical Education Board first dealt 
 with the question of art teaching in London, it 
 decided to utilize for the purpose of technical art 
 instruction as many of the existing art schools as 
 possible, and it recognized eleven of the principal 
 schools of art as "technical art schools", on con- 
 dition that they co-operated with the Board in adapt- 
 ing their teaching to the requirements of the indus- 
 trial branches of art. It was arranged that each of 
 these schools should receive a fixed maintenance 
 grant of ^100 a year in addition to the attendance 
 grants which they might earn under the Board's 
 regulations. The Board has also made equipment 
 grants from time to time when needed. The prin- 
 cipal function of these schools of art is to give a 
 sound general training in the principles of drawing, 
 painting, and designing, and so to train the hand 
 and eye of the student that he or she may be able 
 hereafter to specialize with success in some particular 
 craft. Some of these schools, such as the West-
 
 Education. 183 
 
 minster School of Art, are mainly schools of draw- 
 ing and painting; others, such as the Camden 
 School of Art, combine drawing and painting with 
 a considerable amount of technical work, especially 
 design in black and white. 
 
 The Technical Education Board during the past 
 year (1897-8) decided to make a maintenance grant of 
 ^"iooa year to the Royal Botanic Society's School of 
 Practical Gardening in Regent's Park on condition 
 that free places were given to a certain number of 
 the Board's scholars not exceeding ten. The school 
 was opened in September, 1897. The scheme of 
 work which has been drawn up by the Royal Botanic 
 Society combines thorough practical instruction in 
 all the operations of gardening with theoretical 
 instruction in botany and the nature of soils and 
 manures. The course is arranged so as to extend 
 over three years, although pupils are at liberty to 
 take a shorter (two years') course, if desired. During 
 the first year pupils are engaged in exercises upon 
 the use of tools, and in practice in mowing, rolling, 
 turf-cutting, digging, trenching, and potting; they 
 are also instructed in the best methods of laying- 
 out flower-gardens and kitchen-gardens, and are 
 exercised in bedding-out, elementary budding and 
 grafting, planting, and gathering and storing fruit. 
 When the weather does not permit of out-door work, 
 a course of instruction is provided in the society's 
 hot-houses and greenhouses, where the pupils 
 learn potting and propagating, and in the society's 
 museum, where lectures on botany are given, illus- 
 trated by the numerous specimens that are in the 
 Society's collection. During the second year in- 
 struction is given in the preparation of soils and 
 manures, the choice and growth of shrubs and trees 
 suitable for small or large gardens, the planting 
 and growth of vegetables, rotation of crops, the 
 selection of fruit-trees, wall-fruit growing, storing
 
 184 London. 
 
 and preparing fruit for market, advanced budding, 
 grafting, and pruning. The in-door course com- 
 prises lessons in horticultural building, hot-water 
 heating, advanced propagation, methods of exter- 
 minating insect pests, and in-door growing of fruit 
 and vegetables. The third year's course treats of 
 the special classes of plants, cross-breeding and 
 hybridization, together with landscape-gardening 
 and elementary meteorology. Applications for 
 under-gardeners and head-gardeners are received 
 every year by the secretary of the Society from 
 members of the Royal Botanic Society, who are 
 about 2000 in number, and it is stated by the 
 authorities of the school that there will be little 
 difficulty in finding situations for lads who have 
 been through the course of instruction which the 
 school provides. Three scholars have already been 
 appointed under this scheme by the Technical Edu- 
 cation Board of the County Council, and three more 
 will shortly be appointed. 
 
 In connection with the subject of gardening, refer- 
 ence may be made to the joint action of the Parks 
 and Open Spaces Committee of the London County 
 Council and the Technical Education Board in pro- 
 viding botanic gardens in some of the London parks. 
 As a first step in this direction, Victoria Park, Bat- 
 tersea Park, and Ravenscourt Park have been 
 selected, and it is proposed that beds should be 
 specially prepared for the cultivation in each park 
 of plants belonging to twenty of the most important 
 natural orders, and that arrangements should be 
 made for competent assistants to be present at 
 regular times to give information to students and 
 teachers and to provide specimens for study when- 
 ever this can be done without detriment to the 
 plants. A guide-book is to be prepared, giving 
 full particulars of the exhibits in the special depart- 
 ments of each park, and also calling attention to the
 
 Education. 185 
 
 more interesting trees and shrubs to be found in 
 other parts of the parks. 
 
 Secondary education is the avenue which leads 
 from the elementary schools to all higher instruc- 
 tion, whether of a technical, commercial, or of a 
 university character, and it is in this branch of 
 education that London is now chiefly deficient. 
 In giving evidence before the Special Committee 
 of the Council, appointed in 1890 to inquire into 
 the best means of applying the beer and spirit 
 duties to the purposes of technical education, Sir 
 Henry Roscoe stated that, in his opinion, the 
 gravest defect in the educational system of Lon- 
 don was the paucity of secondary schools and 
 the absence of co-ordination in their work. He 
 considered that the Council could do most good by 
 giving such assistance to some thirty foundation 
 schools in London as would enable them to provide 
 the requisite buildings, apparatus, and staff to teach 
 scientific and technical subjects. The Technical 
 Education Board has set itself to carry out the 
 policy thus recommended. Equipment grants have 
 been given to the schools to enable them to equip 
 efficient laboratories, and maintenance grants have 
 been made towards the provision of teachers in 
 science. As a result of these grants all the public 
 secondary schools for boys which are assisted by 
 the Board and attended by its scholars are now 
 possessed of well-equipped laboratories, except in 
 one case where the erection of a laboratory has been 
 postponed owing to the preparation of a larger 
 scheme. Several girls' schools have also been fur- 
 nished with laboratories and enabled to provide in- 
 struction in practical science and domestic economy. 
 Day schools for boys have been opened during the 
 past year at the Borough Polytechnic and Wool- 
 wich Polytechnic; so that there are now seven 
 polytechnics at which schools of science for day
 
 1 86 
 
 London. 
 
 scholars have been established, four of these having 
 arisen since the Board began its work. Owing to 
 the excellent equipment to be found in the poly- 
 technics, these schools offer special facilities for a 
 practical course in experimental science and manual 
 training. That these schools are appreciated is 
 shown by the rapidity with which they have been 
 filled. An addition to the number of secondary 
 schools has been made this session by the conver- 
 sion of Raine's School at St. George-in-the-East 
 from an elementary school into a secondary school. 
 
 Class of 
 Scholarship. 
 
 Date of 
 
 Election. 
 
 Number of 
 Candidates. 
 
 Scholarships 
 awarded. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Junior County - 
 
 > 
 
 Intermediate J 
 County ) 
 
 Senior County -J 
 
 Dec. 1893, 
 July, 1894, 
 Dec. 1894, 
 July, 1895, 
 Dec. 1895, 
 July, 1896, 
 Dec. 1896, 
 
 July, 1894, 
 July, 1895, 
 July, 1896, 
 
 Oct. 1894, 
 Oct. 1895, 
 Oct. 1896, 
 
 650 
 
 759 
 
 745 
 
 1. 231 
 
 1,106 
 
 1.15 6 
 1,002 
 
 310 
 
 374 
 
 562 
 
 853 
 
 604 
 
 855 
 712 
 
 960 
 1. 133 
 i.3°7 
 2,084 
 1,710 
 2,011 
 1. 714 
 
 130 
 200 
 142 
 225 
 178 
 180 
 *7S 
 
 70 
 IOI 
 
 78 
 
 109 
 
 TOO 
 I20 
 125 
 
 200 
 301 
 220 
 
 334 
 278 
 300 
 300 
 
 6,649 
 
 200 
 334 
 5i9 
 
 4.270 
 
 148 
 231 
 
 353 
 
 10,919 
 
 1,230 
 
 703 
 
 1.933 
 
 348 
 
 565 
 872 
 
 35 
 45 
 45 
 
 15 
 
 25 
 
 25 
 
 50 
 70 
 70 
 
 i.°53 
 
 732 
 
 23 
 34 
 17 
 
 1.785 
 
 125 
 
 65 
 
 190 
 
 38 
 76 
 48 
 
 61 
 
 no 
 
 65 
 
 4 
 4 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 5 
 5 
 5 
 
 162 
 
 74 
 
 236 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 It will be gathered from the foregoing that tech- 
 nical education in London is under the administra- 
 tion of the County Council, the details of which 
 are dealt with by the Technical Education Board 
 appointed by the Council. Thanks greatly to the 
 energy and organization of Mr. Sidney Webb, the
 
 Education. 187 
 
 first chairman of the Technical Education Board, to 
 Dr. Garnett, the organizing secretary, and to the 
 unflagging attention of every member of the Board, 
 much has been done in a very few years. A 
 noticeable feature of the scheme is the awarding of 
 county scholarships. The table on p. 186 is a sum- 
 mary of the number of candidates and the number 
 of county scholars elected up to Lady-day, 1897. 
 
 The following is a summary of scholarships which 
 have been awarded for special subjects up to March, 
 1897-— 
 
 Class of Scholarship. 
 
 Scholarships 
 awarded. 
 
 Domestic Economy ... 
 
 Domestic Economy Training 
 
 Art Scholarships and Exhibitions — 
 
 Evening Art Exhibitions ... 
 
 Artisan Art Scholarships ... 
 
 Schools of Art Scholarships 
 
 Evening Exhibitions in Science and Technology 
 
 Horticultural Scholarships ... 
 
 712 
 
 45 
 
 244 
 56 
 57 
 
 165 
 2 
 
 Special attention has been paid to developing 
 and improving the instruction provided for ap- 
 prentices and journeymen in the principal London 
 industries. Since 1893, when the Board began 
 its work, the number of workshop classes has been 
 greatly increased, there being now within the 
 County 20 well-equipped and efficient centres of 
 practical instruction in various trades, in which 205 
 separate classes of this kind were held during the 
 session 1896-7. 
 
 It is not possible to exaggerate the importance of 
 this branch of educational work. The direct results 
 are noticeable, the indirect results are perhaps as 
 remarkable, for there is now infused into the Lon- 
 don mind for the first time the need and desire for 
 sound education, and this must grow with increas- 
 ing power each year.
 
 1 88 
 
 London. 
 
 I will conclude this inadequate survey of London's 
 education by a few figures showing the condition of 
 the public elementary education which is adminis- 
 tered in London by the London School Board. The 
 report of the Committee of Council on Education 
 gives the following statistics with reference to Board 
 Schools and Voluntary Schools for the Administra- 
 tive County of London, for the year ended Septem- 
 ber, 1895: — 
 
 Class of Schools. 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 Schools. 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 
 Scholars 
 
 on the 
 
 Registers. 
 
 Parlia- 
 mentary 
 grants. 
 
 Cost 
 thrown 
 on local 
 
 rates. 
 
 Total cost 
 (exclusive 
 of capital 
 expendi- 
 ture). 
 
 Other schools receiv- 
 ing aid from the 
 Committee of Coun- 
 cil on Education ... 
 
 Total 
 
 Total for previous 
 year 
 
 433 
 497 
 
 — 
 
 £ 
 
 ^35.777 
 
 £ 
 
 1,454,420 
 
 £ 
 
 2,208,641 
 
 93° 
 923 
 
 7*5.33° 
 698,842 
 
 635.777 
 594.640 
 
 1,454,420 
 1.408,455 
 
 2,208,641 
 2,082,218 
 
 These are large figures, but they ought to be 
 larger if the real needs of London were adequately 
 met. But progress here, as in other directions, is 
 being made, and a few years will probably see all 
 requirements being satisfied. 
 
 Chapter X. 
 London Local Government. 
 
 A short description of the chaos of London Local 
 Government in 1837 was given in the first chapter. 
 Growth has taken place since that date, but chaos 
 still exists. London government is a disgrace to a
 
 London Local Government. 189 
 
 civilized city; and it is so simply because no party 
 in the state will take the question up, as it should 
 be taken up, and settle it upon properly defined 
 principles instead of upon expediency. The act of 
 1888, which made the County of London, was an 
 enormous boon to London, and despite matters 
 of detail which might be improved, is a measure 
 of which any government might be proud. But 
 it has not been followed up. It dealt with only a 
 part of the question. There are two other parts 
 still to be dealt with, namely, the ancient City of 
 London, which rejoices in the unenviable position 
 of an unreformed corporation, and the local areas 
 in the rest of the county. These local areas are 
 marvellous productions. The ancient parishes with 
 their civil powers, the districts formed by the Act 
 of 1855, the poor-law areas, the Local Board of 
 Health, all combine to produce a chaos which is 
 not understood by any member of Her Majesty's 
 government, and certainly not by the ordinary 
 citizen. I cannot, I fear, do more than explain 
 very shortly the various parts of this wonderfully 
 cumbrous and expensive machinery. 
 
 The county area is made up of two distinct units. 
 The first is the City of London within the ancient 
 boundary of the City; the second is the County of 
 London, which is made up of the groups of parishes 
 formerly constituting the Metropolis, as defined by 
 the Metropolis Management Act, 1855. The City 
 area is a municipal area older than the parishes into 
 which it is now divided; the County area is an 
 administrative area made up of the several contigu- 
 ous parishes of which it is formed. 
 
 The affairs of the county area are administered 
 by the London County Council, the City of London 
 Corporation, the Commissioners of Metropolitan 
 Police (whose area extends beyond the county area), 
 the School Board for London, the Metropolitan
 
 190 London. 
 
 Asylums Board (whose area does not extend to the 
 whole county), the Justices in Quarter Sessions, the 
 Home Office with reference to the Metropolitan 
 Police Courts (whose areas do not agree with the 
 county), and the Thames Conservancy (whose area 
 extends from Cricklade to Yantlet Creek). 
 
 The areas of London for the several purposes are 
 given in the table on p. 191. 
 
 For the purposes of the elections for Parliament 
 and for the County Council the county is divided 
 into 58 electoral areas, the boundaries of which do 
 not as a rule conflict with parish or ward boundaries. 
 Each electoral area may be divided into polling 
 districts for the purpose of facilitating the voting. 
 The Justices in Petty Sessions perform this duty 
 for parliamentary elections except where the parlia- 
 mentary borough in which the electoral area is situ- 
 ated is in more than one petty sessional division, 
 in which case the County Council performs the duty. 
 For County Council elections, however, the County 
 Council divides all the electoral areas into polling 
 districts. 
 
 The number of voters for parliamentary elections 
 in 1897 was 574,091, for County Council elections 
 582,538, and for parochial elections (comprising 
 guardian elections and vestry elections) 673,628. 
 Besides these, there are 13,246 parliamentary county 
 electors qualified in respect of property in the ad- 
 ministrative County of London to vote for repre- 
 sentatives of the ancient counties of Middlesex, 
 Surrey, and Kent, and 712,907 School Board voters 
 who are rated householders. 
 
 The county area is also divided into special dis- 
 tricts for certain administrative purposes. There 
 are 12 coroners' districts, 14 police court districts, 
 and 17 petty sessional divisions. There are also 
 county court districts whose areas, however, are 
 understood to be undergoing reconsideration. Be-
 
 London Local Government. 
 
 191 
 
 Name of Area. 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 Inhabited 
 
 houses, 
 
 1896. 
 
 Population, 
 1896. 
 
 Rateable 
 value, 
 
 1896. 
 
 Administrative County of 
 London — 
 City of London 
 
 671 
 
 74,771 
 
 4,572 
 548,547 
 
 31,108 
 4,401,910 
 
 £ 
 
 4,481,860 
 31,342,240 
 
 County of London 
 
 Administrative County of 
 London- 
 Registration County of \ 
 
 Penge (part of registration \ 
 
 Administrative County of Lon- 
 don, comprising portions of 
 the ancient counties of — 
 Middlesex 
 
 75,442 
 
 5S3.U9 
 
 4,433,018 
 
 35,824,100 
 
 74,672 
 770 
 
 549,668 
 3,45i 
 
 4,411,710 
 
 21,308 
 
 35,672,280 
 151,820 
 
 75,442 
 
 553,"9 
 
 4,433,Ol8 
 
 35,824,100 
 
 31,484 
 23,898 
 20,o6o 
 
 322,043 
 
 174,562 
 
 56,514 
 
 2,768,914 
 
 1,303,071 
 361,033 
 
 26,576,086 
 7,390,078 
 1,857,936 
 
 Surrey , 
 
 Kent 
 
 Poor-law area of London (area^j 
 adopted for the administra- 1 
 tion of the Metropolitan j 
 
 London School Board district 
 
 Greater London — 
 Metropolitan Police District — 
 County of London 
 
 75,442 
 
 553,H9 
 
 4,433,Ol8 
 
 35,824,100 
 
 74,672 
 75,442 
 
 549,668 
 
 4,4II,7IO 
 
 35,672,280 
 
 553.H9 
 
 4,433,Ol8 
 
 35,824,100 
 
 74,771 
 149,046 
 
 80,058 
 
 42,516 
 
 60,466 
 
 35,893 
 
 548,547 
 
 4,401,910 
 
 31,342,240 
 
 3,627,650 
 
 2,250,205 
 
 728,649 
 
 2,049,243 
 
 274,956 
 
 County of Middlesex 
 
 County of Surrey (part) 
 
 County of Essex (part) 
 County of Hertfordshire \ 
 
 City Police District 
 
 442,750 
 671 
 
 4,572 
 
 31,108 
 
 40,272,943 
 4,481,860 
 
 Central Criminal Court District 
 
 443,421 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 44,754,8o3 
 
 269, I40 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 —
 
 192 
 
 London. 
 
 sides these there are 64 district surveyors' districts. 
 There are also separate districts for the inspection 
 of weights and measures (13 districts); of common 
 lodging-houses (11 districts); of explosives, petro- 
 leum, and shop hours (5 districts); cow-houses, 
 dairies, and slaughter-houses (6 districts); and con- 
 tagious diseases (animals) (11 districts). 
 
 London is related to the other areas under the 
 administration of the Metropolitan Police Commis- 
 sioners as follows: — 
 
 Areas. 
 
 Acreage 
 
 (net). 
 
 Population, 
 1891. 
 
 Population, 
 1896. 
 
 Rateable 
 value, 1891. 
 
 Rateable 
 value, 1896. 
 
 1 
 
 City of London... 
 County of London 
 County of Mid- ) 
 
 Countyof Surrey ) 
 
 (part of) / 
 
 County Borough ) 
 
 of Croydon .... / 
 County of Kent | 
 
 (Part of) j 
 
 County of Essex ~\ 
 
 (part of) J 
 
 County Borough 1 
 
 of West Ham J 
 County of Herts ) 
 
 (part of) j 
 
 664 
 
 67,492 
 
 143.430 
 63,421 
 
 8,769 
 41.783 
 5L792 
 
 4.423 
 35,049 
 
 37.705 
 
 4, I 94,4i3 
 
 560,012 
 
 193,064 
 
 102,695 
 
 96,746 
 208,776 
 204,903 
 
 35,492 
 
 31,108 
 4,401,910 
 
 £ 
 
 4,084,230 
 28,920,382 
 
 3,259,672 
 
 1,386,145 
 
 636,482 
 
 656,465 
 
 879.855 
 775,180 
 237,696 
 
 £ 
 
 4,481,860 
 31,342,240 
 
 3,627,650 
 1,545,632 
 
 704.573 
 
 728,649 
 
 1,092,596 
 
 956.647 
 274.956 
 
 44.754.8o3 
 
 
 416,833 
 
 5,633,806 
 
 _ 
 
 40,836,107 
 
 There are eight water companies and eight gas 
 companies administering these services in London, 
 and the areas of supply are different in every case 
 from other divisions of the county. No water com- 
 pany supplies both north and south of the Thames, 
 but this distinction does not apply to the gas 
 companies, for the Gas Light and Coke Company 
 supplies districts both north and south of the 
 Thames. The areas of both water and gas com- 
 panies extend beyond the county boundary, and
 
 London Local Government. 193 
 
 they do not in any way coincide with each other. 
 The eight water companies pump 70,000 millions 
 of gallons of water in the year, or an average of 
 about 190 millions per day. More than half of this 
 is drawn from the Thames, about one-fourth from 
 the Lea, and the remaining fourth from springs 
 and wells. The eight gas companies manufacture 
 about 30 million cubic feet of gas in the year, for 
 which over three million tons of coal are used. 
 
 The affairs of the local areas are administered by 
 the following bodies — 
 
 I. Poor-law administration — 
 
 30 Boards of guardians. 
 6 Boards of managers of school districts. 
 2 Boards of managers of sick asylum districts. 
 
 II. Municipal administration — 
 29 Vestries administrative. 
 
 12 District boards. 
 
 1 Local board of health (Woolwich). 
 
 1 Board of paving commissioners (Ely-place). 
 14 Burial boards. 
 
 19 Boards of library commissioners. 
 
 13 Boards of baths and washhouses commis- 
 
 sioners. 
 
 2 Boards of trustees of markets (Whitechapel 
 
 and St. Saviour's, Southwark). 
 
 III. Parish administration — 
 
 44 Vestries non-administrative in the County. 
 no Vestries non - administrative in the City. 
 There is a vestry for each parish in the City; 
 the ancient open vestry has been preserved 
 in the majority of the parishes and the select 
 vestry constituted in a few parishes only. 
 57 " Overseers of the poor" in the County. 
 112 " Overseers of the poor " in the City. 
 
 1 " Directors of the poor" (St. Pancras). 
 
 2 "Guardians of the poor" (Chelsea and 
 
 Lewisham). 
 
 {M517) n
 
 194 London. 
 
 2 "Governors and guardians of the poor" 
 
 (Clerkenwell, Newington). 
 
 3 "Overseers, governors, and directors of the 
 
 poor " (Deptford St. Paul, Deptford St. 
 Nicholas, Greenwich). 
 
 2 "Trustees of the poor" (Hackney, St. George- 
 
 in-the-East). 
 
 3 "Governors and directors of the poor" (Ber- 
 
 mondsey, St. Andrew and St. George, Horse- 
 lydown). 
 
 4 "Trustees and overseers of the poor" (Pop- 
 
 lar, Ratcliff, Whitechapel, Norton Folgate). 
 
 4 Treasurers of inns of court (Gray's Inn, 
 Lincoln's Inn, InnerTemple, Middle Temple). 
 
 i Dean and Chapter of the Close of the Col- 
 legiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster. 
 
 The powers and duties of the authorities engaged 
 in poor-law and municipal administration are well 
 defined, as they are fixed by a series of general 
 acts of parliament. The authorities, other than 
 overseers, engaged in parish administration have 
 been constituted for the most part by local acts 
 passed prior to the general Metropolis Manage- 
 ment Act of 1855, and their powers and duties 
 differ in many respects. The exact position held 
 by the overseers too, varies considerably in the 
 London parishes, their status and duties being 
 defined in many, if not in all, of the parishes 
 by local acts. Generally, however, it may be 
 said that the non-administrative vestries in the 
 County have no duties except what remain to 
 them of the common-law duties of vestries and the 
 selection of representatives on the district board; 
 that the vestries in the City have no duties at all 
 beyond what remains to them of the common-law 
 duties of vestries ; and that the overseers, directors, 
 governors, and guardians of the poor, trustees, &c, 
 are the authorities responsible for the levy and
 
 London Local Government. 195 
 
 collection of rates, the registration of electors, and 
 the preparation of jury lists, though the collection 
 of rates is in the hands of the administrative ves- 
 tries in Bethnal Green, Islington, Kensington, Pad- 
 dington, St. George Hanover Square, St. Luke, 
 St. Margaret and St. John Westminster, and St. 
 Marylebone ; and so far as the vestry rates are 
 concerned in Clerkenwell, St. James Westminster, 
 and St. Marti n-in-the-Fields also. 
 
 The number of local authorities has been dimin- 
 ished since 1894 owing to the transfer of the powers 
 and duties of Library Commissioners, Baths Com- 
 missioners, and Burials Boards in certain parishes 
 to Vestries by orders of the Local Government 
 Board under the Local Government Act, 1894. 
 
 The local areas are not conterminous for all pur- 
 poses, and the intricacies caused by this fact are 
 stated in London Statistics (vol. iv. pp. 589-605) ; 
 while maps showing the local areas appeared in 
 London Statistics (vol. iv. p. 606, and vol. vi. p. 
 632). The boundaries of the wards into which 
 parishes are divided for the purposes of vestry 
 elections and guardian elections are, however, now 
 conterminous. The Metropolis Management Acts 
 provide for the division of parishes into wards for 
 vestry elections, the maximum number being fixed 
 at eight. The London County Council obtained 
 additional powers in its General Powers Act, 1893, 
 to enable it to rearrange wards in parishes already 
 divided into wards, but here again provision is 
 made that the number of wards must not exceed 
 eight. In the Council's General Powers Act, 1895, 
 however, this restriction of the number of wards 
 in a parish to eight has been removed so far as 
 a rearrangement of existing wards is concerned, 
 although it remains in the case of a parish being 
 divided for the first time. Under the Local Govern- 
 ment Act, 1894, the Council had the administrative
 
 196 London. 
 
 duty cast upon it of dividing parishes and unions 
 into wards for guardian elections, without restric- 
 tion as regards number, and all these areas have 
 now been divided accordingly, except the City of 
 London Union. 
 
 The poor-law areas are 30 in number, and they 
 are represented by elected guardians, the details 
 being given on p. 197. 
 
 A few of these areas are united into sick asylum 
 districts for the provision of infirmaries. The 
 Central London Sick Asylum District consists of 
 St. Giles and St. George, Strand Union, and West- 
 minster Union, while the Poplar and Stepney Sick 
 Asylum District consists of the Poplar and Stepney 
 Unions. 
 
 The union of poor-law areas into school districts 
 for the maintenance of pauper children is more 
 general. The City of London and St. Saviour's 
 Unions and the Temples form the Central London 
 School District; the Poplar and Whitechapel 
 Unions form the Forest-gate School District; Ken- 
 sington and Chelsea form the Kensington and 
 Chelsea School District; the Lewisham and Wands- 
 worth and Clapham Unions form the North Surrey 
 School District; Camberwell, with the Greenwich, 
 St. Olave, Stepney, and Woolwich Unions form 
 the South Metropolitan School District; and Pad- 
 dington with the Fulham and St. George's Unions 
 form the West London School District. 
 
 The municipal vestries and district boards are 
 the local sanitary authorities of London. They 
 were constituted by the act of 1855. The Local 
 Government Act of 1894 extended the franchise and 
 produced considerable changes in the constitution 
 of the vestries by the abolition of the property 
 qualification and of the ex officio chairmanship of 
 the vicar. The ex officio members of vestries were, 
 however, retained, and the constitution of the dis-
 
 London Local Government. 
 
 197 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rateable 
 
 Poor-law Area. 
 
 umb( 
 ectoi 
 area 
 
 S-3 " 
 
 Area. 
 
 Population, 
 April, 1896. 
 
 value, 
 
 6th April, 
 
 
 J5 " 
 
 
 
 
 1896. 
 
 Parishes — 
 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 Bethnal Green 
 
 4 
 
 24 
 
 755 
 
 129,162 
 
 450,625 
 
 Camberwell ... 
 
 8 
 
 30 
 
 4.45o 
 
 253,076 
 
 1,143,248 
 
 Chelsea 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 794 
 
 96,646 
 
 779,696 
 
 Hampstead ... 
 
 5 
 
 18 
 
 2,248 
 
 75,449 
 
 786,908 
 
 Islington 
 
 11 
 
 30 
 
 3.109 
 
 336,764 
 
 1,770,738 
 
 Kensington ... 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 2,188 
 
 170,465 
 
 2,071,225 
 
 Lambeth 
 
 8 
 
 30 
 
 3.941 
 
 295,033 
 
 1,671,172 
 
 Mile End Old Town 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 677 
 
 111,060 
 
 399,458 
 
 Paddington ... 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 1,256 
 
 124,506 
 
 1,332,028 
 
 St. George-in-the-East 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 244 
 
 47,506 
 
 196,076 
 
 St. Giles and St. ) 
 George ... .. \ 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 244 
 
 38,237 
 
 426,443 
 
 St. Marylebone 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 1,506 
 
 141,188 
 
 1,601,865 
 
 St. Pancras ... 
 
 8 
 
 30 
 
 2,672 
 
 240,764 
 
 1,648,134 
 
 Shoreditch ... 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 648 
 
 122,358 
 
 691,429 
 
 Unions — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fulham 
 
 H 
 
 24 
 
 3,987 
 
 217,980 
 
 1,147,382 
 
 Greenwich ... 
 
 11 
 
 24 
 
 3.425 
 
 175,774 
 
 906,049 
 
 Hackney 
 
 13 
 
 30 
 
 3,937 
 
 246,529 
 
 1,263,155 
 
 Holborn 
 
 14 
 
 30 
 
 791 
 
 138,488 
 
 1,157,321 
 
 Lewisham 
 
 13 
 
 24 
 
 io,793 
 
 105,873 
 
 727,892 
 
 Poplar 
 
 11 
 
 24 
 
 2,333 
 
 169,267 
 
 739,484 
 
 St. George's 
 
 '3 
 
 30 
 
 1,940 
 
 133,556 
 
 2,853,650 
 
 St. Olave's 
 
 4 
 
 24 
 
 1,506 
 
 137,585 
 
 843.909 
 
 St. Saviour's... 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 
 1,119 
 
 206,582 
 
 1,129,801 
 
 Stepney 
 
 6 
 
 18 
 
 465 
 
 58,305 
 
 303,445 
 
 Strand 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 399 
 
 24,811 
 
 1,035,663 
 
 Wandsworth and ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Clapham ... .. ) 
 
 16 
 
 30 
 
 ",454 
 
 35 2 .379 
 
 2,108,499 
 
 Westminster... 
 
 5 
 
 18 
 
 216 
 
 35.098 
 
 963,014 
 
 Whitechapel... 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 358 
 
 77,757 
 
 429,400 
 
 Woolwich 
 
 16 
 
 25 
 
 6,500 
 
 116,494 
 
 565,624 
 
 City of London 
 
 Totals for area under ~| 
 Poor Law authorities / 
 
 81 
 
 94 
 
 659 
 
 31,563 
 
 4,455,740 
 
 334 
 
 816 
 
 74,6i4 
 
 4,4 IO ,255 
 
 35,599,073 
 
 trict boards was practically left unaltered. The 
 following table gives the existing representation 
 and other information in respect of vestries and 
 district boards: —
 
 
 
 Number of re- 
 
 
 
 
 Local Sanitary Area. 
 
 O V 
 
 = 2 
 
 presentatives. 
 
 Area. 
 
 Population, 
 April, 1896. 
 
 Rateable 
 
 value, 
 
 6th April, 
 
 1896. 
 
 
 Elected 
 repre- 
 senta- 
 
 
 %i 
 
 ^ s 
 
 tives. 
 
 
 
 
 Parishes — 
 
 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 Battersea 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 I20 
 
 2,169 
 
 l65,"5 
 
 868,611 
 
 Bermondsey 
 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 I20 
 
 627 
 
 85,475 
 
 416,581 
 
 Bethnal Green... 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 57 
 
 755 
 
 129,162 
 
 450,625 
 
 Camberwell 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 120 
 
 4,45o 
 
 253,076 
 
 1,143,248 
 
 Chelsea 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 60 
 
 794 
 
 96,646 
 
 779,696 
 
 Clerkenwell 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 72 
 
 380 
 
 66,202 
 
 393,9to 
 
 Fulham 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 72 
 
 1,701 
 
 113,781 
 
 560,965 
 
 Hackney 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 120 
 
 3.299 
 
 213,044 
 
 1,054,504 
 
 Hammersmith ... 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 72 
 
 2,286 
 
 104,199 
 
 586,417 
 
 Hampstead 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 72 
 
 2,248 
 
 75,449 
 
 786,908 
 
 Islington 
 
 ii 
 
 i 
 
 120 
 
 3,109 
 
 336,764 
 
 i,77o,738 
 
 Kensington 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 120 
 
 2,188 
 
 170,465 
 
 2,071,225 
 
 Lambeth 
 
 8 
 
 i 
 
 120 
 
 3,94i 
 
 295,033 
 
 1,671,172 
 
 Mile End Old Town ... 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 90 
 
 677 
 
 111,060 
 
 399,458 
 
 Newington 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 72 
 
 631 
 
 120,939 
 
 491,901 
 
 Paddington 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 72 
 
 1,256 
 
 124,506 
 
 1,332,028 
 
 Plumstead 
 
 8 
 
 i 
 
 96 
 
 3,388 
 
 59,252 
 
 200,127 
 
 Rotherhithe 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 24 
 
 754 
 
 40,379 
 
 216,469 
 
 St. George-in-the-East 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 36 
 
 244 
 
 47,5o6 
 
 196,076 
 
 St. George, Hanover Sq. 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 120 
 
 1,117 
 
 79,967 
 
 1,981,652 
 
 St. George-the-Martyr 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 48 
 
 284 
 
 60,278 
 
 286,302 
 
 St. James, Westminster 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 48 
 
 163 
 
 23,050 
 
 801,105 
 
 St. Luke 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 60 
 
 237 
 
 41,527 
 
 347,192 
 
 St. Margaret and St. John 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 96 
 
 813 
 
 53,234 
 
 868,031 
 
 St. Martin-in-the-Fields 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 36 
 
 286 
 
 13,077 
 
 569,315 
 
 St. Marylebone 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 120 
 
 1,506 
 
 141,188 
 
 1,601,865 
 
 St. Pancras 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 120 
 
 2,672 
 
 240,764 
 
 1,648,134 
 
 Shoreditch 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 120 
 
 648 
 
 122,358 
 
 691,429 
 
 Stoke Newington 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 60 
 
 638 
 
 33,485 
 
 208,651 
 
 Local Board — Woolwich 
 
 i 
 
 
 21 
 
 1,126 
 
 4i>3!4 
 
 270,818 
 
 Districts — Greenwich 
 
 ii 
 
 — 
 
 99 
 
 3,425 
 
 175,774 
 
 906,049 
 
 Holborn 
 
 5 
 
 — 
 
 49 
 
 168 
 
 31,273 
 
 411,246 
 
 Lee 
 
 7 
 
 — 
 
 39 
 
 7,006 
 
 38,588 
 
 283,044 
 
 Lewisham 
 
 9 
 
 — 
 
 48 
 
 6,543 
 
 104,521 
 
 691,347 
 
 Limehouse 
 
 6 
 
 — 
 
 39 
 
 465 
 
 58,305 
 
 303,445 
 
 Poplar ... 
 
 ii 
 
 — 
 
 60 
 
 2,333 
 
 169,267 
 
 739,484 
 
 St. Giles 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 48 
 
 244 
 
 38,237 
 
 426,443 
 
 St. Olave's 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 28 
 
 125 
 
 n,73i 
 
 210,859 
 
 St. Saviour's 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 39 
 
 204 
 
 25,365 
 
 351,598 
 
 Strand ... 
 
 6 
 
 — 
 
 49 
 
 166 
 
 23,782 
 
 628,257 
 
 Wandsworth ... 
 
 i3 
 
 — 
 
 63 
 
 9,285 
 
 187,264 
 
 1,239,888 
 
 Whitechapel 
 Totals for area under ves- ) 
 
 8 
 
 — 
 
 58 
 
 358 
 
 77,757 
 
 429,400 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tries and district boards ) 
 
 
 90 
 
 3.103 
 
 74,709 
 
 4,400,159 
 
 31,286,213
 
 London Local Government. 
 
 199 
 
 The vestries and district boards are the local 
 authorities for electric lighting, but only six of these 
 bodies have at present taken up this duty. In all 
 other cases the duty is performed by the private 
 companies, of which there are twelve in the County 
 of London. The local authorities have 70,000 lamps, 
 and supply 1^ millions of units in the year (1895), 
 while the companies supply over one million lamps 
 and nearly nine millions of units in the year. 
 
 The local unit of rating is the parish. Of these 
 there are 1 14 in the City of London, and 77 in the 
 County of London, including 4 so-called extra- 
 parochial places in the City and 6 in the County 
 which are technically parishes inasmuch as they 
 levy a separate poor-rate. There is also the Tower 
 of London, which holds a unique position; the 
 Government make a contribution to the White- 
 chapel District Board in lieu of general and sewer 
 rates on a basis of ^4000 in respect of the Tower, 
 but no poor-rate is raised, and the Tower is not 
 inserted in the County of London Valuation List. 
 
 The difference between the several parishes is 
 best shown by the statistics of the largest and 
 smallest in area and in population, thus — 
 
 
 Name of Parish. 
 
 Area in 
 
 Inhabited 
 houses, 
 
 Popula- 
 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 1896. 
 
 tion, 1896. 
 
 County of London — 
 
 
 
 
 
 Largest parishes, 
 
 Lewisham 
 
 5-773 
 
 i4.4 r 7 
 
 83.213 
 
 
 Islington, ... 
 
 3,109 
 
 3 8 .369 
 
 33 6 .764 
 
 Smallest parishes, 
 
 Old Artillery Ground, 
 
 s 
 
 139 
 
 2,143 
 
 
 Rolls, 
 
 II 
 
 50 
 
 287 
 
 
 Staple Inn, 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 City of London — 
 
 
 
 
 
 Largest parishes, 
 
 St. Botolph Without 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bishopsgate, 
 
 44"5 
 
 256 
 
 1.744 
 
 
 St. Botolph Without 
 
 
 
 
 
 Aldgate 
 
 387 
 
 529 
 
 5.!26 
 
 Smallest parishes, 
 
 St. John -the -Evan- 
 
 
 
 
 
 gelist 
 
 •8 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 
 Barnard's Inn, 
 
 ■6 
 
 2 
 
 S 
 
 
 St. Mary, Mounthaw, 
 
 i"o 
 
 3 
 
 14
 
 200 London. 
 
 There is, however, an interesting difference in the 
 constitution of the parish within the City and with- 
 out the City. The municipal boundary of the City 
 is the controlling element in the City area, the 
 parishes being simply ecclesiastical divisions of 
 that area, which have in course of years assumed 
 some of the functions of civil local authorities. They 
 are extremely minute in many cases, and do not 
 perform any functions of great importance to the 
 community, while their legal position causes con- 
 siderable administrative inconveniences. They have 
 no relationship to the municipal wards, and their 
 only electoral importance is in relation to the Board 
 of Guardians. Some particulars are given in Lon- 
 don Statistics, vol. v. pp. 369-401, of the area, 
 population, and expenditure of these units, which 
 are instances of a minute subdivision, for purposes 
 no longer of any moment, and which, though re- 
 maining as an element of cost and complexity, 
 cannot apparently be utilized in the future for other 
 purposes. The parish has become a curiosity of 
 local government in London. Two examples may 
 be given. The parish of St. Christopher le Stocks 
 is now almost entirely occupied by the Bank of 
 England. The church of this parish was pulled 
 down in 1781, but the churchyard remained and 
 became the "garden" of the Bank. But though 
 church and parishioners have disappeared, the 
 parish remains and has all the administrative 
 powers of that institution. This, however, is not 
 the only relic of old institutions. The unique dis- 
 trict of Ely Place, Holborn, an extra parochial 
 jurisdiction of the Bishops of Ely when they had 
 an episcopal residence in London, and to which 
 Shakespeare alludes in a well-known passage in 
 Richard III., still possesses its commissioners of 
 paving, still appoints its watchman, the lineal suc- 
 cessor of ancient "Charley", who cries the hours
 
 London Local Government. 201 
 
 four times a day, and whose presence prevents any- 
 ordinary policeman having jurisdiction within the 
 ''liberty". The chapel, dedicated to St. Etheldreda, 
 is all that remains of the ancient episcopal palace, 
 and this is now a Roman Catholic church, having 
 been recovered by the ancient church a few years 
 ago. This is as it should be, but the ancient juris- 
 diction is one of the many anomalous blots upon 
 the government of London. 
 
 Outside the City the boundary of the County is 
 formed by the ancient civil parishes included within 
 the County area, and the ecclesiastical parishes 
 carved out of the older parishes have no power in 
 civil matters. Under 6 and 7 Vict., cap. xxxvii., 
 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have the power of 
 constituting parts of ancient parishes into ecclesias- 
 tical districts or parishes. Like all English adminis- 
 trative work, this operation has been accomplished 
 without regard to the possibilities of the case in 
 directions other than that immediately in hand. It 
 happens, for example, that the ecclesiastical parish 
 is made a unit for statistics under the census, and 
 it is easy to see how valuable these statistics would 
 have been if the units were grouped conterminously 
 within the area of the ancient parishes. For some 
 purposes a small unit of statistics is absolutely 
 necessary, and the ecclesiastical parish could easily 
 have been constituted that unit if, at the time of its 
 formation, all the facts of the case had been duly 
 considered. The existing state of things is shown 
 in the table on p. 202. 
 
 I will sum up this condition of things by attempt- 
 ing to explain the position of the much-governed 
 Londoner. There is first his ecclesiastical parish, 
 which probably administers a voluntary school and 
 appropriates taxation for the purpose. There is 
 next the overseers of his civil parish, who perform 
 various minor duties and charge the parish rates
 
 202 
 
 London. 
 
 Ecclesiastical parishes or districts. 
 
 Conflicting with ancient parishes 
 
 Conflicting with County — 
 
 Greater part inside ... 3 
 
 Greater part outside ... ... ... 8 
 
 Conflicting with both County and City 
 
 Co-extensive with ancient parishes ... ... 
 
 Not conflicting with, but forming parts of, ancient 
 
 parishes ... ... ... ... ••• ••• 
 
 Constituted by grouping more than one ancient 
 
 parish (of which eighty-nine in all are grouped) 
 
 Total, 
 
 Reputed to be extra-parochial places for ecclesias- 
 tical purposes 
 
 County of 
 London. 
 
 City of 
 London. 
 
 61 
 
 2 
 
 ii 
 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 452 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 34 
 
 536 
 
 56 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 therewith. Next, there are several other bodies, 
 trustees of parochial charities, burial board, baths 
 commissioners, library commissioners, who perform 
 their specified duties and sometimes charge the 
 parish rates. Then there is the civil vestry whose 
 duties are very slight, but who nevertheless have 
 also a charge upon the parish rates. Then there is 
 the poor-law union, who look after the poor and 
 charge the rates therefor; the district board who 
 attend to sanitary and other matters and charge the 
 rates therefor. There are other districts, too, for 
 schools and asylums, which have administrative 
 duties and impose charges upon the rates. And 
 then there are the asylums board, the school board, 
 the county council, which administer county services 
 and charge the rates therewith. Beyond these again 
 there are the police commissioners who control the 
 police for a large area in which London is included, 
 and for which again the Londoner is charged with 
 rates. Eight water companies have the privilege of 
 taxing water consumers without any representation
 
 Local Taxation. 203 
 
 of the consumers, and eight gas companies have the 
 same privilege. Altogether the Londoner must 
 study hard and spend much time if he wishes to 
 examine into the responsibilities of his governors. 
 
 It would have been advisable if I could have 
 given some conception of the classification of duties 
 devolving upon these various authorities, but the 
 task would be too heavy for so small a volume. But 
 a note of warning is necessary. Much is being said 
 now about transfer of duties from central to local 
 authorities. If this is done upon some recognized 
 principle, so that political expediency does not com- 
 mand the whole matter, good results will follow. But 
 the subject is not at present being dealt with in this 
 manner. It is being talked of and not considered; 
 it is being desired for political purposes, and not 
 always in the interests of good local government. 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 Local Taxation. 
 
 The primary fact which governs the amount of 
 local taxation is the expenditure of local govern- 
 ment authorities. In London this expenditure is 
 incurred by 4 county authorities, 16 district autho- 
 rities, 17 union authorities, 34 special district au- 
 thorities, and 331 parish authorities. The total 
 expenditure incurred in London in 1895-96 by these 
 several authorities was as follows: — 
 
 1. County Authorities — £ £ 
 
 London County Council 2,206,651 
 
 School Board for London 2 >337) I 56 
 
 Metropolitan Asylums Board 451, 292 
 
 „ Police 1,485,197 
 
 6,480,296
 
 204 
 
 London. 
 
 2. District Authorities — £ 
 
 City of London Corporation 789,434 
 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 263,330 
 
 District Boards (12) 555,226 
 
 Library Commissioners (2) 2,684 
 
 3. Union Authorities — 
 
 Boards of Guardians (17) 
 
 4. Special District Authorities — ■ 
 
 Sick Asylum District Managers (2)... 32,589 
 
 School District Managers (6) 122,432 
 
 Library Commissioners (1) 2,57° 
 
 Wards of the City of London (25).... 6,931 
 
 5. Parish Authorities — 
 
 Vestries (29) and I Local Board 1,938,641 
 
 Boards of Guardians (14) 1,163,851 
 
 Overseers or bodies acting as over- 
 seers (192) 200,149 
 
 Library Commissioners (27) 59> x 35 
 
 Baths Commissioners (29) I 37>°93 
 
 Burial Boards (29) 55,523 
 
 Market Trustees (1) 8,076 
 
 Churchwardens (9) 9>899 
 
 Total expenditure which governs 1 
 the amount of local taxation . . . / 
 
 1,610,674 
 1,318,275 
 
 164,522 
 
 3,572,367 
 13, '46, 134 
 
 This expenditure is for the following purposes: — 
 
 Purpose. 
 
 Maintenance of 
 the poor in 
 workhouses, &c. 
 
 Maintenance ofl 
 the poor (out- 
 door) J 
 
 Maintenance 
 lunatics 
 
 of 
 
 Local Authority incurring 
 Expenditure. 
 
 Metropolitan Asylums Board 
 
 Boards of Guardians 
 
 Sick Asylum District Managers 
 School District Managers... 
 
 Boards of Guardians 
 
 London County Council 
 
 City of London Corporation 
 Boards of Guardians 
 
 Amount. 
 
 £ 
 
 342,993 
 
 1,549,332 
 
 27,05c 
 
 90,287 
 
 2,009,662 
 
 — 261,069 
 
 59,469 
 2,464 
 360,410 
 422,343
 
 Local Taxation. 
 
 205 
 
 Purpose. 
 
 Education 
 
 Roads, dust re- 
 moval, bridges, 
 embankments, 
 &c. 
 
 Sewerage and 
 drainage 
 
 Local Authority incurring 
 Expenditure. 
 
 London County Council 
 
 School Board for London 
 
 City of London Corporation . 
 Vestries 
 
 London County Council 
 
 City of London Corporation. 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 
 Vestries and District Boards. 
 
 London County Council 
 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 
 Vestries and District Boards.. 
 
 Amount. 
 
 £ 
 
 76,560 
 
 1,851,704 
 
 63,426 
 
 495 
 
 1,992,185 
 
 38,124 
 
 26,635 
 
 94,562 
 
 1,377,600 
 
 1,536,921 
 
 185,065 
 
 17,252 
 
 185,368 
 
 
 
 
 387,685 
 
 Public health 
 
 London County Council 
 
 City of London Corporation.. 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 
 Vestries and District Boards.. 
 
 20,696 
 13,201 
 
 7,947 
 
 80,310 
 
 no 
 
 
 
 
 122,264 
 
 
 
 Lighting: 
 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 
 Vestries and District Boards.. 
 Overseers 
 
 21,906 
 
 253,595 
 189 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 275,690 
 
 
 
 Police and magis- 
 tracy 
 
 Metropolitan Police 
 
 98,260 
 
 1,413,767 
 185,982 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 City of London Corporation.. 
 
 ,698,009 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 153,827 
 
 Parks, gardens, 
 and open spaces 
 
 City of London Corporation.. 
 Vestries and District Boards.. 
 Overseers 
 
 107,042 
 
 10,032 
 
 17,522 
 
 605 
 
 477 
 
 
 
 Churchwardens 
 
 
 
 
 135,678 
 

 
 206 
 
 London. 
 
 Purpose. 
 
 Other ordinary 
 services 
 
 Loans for all \ 
 services / 
 
 Establishment "i 
 for all services | 
 where not separ- 
 ately charged 
 
 Special services 
 
 ! 
 
 Local Authority incurring 
 Expenditure. 
 
 London County Council 
 
 Metropolitan Police 
 
 City of London Corporation.. 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 
 Vestries and District Boards.. 
 
 Boards of Guardians 
 
 Overseers 
 
 London County Council 
 
 Metropolitan Police 
 
 City of London Corporation. . 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 
 Vestries and District Boards.. 
 
 Library Commissioners 
 
 Boards of Guardians 
 
 Wards of City of London 
 
 Overseers 
 
 Baths Commissioners 
 
 Burial Boards 
 
 Market Trustees 
 
 Churchwardens 
 
 Amount. 
 
 £ 
 82,412 
 29,282 
 146 
 
 8,331 
 27,736 
 
 4i,453 
 64,186 
 
 253,546 
 2,815,018 
 
 660,591 
 
 6,695 
 
 23,789 
 151,780 
 
 5,631 
 25,979 
 50,815 
 
 2,536 
 
 6,93i 
 
 4,625 
 
 85,885 
 
 40,517 
 7,041 
 9,422 
 
 421,646 
 13,146,134 
 
 This total expenditure (,£13,146,134) does not 
 fall wholly upon taxation. A portion of it is met 
 by certain receipts-in-aid, and a portion is defrayed 
 out of revenue from municipal property. Taxation 
 is therefore relieved by the amount of these two 
 items of receipt. They amount to £\, 31 1,744, an d 
 this being deducted, leaves the net expenditure to be 
 met by taxation at ^"11,834,390. 
 
 The taxation to meet this expenditure is divided
 
 Local Taxation. 207 
 
 into three classes. First, there is an amount appro- 
 priated to local taxation from imperial taxes, which 
 amount is applied to local expenditure before such 
 expenditure is sent down upon local taxation proper; 
 secondly, there are certain indirect local taxes levied 
 independently of what the local expenditure may 
 be, and applied to such expenditure before it is sent 
 down upon direct taxation; and thirdly, there is the 
 final balance of expenditure left over after these 
 operations, which is the measure of the direct tax- 
 ation. The amount of this direct taxation is there- 
 fore, as a matter of fact, determined by the amount 
 of expenditure thus left over. Of the three divisions 
 of local taxation, the first, appropriations from im- 
 perial taxes, and the second, local indirect taxation, 
 are fixed according to rules, independent of muni- 
 cipal expenditure, that is, upon rules sanctioned by 
 Parliament and not determined by the local autho- 
 rities; while the third division only, direct taxation, 
 is governed by the amount of municipal expenditure, 
 and is under the control of local authorities. The 
 total taxation is a measure of the municipal expendi- 
 ture, but direct taxation alone bears the pressure of 
 increased or receives the benefit of decreased muni- 
 cipal expenditure. 
 
 In the year 1895-96 the local expenditure in 
 London was met by each of the three classes of 
 taxation as follows : — 
 
 A. Appropriations from Itnperial taxes — £ £ 
 
 London County Council 526,161 
 
 School Board for London 650,224 
 
 Metropolitan Police 616,347 
 
 i>792,732 
 
 Indirect local taxation— 
 
 County taxation: £ 
 
 London County Council 76,219 
 
 Metropolitan Police 28,815 
 
 City of London Corporation — 1 34, 282 
 
 239,316
 
 208 London. 
 
 District taxation: £ £ £ 
 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 8,117 
 
 District Boards 208 
 
 8,325 
 Special district taxation: 
 
 Market Trustees 1,703 
 
 Parish taxation: 
 
 Vestries and Local Board I »793 
 
 Overseers 9,55 x 
 
 Burial Boards 37,57 s 
 
 48,922 
 
 C. Direct local taxation — 
 
 County rating: 
 
 London County Council 2,952,322 
 
 School Board for London 1,631,612 
 
 Metropolitan Asylums Board... 422,982 
 
 Metropolitan Police 625,072 
 
 Local Government Board 1,174,680 
 
 6,806,668 
 
 District rating: 
 
 City of London Corporation — 78,848 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 252,877 
 
 District Boards 337,996 
 
 Library Commissioners 2,494 
 
 672,215 
 
 Union rating: 
 
 Boards of Guardians 451,503 
 
 Special district rating: 
 
 Sick Asylum District Managers 31,085 
 
 School District Managers 120,965 
 
 Library Commissioners 2,658 
 
 Wards of the City 6,965 
 
 298,266 
 
 Parish rating: 
 
 Vestries and Local Board 1,060,645 
 
 Boards of Guardians 371,706 
 
 Overseers 225,556 
 
 Library Commissioners 53,479 
 
 Baths Commissioners 78,023 
 
 Burial Boards I2 >755 
 
 Churchwardens 10,452 
 
 161,673 
 
 ,812,616 
 
 ■ 9,904,675 
 
 Total local taxation ;£» 1,995,673 
 
 The appropriations from imperial taxes involve a 
 very complicated machinery and very complicated
 
 .Local Taxation. 
 
 209 
 
 system of taxation which would be too technical and 
 too long to describe in this volume. 
 
 I next come to the indirect local taxation. This 
 consists of several items, of which the following are 
 the distinguishing kinds: — 
 
 5- 
 
 9- 
 
 10. 
 
 n. 
 
 12. 
 
 J 3- 
 14. 
 
 15- 
 
 Licenses, duties, &c, collected in the area of the"j 
 county by the Inland Revenue Commissioners, and V 
 handed over to the London County Council J 
 
 Tax upon fire insurance companies at ^35 per" 
 million of insurance effected in the County of 
 London, collected by and applied by the London 
 County Council 
 
 Licenses for petroleum, explosives, cow-houses,^ 
 slaughter-houses, locomotives, theatres, and sky- 
 signs, fees in respect of dangerous structures and 
 Building Act, collected by and applied by the 
 London County Council 
 
 Licenses for explosives and sky-signs, collected and 
 applied by the City Commissioners of Sewers 
 (dangerous structures are not separately stated, and 
 cannot therefore be given) 
 
 Licenses for petroleum and locomotives, collected) 
 and applied by the City of London Corporation ... J 
 
 Fees payable for stamping weights and measures, "j 
 collected and applied by the London County V 
 Council J 
 
 The same, collected and applied by the City Com-) 
 missioners of Sewers / 
 
 Licenses for public carriages, collected and applied ) 
 by the Metropolitan police j 
 
 Fees payable for certificates to pedlars and chimney- ~| 
 sweeps, collected and applied by the Metropolitan I 
 police J 
 
 Licenses for advertisement hoardings, collected and~j 
 applied by vestries and district boards and by the J- 
 City Commissioners of Sewers J 
 
 Market dues and tolls, collected and applied by the ) 
 City of London Corporation j 
 
 The same, collected and applied by the Woolwich) 
 Local Board, and the market trustees of White- 5- 
 chapel and St. Saviour J 
 
 Grain duty and fruit metage, collected and applied ) 
 by the City of London Corporation / 
 
 Fees from canal boats, collected and applied by the) 
 City of London Corporation j" 
 
 Burial fees, collected and applied by the vestries,) 
 burial boards, and City Commissioners of Sewers. J 
 
 ( M 517 ) 
 
 £ 
 
 438,644 
 
 29,635 
 
 41,777 
 
 32 
 4,807 
 
 747 
 28,616 
 
 199 
 
 1,229 
 110,158 
 
 9,i39 
 
 18,051 
 
 2 
 
 47,832 
 o
 
 210 London. 
 
 16. Fees received from the City of London Court over' 
 and above the cost of maintaining the court and 
 of salaries of judges and staff, collected and applied 
 by the City of London Corporation 
 
 £ 
 
 6,039 
 
 An important point to note in connection with 
 this indirect taxation is that the area of taxation is 
 not in all cases coincident with the area of admini- 
 stration. Thus the Metropolitan police levy and 
 receive the license fees for hackney-carriages in the 
 City of London, though they have no police juris- 
 diction within the City; and although the levy ex- 
 tends throughout the entire area of greater London, 
 it is nearly certain that the greater part of the amount 
 is levied within the City and County of London, the 
 result being an injustice to London, namely, that 
 London taxation is not wholly applied to London 
 matters. Secondly, there is the indirect taxation 
 by way of grain duty and market tolls levied and 
 applied by the City of London Corporation. The 
 area of this taxation is far beyond the City boundary, 
 to some extent beyond the County boundary. In 
 respect of the grain duty, the City Corporation are 
 bound by Act of Parliament to apply it to open 
 spaces outside the area of the County, but presum- 
 ably for the benefit of Londoners primarily, although 
 the anomaly is not quite explained by the benefit 
 which Londoners are supposed to receive from 
 Epping Forest, Burnham Beeches, West Wickham 
 Common, and other places. In respect of market 
 tolls and duties the Corporation apply taxation 
 derived from the County to purposes belonging to 
 the City. This fact is of some importance, consider- 
 ing the frequent complaints of the City that they pay 
 too much towards equalizing the rates of the rest of 
 London. Thirdly, there are the market dues and 
 tolls levied by the local markets of Southwark, 
 Whitechapel, and Woolwich. These taxes are paid 
 by the consumers of an area much larger than the
 
 Local Taxation. 
 
 211 
 
 parishes, though they are applied to the benefit of 
 the parishes only. These are anomalies which 
 generally are not considered in connection with 
 
 Authorities. 
 
 Expenditure 
 Incurred. 
 
 Balances. 
 
 Net Charge 
 on Taxation 
 
 after 
 Accounting 
 
 for 
 Balances. 
 
 Increased 
 
 and 
 added to 
 Expendi- 
 ture. 
 
 Decreased 
 and 
 
 deducted 
 from Ex- 
 penditure. 
 
 i. County Authorities — 
 London County Council 
 School Board for London.... 
 Metropolitan Asylums Board 
 Metropolitan police 
 
 £ 
 
 2,042,169 
 
 2.330.432 
 
 448,465 
 
 1. 273.717 
 
 257.971 
 
 243-783 
 
 503.358 
 
 2,571 
 
 1,284,724 
 
 32,473 
 
 120,928 
 
 2,496 
 
 6,931 
 
 1,785,640 
 
 1,133.498 
 
 178,209 
 
 54.193 
 71.330 
 
 49,121 
 
 2,483 
 9,898 
 
 £ 
 117,802 
 
 24,579 
 24, 148 
 
 51.184 
 
 37 
 162 
 
 34 
 
 34,081 
 69,410 
 
 6,693 
 1,212 
 
 554 
 
 £ 
 
 48,596 
 
 29,900 
 
 3.483 
 
 44.395 
 
 77 
 
 1,388 
 
 39.28o 
 
 714 
 780 
 
 £ 
 
 2,159,971 
 
 2,281,836 
 
 418,565 
 
 1,270,234 
 
 213,576 
 268,362 
 
 5 2 7,5° 6 
 2,494 
 
 i.335,9o8 
 
 31.085 
 
 120,965 
 
 2,658 
 
 6.965 
 
 1,746,360 
 1,167,579 
 
 247,619 
 
 53-479 
 78,023 
 
 5o,333 
 
 1,703 
 
 10,452 
 
 2. District A uthorities — 
 City of London Corporation. 
 City Commissioners of Sewers 
 District boards 
 
 3. Union Authorities — 
 Boards of guardians 
 
 4. Special District Authori- 
 ties — 
 Sick asylum district managers 
 School district managers 
 
 Wards of the city 
 
 5. Parish Authorities — 
 
 Vestries and local board 
 
 Boards of guardians 
 
 Overseers, or bodies acting) 
 
 as overseers J 
 
 Library commissioners 
 
 
 Burial boards 
 
 Market trustees 
 
 Churchwardens 
 
 
 11,834,390 
 
 329,896 
 
 168,613 
 
 II .995- 6 73 
 
 
 London taxation, but they are nevertheless of some 
 importance when London taxation is being scien- 
 tifically examined.
 
 212 London. 
 
 Finally, I come to direct local taxation. This 
 amounted, as I have already stated, to ,£9,904,675, 
 and is imposed by five different classes of authori- 
 ties, namely, county authorities, district authorities, 
 union authorities, special district authorities, and 
 parish authorities. 
 
 Before, however, considering how this amount of 
 expenditure of ;£ 11,834,390 actually falls as taxation 
 in London, it is necessary to point out two facts. 
 The first is peculiar to London, namely, that there 
 is considerable difference between the expenditure 
 incurred by the various authorities and the taxation 
 imposed by these authorities. Secondly, there is 
 the increase or decrease of balances which occurred 
 during the year. If a balance is increased, it is 
 increased at the expense of the ratepayers of the 
 year, while if a balance is decreased, the local autho- 
 rity has met part of the year's expenditure out of 
 accumulated balances of past years. In both ways 
 therefore balances affect the amount of expenditure 
 which is finally borne by taxation. The table on 
 p. 211 shows the facts for 1895-96, so that a total 
 expenditure incurred of £1 1,834,390 becomes a total 
 taxation of ^"i 1,995,673. 
 
 Comparing this charge on taxation with the tax- 
 ation imposed by the various authorities, the result 
 is shown in table on p. 213. 
 
 In the case of the County Council and the 
 Asylums Board the taxation imposed is in excess 
 of the expenditure incurred, while a wholly new 
 authority, the Local Government Board, appears as 
 a taxing authority without having incurred any ex- 
 penditure. On the other hand, the City Corpora- 
 tion, the Commissioners of Sewers, district boards, 
 vestries, guardians, and overseers impose less taxa- 
 tion than the expenditure they incur. But in the 
 total the expenditure and taxation amount to the 
 same sum G6",995>673)-
 
 Local Taxation. 
 
 213 
 
 AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Charge 
 
 incurred 
 
 after 
 
 allowing for 
 
 Balances 
 
 Increased or 
 
 Decreased 
 
 in the Year. 
 
 taxation Imposed. 
 
 Appropria- 
 tion from 
 Imperial 
 Taxes. 
 
 Indirect 
 Taxa- 
 tion. 
 
 Rates. 
 
 Total. 
 
 I. County Authorities — 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 London County Council. . . 
 
 School Board for London . . 
 
 Metropolitan Asylums ) 
 
 Board ) 
 
 Local Government Board . . 
 
 2,159,971 
 2,281,836 
 
 418,565 
 
 1,270,234 
 
 87.517 
 650,224 
 
 616,347 
 
 514.863 
 28,815 
 
 2,952,322 
 1,631,612 
 
 422,982 
 
 625,072 
 r, 174,680 
 
 3.554.702 
 2,281,836 
 
 422,982 
 
 1,270,234 
 1,174,680 
 
 2. District A uthorities — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 City of London Corporation 
 „ Commissioners of) 
 
 213.576 
 268,362 
 527,506 
 
 2>494 
 
 — 
 
 134,282 
 
 8,1.7 
 208 
 
 78,848 
 
 252,877 
 
 337.996 
 2,494 
 
 2i3, I 30 
 
 260,994 
 
 338,204 
 
 2,494 
 
 
 Library Commissioners. . . . 
 
 3. Union A uthorities — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i.335.9o8 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 451.503 
 
 451.503 
 
 4. Special District 
 A uthorities— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sick Asylum District ^ 
 
 Managers ) 
 
 School District Managers.. 
 Library Commissioners 
 
 3 I ,° 8 5 
 
 120,965 
 2,658 
 6,965 
 
 
 
 
 
 31,085 
 
 120,965 
 2,658 
 6,965 
 
 31.085 
 
 120,965 
 2,658 
 6,965 
 
 5. Parish Authorities — 
 
 
 
 
 
 Vestries and Local Board. . 
 
 1,746,360 
 
 1,167. 579 
 247,619 
 
 53.479 
 78,023 
 
 50,333 
 
 1.703 
 
 10,452 
 
 — 
 
 r >793 
 9,55i 
 
 37,578 
 1,703 
 
 1,060,645 
 371,706 
 225,556 
 
 53.479 
 78,023 
 
 12,755 
 10,452 
 
 1,062,438 
 37i,7o6 
 235.107 
 
 53.479 
 78,023 
 
 5o,333 
 
 1,703 
 
 10,452 
 
 
 Library Commissioners 
 
 
 
 
 n.995.673 
 
 1,354,088 
 
 736,910 
 
 9,904,675 
 
 ",995.673 
 
 These differences between expenditure incurred 
 and taxation imposed by the different authorities 
 are caused by the operation of certain equalization 
 funds, which have for their object the equalization 
 of the rates which fall upon the rating units. These 
 funds are as follows: — 
 
 Common Poor Fund (Act of 1 867, and amending Acts). 
 County Grants (Act of 1888). 
 Equalization Fund (Act of 1894).
 
 214 London. 
 
 The Common Poor Fund is administered by the 
 Local Government Board. Certain charges in con- 
 nection with the maintenance of indoor paupers and 
 lunatics, and for registration and vaccination, in- 
 curred by the guardians of the poor of the several 
 parishes and unions in the County, are transferred 
 to this fund, and the amount required to meet them 
 is raised by an equal rate over the metropolitan 
 poor district, i.e. the administrative County, exclud- 
 ing Penge. 
 
 The County grants are administered by the Lon- 
 don County Council. They consist of grants to 
 guardians, sanitary authorities, and overseers, in 
 aid of the following services: — 
 
 Guardians of the Poor — 
 
 Pauper lunatics. 
 Poor-law medical expenses. 
 Reg-istrars of births and deaths. 
 Teachers in poor-law schools. 
 Indoor poor. 
 
 Sanitary Authorities (Vestries and District Boards) — 
 
 Medical officers. 
 Sanitary inspectors. 
 Main roads. 
 
 Overseers — 
 
 Registration of electors. 
 Drowned bodies. 
 
 The rates to meet these grants are levied over the 
 whole County, with the exception of that for drowned 
 bodies, which is charged on the special County rate, 
 and is therefore not levied on the City. 
 
 The Asylums Board also administers a small 
 amount of grants. These are repayments to local 
 authorities of fees paid for the notification of infec- 
 tious diseases, under the Public Health Act, 1891.
 
 Local Taxation. 215 
 
 The rate to meet these grants is charged, along with 
 the rest of the expenses of the Asylums Board, upon 
 the Metropolitan Asylums District, which is not 
 identical with the county. 
 
 The Equalization Fund is administered by the 
 London County Council. It consists of a rate of 6d. 
 in the £ levied annually on the whole County, and 
 redistributed among the sanitary authorities on the 
 basis of population. 
 
 The effect of these funds is to relieve parish, 
 union, and district expenditure at the expense of 
 County rates. The total transfer of charge thus 
 made in 1895-96 was ,£2,573,828. 
 
 Before dismissing this important subject of equali- 
 zation, it should be pointed out how cumbersome is 
 the machinery at present adopted. The system has 
 been allowed to grow without considering the effect 
 of each stage of the growth upon the preceding stage. 
 At the time of the institution of the Common Poor 
 Fund in 1867 there was no County authority and no 
 other Equalization Fund. Now there is a County 
 authority and two other equalization funds admini- 
 stered by that authority. The overlapping of juris- 
 dictions is not conducive to administrative efficiency. 
 Take, for instance, the case of lunacy. The whole 
 charge for pauper lunatics is now a County charge, 
 but it becomes so in the following tortuous manner. 
 First, there is the county lunacy administered by 
 the County Asylums Committee, and paid for 
 by the County rate. Secondly, there is the local 
 lunacy administered by the thirty boards of guar- 
 dians, but paid for partly by the common County 
 charge of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, partly 
 by the grant from the County Fund of 4s. per 
 head per week, and partly by the Common Poor 
 Fund. All this machinery to produce so simple 
 a result as a common County charge for London 
 lunacy must be productive of unnecessary expense,
 
 216 London. 
 
 if not inefficient administration, and at all events 
 the London County Council employs a staff to 
 examine the guardians' lunacy accounts for the pur- 
 pose of determining the amount of the grants, which 
 are also examined by the Local Government Board 
 for the purpose of determining the amount to be 
 paid by the Common Poor Fund. Now that the 
 Council is charged with the duty of disbursing cer- 
 tain County grants, and with the duty of administer- 
 ing the Equalization Fund, it should also be charged 
 with the administration of the Common Poor Fund, 
 subject to some simplification of method. Payments 
 out of the fund could be made on the certificate of 
 the Local Government Board as at present, so that 
 no change would be made in the machinery of con- 
 trol, but only in the machinery of administration. 
 
 But the whole question of separating the spending 
 authority from the taxing authority needs the most 
 careful consideration. The plan seems to be ex- 
 tending, and is just one of those insidious methods 
 of getting rid of difficulties which are so dear to the 
 politician's mind. It is, however, full of mischief. 
 It leads to extravagance and it prevents any respon- 
 sibility being fixed. One authority contracts lia- 
 bilities which another authority has to pay for, 
 and members of the paying authority have to face 
 questions and difficulties before the electors which 
 are not theirs to face. Nothing is more common in 
 London than to hear the County Council blamed 
 for increasing the rates. As a matter of fact they 
 have not increased rates one farthing. They have 
 to collect more money in order to again distribute 
 among local authorities, who are responsible for a 
 greatly increased expenditure throughout London; 
 and until Londoners endeavour to understand the 
 enormous dangers attending the present system of 
 equalization of rates, as it is called, they will find 
 affairs tending towards an enormously increasing
 
 Local Taxation. 217 
 
 annual expenditure. There is another danger 
 arising from the great complexity of the present 
 system of taxation and the absolute impossibility of 
 obtaining exact information about it. The govern- 
 ment publish Local Taxation Accounts annually, 
 but there is nothing in these voluminous documents 
 which will enable the taxpayer to ascertain the 
 taxation of his county, let alone that of his district, 
 his union, or his parish. Instead of simplicity we 
 get complexity, and no effort is ever made to 
 remedy this reprehensible state of things; nor will 
 anything be done until the London public possess 
 the knowledge which is the creating force of public 
 opinion. That this volume may help in some 
 measure in spreading the needful light, I humbly 
 but devoutly hope. The story of Victorian London 
 has been a record of progress and of wonders ; but 
 throughout its course may be traced the same truth 
 and lesson. The rapidity of the progress made and 
 the vastness and multiplicity of the changes during 
 sixty eventful years of our nation's history has in- 
 volved a long chain of anomaly, abuse, and im- 
 perfections of various kinds which challenge the 
 intelligence and the energy of Londoners and their 
 leaders to-day.
 
 Appendix I. 
 
 The following- extracts are given to show the almost 
 incredible condition of portions of London (see p. 57). 
 
 An article in a leading medical newspaper, The Lancet, 
 in July, 1855, thus describes the state of the river: — 
 
 "The waters of the Thames are swollen with the feculence of the 
 myriads of living beings that dwell upon the banks, and with the waste 
 of every manufacture that is too foul for utilization. Wheresoever we 
 go, whatsoever we eat or drink within the circle of London we find 
 tainted with the Thames. . . . No one having eyes, nose, or taste, can 
 look upon the Thames and not be convinced that its waters are year by 
 year, and day by day, getting fouler and more pestilential. The Thames 
 water is already so turbid that the lower part of a bit of card, sinking 
 edgeways, is invisible before the upper part has become immersed. The 
 abominations, the corruptions we pour into the Thames are not, as some 
 falsely say, carried away into the sea. The sea rejects the loathsome 
 tribute, and heaves it back again with every flow. Here, in the heart of 
 the doomed city, it accumulates and destroys." 
 
 On June nth, in the House of Commons, "Mr. Brady wished to ask 
 whether the noble lord had taken any means to mitigate the effluvium 
 from the Thames. Hon. members sitting in the committee-rooms and 
 library were scarcely able to bear it." — [Times, June 12th, 1858.) 
 
 On June 18th, "Mr. Mangles said," in the House of Commons, "that 
 when he was a young man Thames salmon were celebrated. The salmon, 
 wiser than members of parliament, had avoided the pollution, and he 
 was informed that cartloads of fish were taken out of the Thames which 
 had died in consequence of the state of the river. A noble mansion 
 was prepared for the right hon. gentleman who occupied the chair, but 
 could any hon. gentleman expect the Speaker to live in an atmosphere 
 into which they would not put their worst enemy? They had built on 
 the banks of the Thames a magnificent palace for the legislature, but 
 how could they direct the attention of any foreigner to it when he would 
 be welcomed by a stench which was overpowering?" — [Times, June 19th, 
 1858.) 
 
 "What a pity it is that the thermometer fell ten degrees yesterday. 
 Parliament was all but compelled to legislate upon the great London 
 nuisance by the force of sheer stench. The intense heat had driven our 
 legislators from those portions of their buildings which overlook the 
 river. A few members, indeed, bent upon investigating the subject to 
 its very depth, ventured into the library, but they were instantaneously
 
 Appendix. 219 
 
 driven to retreat, each man with a handkerchief to his nose. We are 
 heartily glad of it. It is right that our legislators should be made to 
 feel in health and comfort the consequence of their own disregard of the 
 public welfare. ... As long as the nuisance did not directly affect 
 themselves, noble lords and hon. gentlemen could afford to disregard the 
 safety and comfort of London; but now that they are fairly driven from 
 their libraries and committee-rooms — or, better still, forced to remain in 
 them with a putrid atmosphere around them— they may perhaps spare 
 a thought for the Londoners." — (Leading article in The Times, 18th 
 June, 1858.) 
 
 " I am one of those unfortunate lawyers who 'hug the festering shore', 
 and festering it is indeed with a vengeance. The stench in the Temple 
 to-day is sickening and nauseous in the extreme ; we are enveloped in 
 the foul miasma which spreads on either side of this repository of the 
 filth of nigh three millions of human beings, and day and night every 
 breath of air which we draw for the sustenance of life is tainted with its 
 poisonous exhalations." — (Letter signed T. S., in the Times of June 18th, 
 1858.) 
 
 The Earl of Shaftesbury gave to the Royal Commis- 
 sioners on the Housing of the Working Classes, in 1884, 
 some striking testimony as to the bad sanitary conditions 
 amid which the poor in some quarters of the town were 
 compelled to live in the earlier days of his labours among 
 them. The following are a few extracts from the official 
 report of his evidence : — 
 
 " Formerly there were a great many long alleys, and when I used to 
 go into them, if I stretched out my arms I struck the walls on both sides. 
 They were very long, like a tobacco pipe. In those alleys lived from 
 200 to 300 people, and there was but one accommodation for the whole 
 of that number, and that at the end ; and I do not hesitate to say that 
 it was so tremendously horrible that one could not even approach that 
 end. . . . The air was dreadfully foul. The sun could not penetrate, 
 and there never was any ventilation. (Q. 31 and 32.) 
 
 " There was the famous Frying-pan Alley, near Holborn, now swept 
 away. I inspected the whole of Frying-pan Alley, and I am happy to 
 say that such a thing does not exist now in London, and could not exist, 
 because the attention of the officer of health and others would be called 
 to it, and it would be abolished. Frying-pan Alley was a very famous 
 alley in Holborn, like one of those I have described to you ; it was very 
 narrow, the only necessary accommodation being at the end ; in the 
 first house that I turned into there was a single room, the window was 
 very small, and the light came through the door. I saw a young woman 
 there, and I asked her if she had been there some little time. 'Yes,' 
 she said, ' her husband went out to work, and was obliged to come there 
 to be near his work.' She said, ' I am miserable !' 'What is it?' I asked. 
 'Look there,' said she, ' at that great hole ; the landlord will not mend it. 
 I have every night to sit up and watch, or my husband sits up to watch,
 
 220 
 
 London. 
 
 because that hole is over a common sewer, and the rats come up, some- 
 times twenty at a time, and if we did not watch them they would eat the 
 baby up.' I am giving you that as a typical instance of what went on in 
 London at that time. That could not exist now." (Q. 36.) 
 
 "Such a thing as occurred in Tyndall's Buildings could not exist 
 now, but it will show you what I believe occurred in a great number of 
 instances. I was sitting in this very room, in the Board of Health, and 
 a person came to me and said that he had discovered something in 
 Tyndall's Buildings which he thought I ought to see. This was before 
 we got possession of the court. I went off directly with Dr. Southwood 
 Smith ; I went into a low cellar, and there I saw what your lordship 
 will hardly believe. There was not so much wood in it as would make 
 a faggot. There were a woman and two children there, but the striking 
 part of it is this: from a hole in the ceiling there came a long open wooden 
 tube supported by props, and from that flowed all the filth of the house 
 above, right through the place where this woman was living, into the 
 common sewer. Nobody paid the least attention to it. There were no 
 health officers, and no people looking after the matter; and I believe 
 much of that sort of thing occurred in London which could not occur 
 now." (Q. 37.) 
 
 "There was a famous place called Bermondsey Island, in Bermondsey. 
 You should know something about that, because I do not know that 
 such a thing could occur again, it is hardly credible. It was a large 
 swamp ; a number of people lived there, as they do in Holland, in houses 
 built upon piles. Only two days ago I met a gentleman, with whom I 
 had inspected that place twenty years before. He put me in mind of it, 
 and he said that it was now completely drained and houses built upon it. 
 So bad was the supply of water there, that I have positively seen the 
 women drop their buckets into the water over which they were living, 
 in which was deposited all the filth of the place, that being the only 
 water that they had for every purpose— washing, drinking, and so on." 
 
 (Q. 14D 
 
 Appendix II. 
 
 Analysis of Robson's London Directory, 1837, pp. 1029-1500 
 
 (see p. 86). 
 
 Accountants 
 
 . 107 
 
 Agents {continued) — 
 
 
 Acetic acid manufacturers .. 
 
 7 
 
 Lead ... 
 
 1 
 
 Agents — 
 
 
 Metal 
 
 2 
 
 Ale and porter 
 
 • 23 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 ••• 59 
 
 Army and navy 
 
 • 36 
 
 Parliamentary 
 
 21 
 
 Brewery 
 
 6 
 
 Patent 
 
 4 
 
 Custom-house 
 
 . 61 
 
 Provision 
 
 10 
 
 East India ... 
 
 ■ 33 
 
 Shipping 
 
 47 
 
 Estate and house ... 
 
 93 
 
 Silk 
 
 5 
 
 Foreign 
 
 10 
 
 Tea ... 
 
 8 
 
 General and commercial .. 
 
 190 
 
 Tin 
 
 1 
 
 Iron ... 
 
 6 
 
 Agricultural-implement makers 9
 
 Appendix. 
 
 221 
 
 Anatomical machinists 
 Anchor smiths and chain-cable 
 
 manufacturers 
 Animal and bird preservers 
 Annatto manufacturers 
 Anti-corrosion paint manufac 
 
 turers 
 Antimony refiners 
 Aqua-fortis manufacturers .. 
 Archery warehouses ... 
 Architects and surveyors 
 Army cap and accoutrement 
 
 makers 
 Army clothiers 
 Army contractors 
 Artificial-eye makers ... 
 Artificial flower and feather 
 
 makers 
 Artificial leg and arm makers 
 
 Artists 
 
 Artists in fireworks 
 
 Assayers 
 
 Attorneys of Lord - mayor's 
 
 court ... 
 Auctioneers, appraisers, estate 
 
 and house agents ... 
 Auctioneers and surveyors 
 Aurists ... 
 Awl -blade makers 
 Back makers ... 
 Bacon dryers ... 
 Bakers ... 
 
 Ball and rout furnishers 
 Barge and boat builders 
 Barometer and thermometer 
 
 makers 
 
 Barristers 
 
 Basket makers 
 
 Bath manufacturers ... 
 
 Baths, warm and cold, &c. 
 
 Bead makers ... 
 
 Bed and mattress makers 
 
 Bed-sacking manufacturers 
 
 Bed-screw makers 
 
 Bedstead makers 
 
 Bellows makers 
 
 Billiard and backgammon 
 
 table makers 
 Birch-broom dealers ... 
 Birmingham and Sheffield 
 
 warehouses ... 
 Blacking makers 
 Blacklead-pencil makers 
 Bleachers, linen 
 Bleachers, wax 
 Blind makers, window- 
 
 24 
 18 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 3 
 4 
 8 
 
 3 2 4 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 67 
 
 6 
 
 208 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 432 
 
 35 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 1982 
 
 4 
 56 
 
 25 
 1 103 
 
 .56 
 
 5 
 28 
 
 5 
 60 
 n 
 
 4 
 48 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 2 
 
 5i 
 
 34 
 
 24 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 103 
 
 Blue manufacturers ... 
 Bombazine warehouses 
 Bone boilers 
 Bone mould and counter 
 
 cutters 
 Bonnet-shape manufacturers 
 Book and print sellers 
 Bookbinders 
 
 Book lock and clasp makers 
 Bookseller, agricultural 
 Bookseller, architectural and 
 
 scientific 
 Booksellers, foreign 
 Booksellers, law 
 Booksellers, medical 
 Booksellers, military 
 Booksellers and binders 
 Booksellers and circulating 
 
 libraries 
 Booksellers and newsvendors 
 Booksellers and publishers .. 
 Boot and shoe makers 
 Boot-top manufacturers 
 Bougie and catheter manufac 
 
 turers... 
 Brace, stock, and belt makers 
 Brass manufacturers 
 Braziers... 
 Breeches makers 
 Brewers ... 
 Brick and tile makers and 
 
 dealers 
 Bricklayers and plasterers .. 
 Brick-mould maker ... 
 Bridle-bit and stirrup makers 
 Bridle cutters ... 
 Bristle assort ers 
 Brokers — 
 
 Bill and discount ... 
 
 Bullion 
 
 Colonial, coffee, and sugar 
 
 Cotton 
 
 Diamond 
 
 Drug 
 
 Drug and drysaltery 
 
 Drug and spice 
 
 East India and drysaltery.. 
 
 Exchange 
 
 Fruit 
 
 Furniture 
 
 General and commercial .. 
 
 Hide and skin 
 
 Indigo 
 
 Insurance 
 
 Ivory and tortoiseshell 
 
 Mahogany ... 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 6 
 
 23 
 201 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 iS 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 23 
 
 19 
 
 455 
 
 i54i 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 42 
 61 
 42 
 38 
 153 
 
 12 
 
 429 
 
 1 
 6 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 32 
 2 
 
 96 
 
 r 3 
 9 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 406 
 
 45 
 
 7 
 
 22 
 
 97 
 1 
 
 3
 
 222 
 
 Brokers (continued) — 
 
 Metal 
 
 Oil 
 
 Piece 
 
 Printers' 
 
 Provision 
 
 Russia 
 
 Ship and insurance 
 
 Silk 
 
 Stock 
 
 Tea ... 
 
 Timber and wood ... 
 
 Tobacco 
 
 Wine and spirit 
 
 Wool 
 
 Bronzists 
 
 Brushmakers ... 
 
 Brushmakers and turners 
 
 Buhl manufacturers ... 
 
 Builders... 
 
 Builders and bricklayers 
 
 Building-material dealers 
 
 Bullion dealers... 
 
 Bunting and say manufac- 
 turers... 
 
 Butchers and meat salesmen 
 
 Button manufacturers and 
 warehouses ... 
 
 Cabinet and chair makers 
 
 Calico and furniture printers... 
 
 Calico glazers ... 
 
 Camel-hair pencil makers 
 
 Candle-rush manufacturer ... 
 
 Cane dealers ... 
 
 Cane workers ... 
 
 Canvas manufacturers 
 
 Cap makers 
 
 Capillaire makers 
 
 Card makers 
 
 Carmen... ... 
 
 Carpenters 
 
 Carpenters and packing-case 
 makers 
 
 Carpet and rug manufacturers 
 and warehouses 
 
 Carpet-bag manufacturers ... 
 
 Cart and mill grease manufac- 
 turers 
 
 Carvers ... 
 
 Carvers and gilders ... 
 
 Chair and sofa makers 
 
 Charcoal dealers 
 
 Chasers... 
 
 Cheesemongers 
 
 Chemical apparatus manufac- 
 turers 
 
 London. 
 
 
 Chemist and druggists 
 
 i 
 
 Chemists, manufacturing 
 
 6 
 
 Child-bed linen warehouses ... 
 
 9 
 
 China, glass, and Staffordshire 
 
 9 
 
 dealers 
 
 8 
 
 China dealers, foreign 
 
 36 
 
 Chiropodists 
 
 I 5° 
 
 Chloride warehouses 
 
 15 
 
 Chocolate makers 
 
 277 
 
 Chop houses ... 
 
 15 
 
 Clock makers ... 
 
 7 
 
 Clock-case makers 
 
 4 
 
 Clothiers and cloths salesmen 
 
 20 
 
 Clothworkers, pressers, and 
 
 24 
 
 packers 
 
 3 
 
 Club-houses 
 
 198 
 
 Coach and harness makers ... 
 
 43 
 
 Coach and horse repositories 
 
 3 
 
 Coach brokers 
 
 392 
 
 Coach draughtsmen ... 
 
 25 
 
 Coach joiners 
 
 30 
 
 Coach painters 
 
 12 
 
 Coach platers and founders ... 
 
 
 Coach smiths ... 
 
 3 
 
 Coach spring and axletree 
 
 1492 
 
 makers 
 
 
 Coal dealers 
 
 39 
 
 Coffee and cocoa-nut roasters 
 
 438 
 
 Coffee dealers ... 
 
 43 
 
 Coffee-rooms ... 
 
 6 
 
 Coffin-furniture manufacturers 
 
 12 
 
 Collar makers ... 
 
 1 
 
 Colourmen, artists' 
 
 5 
 
 Colourmen, wholesale 
 
 6 
 
 Comb makers ... 
 
 4 
 
 Composition-ornament manu- 
 
 16 
 
 facturers 
 
 7 
 
 Composition - ornament and 
 
 15 
 
 papier-mache manufacturers 
 
 80 
 
 Confectioners, wholesale 
 
 "45 
 
 Conveyancers ... 
 
 
 Coopers... 
 
 35 
 
 Oil 
 
 
 Sugar 
 
 100 
 
 Wine... 
 
 2 
 
 Copperand brass-plate workers 
 
 
 Copper-nail makers ... 
 
 5 
 
 Coppersmiths ... 
 
 30 
 
 Coppersmiths and braziers ... 
 
 3°9 
 
 Cork manufacturers ... 
 
 87 
 
 Corn dealers ... 
 
 10 
 
 Cotton (lamp and candle-wick) 
 
 52 
 
 manufacturers 
 
 976 
 
 Cotton (sewing) manufacturers 
 
 
 Cotton-yarn manufacturers ... 
 
 4 
 
 Court-plaister manufacturers 
 
 516 
 
 51 
 
 56 
 
 331 
 
 . 6 
 
 4 
 2 
 
 7 
 21 
 
 So 
 6 
 
 152 
 
 18 
 
 3i 
 
 268 
 
 27 
 6 
 1 
 13 
 13 
 37 
 29 
 
 20 
 
 120 
 
 10 
 
 26 
 
 274 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 21 
 
 54 
 
 45 
 
 22 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 36 
 
 216 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 49 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 
 28 
 
 56 
 
 396 
 
 13 
 23 
 
 17 
 3
 
 Appendix. 
 
 223 
 
 Cowkeepers and dairymen ... 
 Crape manufacturers .. . 
 Cricket bat and stump makers 
 Cudbear manufacturers 
 
 Cuppers 
 
 Curiosity dealers 
 
 Curriers and leather sellers ... 
 
 Cutlers ... ... 
 
 Cutlers, sword ... 
 
 Dentists... 
 
 Dentists and cuppers ... 
 
 Diamond and pearl setters ... 
 
 Diamond polishers 
 
 Die sinkers ... 
 
 Distillers, perfume 
 
 Distillers, turpentine 
 
 Distillers and rectifiers 
 Dollmakers 
 
 Drawing-instrument makers... 
 Dressing-case and desk makers 
 Druggists, wholesale ... 
 
 Drug grinders 
 
 Drysalters 
 
 Dyers 
 
 Cotton 
 
 Feather 
 
 Fur and skin 
 
 Hat 
 
 Leather 
 
 Silk 
 
 Silk stocking 
 
 Worsted 
 Dyers and calenderers 
 Dyers and scourers ... 
 East India warehouses 
 Eating-houses ... 
 Ebony inkstand makers 
 Egg dealers and merchants ... 
 Embroiderers ... 
 Emery and glass-paper makers 
 
 and dealers in black-lead ... 
 Engine makers, fire ... 
 
 Hydraulic 
 
 Steam 
 Engine turners... 
 Engineers 
 Engineers, civil 
 Engineers and machinists 
 Engravers 
 
 Glass... 
 
 Historical 
 
 Map and chart 
 
 Music 
 
 Seal and die sinkers 
 
 Vignette 
 
 Watch and clock ... 
 
 3*4 
 
 Engravers (continued) — 
 
 
 9 
 
 Wood 
 
 ... 16 
 
 2 
 
 Engravers and bookbinders' 
 
 2 
 
 tool cutters ... 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 Engravers and printers 
 
 ... 169 
 
 44 
 
 Factors ... 
 
 11 
 
 180 
 
 Blackwell Hall 
 
 • • 45 
 
 !53 
 
 Boot and shoe 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 Cheese 
 
 10 
 
 105 
 
 Coal ... 
 
 •• 23 
 
 28 
 
 Corn, flour, and seed 
 
 •• 95 
 
 6 
 
 Fish 
 
 • • 32 
 
 2 
 
 Flannel 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 Flour 
 
 22 
 
 1 
 
 Hide and leather ... 
 
 •• 37 
 
 5 
 
 Hop and seed 
 
 ■ ■ 44 
 
 54 
 
 Irish ... 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 Linen and cotton ... 
 
 • • 29 
 
 2 
 
 Malt 
 
 5 
 
 70 
 
 Nail 
 
 2 
 
 65 
 
 Plate 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 Plate- glass 
 
 2 
 
 56 
 
 Sail-cloth 
 
 3 
 
 140 
 
 Scotch 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 Woollen 
 
 .. 17 
 
 1 
 
 Fan makers 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 Fan and sky-light makers 
 
 12 
 
 S 
 
 Fancy repositories 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 Farriers and smiths ... 
 
 .. 138 
 
 54 
 
 Feather-bed manufacturers 
 
 .. 14 
 
 3 
 
 Feather manufacturers, mi 
 
 i- 
 
 2 
 
 tary ... 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 Fellmongers 
 
 ■■ 29 
 
 90 
 
 Fender and fire-iron manufa 
 
 c- 
 
 4 
 
 turers 
 
 8 
 
 186 
 
 Figure-makers, plaster of Pai 
 
 is 7 
 
 3 
 
 Wax 
 
 2 
 
 3i 
 
 File, rasp, and saw makers 
 
 .. 18 
 
 22 
 
 Filter manufacturers ... 
 
 9 
 
 
 Fire-box manufacturers 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 Fire-brick dealers 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 Fishing-rod, &c, makers 
 
 • • 3i 
 
 1 
 
 Fishmongers ... 
 
 • • 3i4 
 
 2 
 
 Fixture dealers 
 
 .. 16 
 
 2 3 
 
 Flag and banner makers 
 
 2 
 
 94 
 
 Flannel and baize manufa 
 
 c- 
 
 35 
 
 turers 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 Flatting mills 
 
 8 
 
 190 
 
 Flax dressers 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 Flax-hackle makers ... 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 Flax-spinners and bleachers 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 Flock manufacturers ... 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 Floorcloth manufacturers 
 
 .. 29 
 
 5o 
 
 Florists ... 
 
 ■• 30 
 
 3 
 
 Flute manufacturers ... 
 
 .. 14 
 
 2 
 
 Founders, bell 
 
 5
 
 224 
 
 London. 
 
 
 Founders — 
 
 
 Grocers, oilmen, and Italian 
 
 
 Brass 
 
 121 
 
 warehousemen 
 
 85 
 
 Clock 
 
 27 
 
 Grocers and tea-dealers 
 
 1475 
 
 Iron ... ... 
 
 68 
 
 Gun and cannon lock makers 
 
 4 
 
 Stereotype 
 
 11 
 
 Gun and pistol makers 
 
 83 
 
 Type 
 
 12 
 
 Gun and pistol warehouse ... 
 
 5 
 
 Frankfort-black makers 
 
 3 
 
 Gun-barrel makers 
 
 6 
 
 French horn and trumpe 
 
 t 
 
 Gun-case makers 
 
 6 
 
 makers 
 
 I 3 
 
 Gun-stock makers 
 
 2 
 
 French polishers 
 
 18 
 
 Gunpowder makers 
 
 8 
 
 Fringe, bed - lace, and trim 
 
 
 Haberdashers and haber- 
 
 
 ming manufacturers 
 
 . 46 
 
 dashers and silk mercers ... 
 
 288 
 
 Fruiterers 
 
 • 56S 
 
 Hairdressers and perfumers... 
 
 412 
 
 Funeral -carriage masters 
 
 8 
 
 Hair manufacturers ... 
 
 65 
 
 Funeral-feather men ... 
 
 3 
 
 Hair workers ... 
 
 10 
 
 Furriers ... 
 
 . 163 
 
 Ham and tongue dealers 
 
 58 
 
 Fur-skin dressers 
 
 16 
 
 Hame and chain makers 
 
 2 
 
 Gaboon and double manufac 
 
 
 Hardwaremen 
 
 5 2 
 
 turers 
 
 10 
 
 Harness makers 
 
 68 
 
 Gambroon manufacturers 
 
 4 
 
 Harp makers ... 
 
 9 
 
 Gas apparatus manufacturers 
 
 9 
 
 Hat- and bonnet-box makers 
 
 2 
 
 Gasfitters 
 
 77 
 
 Hat-block makers 
 
 5 
 
 Gauge dressers 
 
 2 
 
 Hat-felt manufacturers 
 
 3 
 
 General salesmen 
 
 49 
 
 Hat makers, leather ... 
 
 2 
 
 German paste manufacturers 
 
 1 
 
 Hatters and hat manufac- 
 
 
 Gilders, book-edge and card 
 
 8 
 
 turers 
 
 484 
 
 Gilders, water ... 
 
 . 28 
 
 Hatters' bow-string makers ... 
 
 2 
 
 Glass benders 
 
 8 
 
 Hatters' trimming makers ... 
 
 10 
 
 Glass cutters, window- 
 
 • 47 
 
 Hay compressor 
 
 1 
 
 Glass-cutters' tool maker 
 
 1 
 
 Hay salesmen ... 
 
 17 
 
 Glass enamellers and stainers 
 
 18 
 
 Hearth-rug manufacturers ... 
 
 17 
 
 Manufacturers, warehouse 
 
 
 Herbalists 
 
 23 
 
 men, and cutters 
 
 • 103 
 
 Hinge and door-spring manu- 
 
 
 Crown ... 
 
 7 
 
 facturers 
 
 2 
 
 Plate 
 
 • 13 
 
 Hoop benders 
 
 5 
 
 Grinders ... 
 
 4 
 
 Horse slaughterers 
 
 9 
 
 Scallopers 
 
 2 
 
 Hosiers, wholesale 
 
 34 
 
 Shade makers 
 
 7 
 
 Hosiers and glovers ... 
 
 267 
 
 Warehousemen, lamp 
 
 7 
 
 Hot-house builders ... 
 
 7 
 
 Warehousemen, medical .. 
 
 6 
 
 Hot-pressers ... 
 
 20 
 
 Globe makers ... 
 
 6 
 
 Ice-pail manufacturer 
 
 1 
 
 Glovers and glove manu 
 
 
 Importers of — 
 
 
 facturers 
 
 . 68 
 
 Ancient furniture 
 
 4 
 
 Glue and size makers ... 
 
 . 16 
 
 Beads 
 
 8 
 
 Gold cutters ... 
 
 7 
 
 Black-lead 
 
 1 
 
 Gold and silver beaters 
 
 • 59 
 
 Carpets 
 
 3 
 
 Casters 
 
 6 
 
 Cigars ... 
 
 18 
 
 Gold and silver lace manufac 
 
 
 Coker-nuts ... 
 
 2 
 
 turers 
 
 . 26 
 
 Dutch rushes 
 
 1 
 
 Goldsmiths and jewellers 
 
 . 140 
 
 Foreign and musical clocks 
 
 
 Gold-thread manufacturers .. 
 
 2 
 
 and watches 
 
 4 
 
 Granary keepers 
 
 ■ 34 
 
 Foreign fancy goods 
 
 34 
 
 Grindery dealers 
 
 ■ 32 
 
 Foreign silk goods ... 
 
 9 
 
 Groat manufacturers ... 
 
 3 
 
 Fruits 
 
 5 
 
 Grocers, wholesale 
 
 44 
 
 Geneva - watch tools and 
 
 
 Grocers and cheesemongers . . 
 
 ■ 430 
 
 materials ... 
 
 3
 
 Appendix. 
 
 22- 
 
 Importers of — 
 
 Glass shades 2 
 
 Gloves 3 
 
 India condiments ... ... 1 
 
 Irish provisions ... ... 5 
 
 Lace ... ... 2 
 
 Leeches ... 7 
 
 Musical instruments ... 1 
 
 Shawls 2 
 
 Toys 10 
 
 Wine and liqueurs 40 
 
 Zinc ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 India - rubber dealers and 
 
 manufacturers 17 
 
 Inkmakers, printers' ... ... 13 
 
 Writing ... 17 
 
 Irish-linen warehouse ... 3 
 
 Iron-fence and hurdle makers 10 
 
 Ironmongers 269 
 
 Coach 4 
 
 Coopers' ... ... ... 1 
 
 Saddlers' ... ... ... 7 
 
 Iron-plate workers .. ... 22 
 
 Iron (cast) warehouses ... 6 
 
 Iron warehouses, scrap- ... 2 
 
 Isinglass dealers ... .. 6 
 
 Italian warehouses ... ... 77 
 
 Ivory and bone stainer ... 1 
 
 Ivory and tortoiseshell workers 15 
 
 Japanners 55 
 
 Jelly-mould makers 4 
 
 Jewellers ... ... ... 366 
 
 Black 4 
 
 Diamond ... ... ... 1 
 
 Gilt 9 
 
 Jewellers' hair- workers ... 5 
 
 Jewellery-case makers ... 15 
 
 Job-masters and hackney men 43 
 
 Lace cleaners and menders ... 14 
 
 Lace manufacturers, coach ... 22 
 
 Lacemen ... 87 
 
 Lacquer manufacturers ... 1 
 
 Ladder makers ... ... 3 
 
 Lamp manufacturers ... ... 67 
 
 Lamp and lustre manufac- 
 turers 13 
 
 Lamp and oil warehouses ... 9 
 
 Lamp-black manufacturers ... 7 
 Lanthorn-leaf and horn-plate 
 
 manufacturers ... ... 5 
 
 Lapidaries ... 36 
 
 Last, boot-tree, and pattern 
 
 makers ... ... ... 60 
 
 Lasting and Denmark satin 
 
 manufacturers ... ... 6 
 
 Lath renders ... ... ... 18 
 
 (M517) 
 
 Lathe and tool makers 
 Lead manufacturers, milled 
 Leather cutters and sellers 
 Leather dressers 
 
 Morocco 
 
 Leather gilders 
 
 Japanners 
 
 Pipe and Fire-bucket makers 
 
 Portmanteau and case makers 
 
 Splitters 
 
 Stainers ... 
 
 Libraries, circulating 
 
 Musical... 
 Licensed retailers of beer 
 
 Licensed victuallers 
 
 Lightermen 
 
 Lighthouse manufacturer 
 
 Lime burners ... 
 
 Linen drapers ... 
 
 Linen warehousemen and 
 
 manufacturers 
 Lint manufacturers ... 
 Livery-stable keepers and horse 
 
 dealers 
 Locksmiths and bell-hangers 
 Looking-glass frame and 
 
 picture-frame makers 
 Looking-glass silverers 
 Lozenge manufacturers 
 Macaroni manufacturers 
 Machine rulers 
 
 Machinists 
 
 Maltsters 
 
 Mangle and press makers 
 
 Manifold-writer makers 
 
 Map draughtsman 
 
 Map mounters 
 
 Map and chart publishers and 
 
 sellers 
 Map and print colourers 
 Marine-store dealers ... 
 Marquee and tent makers 
 Masquerade and fancy - bal 
 
 dress makers 
 Masquerade warehouses 
 Mast, oar, and block makers 
 Mat and matting warehouses 
 Mathematical, optical, and 
 
 philosophical instrument 
 
 makers ... 
 
 Measure makers, corn and coal 
 
 Medallists 
 
 Medical label warehouses 
 Melting-pot makers ... 
 Merchants, general ... 
 
 Ale and porter 
 
 *3 
 
 152 
 
 47 
 
 15 
 2 
 
 7 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 58 
 2 
 
 125 
 
 4035 
 
 105 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 662 
 
 39 
 
 4 
 
 320 
 100 
 
 56 
 7 
 7 
 2 
 
 17 
 3i 
 17 
 IS 
 4 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 5 
 
 5* 
 S 
 
 4 
 2 
 
 47 
 16 
 
 149 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 1277 
 
 66
 
 226 
 
 London. 
 
 Merchants {continued) — 
 
 Alum 
 
 Bone ... 
 
 Bottle 
 
 Brick and tile 
 
 Coal ... 
 
 Cochineal 
 
 Colour 
 
 Copper 
 
 Cork ... ... 
 
 Corn ... 
 
 Corn and coal 
 
 Cotton 
 
 Cyder 
 
 Diamond , 
 
 Drug and spice , 
 
 Dyewood , 
 
 East India , 
 
 Feather 
 
 Flax and Hemp 
 
 Flint 
 
 Fur and skin 
 
 Ham ... 
 
 Hoop 
 
 Hop and seed 
 
 India-rubber 
 
 Indigo 
 
 Iron ... 
 
 Iron Hoop ... 
 
 Italian ... 
 
 Ivory and tortoiseshell 
 
 Lead and glass , 
 
 Leather 
 
 Leech ... 
 
 Lime 
 
 Lisbon ... 
 
 Madeira 
 
 Mahogany and timber 
 
 Marble 
 
 Oil 
 
 Oporto 
 
 Orange 
 
 Rag 
 
 Rush 
 
 Russia and bristle 
 
 Salt 
 
 Silk 
 
 Slate 
 
 Stave ... 
 Stone... 
 
 Tallow ... 
 
 Tin and tinplate 
 
 Turkey 
 
 West Indies 
 
 Whisky 
 
 Wine and wine and spirits 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 54 
 
 12 
 
 320 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 21 
 
 8 
 
 37 
 
 45 
 
 3 
 
 25 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 55 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 52 
 1 
 2 
 8 
 
 45 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 212 
 
 7 
 5o 
 
 5 
 
 106 
 
 48 
 
 3 
 
 3i 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 19 
 6 
 
 34 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 46 
 
 16 
 
 833 
 
 Merchants (continued) 
 
 Wool 
 
 Zinc 
 
 Metal warehouses 
 
 Military cockade maker 
 
 Ornament maker 
 
 Sashmaker ... 
 
 Military warehouses ... 
 
 Millers ... 
 
 Milliners and dressmakers ... 
 
 Millmakers 
 
 Millstone makers 
 
 Millwrights and engineers ... 
 
 Mineralogists 
 
 Miniature-frame makers 
 
 Modellers ... 
 
 Morocco-case makers... 
 
 Mourning-ring makers 
 
 Musical-instrument makers ... 
 Reed maker ... 
 Tube drawer 
 
 Musicsellers and publishers ... 
 
 Muslin and gauze manufac- 
 turers... 
 
 Mustard manufacturers 
 
 Nailmakers 
 
 Nail tinner 
 
 Needle and pin makers 
 
 Newsvendors ... 
 
 Notaries 
 
 Nursery and seedsmen 
 
 Oculists... 
 
 Official assigners 
 
 Oilmen and Italian warehouse- 
 men ... 
 
 Oilmen and oil and colour- 
 men 
 
 Oilmen and tallow chandlers... 
 
 Oil of tartar manufacturers ... 
 
 Orchill makers... 
 
 Organ builders 
 
 Ormolu manufacturers 
 
 Outfitters 
 
 Oven builders ... 
 
 Packers and calenders 
 
 Painters, transparent blind ... 
 
 Painters and decorators 
 
 Painters and grainers 
 
 Painters, herald 
 
 Sign 
 
 Paper black borderers 
 
 Paper makers ... 
 
 Paper marblers and fancy paper 
 makers 
 
 Paper-mould makers ... 
 
 Paper stainers and hangers ... 
 
 25 
 
 5 
 x 3 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 25 
 
 594 
 
 16 
 
 5 
 
 57 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 16 
 10 
 
 7 
 64 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 108 
 
 J 3 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 29 
 
 149 
 
 37 
 
 41 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 186 
 
 636 
 
 28 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 4 
 
 65 
 
 10 
 
 38 
 
 9 
 
 127 
 
 46 
 
 18 
 
 7 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 21 
 
 1 
 134
 
 Appendix. 
 
 227 
 
 Parchment makers and dealers 12 
 Pasteboard makers and hot 
 
 pressers ... ... ... 10 
 
 Pastry cooks and confectioners 300 
 Patents — 
 
 Antigropelos 
 
 Artificial skin manufacturer 
 
 Axletree makers 
 
 Bankers' check-paper manu- 
 facturer 
 
 Blowing-machine manufac- 
 turer ... 
 
 Chandelier line manufac- 
 turer ... 
 
 Closetaire manufacturer ... 
 
 Coachbuilder 
 
 Cocoa-nut-oil candle manu- 
 facturer 
 
 Columbian printing - press 
 manufacturer 
 
 Corrugated iron roof, door, 
 and shutter manufacturer 
 
 Emery and glass cloth manu- 
 facturer ... 
 
 Ever-pointed pencil and por- 
 table pen manufacturer ... 
 
 Felt manufacturer ... 
 
 Fleam manufacturer 
 
 Fountain pump works 
 
 Gas and steam wrought-iron 
 tube manufacturer 
 
 Gas-cooking apparatus and 
 gas hot-air stoves 
 
 Groats and pearl - barley 
 manufacturer 
 
 Gunpowder-barrel maker ... 
 
 Hinge maker 
 
 Hot-house curvilinear - bar 
 maker 
 
 Hot - water apparatus for 
 warming buildings 
 
 Improved dining-table fas- 
 tener 
 
 India-rubber and elastic-web 
 brace manufacturer 
 
 India - rubber waterproof- 
 cloth manufacturer 
 
 Iron-tank manufacturer 
 
 Lava stone for roads, stables, 
 &c 
 
 Leather - cloth or pannus- 
 corium boot and shoe 
 manufacturer 
 
 Lock manufacturers ... 5 
 
 Maltsters ... 5 
 
 Medicine warehouses ... 40 
 
 Patents (continued) — 
 
 Metallic candle-wick and 
 
 wax-candle makers ... 1 
 Metallic chimney - lining 
 
 manufacturer ... ... 1 
 
 Metallic circlets ... ... 1 
 
 Metallic gun-wadding ... 1 
 Metallic piston manufacturer 1 
 Metallic ship-sheathing fas- 
 tenings, &c. ... ... 1 
 
 Muntz's patent metal for 
 
 ship-sheathing ... ... 1 
 
 Paddle-wheels 1 
 
 Pepper manufacturer ... 1 
 Perrzian pen manufacturer 1 
 Pianoforte manufacturers ... 2 
 Pin and needle manufac- 
 turers ... ... ... 2 
 
 Plough and agricultural im- 
 plement maker ... ... 1 
 
 Pump makers ... ... 4 
 
 Recumbent chair manufac- 
 turer ... ... ... 1 
 
 Sash-line and upholsterers' 
 
 tine manufacturers ... 2 
 Self-acting invalid chair ... 1 
 Self-relieving hook manu- 
 facturer ... ... ... 1 
 
 Ship-windlass manufacturer 1 
 
 Smoke -consuming furnaces 1 
 
 Spur ... ... .. ... 1 
 
 Stanhope printing - press 
 
 maker ... ... ... 1 
 
 Stomach-pump and self-in- 
 jecting clyster apparatus 
 
 maker ... ... ... 1 
 
 Stoppingsfor horses' feet and 
 
 anti-crib biter ... ... 1 
 
 Syringe, poison and enema 1 
 Tanks for preserving timber 
 
 from dry-rot, decay, &c. ... 2 
 
 Waterproof leather manu- 
 facturers ... ... ... 8 
 
 Wheel manufacturer, iron... 1 
 
 White lead 2 
 
 White leghorns 1 
 
 Wine-fining-powder manu- 
 facturer ... 1 
 
 Wire-cartridge manufacturer 1 
 
 Zincographic printers ... 1 
 
 Pattern drawers ... ... 5 
 
 Pattern ring and tie makers ... 2 
 
 Paviours ... n 
 
 Pawnbrokers ... 350 
 
 Pearl and bead setters and 
 
 stringers 13
 
 228 
 
 London. 
 
 Pearl worker ... 
 
 i 
 
 Roasting-jack makers 
 
 8 
 
 Pen and quill makers... 
 
 26 
 
 Robe makers ... 
 
 9 
 
 Pen manufacturers, steel 
 
 12 
 
 Rocking-horse makers 
 
 4 
 
 Pencil-case manufacturers .. 
 
 5 
 
 Roman cement makers 
 
 19 
 
 Percussion-cap manufacturers 
 
 .5 
 
 Rope, line, and twine manu- 
 
 
 Perfumers 
 
 89 
 
 facturers ... 
 
 98 
 
 Pewterers 
 
 61 
 
 Rouge and carmine manufac 
 
 
 Physicians 
 
 229 
 
 turers... 
 
 3 
 
 Pianoforte makers 
 
 136 
 
 Rubbish carters and scavengers 
 
 20 
 
 Picture cleaners 
 
 r 3 
 
 Ruby and rhodium pen manu- 
 
 
 Dealers 
 
 53 
 
 facturers 
 
 2 
 
 Liners 
 
 3 
 
 Rule makers ... 
 
 8 
 
 Pill and pasteboard box manu 
 
 
 Sack, bag, and sacking manu 
 
 
 facturers ... 
 
 15 
 
 facturers ... 
 
 22 
 
 Pin makers ... 
 
 11 
 
 Sack collectors 
 
 5 
 
 Pink saucers warehouse 
 
 1 
 
 Sack-hire warehouses 
 
 6 
 
 Pitch and tar manufacturer 
 
 1 
 
 Saddlers and harness-makers 
 
 233 
 
 Plane and tool makers 
 
 16 
 
 Saddle-tree makers ... 
 
 13 
 
 Planishers 
 
 1 
 
 Sail-cloth warehouses 
 
 8 
 
 Plaster of Paris manufacturer: 
 
 » 10 
 
 Sail - makers, sail - cloth, anc 
 
 I 
 
 Plasterers ... 
 
 55 
 
 tarpaulin manufacturers .. 
 
 78 
 
 Plate-case makers 
 
 9 
 
 Salesmen, butter 
 
 7 
 
 Plate manufacturers, British 
 
 6 
 
 Cattle 
 
 126 
 
 Plumbers, painters, anc 
 
 I 
 
 Oyster 
 
 3 
 
 glaziers 
 
 948 
 
 Saltpetre refiners 
 
 3 
 
 Pocket-book makers ... 
 
 34 
 
 Sash makers 
 
 17 
 
 Porkmen 
 
 65 
 
 Saw and tool makers 
 
 37 
 
 Potato dealers 
 
 197 
 
 Saw-mills 
 
 23 
 
 Potters 
 
 25 
 
 Scagliola manufacturers 
 
 6 
 
 Poulterers 
 
 r 59 
 
 Scale and scale-beam makers 
 
 49 
 
 Printers 
 
 390 
 
 Scale-board cutters 
 
 2 
 
 Copperplate 
 
 56 
 
 Scotch snuff-box maker 
 
 1 
 
 Lithographic 
 
 43 
 
 Sculptors ... 
 
 43 
 
 Music 
 
 4 
 
 Scum boilers ... 
 
 2 
 
 Silk 
 
 5 
 
 Sealing-wax and wafer manu 
 
 
 Printers and stationers 
 
 41 
 
 facturers 
 
 24 
 
 Printers, calico, and papei 
 
 
 Seed crushers 
 
 7 
 
 stainers, block makers 
 
 2 
 
 Seed-oil refiner 
 
 1 
 
 Printers' joiners 
 
 4 
 
 Seedsmen 
 
 4i 
 
 Roller manufacturers 
 
 2 
 
 Segar manufacturers 
 
 10 
 
 Smiths and brass-rule cutter 
 
 i 8 
 
 Semolina manufacturer 
 
 1 
 
 Printing-press makers 
 
 13 
 
 Shawl cleaners and dressers . . 
 
 4 
 
 Printsellers and publishers .. 
 
 63 
 
 Shawl manufacturers and ware 
 
 
 Theatrical ... 
 
 3 
 
 housemen 
 
 36 
 
 Proctors 
 
 86 
 
 Ship Breakers 
 
 11 
 
 Projecting-letter manufacturer 
 
 s 12 
 
 Builders 
 
 28 
 
 Pump makers 
 
 22 
 
 Carvers 
 
 4 
 
 Putty-powder manufacturers 
 
 4 
 
 Chandlers 
 
 56 
 
 Rag and phial dealers 
 
 32 
 
 Ships' hearth and tank maker: 
 
 : 5 
 
 Razor makers ... 
 
 5 
 
 Joiners 
 
 7 
 
 Razor-strop makers ... 
 
 8 
 
 Owners ... 
 
 27 
 
 Ready-made linen warehouse 
 
 27 
 
 Smiths ... 
 
 13 
 
 Reed and hay makers 
 
 4 
 
 Shoe-mercers 
 
 9 
 
 Refiners, gold and silver 
 
 26 
 
 Shorthand writers 
 
 9 
 
 Coal tar .. 
 
 1 
 
 Shot manufacturers 
 
 2 
 
 Riband dressers 
 
 5 
 
 Sieve makers 
 
 4
 
 Appendix. 
 
 229 
 
 Silk and cotton warehouses 4 
 Silk and satin drapers ... 11 
 Silk and silk and riband manu- 
 facturers and warehousemen 198 
 Silk manufacturers (sewing) 
 and silkmen ... ... ... 10 
 
 Silk-gauze manufacturers ... 10 
 
 Silk hose manufacturers ... 2 
 
 Silk machine makers ... ... 7 
 
 Silk mercers ... 83 
 
 Silk-shag manufacturers ... 6 
 
 Silk-purse manufacturer ... 1 
 
 Silk winders ... ... .. 2 
 
 Silver and plated manufacturers 6 
 
 Mounters ... 2 
 
 Silver platers ... ... ... 17 
 
 Silver polishers 3 
 
 Silversmiths and jewellers ... 184 
 Silver spoon and fork manu- 
 facturers ... ... ... 10 
 
 Silver thimble makers ... 5 
 
 Silver turners and polishers ... 5 
 
 Slaters 24 
 
 Slopsellers ... ... ... 94 
 
 Smith and stone-grate makers 341 
 
 Smoke-jack makers .. ... 8 
 
 Soap manufacturers 50 
 
 Soda and mineral -water and 
 
 ginger-beer makers ... 51 
 
 Soda-water machine maker ... 1 
 
 Solicitors and attorneys ... 201 1 
 
 Soot dealers 2 
 
 Spectacle makers 19 
 
 Spermaceti refiners 5 
 
 Spice dealers, wholesale ... 13 
 
 Spinal bandage makers ... 2 
 
 Sponge dealers ... ... 10 
 
 Spur makers ... 7 
 
 Starch manufacturers ... 6 
 Stationers and account-book 
 
 makers ... ... ... 419 
 
 Stationers and bookbinders ... 28 
 
 Stationers and booksellers ... 432 
 
 Stationers and newsmen ... 38 
 
 Stationers and paper-hangers 6 
 
 Stationers and print-sellers ... 16 
 
 Stationers, fancy ... ... 31 
 
 Stationers, law and law-writers 146 
 
 Statuaries and masons ... 143 
 
 Stay and corset makers ... 210 
 Steam cooking - apparatus 
 
 makers 3 
 
 Steam-engine boiler makers ... 9 
 
 Steel manufacturers ... ... 7 
 
 Stencillers 7 
 
 Stone-saw manufacturer ... 1 
 
 Straw, leghorn, and chip-hat 
 
 manufacturers ... ... 292 
 
 Straw-hat pressers and bleachers 16 
 
 Straw-plait warehouses ... 17 
 
 Stuff manufacturers ... ... 17 
 
 Sugar refiners ... ... ... 51 
 
 Surgeons and surgeons and 
 apothecaries... ... ... 1475 
 
 Surgeons' instrument makers 48 
 
 Swansdown-puff maker ... 1 
 Table-cover and painted-baize 
 
 makers ... ... ... 12 
 
 Table knife and fork makers 7 
 Tailors and tailors and drapers 1809 
 
 Tailors' trimmings sellers ... 49 
 
 Tallow chandlers and melters 242 
 
 Tan-dealers ... ... ... 2 
 
 Tanners ... ... ... 59 
 
 Taverns, hotels, and inns ... 463 
 
 Tea dealers, wholesale ... 83 
 
 Tea and coffee dealers ... 81 
 
 Teapot-handle makers ... 2 
 
 Tea-tray warehouses, paper... 5 
 
 Tea-urn manufacturers ... 7 
 
 Timber benders 7 
 
 Timber and deal yards ... 28 
 
 Tin-foil beaters ... ... 3 
 
 Tin-pipe manufacturers ... 4 
 
 Tin-plate workers ... ... 216 
 
 Tobacconists ... ... ... 545 
 
 Tobacco-pipe makers ... 44 
 
 Tool warehouses ... ... 39 
 
 Tooth-brush manufacturers ... 13 
 
 Toy manufacturers, pewter ... 4 
 Toymen and toymen and 
 
 turnery dealers ... ... 141 
 
 Translators and professors of 
 
 languages ... ... ... 16 
 
 Trimming makers, fancy ... 60 
 
 Tripemen ... ... ... 33 
 
 Trunk makers and military 
 and camp equipage manu- 
 facturers ... ... ... 92 
 
 Truss makers ... ... ... 40 
 
 Truss-hoop manufacturers ... 2 
 
 Turners, general ... ... 156 
 
 Brass... ... 6 
 
 Gold 3 
 
 Ivory and hardwood ... 60 
 
 Optical ... 6 
 
 Oval S 
 
 Turpentine manufacturers ... 4 
 
 Tyre smiths ... ... ... 6 
 
 Umbrella and parasol makers 124 
 Umbrella-furniture manufac- 
 turers ... ... ... S
 
 230 
 
 London. 
 
 Undertakers 
 
 Underwriters ... 
 Upholsterers and upholsterers 
 
 and cabinetmakers ... 
 Upholsterers' warehousemen 
 Varnish manufacturers and 
 
 varnish and colour manu- 
 facturers 
 Vellum binders 
 Venison dealers 
 Vermicelli manufacturer 
 Veterinary surgeons ... 
 Veterinary surgeons' instru 
 
 ment makers 
 Vinegar makers 
 Violin and violoncello makers 
 Violin, harp, and bow-string 
 
 makers 
 Vitriol manufacturers 
 Wadding manufacturers 
 Walking- and umbrella-stick 
 
 makers 
 Warehouse keepers ... 
 Warehousemen, Manchester 
 and Scotch 
 
 French 
 Watch and clock and chrono 
 
 meter maker 
 Watch balance, wheel, and 
 
 fusee makers 
 Watch-cap makers 
 Watch-case gilders ... 
 Watch-case-joint finishers 
 Watch-case makers ... 
 Watch enamellers 
 
 Escapement makers 
 
 Finishers 
 
 Glass-makers 
 
 Gold-hand makers ... 
 
 Index maker 
 
 Jewellers 
 
 Key maker ... 
 
 340 
 4 
 
 520 
 6 
 
 5° 
 
 36 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 5° 
 
 3 
 
 IS 
 7 
 
 14 
 12 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 12 
 
 247 
 9 
 
 SIS 
 
 9 
 18 
 
 3 
 43 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 IS 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3i 
 
 6 
 9 
 
 Watch movement makers 
 
 Pendant makers 
 
 Pinion makers 
 
 Watch springers and liners ... 
 Watch and clock main-spring 
 
 makers 
 
 Tool makers 
 
 Water-closet manufacturers... 10 
 Waterproof-cloth manufacturers 6 
 Wax and tallow chandlers ... 109 
 Well diggers and borers ... 3 
 Whalebone cutters ... ... 9 
 
 Whaling-lance and harpoon 
 makers ... ... ... 2 
 
 Wharfingers ... ... ... 127 
 
 Wheelwrights ... ... ... 157 
 
 Whip makers ... ... ... 36 
 
 White-lead manufacturers ... 18 
 Whiting makers ... ... 8 
 
 Wig makers ... ... ... 17 
 
 Willow-square manufacturers 9 
 
 Wine dealers, British 15 
 
 Wine- fining manufacturers ... 4 
 Wire drawers ... ... ... 27 
 
 Wire workers and wire weavers 81 
 Wire and metal warehouses . . 5 
 Wood-engravers' boxwood pre- 
 parer ... ... 1 
 
 Woollen drapers 160 
 
 Woollen manufacturers and 
 warehousemen ... ... 85 
 
 Wool staplers ... ... ... 32 
 
 Wool and cotton wool-card 
 maker 
 
 Worm makers 
 
 Worsted manufacturers 
 Worsted and silk shag and 
 
 mohair manufacturers ... 4 
 Yarn warehouses ... ... 20 
 
 Yeast dealers ... ... ... 10 
 
 Zincographers ... ... ... 1 
 
 Zinc workers 16 
 
 1 
 10 
 
 20
 
 Appendix. 
 
 231 
 
 Appendix III. 
 
 Occupations of Males and Females from the Census 
 of 1851 (see p. 86). 
 
 Total 
 
 Persons of specified occupations 
 and conditions 
 
 Classes. 
 
 Class. 
 
 I. Persons engaged in the 
 general or local govern- 
 ment of the country 
 
 II. Persons engaged in the 
 defence of the country 
 
 III. Persons in the learned 
 
 professions (with their 
 immediate subordin- 
 ates) either filling public 
 offices or in private prac- 
 tice 
 
 IV. Persons engaged in litera- 
 
 ture, the fine arts, and 
 
 the sciences 
 
 V. Persons engaged in the 
 domestic offices, or du- 
 ties of wives, mothers, 
 mistresses of families, 
 
 children, relatives 
 
 VI. Persons engaged in enter- 
 taining, cloihing, and 
 performing personal 
 
 offices for man 
 
 VII. Persons who buy or sell, 
 keep, let, or lend money, 
 houses, or goods of va- 
 rious kinds 
 
 VIII. Persons engaged in the 
 conveyance of men, ani- 
 mals, goods, and mes- 
 sages 
 
 Under 20 years of 
 age. 
 
 Males. Females. 
 
 474.013 
 
 472,388 
 
 367 
 I,IOI 
 
 2,631 
 
 86l 
 
 363.559 
 
 15,587 
 
 6,078 
 
 24,600 
 
 493,260 
 
 488,759 
 
 28 
 
 i,345 
 
 409,145 
 
 66,840 
 
 3 6 9 
 
 153 
 
 20 years of age and 
 upwards. 
 
 Males. Females. 
 
 632,545 
 
 621,198 
 
 18,960 
 17,946 
 
 21,782 
 8,88l 
 
 3,l6o 
 
 88,176 
 
 35,984 
 61,055 
 
 762,418 
 
 749,124 
 
 219 
 
 656 
 11,562 
 
 386,389 
 
 266,311 
 
 8,266 
 
 535
 
 232 
 
 London. 
 
 
 Under ao years of 
 
 ao years of age and 
 
 
 age. 
 
 upwards. 
 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Classes. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Class. 
 
 
 
 
 
 IX. Persons possessing or 
 
 
 
 
 
 working the land, and 
 
 
 
 
 
 engaged in growing 
 
 
 
 
 
 grain, fruits, grapes, 
 
 
 
 
 
 animals, and other pro- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ducts 
 
 I 26l 
 
 I67 
 
 13,348 
 
 
 X. Persons engaged about 
 
 
 2,490 
 
 
 1,054 
 
 3 
 
 8,8lO 
 
 40 
 
 XI. Persons engaged in art 
 
 
 
 
 
 and mechanical produc- 
 
 
 
 
 
 tions in which matters 
 
 
 
 
 
 of various kinds are em- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ployed in combination 
 
 1 6, 600 
 
 2,791 
 
 114,476 
 
 5,332 
 
 XII. Persons workingand deal- 
 
 
 
 
 ing in animal matters 
 
 7,794 
 
 3,42i 
 
 40,004 
 
 16,321 
 
 XIII. Persons working and deal- 
 
 
 
 
 ing in matters derived 
 
 
 
 
 
 from the vegetable king- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 14,805 
 
 2,393 
 
 86.IIO 
 
 16,368 
 
 XIV. Personsworkinganddeal- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ing in minerals 
 
 6,974 
 
 259 
 
 47,058 
 
 i»53i 
 
 XV. Labourers and others — 
 
 branch of labour un- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7,i87 
 
 206 
 
 45,240 
 
 832 
 
 XVI. Persons of rank or pro- 
 
 property not returned 
 
 
 
 
 
 under any office or occu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 pation 
 
 122 
 
 277 
 
 7,8l8 
 
 25,652 
 
 XVII. Persons supported by the 
 
 
 community and of no 
 
 
 
 
 
 specified occupation 
 
 1,807 
 
 i,355 
 
 2,39° 
 
 6,620 
 
 Other persons of no stated 
 
 
 
 
 
 occupations or condi- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,625 
 
 1 
 
 4,501 
 
 ",347 
 
 
 
 J 3> 2 94
 
 Appendix. 
 
 233 
 
 Appendix IV. 
 
 Occupations of Males and Females from the Census 
 of 1891 (see p. 86). 
 
 Total 4,211,743 
 
 Classes. 
 
 Class. 
 
 I. Persons engaged in the general or local 
 
 government of the country 
 
 II. Persons engaged in the defence of the 
 country 
 
 III. Persons in the learned professions (with 
 
 their immediate subordinates) either fill- 
 ing public offices or in private practice 
 
 IV. Persons engaged in literature, the fine 
 
 arts, and the sciences 
 
 V. Domestic offices and children under 10 
 
 years of age 
 
 VI. Commercial occupations — merchants, 
 
 agents, clerks, &c 
 
 VII. Bankers, brokers, finance agents, insur- 
 ance service 
 
 VIII. Persons engaged in the conveyance of 
 
 men, animals, goods, and messages.... 
 
 IX. Persons possessing or working the land, 
 
 and engaged in growing grain, fruits, 
 
 grapes, animals, and other products.... 
 
 X. Persons engaged about animals 
 
 XI. Industrial, art, and mechanical produc- 
 tions, in which matters of various kinds 
 are employed in combination : — 
 
 Books, prints, maps 
 
 Machines and implements 
 
 Building trades, furniture, &c 
 
 Carriage and boat builders 
 
 Chemicals and compounds 
 
 Tobacco and pipes 
 
 Food and drink 
 
 Textiles and dress 
 
 XII. Persons working and dealing in animal 
 matters 
 
 Males. 
 
 1,990,748 
 
 17.177 
 
 Females. 
 
 2,220,995 
 
 36,765 
 
 2,727 
 
 15,846 
 
 — 
 
 48,547 
 
 52,184 
 
 24,322 
 
 10,042 
 
 528,162 
 
 819,121 
 
 101,649 
 
 7.448 
 
 12,078 
 
 248 
 
 215.835 
 
 3,208 
 
 12,170 
 
 1,504 
 
 1,140 
 
 159 
 
 50,644 
 
 46,185 
 
 158,876 
 
 18,677 
 
 8,034 
 
 6,228 
 
 103,937 
 
 100,312 
 
 11,887 
 2,044 
 
 9,128 
 
 349 
 
 2,470 
 
 4,089 
 
 22,963 
 
 161,518 
 
 8,425
 
 234 
 
 London. 
 
 Classes. 
 
 Persons working and dealing in matters 
 derived from the vegetable kingdom 
 
 Persons working and dealing in minerals 
 and metals 
 
 Dealers in general or undefined commo- 
 dities 
 
 Labourers and others, undefined 
 
 Persons of rank and property not returned 
 under any office or occupation, living 
 
 on own means, pensioners 
 
 XVII. Persons engaged in refuse matters, sweeps, 
 scavengers, &c 
 
 All others over 10 years of age 
 
 Class. 
 XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 520 
 
 970,050 
 
 The pottery of London is an industry which should 
 not be passed over among- general statistics. Famous 
 for many years at Chelsea, it is well known that pieces 
 of old Chelsea china now realize fancy prices. A dis- 
 trict of Kensington was known as the Potteries until 
 quite recently. The industry has now been transferred 
 almost exclusively to Lambeth, where Messrs. Doulton's 
 famous ware is now manufactured. At the present 
 time Doulton pottery takes rank on the Continent with 
 the best examples of modern productions, and Lambeth 
 has thus carried on the fame of Chelsea.
 
 Appendix. 
 
 235 
 
 Appendix V. 
 
 (Page 124.) 
 
 Additional information as to the food-supply of London 
 as it is regulated from the markets will be of interest 
 to the reader. 
 
 In the parliamentary paper "Agriculture Returns for 
 Great Britain ", published by the Board of Agriculture, 
 some useful information is given as to the prices of 
 meat, &c, in London and other markets. 
 
 The average prices fetched for cattle per live cwt. in 
 London and certain other large towns are shown in the 
 following table : — 
 
 Markets. 
 
 Prime Cattle. 
 
 Second Quality. 
 
 1893. 
 
 1895. 
 
 1893. 
 
 1895. 
 
 London 
 
 Liverpool 
 
 Newcastle 
 
 Shrewsbury 
 
 Aberdeen 
 
 Dundee 
 
 Edinburgh 
 
 Perth 
 
 *. d. 
 
 39 4 
 
 34 6 
 
 35 10 
 32 6 
 37 4 
 
 35 4 
 
 36 - 
 35 4 
 
 s. d. 
 
 38 - 
 
 33 8 
 
 35 4 
 33 10 
 
 36 8 
 
 35 3 
 35 1 
 35 " 
 
 s. d. 
 
 35 - 
 29 4 
 3i 4 
 28 - 
 
 33 2 
 33 2 
 33 8 
 33 2 
 
 ^. d. 
 
 34 4 
 27 10 
 
 33 - 
 30 6 
 
 32 9 
 
 33 2 
 
 34 6 
 
 33 5 
 
 The average wholesale prices of beef and mutton per 
 lb. at the London markets, at Liverpool and at Glasgow, 
 were : — 
 
 Markets. 
 
 Beef. 
 
 Mutton. 
 
 1881-85. 
 
 1895. 
 
 1881-85. 
 
 1895. 
 
 Metropolitan Cattle Market 
 London Central Market . . 
 
 Liverpool ... 
 
 Glasgow 
 
 d. d. 
 
 6 to8££ 
 4% ,, 7 H 
 4% „ 6% 
 6% „ 7 3 A 
 
 d. d. 
 
 4 to6K 
 
 4% ,.SM 
 4% ,.6 
 
 d. d. 
 7% to 10 
 S .,8% 
 6% „8H 
 6% „7J* 
 
 d. d. 
 
 5 7 Ato8}i 
 
 2% ,,7H 
 S 1 /* - 7 S A 
 S% ..7%
 
 236 
 
 London. 
 
 The average number of animals for certain series of 
 years brought into the Metropolitan and Deptford cattle 
 markets distinguishing - home from foreign cattle, were: — 
 
 
 Average number of animals. 
 
 Home. 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 
 Years. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Metropolitan 
 
 Metropolitan 
 
 Deptford 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 Cattle 
 
 Cattle 
 
 Cattle 
 
 
 
 Market. 
 
 Market. 
 
 Market. 
 
 
 (-1881-85 
 
 148,983 
 
 34,279 
 
 118,877 
 
 302,139 
 
 Cattle J ^86-90 
 
 160,717 
 
 32,048 
 
 121,530 
 
 314,295 
 
 uaule 1 1891-94 
 
 105,319 
 
 5,6oi 
 
 146,560 
 
 257,480 
 
 1 1895 
 
 102,645 
 
 40 
 
 150,928 
 
 253,613 
 
 /- 1881-85 
 
 588,298 
 
 44,828 
 
 684,594 
 
 1,317,720 
 
 *«pte! 
 
 667,071 
 
 61,192 
 
 508,607 
 
 1,236,870 
 
 778,109 
 
 32,577 
 
 67,722 
 
 878,408 
 
 U895 
 
 610,470 
 
 132,270 
 
 230,202 
 
 972,942 
 
 t 1881-85 
 
 602 
 
 IO 
 
 16,687 
 
 17,299 
 
 Piers J l88 9-90 
 
 Fl s s 1 1891-94 
 
 i,933 
 3,555 
 
 
 9,086 
 
 II,OI9 
 3,555 
 
 1 1 895 
 
 2,972 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 2,974 
 
 It will be noticed from this table that the number of 
 animals brought into London alive has decreased con- 
 siderably during the last 15 years. On the other hand, 
 there has been a corresponding increase in the quantity 
 of killed meat imported. The actual quantity of meat 
 delivered at the central markets cannot be separated 
 from the quantity of poultry and provisions, but the 
 following table will give a rough indication of this 
 increase : — 
 
 Year. 
 
 Country-killed 
 meat and 
 produce. 
 
 General foreign- 
 killed meat 
 and produce. 
 
 American-killed 
 fresh meat. 
 
 Australian and 
 New Zealand- 
 killed fresh 
 meat. 
 
 1881-85... 
 1886-90... 
 1891-94 ... 
 1895 - 
 
 cwts. 
 2,169,688 
 
 2,317,556 
 2,329,990 
 2,254,660 
 
 cwts. 
 230, I40 
 438,532 
 
 631,255 
 
 778,240 
 
 cwts. 
 
 516,896 
 
 747,696 
 
 1,280,815 
 
 1,242,140 
 
 cwts. 
 
 118,444 
 
 444,836 
 
 822,865 
 
 1,334,380
 
 Appendix. 
 
 237 
 
 The total quantities of British wheat, barley, and oats 
 returned as sold in the London market in the years 1894 
 and 1895, tog-ether with the average prices obtained, 
 were as follows : — 
 
 
 Quantity returned. 
 
 Average price. 
 
 1894. 
 
 1895. 
 
 1894. 
 
 1895. 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Barley ... 
 
 Oats 
 
 Qrs. 
 64,831 
 
 43,397 
 20,464 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 52,338 
 46,976 
 26,255 
 
 j. d. 
 
 24 3 
 26 8 
 17 2 
 
 j. d. 
 23 II 
 25 II 
 
 15 5 
 
 Nearly the whole of the produce sold in the London 
 markets is grown outside London. The total quantity 
 of crops actually produced within the County of London 
 is given in the following table : — 
 
 
 Estimated 
 produce. 
 
 Acreage. 
 
 Estimated 
 
 average 
 
 yield per 
 
 acre. 
 
 1895. 
 
 1895. 
 
 1895. 
 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Barley 
 
 Oats 
 
 Rye 
 
 Beans 
 
 Peas 
 
 5,740 
 864 
 
 9,672 
 
 740 
 1,385 
 
 205 
 
 27 
 
 206 
 
 54 
 37 
 69 
 
 28 - 00 
 32 - 00 
 
 46-95 
 
 20*00 
 20*07 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Potatoes ... 
 Turnips and Swedes 
 Mangolds 
 Cabbage, &c. 
 Vetches or tares... 
 
 4,578 
 
 989 
 6,602 
 
 577 
 
 85 
 421 
 
 490 
 
 201 
 
 7-93 
 11*64 
 
 15-68 
 
 Other green crops 
 
 Small fruits 
 
 — 
 
 1,004 
 301 
 
 — 
 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Hay from clover 
 
 Hay from permanent pasture ... 
 
 5,345 
 72,938 
 
 218 
 4,679 
 
 24*52 
 1559 
 

 
 2 3 8 
 
 London. 
 
 The total weight of fish of all kinds received in London 
 by land and sea in 1895, and also the quantity seized as 
 unfit for food, was as follows : — 
 
 Market. 
 
 Fish delivered. 
 
 Fish seized and 
 condemned as 
 unfit for food. 
 
 By land. 
 
 By sea. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Billingsgate 
 Shadwell 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 110,820 
 
 Tons. 
 33,069 
 27,613 
 
 Tons. 
 
 143,889 
 
 27,613 
 
 Tons. 
 
 930 
 121 
 
 110,820 
 
 60,682 
 
 171,502 
 
 1,051 
 
 The number of boxes of salmon (each box weighing 
 about 1 cwt.) sold at Billingsgate from 1884 to 1895 
 was as follows : — 
 
 Year. 
 
 Scotch. 
 
 Berwick- 
 on-Tweed. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 English 
 
 and 
 Welsh. 
 
 Total Boxes. 
 
 Total 
 
 Weight in 
 
 Tons. 
 
 1884 
 
 27,219 
 
 1792 
 
 5,979 
 
 l600 
 
 39,300 
 
 1965 
 
 1885 
 
 30,362 
 
 2455 
 
 8,375 
 
 1897 
 
 46,374 
 
 2318 
 
 1886 
 
 23,407 
 
 2227 
 
 6,507 
 
 2204 
 
 37,554 
 
 1878 
 
 1887 
 
 26,907 
 
 2250 
 
 7,072 
 
 2324 
 
 42,673 
 
 2139 
 
 1888 
 
 22,859 
 
 2055 
 
 7,915 
 
 2326 
 
 39,087 
 
 1954 
 
 1889 
 
 2I,IOI 
 
 1 105 
 
 7,892 
 
 20I2 
 
 34,538 
 
 1727 
 
 1890 
 
 18,931 
 
 I285 
 
 10,710 
 
 164I 
 
 34,400 
 
 I720 
 
 1891 
 
 25,889 
 
 1796 
 
 10,131 
 
 2755 
 
 42,631 
 
 2132 
 
 1892 
 
 21,919 
 
 1343 
 
 9,245 
 
 24I I 
 
 37,659 
 
 1883 
 
 1893 
 
 18,903 
 
 944 
 
 6,783 
 
 23IO 
 
 33,069 
 
 1653 
 
 1894 
 
 15,031 
 
 616 
 
 10,058 
 
 1677 
 
 29,900 
 
 1495 
 
 1895 
 
 25,629 
 
 1081 
 
 7,922 
 
 2533 
 
 38,721 
 
 1936
 
 Appendix. 
 
 239 
 
 
 
 JOppvO N 
 
 
 Ml 
 
 CO Tj- p^^O 
 
 p 
 
 M p f^VO fO col Q\ 
 
 cSsjH 
 
 
 10 Tf i-t ir> to 
 
 
 CO 
 
 TfN NOi m 
 
 »OCO M^tool TT 
 
 
 N N CO CM 1 CM 
 
 
 CM 
 
 N CS M « 
 
 c< 
 
 M N M M N N I N 
 
 a .<». _ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ding 
 3n of 
 ints 
 e tha 
 room 
 nts 
 1 five 
 1 tota 
 ion. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 O CO tJ-CO ! ON 
 
 
 00 
 
 O N 1O00 VO 
 
 *OiNOO 
 
 On 
 
 
 3 
 
 vovp CM w ;*■ 
 
 
 p 
 
 CO CO Ov t^ 
 
 r^ 
 
 M un co mi co O 
 
 O 
 
 
 co co -rr-CO loo 
 
 
 CO 
 
 OiOiO "" 
 
 b\ 
 
 N CO CM ON CO00 
 
 10 
 
 Overc 
 
 Prop 
 
 inhs 
 
 living 
 
 two ii 
 
 in ten 
 
 less 1 
 
 room: 
 
 pop 
 
 
 tt co •* <Oj CO 
 
 
 CO 
 
 N h (ON 
 
 M 
 
 N CO CO N CS mi 
 
 CM 
 
 *- n 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Popu 
 lation p 
 acre 
 part 
 distric 
 not opi 
 space 
 
 
 rr" « CM a 
 
 CM 
 
 
 r^ 
 
 NOiWN 
 
 Ml 
 
 •<t co t~.vo r-~ o 
 
 . VO 
 
 
 mi OvCO 1-^ On 
 
 M H M Ml 11 
 
 
 Ml 
 
 H* H H 
 
 tJ- 
 
 Ov mi n Ov co vol co 
 
 m N M Ml Ml 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Popu- 
 lation 
 per 
 acre 
 of 
 whole 
 district. 
 
 
 OO OvW 
 
 1 
 ± CO 
 
 
 *0 
 
 1 
 
 NVO CO >- 1 CO 
 
 N N Tj- ^J-VO TM mi 
 
 
 OOO l^NOJ 
 
 
 VO 
 
 "1 ^ >*■ ^- M 
 
 On mi cs Ov co \ry CO 
 
 
 ri — — - 
 
 •* (-4 
 
 
 M 
 
 t-t MM) 
 
 Ml 
 
 M f) H Ml 1 Ml 
 
 u 
 
 , 4>Vm 
 
 
 Ml Tf- Tj" r 
 
 >• On 
 
 
 VO 
 
 r^ Ov Ov CO 
 
 CO 
 
 t^ M mi O N ON mi 
 
 a 0. v 
 
 
 rf cm co c 
 
 < rf 
 
 
 vo 
 
 CO O VO CO 
 
 ■* 
 
 N N *M MCO 
 
 M4 
 
 0. c iu v y 
 
 " D.« 
 
 
 00 00 a 
 
 3 mi 
 
 
 00 
 
 VO mi \o t>. 
 
 Ov 
 
 On CM COVO mi lo( on 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CV3 M ° 8" 
 
 
 vo 00 uic< 
 
 3 ON 
 
 
 10 
 
 ■* CO O 
 
 
 I>.CO VO CO O 
 
 CO 
 
 M S rt w 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 CO 
 
 
 mi ^- M 
 
 
 Area of 
 open 
 space 
 per cent 
 of total 
 area of 
 district. 
 
 
 ppyic 
 
 CO w CO t 
 
 ) « 
 1 CM 
 
 
 p 
 
 Ml 
 
 CO O p> ""> 
 
 CO M CO 
 
 O 
 CO 
 
 Ml TT O VO f- Ml 
 
 mi N N ' O 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■<*■ 
 
 Ml 
 
 
 
 ■jll M„ T3-. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •3 S-J.al S-T3 rt S 
 
 
 OnOO r-» C 
 
 > •* 
 
 
 CM 
 
 N vo vO co 
 
 OS 
 
 mi ^ ■* 10 r^ ■* 
 
 10 
 
 
 t-« ■«r cooc. 
 
 ) rh 
 
 
 C\ 
 
 IOQO VO VO 
 
 "1 
 
 COCO O Cvl N VO 
 
 n 
 
 b S S - «3 u-5 
 
 
 covO N c- 
 
 -> vo 
 
 
 M 
 
 M M Ml Ml 
 
 O^ 
 
 W « N m»0 N 
 
 vO^ 
 
 «■£ .«.<* *£ 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 Ml 
 
 
 cm" 
 
 a 
 
 *j bfl rt 
 
 
 VNSNNrf.\( 
 
 3* 
 
 
 
 m^-m^m^^: 
 
 ** N " X "X f*>X 
 
 "^ 
 
 ^st Mt^t^ 
 
 
 oJSftj 
 
 
 MlOW f 
 
 » CO 
 
 
 CM 
 
 CO O vo 
 
 t^ 
 
 VO Ml ij- co -^-00 
 
 CO 
 
 H £ 5 ° S* 
 
 
 M 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 Cvl 
 
 CO 
 
 vo 
 
 00 
 
 <J w 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ml 
 
 Ml 
 
 
 
 « 0. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ; 
 
 
 
 
 lit >> ' 
 
 ; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 3 g : 
 
 °r* : 
 
 mi 
 
 "5" 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 MH 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 *> : 
 
 U) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 U 
 
 3 
 
 H 
 
 V) 
 
 Q 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 B 
 
 -a 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 luding Charl 
 rnival's Inn 
 Staple Inn) 
 lud. Lincoln' 
 ■ the-Fields.. 
 
 
 estminster . . 
 (South) 
 
 > 
 
 R 
 
 ■» 
 
 
 
 
 
 < 
 
 2 
 
 < 
 
 CO 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 1-^ 
 u 
 
 (J rQ 
 
 •tn M 
 
 XS c 
 
 > * 
 ?C0 
 
 4J 
 
 3 
 
 co 
 
 I 
 
 c 
 
 •a 
 
 1 
 
 •v. 
 g 
 
 3 
 
 Holborn (inc 
 part of Fu 
 Inn, part of 
 
 St. Giles (incl 
 St. Martin-in 
 Strand 
 
 St. James, W 
 
 tttral London 
 Newinp-ton . . . 
 
 XI 
 
 6P.I 
 
 3 O S 
 
 Ocn 
 coco 
 
 CI 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 c -^ 
 1) 
 
 
 <o 
 
 
 
 VO
 
 240 
 
 London. 
 
 
 
 CO _ t^oO rf- 
 
 (Jil^rlN CM 
 CM CM CM CM CM 
 
 vp ro u-i tJ- u-i r-»| CM 
 
 00 10OO 1- <t«l ^ 
 — ^ — rt •— CM *h 
 
 10 co 11 N p N O^i p 
 
 00 vb 
 
 
 « 00 00 ov 
 
 CM >-■>-« CM 1- 
 
 IS'J P "E.^- 
 
 rOvO co Q 
 00 r^.00 5 
 
 CO CM »-c CM 
 
 CO mN NOO »C 
 
 00 N* MN p 
 
 O O r>. O vO O 
 
 w CM CM 11 CM CM 
 
 in 
 
 00 
 
 
 vO « O MNro-t 
 
 CJ — >— -H — . 1— 
 
 " ^ « o--o g °> 
 
 3 
 
 n Ov vooo i~» 
 O CM r^vo on 
 
 CM ~ M 
 
 0\"10 1-1 CTv «"> 
 t~» vo 1-1 O rON 
 
 w vO 
 
 ""> 1O00 « On! CM 
 O CM l^» iovO 1 00 
 
 11 Ǥ 
 
 O « n.U 
 
 
 
 On cm r^vo i~» 
 
 U1N05 O ■* Tf r-» 
 VO ""> O OlMIJ. Is 
 
 On CM 
 
 lO 
 
 CM t~~ ^VO 
 
 o. - 
 o o 
 
 PV-S 
 
 « 
 
 a v 
 
 0.5 
 
 o o. 
 
 O rO00 COCO vO 
 nt^« ro o I cm 
 
 «- IO ON ON CO| co 
 
 vO ^- h N n I N 
 
 'J- 11 iovO Nm^i 
 
 tTOO «- CM CO N CM 
 
 ro co COCO CM co vO 
 
 M 00" 
 
 o ^i- >■» 00 woo 
 
 -tOO b» 10 CM COCO 
 
 0\N w VO CO rf in] f. 
 
 c g g 2 o o 
 
 < "5,0 S'-g 
 
 CM t>.00 M M 
 
 f^OO CO ON CM r-* 
 
 00 CO « O •"*• Tf 
 w 1-1 « CM 
 
 u-l CM i-i VO »nvO vO 
 
 O m 00 
 
 11 CM CO 
 
 CM 
 
 O CM 
 
 n- -i." ^£ 
 
 ^vo co r^. u^ r^. 
 
 CM Tj- covo ts ■*■ 
 
 ON00 0\ CM 00 VO CM 
 
 C\tOO NrfO In 
 
 CM VO 1-1 VO CM 10 •<S- 
 
 CO CO cm" cm" « 
 
 vO t^ CO tJ-00 vo >-■ 
 iO« CM O00 00 O 
 CM 1- 00 tsM N In 
 
 CM CM >* O 
 
 
 rt « c c v 
 
 O rt c £.« 
 ' ■ -• c o Q. 
 
 *OSf*V\-iX f*¥SJ i"\ 
 
 t^ CM 00 "d-00 [ <-> 
 
 n co m a N 
 
 CM 
 
 00 Tl- O i-i 00 CM VO 
 ►" CM rj- OS — f» VO 
 VO CM CO CO VO 
 
 X 
 
 CM CM 
 
 CO 00 
 » CM 
 
 rt Q. 
 
 co O "-■ CM Tf vO 
 ►1 CM 1- <* ■* **■ 
 co WO 
 
 3 
 
 z 
 
 W3 
 
 rt 
 W 
 
 \-7. 
 
 •% 
 
 D 1) 
 
 o 
 
 D J3 
 
 O 
 
 H 
 
 2 1 
 
 v. J-i: O "J3 u 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 c 
 
 1 
 
 c 
 
 u 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 
 ii >, 
 a, , rf 
 
 „ O-M c« S« 
 "§ rt O ^ . rt . 
 
 Is 
 
 i>> P-i 
 
 O T3 
 
 h-i M^ 
 
 
 m 
 
 C ^ 
 
 CUO i) 
 
 t^ (« r^ ^^ 
 
 COCO OWWUh
 
 Appendix. 
 
 241 
 
 Cor- 
 rected 
 death- 
 rate, 
 
 1895. 
 
 M p UI 
 
 nO On t— 
 
 M - - 
 
 m no Os 
 
 b on on 
 
 M «H « 
 
 10 v~> h On CO 
 On O NO LO "~ 
 
 _ ry _ _ _ 
 
 r-l «> 
 
 Overcrowding : 
 
 Proportion of 
 
 inhabitants 
 
 living more than 
 
 two in a room, 
 
 in tenements of 
 
 less than five 
 
 rooms, to total 
 
 population. 
 
 u "-> N 00 
 y • 
 
 ,, "I* ^ 
 V — 
 
 op « 
 
 NO 
 
 — 
 
 r-» xr, ro On 
 
 >- Tj- «-[• XJ~l 
 
 — < — 
 
 NO 
 
 00 
 
 t~. 
 
 On 
 
 Popu- 
 lation per 
 acre of 
 part of 
 district 
 not open 
 space. 
 
 is 
 
 n£> 
 
 1~.no 
 
 1 
 00 
 
 NO On OnnO r~~ 
 ITi Oh i-t 
 
 N 
 
 NO 
 
 Popu- 
 lation 
 per 
 acre 
 of 
 whole 
 district. 
 
 O vO 
 
 1 
 
 
 u-1 
 
 w r-» t-~.NO no 
 
 O 
 
 On 
 10 
 
 Popu- 
 lation per 
 acre of 
 open 
 space. 
 
 no O 
 
 
 000 
 
 •fNO 
 ur> >-. 
 
 ef w 
 
 00 
 NO 
 
 ►H 
 
 NO Q r~0 tJ- N 
 VO ON 10 N O 
 
 O 
 
 t~- 
 
 Area of 
 open 
 space 
 per cent 
 of total 
 area of 
 district. 
 
 u->00 
 
 CnI 00 
 
 — — 
 
 
 OOO 
 
 >-i N On v/-> O 
 OnnO NO N ■* 
 
 ON 
 
 00 
 
 Total 
 acreage of 
 the whole 
 
 district 
 
 (excluding 
 
 adjacent 
 
 tidal 
 water and 
 foreshore). 
 
 00 NO ! "1 
 
 1 M 
 
 M O 
 
 On "* 
 
 — ■ 
 
 On 
 00 
 
 u-inO 00 no ro 
 M cni 00 Q ■* 
 *-(- "1 ro O ui 
 
 CO "T ro r-^No" 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 M 
 
 r~- 
 t~- 
 
 r-. 
 
 Total 
 
 acreage of 
 
 permanent 
 
 open 
 
 space. 
 
 m r-~ 
 
 KO O 
 M 
 
 O 
 r~. 
 in 
 
 
 ro 
 
 •-"N fix «\ f*l\j *"N 
 O O "IN Ov NO 
 
 rO CN) >-i N 1 O 
 
 r 
 
 HI 
 
 h 
 
 u 
 
 « 
 H 
 (/> 
 
 Q 
 > 
 < 
 
 s 
 
 < 
 
 C/2 
 
 1 
 
 ^ c 
 
 u 
 15 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 s 
 
 If 
 
 S 1— 
 3 
 
 "3 
 
 is 
 
 OJ 
 -2 
 
 5 
 d 
 
 u 
 
 South-east London — 
 
 Lee 
 
 Total for the Countv 
 
 
 
 ( M 517 )
 
 242 London. 
 
 Appendix VII. 
 
 (See p. 169.) 
 
 I have not been able to describe the underground 
 sewerage works of London, the finest in the world, but 
 the following statistics will convey some idea of the 
 magnitude of the drainage works ; they relate to the 
 main sewers and works, and there are the local sewers 
 besides : — 
 
 North Side of the Thames. 
 
 Length. Diameter. 
 
 Northern High-Level Sewer ...7^ miles... from 4 feet to 9^2 feet by 
 
 12 feet. 
 Northern Middle-Level Sewer.. .9% ,, ...from 4^ feet by 3 feet to 
 
 10^ feet. 
 Piccadilly Branches •••2^ ,, ... 
 
 Northern Low-Level Sewer ■•■%% „ ...from 6^" feet to lo# feet. 
 Hackney Branch ... ■■■i% ,, ■■■ 
 Isle of Dogs Branch ...i 7 /& ,, ... 
 
 Western Sewers — Main Line -.-SH •> ••■from 4 feet by 2 feet to 5 
 
 feet. 
 Fulham Branch ... ••• I /^ »> ••■ 
 Acton Line... ... ■■■^Y% ,, ■■■ 
 
 Northern Outfall Sewer 5% ,, ...Two culverts, each of 9 feet 
 
 diameter. 
 
 Abbey Mills Pumping Station — 8 engines, each of 142 horse-power, 
 capable of raising 15,000 cubic feet of sewage per minute to a height of 
 36 feet. 
 
 Western Pumping Station at Pimlico — 4 engines, each of 90 horse- 
 power, with a supplementary engine of 120 horse-power, capable of 
 raising 6000 cubic feet of sewage per minute to a height of 18 feet. 
 
 Reservoir at Barking Creek — Area of 9^ acres. 
 
 South Side of the Thames. 
 
 Length. Diameter. 
 
 Southern High-Level Sewer ...SH miles... from 4% by 3 feet to 10 >£ 
 
 feet. 
 
 Effra Branches do 7% »> •••from 7 feet to 1 0% feet. 
 
 Southern Low-Level Sewer ...9K »» "-from 4 feet to 2 culverts, 
 
 each of 7 feet 
 Bermondsey Branch •••2|^ „ ...from 5 feet to $% feet 
 Southern Outfall Sewer 7% „ ...\i l / 2 feet.
 
 Appendix. 
 
 243 
 
 Deptford Pumping Station— 4 engines, each of 125 horse-power, 
 capable of raising 13,000 feet of sewage per minute to a height of 18 
 feet. 
 
 Crossness Pumping Station— 4 engines, each of 125 horse-power, 
 capable of raising 17,000 cubic feet of sewage per minute to a height of 
 10 to 30 feet. 
 
 Crossness Reservoir — Area of 6^2 acres. 
 
 The total length of the main intercepting- sewers is 
 about 82 miles; they are capable of intercepting- daily 
 63 million cubic feet, or nearly 400 million gallons of 
 sewage, and the total cost of the works has been about 
 ^"7,800,000. 
 
 The following is the quantity of sewage pumped at 
 the several stations 1893 to 1895: — 
 
 Pumping Station. 
 
 Sewage pumped 
 (in million gallons). 
 
 1893. 
 
 1894. 
 
 1895. 
 
 Abbey Mills 
 
 Western 
 
 Crossness 
 
 Deptford 
 
 24,429£ 
 9.005& 
 
 26,574i 
 I7,86i2 
 
 26,482^ 
 
 9. 627 h 
 
 28,345£ 
 18,946 
 
 26,303$ 
 
 9,734* 
 29,289$ 
 19,817 
 
 The quantities chemically treated at the outfall sta- 
 tions in 1895-96 were: — 
 
 Northern (Barking) 
 Southern (Crossness) 
 
 46,938 million gallons. 
 31,457 
 
 And the quantity of sludge sent out to sea and discharged 
 several miles off the coast was : — 
 
 Northern (Barking) 
 Southern (Crossness) 
 
 1,412,000 tons. 
 772,5°° » 
 
 These enormous quantities give some indication of the 
 importance of these operations to the health of London, 
 seeing that they have been intercepted from their natural 
 discharge into the Thames and Lea rivers.
 
 244 London. 
 
 Appendix VIII. 
 
 London Railways, with date of Incorporation and other 
 particulars (see page 173). 
 
 London and South-Western Railway Company, 1834, from London to 
 
 Southampton, Portsmouth, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, 
 
 with terminus at Waterloo. This Company incorporated the original 
 
 London and Southampton Company of 1834. 
 Great-Western Railway Company, 1835, London to Penzance in the 
 
 South, Birkenhead in the North, and New Milford in the West, with 
 
 terminus at Paddington. 
 South-Eastern Railway Company, 1836, from London to Dover, Folke- 
 stone, and through Kent, with terminus at Charing Cross. 
 London, Brighton, and South-Coast Railway Company, 1837, from 
 
 London to Brighton, with termini at London Bridge and Victoria. 
 
 This Company incorporated the London and Croydon Railway 
 
 Company of 1835. 
 Midland Railway Company, 1844, from London to Carlisle, with terminus 
 
 at St. Pancras. 
 London and North- Western Railway Company, 1846, from London to 
 
 Carlisle and the North, with terminus at Euston. This Company 
 
 incorporated the original London and Birmingham Railway Company, 
 
 first opened in 1838. 
 Great Northern Railway Company, 1846, London to Yorkshire and the 
 
 North, with terminus at King's Cross. 
 London, Tilbury, and Southend Railway Company, 1852, from London 
 
 to Southend and Shoeburyness, with terminus at Fenchurch Street. 
 London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, 1853, from London 
 
 to Kent, with terminus at Victoria. 
 Great-Eastern Railway Company, 1862, London to Norfolk, Suffolk, 
 
 and Essex, with terminus at Liverpool Street. 
 Great Central Railway Company, 1849, extension to London, 1893, 
 
 now being constructed, with a terminus in Marylebone Road. 
 
 LOCAL LINES. 
 
 London and Greenwich Railway Company, 1833, from London Bridge 
 
 to Greenwich, 3^ miles. The line is leased to the South-Eastern 
 
 Railway Company. 
 London and Blackwall Railway Company, 1836, from Fenchurch Street 
 
 to Millwall Docks, 7 miles 25 chains. 
 West London Railway Company, 1836, from Wormwood Scrubs, via 
 
 Uxbridge Road, to West Brompton, 3^ miles. 
 North London Railway Company, 1846, from near Chalk Farm Station 
 
 via Canonbury, Hackney, Bow, to Poplar, with a branch from 
 
 Dalston to Broad Street.
 
 Appendix. 245 
 
 Metropolitan Railway Company, 1853, from South Kensington to Aid- 
 gate, via King's Cross, with branches from Edgware Road to 
 Bishop's Road, and Baker Street to Aylesbury. 
 
 Hammersmith and City Railway Company, 1861, from Westbourne 
 Park to Hammersmith, 3 miles. 
 
 Metropolitan District Railway Company, 1864, from Kensington High 
 Street to Cannon Street, with extensions to Ealing, Fulham, Ham- 
 mersmith, and Hounslow. 
 
 East London Railway Company, 1865, from Liverpool Street to New 
 Cross, 5 miles 54^ chains. 
 
 City and South London Railway, 1884, from King William Street, City, 
 to Clapham Common, 4 miles, underground. 
 
 Waterloo and City Railway Company, 1893, from Launcelot Street, 
 Lambeth, to Mansion House Street, City, under the River Thames, 
 I mile 4 furlongs. 
 
 Central London Railway, from Shepherd's Bush Green to Liverpool 
 Street, 6^ miles, underground, now in course of construction. 
 There will be 14 stations and the line will be worked by electric 
 motive Dower. 
 
 Appendix IX. 
 
 (See page 201.) 
 
 The Times, writing on the subject of local govern- 
 ment in London on 20th March, 1855, used these 
 words : — 
 
 " We may really say that there is no such place as London at all, the 
 huge city passing under this title being rent into an infinity of divisions, 
 districts, and areas. . . . Within the metropolitan limits the local 
 administration is carried on by no fewer than 300 different bodies, 
 deriving powers from about 250 different local Acts, independent of 
 general Acts. The number of commissioners employed, though not 
 precisely ascertainable, Sir Benjamin Hall estimates by his own com- 
 putation at about 15,000." 
 
 There does not appear to be much improvement under 
 the present state of things, as the reader may judge by 
 comparing the details given in the text.
 
 Index. 
 
 Agriculture in London, 237. 
 Alien immigration, 129. 
 Architecture, street, 136-144. 
 Area, 4. 
 
 Areas, administrative, 189, 190, 191. 
 Art schools, 182. 
 
 Banks, 7-8. 
 
 Bermondsey, 12, 220. 
 
 Bermondsey Hide and Skin Mar- 
 ket, 121. 
 
 Besant (Sir Walter), 22. 
 
 Billingsgate Market, 102-104. 
 
 Board schools, 188. 
 
 Booth (Mr. Charles), quoted, 84-85, 
 88, 89, 90, 91, 92. 
 
 Borough Market, 111-112. 
 
 Buildings, historical, 67, 136-144. 
 
 Buildings, increase of, 126. 
 
 Burial-grounds, 21, 148-150. 
 
 Cabriolets, 18. 
 
 Cattle, 235-237. 
 
 Chop-houses, 16. 
 
 Churchyards, 21, 150. 
 
 City of London, 3, 7, 38. 
 
 Clerkenwell, 12. 
 
 Coal, 9. 
 
 Coal Market, 104. 
 
 Columbia Market, 114-115. 
 
 Commerce and trade, 67-83. 
 
 Contagious diseases, animals, 96-97. 
 
 Cooper (Fenimore), 9, 13, 17, 19, 
 
 20, 23, 25. 
 Costerniongers, 121-122, 125. 
 County area, 189-190. 
 County scholarships, 186. 
 
 Covent Garden Market, 106-109. 
 Cries of London, 135. 
 Cumberland Market, 120-121. 
 Cuppers, 87. 
 
 Deptford Cattle Market, 96-98. 
 Dialect of London, 128. 
 Dickens (Charles), 142. 
 Docks, 68-73, 8 3- 8 4- 
 Domestic characteristics, 17. 
 Drainage, 56-58. 
 
 East London, 128. 
 Ecclesiastical parishes, 202. 
 Economics, School of, 177. 
 Education, 174-188. 
 Electoral areas, 190. 
 Equalization of rates, 213-216. 
 Expansion of London, 6, 125-126. 
 Expenditure, local, 203-206. 
 
 Farringdon Market, 101. 
 Finsbury, government of, in 1855, 
 
 42-43- 
 Fire-engines (parish), 56. 
 Fish supply, 238. 
 Food supply, 235-238. 
 Foreigners in London, 129-133. 
 
 Gardening, 183-184. 
 Gas-lighting, 56. 
 Gin-palaces, 16. 
 Goldsmiths' shops, 13. 
 Government, 38-56, 67, 188-203, 2 45- 
 Great Northern Railway Market, 
 
 112-113. 
 Greenpark, 20. 
 Greenwich Market, 116.
 
 Index. 
 
 247 
 
 Hackney, government of (1855), 43. 
 
 Hackney-carriages, 18. 
 
 Hall (Sir Benjamin), speech on 
 
 London government, 42-56. 
 Historical associations of London, 
 
 136-144. 
 Holburn, 219. 
 Hotels, 15. 
 Hyde Park, 20, 144. 
 
 Improvements, 152-173. 
 Indirect taxation, 209-210. 
 Industries, 4-5, 84-125, 131-133, 
 
 220-234. 
 Inns from which stage - coaches 
 
 started, 30-33. 
 Islington Cattle Market, 95-96. 
 Italians in London, 130-133, 220- 
 
 234- 
 
 Kensington Gardens, 20. 
 
 Lambeth, 12, 43. 
 Leadenhall Market, 101. 
 Light railways, 171-173. 
 Locomotion services, 30. 
 
 Mail-coaches, 30. 
 Manufactures, 11, 86-87. 
 Market-gardens, 26. 
 Markets, 14-15, 93-124, 235-236. 
 Marylebone in 1855, 48, 51. 
 Midland Railway Market, 113. 
 Municipal administration, 193, 198. 
 Museums, 175. 
 Music, street, 23. 
 
 Newspapers, 24. 
 
 Northumberland House, 136, 156- 
 158. 
 
 Occupation census, 220-234, 
 Omnibuses, 18-19, 34, 170. 
 
 Parish administration, 193 - 194, 
 
 200, 201, 202. 
 Parks and gardens, 20, 25, 144-151, 
 
 239-241. 
 Passages and alleys, 17. 
 
 Plumstead Market, 118-119. 
 Polytechnics, 178-180. 
 Poor-law administration, 193, 197. 
 Population, 3, 30, 125-133, 197, 
 
 198, 199. 
 Port of London, 9, 74-78. 
 Portman Market, 119. 
 Post-chaise, 18. 
 Pottery, 234. 
 Private schools, 176. 
 Proctors, 87. 
 Professions, 88. 
 
 Railways, 35, 173, 244-245. 
 
 Raumer (Von), 10, 14, 18, 19, 22. 
 
 Regent's Park, 21. 
 
 Rental value of London streets, 134. 
 
 Retail businesses, 92-93. 
 
 Richmond Hill, 25. 
 
 Rotherhithe, 12. 
 
 Rural districts, 5, 24, 26, 28. 
 
 St. Giles and St. George, govern- 
 ment of, in 1855, 43. 
 St. Martin's in 1855, 47. 
 St. Pancras in 1855, 49-51. 
 Sala (George Augustus), 17. 
 Schools, private, 176. 
 Schools, public, 176-177. 
 Sewer commissions, 39-41, 53-56. 
 Sewerage, Main, 242-243. 
 Shadwell Market, 115-116. 
 Shipbuilding, 84-86. 
 Shipping of the port, 78-83. 
 Shops, 12-13. 
 Shoreditch, government of (1855), 
 
 43- 
 Signs (shop), 67, 139. 
 Smithfield Central Markets, 99-101. 
 Smithfield Hay Market, 104. 
 Societies, learned, 174. 
 Southwark in 1855, 44, 57. 
 Spas, 67. 
 Spitalfields, 11. 
 Spitalfields Market, 109- no. 
 Squares, 21.
 
 248 
 
 London. 
 
 Stage-coaches, 30. 
 
 Stores, system of business, 93. 
 
 Strand in 1855, 45-46. 
 
 Strawberry carriers, 27. 
 
 Streams, ancient, 40. 
 
 Street markets, 121-124. 
 
 Streets, condition of, 19, 166-167, 
 
 169-171. 
 Subways, 166, 168-169. 
 
 Taxation, local, 203-217. 
 Technical Institutes, 180-187. 
 Telegraph, electric, first experiment 
 
 with, 36. 
 Thackeray (W. M.), 16, 137, 142. 
 Thames, 9-10, 63, 68, 75-77, 218- 
 
 219. 
 Thames Embankments, 154-159. 
 Tower Hamlets, government of, in 
 
 1855, 43- 
 
 Trade and commerce, 67-83. 
 Traffic, street, 169-171. 
 Tramways, 171. 
 Trees in streets, 168. 
 Turnpike roads, 36-37. 
 Tyndall's Buildings, 220. 
 
 Underground London, 166-167, 242. 
 University Extension lectures, 175. 
 
 Villages, London, 29. 
 Voluntary schools, 188. 
 
 Water supply, 58-64. 
 Westminster in 1855, 44, 57. 
 Whitechapel Market, 1 19-120. 
 Window-tax, 65-66. 
 Woolwich Market, 117-118. 
 
 Yates (Edmund), 14, 25.
 
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